I know this question gets asked more than a few times here on the forum, and I've read and learned alot from some of them. I'm just not a hardware specialist or any specialist for that matter. :)I would like to get some feedback from you computer guru's. I really appreciate any/all advice on ANY changes you would personally make to the below system. Thanks again guys/girls for any help. This system is what I've come up with by looking and reading about the hardware I see being used here on the forum ATM. The system will primarily be used for FSX.MB: Asus Striker Extreme (nForce 680i, SLI)CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (1066MHz FSB w/ 8MB Cache)PSU: 850W Thermaltake (Silent Toughpower Edition)MEM: 2GB DDR2 Corsair 800MHz XMS2HD1: 2x150 WD Raptor's (10K RPM) Raid 0HD2: WD 250GB 16MB Cache (7200 RPM) (SATA)GPU: GeForce 8800GTX 768MB (ACS3 OC'd edition) one for nowSC: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-FI XtremeGamer (7.1)OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bitThat's about it...I'm not planning on running multiple monitors right now. I'm not however against the idea of possibly doing that in the future. Thanks again.Best Regards,Randy

Comments after each line:>MB: Asus Striker Extreme (nForce 680i, SLI)Nice but, Intel 965/975 (ICH8R chipsets) have better Raid bandwidth and argueably, more stability.>CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (1066MHz FSB w/ 8MB>Cache)Nice... But the Quad prices are supposed drop big time in late July! Go with a dual-core for now ~ $200 buck then get a nice Quad later this summer. After SP1 multi-core bugs are worked out.>PSU: 850W Thermaltake (Silent Toughpower Edition)Overkill, but maybe not if you really need SLI duallies>MEM: 2GB DDR2 Corsair 800MHz XMS2Good... Corsair has always treated me right...>HD1: 2x150 WD Raptor's (10K RPM) Raid 0Very nice, but, drop to two 74Gb drives and raid-0 if only for FSX partition. 300GB for FSX is overkill and I now wish I had only bought the 74Gb. Much cheaper and 150GB is plenty of room.>HD2: WD 250GB 16MB Cache (7200 RPM) (SATA)OK... 320Gb SE-16 are only $90 @ newegg.>GPU: GeForce 8800GTX 768MB (ACS3 OC'd edition) one for now640Mb GTS is pleanty. SLI doesn't hep FS that much, if at all... Your CPU and Video RAM is where it counts.>SC: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-FI XtremeGamer (7.1)Good choice. Need qood quality speakers too...>OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bitOK... Get ready for some work and learning curve.Good luck...

>>MB: Asus Striker Extreme (nForce 680i, SLI)What Mr. al j. said.You might consider avoiding the 680 chipset since you are going to RAID. I don't know if the kinks in the nVidia 680 chipset have been worked out or not.Your disk subsystem is just about identical to what I'm running. It is bigtime fast for FS. You should mirror or image your RAID array to the slower drive. If you have a lot of stuff, you might consider a larger 7200 rpm drive.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

The 300Gig Raptor for FSX is NOT an overkill.Something like Horizon VFR UK scenery would eat 20gigs or so...imagine a few scenery like that. Megascenerny is planning to put out some Hi def megasceneries...they all eat up HDisks. moreover.. once that HD is over 50% it starts getting slower (loading time etc). So starting thinking, you would be using no more than 60% of the HD at anytime and that should be your FSX HD space requirements. If I could get 2 X 300Ggis Raptor, I would go for it in a NY Minute. I have 2 X 150HD raptors in RAID 0 and 2 X 250Gig regular HD in RAID 0.The Quad core is the way to go. With the SP1, thats now a necessity.The power maybe an overkill..but not really. nothing wrong with some extra juice to spare.Manny

ReQuoteHD1: 2x150 WD Raptor's (10K RPM) Raid 0Unquote if are running in Raid 0 you have a doubled chance of failure, and frankly with the specification you are putting together, which seems "everything the best" it looks like the one aspect it is falling down on is data security, frankly I don't think Raptors are worth the money for their performance benefit and you might wish to consider using four Samsung Spinpoint drives in Raid 0+1, as for the ASUS Striker it certainly is a good board but I think ASUS have got greedy since their success with their AMD Athlon 64 motherboards and the Striker's performance whilst good, is not much better than other boards that cost less. As for Vista, I would inclined to go for Windows XP Professional instead, you will not be able to have DirectX 10 with XP but you could install a Vista operating system later, and with four 500 Gigabyte Samsung drives in Raid 0+1 you would have 1000 Gigabytes so would have plenty of space to run a duplicated FSX under both XP and Vista.Best and Warm RegardsAdrian Wainer

Also take a look at Intel P35/ICH9R chipsets, such as Asus P5K Dlx (USD $230). Recent anandtech suggests RAID 0 not that big a deal unless heavy disk writes (maybe of use for page file, but if you are using page file your performance is in the crapper any way).scott s..

Hmmm, I second most of what was said, except I too believe the 300GB is overkill....sorry, unless you have photscenery for the earth, plus 10m mesh and etc etc scenery 150GB is PLENTY..For speakers I'd recommend the Logitech X-530's - work great for mehttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16836121126, or if you got some extra $$$ go for the big brothers,http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16836121120(crap newegg doesnt have it right now)

...and every C2D he tested was able to run at an FSB of 1333. End of July Intel price cuts could mean even more savings.Regards,Jim KarnNOTHING is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

Thanks guys! I sure do appreciate the great advice. I knew you would come through. I'll make some changes and save some money at the same time. All very good responses...thanks again.Randy