Hallo folks,Thanks in advance for taking your time answering my question.It has been over 12 months since the major upgrade of my PC hardware.I am looking at upgrading 2 components from my existing setup (see specs below).I would be grateful for your advice on where should I focus my upgrade to see the least impact of the new FSX performance hog.Best regards,Dom

(Friendly note: Before the moderators see it, be sure to tweak your signature to only have one image)>It has been over 12 months since the major upgrade of my PC>hardware.If you can hang on that long, make it 12 more!As we all are noticing and expected, FSX has a LOT of potential down the road with faster processors and machines. You'd be well served to not spend too much money NOW, in exchange for spending it down the road when either today's extreme performance items are far cheaper, or tomorrow's extreme performance items have been released. :)That said:> Athlon 64 3500+ Possible upgrade point. You may consider jumping to a x2 Ath64 processor. With recent price drops, a few hundred dollars could give you a nice step up in performance. As with most MSFS versions, FSX does demand a lot from your processor... Just be sure that whatever processor you choose, it is compatable with your motherboard - if you have to update your motherboard at the same time, the value of the upgrade diminishes because of the added expense. > WD SATA 120GB 7200rpmLeave alone.Unless you HATE waiting for your sim to load, this is best left alone for now. > ASUS AX800XLUpdate this after the processor, but if you do, don't spend too much. Sure, there are faster cards, but they cost a pretty penny and probably won't give you the relative performance benefits of having a new processor. > Samsung Syncmaster 20.1' LCD monitor running at 1600x1200Nice!If you HAVE TO update something, take a look at your processor first. It's (as always) the more critical component for your computer's overall speed, and this applies to FS2004 and FSX as well. But if your money is not burning a hole in your pocket, extend your existing computer out longer without any added expenses and shell out some money down the road. Wait a few weeks to see what people's experiences are with FSX - you may find that any upgrades you are thinking of doing may not make a huge difference! Good luck,-Greg

Very informative post Greg,Thank you very much indeed.I was thinking about going dual processor, but that would mean replacing my mobo at the same time which brings the overall cost much higher.I guess, I am not that far behind with whats currently available out there,Thank againDom

You can draw some conclusions from this:http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=570&p=0and various other comparisons on the web. As FSX uses one and a bit cores I dont think there will be much performance improvement to be gained from a quad core processor based on number of cores only and this is the direction manufacturers seem to be going in. Furthermore the core 2 duo chips are so easy to overclock I cant see processors improving significantly beyond them for some time. Probably the next performance leap for FSX will come from DX10.

Dom,Your A8N SLI deluxe is a S939 socket board. Any X2 (dual core) 939 processor will go in there nicely. You can get them super cheap right now too as they are looking to price accordingly with Intel Core 2 Duo performance and get rid of stock for AM2 models.http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=...375&modelmenu=1Glenn

What about increasing your RAM from 1Gig to 2Gigs?I did that on my Dell XPS Gen2 for FS9 and it didn't do any squat for me.It may do good for FSX? Not sure actually. But something to keep your eye on.Manny

Glenn,Very interesting find - I would bet my mobo cannot handle dual core - go figure,Manny, I was actually thinking of replacing my two 512MB sticks with two 1GB sticks of the same manufacturers memory,Thank you Gents,CheersDom