Hi Folks,long time listener, first time caller!I've got approval from my 'finance minister' to replace my delapidated 4 year old AMD XP2000+ with a new system (the grinding sound from the fan is making her nervous!). I've been ferreting around these forum and others trying to look for the best combo of price/performance and I've come up with the following specs. The bits I've descided on are listed below - I just wondered if any of you out there have any suggestions that would make an improvement in performance without a jump in price.FYI I'm wanting to run fs2004 only with highish settings at a decent clip (30fps+ with addons). I have budgetary approval for around $1300 (before rebates) without OS. Here goes:MoBo:ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $150http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16813131142CPU:Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6400 - Retail $222http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16819115004Cooling:ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail $90http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16835186134RAM:CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400 - Retail $207Video Card:BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $143http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16814143049HDD:Western Digital Caviar RE WD3200YS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $100http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16822136053Case/PSU:RAIDMAX Scorpio ATX-868WBP Black 0.8mm Japanese SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420watts PS2 ATX12V Power Supply - Retail $46http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16811156135Sound:Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail $28http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16829102002Monitor:SAMSUNG 940BX Black 19" 5ms DVI LCD Monitor with Height Adjustments - Retail $250http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16824001080Total: $1250ishPlus some other bits e.g. DVD drive, kb, mouse scavenged from "old betsy".Any thoughts/ideas/insight/predictions/abuse are appreciated.Cheers,Gfunc

A couple of thoughts for you:You list the Arctic Freezer Pro 7 as $90, but newegg shows it as $69.99. Either way, this is WAAAY too expensive for this cooler (I got mine for $29.99 from newegg back in Oct 06) - buy it from somewhere else (check pricewatch.com). Also, I'd only get this cooler if you are planning on overclocking to the extreme, because the stock fan does a pretty good job as it is, even with up to a 50% overclock (3.2GHz) at stock voltage. If not overclocking, put the money you save towards an E6600, which has a bigger cache and is of course faster. The rest of your proposed system will do just fine with FS9. However, if you have any incling for FSX, Vista and DX10, then your system is going be fairly minimal. As long as you appreciate this (and quite frankly your budget won't allow you to be any more ambitious anyway), then all will be well.Oh, and welcome to the AVSIM forums! Gary

Yup...what Gary saidManny

Hi Guys,I really appreciate your thoughts. On the basis of what you said I think I'm going to forgot about the extra cooling and go for the E6600. I can always persuade the missus that this is an essential component later down the line if I want to go the way of the overclocker.I'll wait for FS Xi to come out before thinking about upgrading to vista and FSX. I'm one of those folks who get more out running my sims as nature intended (i.e. High FPS with everything cranked) rather than running the latest and greatest slideshow.Thanks again!Gfunc.

Yes always go for the fastest cpu that your finance minister will allow--even if you have to cut back funding in other areas. Weight your build accordingly. Raw cpu speed is still the single most important factor for us FS people.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

Even with your stock cooler.. you maybe able to crank up that E6600 to 3.2GManny

Have you considered the ATI X1900GT instead of the 7600GT?http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16814142084http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.htm...2=529&chart=197RegardsJim

E6600That's all! :)