Well I'm currently thinking of spending some cash for a new system (and a diamond ring for my wife!!) for FSX. I've read most of the AMD 64 X2 v Intel Dual Core Duo and I think I may opt for The Intel 6400 or 6600. The card will possibly be a 9700 GT 256MB. One thing I was wondering though. Originally I was going to go for 2GB RAM. However, I'm now thinking that perhaps I should go for 4GB. Now is this a good idea or perhaps a bit of overkill?

Not overkill, in my opinion, especially if you plan to run Vista on the machine. But you may want to look at a 512MB card (as a keeper)instead or wait till DX10.KendallDell 8400 3.2 GHZ H.T.800 FSB/2MB L22 GB 533 DDR2X800XT 256MB/Cat.5.13's6x Adaptive AA/16x HQ A/FIntegrated SoundDual Monitor: Dell 2405/1905CH Yoke/Pedals

FSX in Win XP does not even use up the 2GB I have on my machine.Don't know if adding 4Gig would help or not in Vista. Maybe, you should go with 2 Gigs and monitor it to see if its usuing all the 2 Gigs.. or most of it. If it does indeed consume the 2Gigis that you have, its a no brainer to add 2 more GigsMAnny

Yes, perhaps it would be better to go for just 2GB now. It'll be easy to add another 2GB if I need to.

The cunning move would be to buy a single stick of 2gig now, then match it with another 2 gig if and when Vista and FSX shows a need for it. Otherwise you may not end up with matched RAM, and that's always bad!Allcott

I've decided on 2GB with the followingIntel E6600 Dual Core ASUS P5W DH Deluxe MB2048MB DDR2 RAM300GB HD256MB nVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT

One mem stick or two? I'm not sure if there is any performance benefit/detriment for using one stick vs. two (dual-channel mode) as alcott suggests.RhettAMD 3700+, eVGA 7800GT 256, ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, etc. etc.

>One mem stick or two? I'm not sure if there is any>performance benefit/detriment for using one stick vs. two>(dual-channel mode) as alcott suggests.>>Rhett>>AMD 3700+, eVGA 7800GT 256, ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB>Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, etc. etc.Not in a 2 gig setup, it makes little diffence. But if you later wish to go to 4 gig, then having a matched pair of 2 gig sticks will definitely be a good move or else you have to have 2x1 and 1x2 and that can cuase problems, unless the mobo genuinely does support the fourth RAM slot (many don't) and they can be a pig to troubleshoot.Allcott

Firstly, XP will not see all of a 4GB setup - more like around 3.5.Secondly, using only a single stick will force the memory/board into single channel memory access as opposed to dual channel with an even number of sticks.

overkill for XPrequired for Vista (almost anyway). That is my bet :)