After lots of fits and starts, I've finally finished assembling my new PC. It's the first time I've ever built a computer from scratch. My objective is to get as close to a 4GHz overclock as air cooling will allow. I'm hoping this will give satisfactory FSX performance until FS11 comes out. At the moment I'm formatting/partitioning the HDDs so I haven't yet installed FSX or done any type of benchmarks -- those are what weekends are for! I especially want to thank everyone in this forum who helped me, particularly Gary, Sam, and Seadog (if you're still around). I owe you some cold beverages if I see you in Seattle next weekend! Here is my current configuration: CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Mobo: Abit IP35 Pro RAM: 2GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-6400 Graphics: nVidia XFX 8600GT (factory-overclocked) Monitor: Westinghouse 22" LCD Widescreen LCM-22w3 PSU: 750W Thermaltake Toughpower HDD1: 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS HDD2: 500GB Samsung SpinPoint T Series HD501LJCooler: Thermalright Ultima-90 with 120mm Scythe S-FLEX 1600rpm fan Case: Antec P182 DVD1: Lite-On SATA DVD Burner w/ Lightscribe - model LH-20A1L-05 DVD2: Samsung SATA DVD Burner - model SH-S203B OS: Vista Home Premium OEM I bought virtually everything on sale, and the entire build cost less than $1,170 US. I could have easily paid under $900 (or even less) if I'd wanted to cut corners on PSU, hard drives, DVD burners, chassis, CPU, etc. I feel like I've built a good system with a little headroom for FSX, at a reasonable cost. It even POSTed on my very first try, which I consider a major accomplishment for a first-time builder! Notes- With RAM prices so cheap lately, I've also got 2GB of Patriot PC2-8500 on hand to assist with overclocking, as well as 4GB of OCZ PC2-6400. I'll experiment a bit to see which RAM combination gives me the best overall FSX performance. Depending on what happens with DX10 I'll probably upgrade the graphics card in the next couple of months. Likewise the CPU, if FS11 shows performance improvements using quad-cores (or better). I'll post some benchmarks as soon as everything is up and running. Gary, if you'd like me to run your FSX benchmarks I'd be glad to give it a whirl. Again, the help on this forum is greatly appreciated. - Lee

A very nice combo for FSX there Lee, and at a great price - well done! As long as you don't push the AA/AF settings too high (in-game should be fine), that 8600 will serve you proud for FSX. Gary

Congratulations, Lee, on the successful assembly of your first self built system. It's a doggone good feeling that doesn't much go away with each successive build that powers up and POSTs for you. Good job. My first was a Pentium 90 AT board system, BTW.I'm around, but suffering from a massive case of real life. Maybe in a few weeks I can get back to this part of life.After buying Acceleration recently, I installed in one evening FSX Deluxe and the SDK, and then immediately installed SP1 and the SDK SP1A. At that point, you have to activate; then you can install Acceleration including the SP2 features. It all went perfectly smoothly, as I had everything completely up to date and had not yet installed my CD recording software - which early adopters found could prevent the DVD drive from recognizing the second disk. I just haven't had a chance to go use it yet.I never did get any satisfaction over the mobo rebate issue, but decided life's too short to worry about it. I'm a lot more interested in the future than the past. Have fun and keep those reports coming.-Seadog