I've been appreciatively reading all the responses, and will probably try and fit a 512 MB video card into the mix. And out of left field, here's another question around another area I'm not too familiar with. I saw some discussion on RAID 0 vs a single Raptor 10K hard drive. I think I might be able to purchase a single, small Raptor, but then I'd need to make sure I have a good grasp of partitioning (which I don't yet). Let me throw this out and see if it makes sense conceptually. If I bought one small Raptor, and only put FSX on it, would I be able to buy a slower 7200 RPM drive to store everything else? If the concept is naive, don't be afraid to tell me. If I stick with a RAID0 solution, could I still get added load performance via effective partitioning?Kevin

Hi Kevin, if you're plugging a single Raptor, I wouldn't partition it. The 320GB Seagate you're looking at is interesting. I should have one too in the next 2 weeks (some other components are on backorder, so..). The price you were quoted for the Seagate(s) however, looks astronimical. I'm paying less than 100 Euros (125$) for mine. You might be able to get more out of almost 1800$? Apropos pricing, as of now, we'll probably see little fluctuations till January 2007. November and December are Christmas shopping months, ergo high prices. With the projected release of Vista, I wonder whether these 'seasonal effects' will hold a little longer and extend into next year? My personal, uneducated guess if Vista is released in January; high prices will last till March or April - at least. Apropos Vista, MS is apparently fixing (or has fixed?) a bug which could necessitate a re-install... http://www.computerworld.com/action/articl...&taxonomyId=125Vista rushed to market? IMHO, t'is... Hope this adds to thoughts, kind regards Jaap

The Seagate pricing is for 2 320GB drives (I was / am(?) going to set them up RAID0.

Ok, then the price makes sense. :-) Rgds Jaap

You might want to consider an EVGA Graphics card as they have a trade up program if you are considering another one in the near future after that card. Craig