System Spec's ONE:-----------------------Intel

Mitch,What about a motherboard? ;-)Ulf B

>Mitch,>>What about a motherboard? ;-)>>Ulf B--------------------------Ulf, I have had such good luck and performance with Dell...that I might just stick with 'em. :)These two systems are the Dell XPS 630's. Loaded right up...I'm only looking at $2,200.00 and $3,099.00. You can't beat this price with a stick, at this high-performance plateau.The motherboard would be proprietary on the above.Mitch

Hi Mitch,There's a substantial price difference between those two processors. You're paying a huge premium for an unlocked QX6850. Ask yourself if that is worth the money when you can increase FSB speed and still overclock a E8500 by a substantial amount.I wouldn't recommend one HD for everything. Have one for the OS and programs and another purely for FS. 2 * 500Gb is plenty.The 8800 series from nVidia are old technology. Consider the new 9800GT with twin GPUs or maybe the 3870X2. FSX will eat all the video memory you can throw at it. 1Gb cards are the future.The QX system will probably give you more fps but at a far greater cost. The E8400/E8500 are the new 45nm processors and are excellent value for money and run cooler than older processors. The QX series are for people who have money trees in their gardens. ;-)Cheers,

This one similar to your second, Mitch.The price includes optional 3 years on site warranty.The CPU has 8MB L2 cache.MTech is a very good brand, I own one, but if you prefer Dell that is probably the key to your decision.http://www.m-techlaptops.com/desktop%20pc.html

>Hi Mitch,>>There's a substantial price difference between those two>processors. You're paying a huge premium for an unlocked>QX6850. Ask yourself if that is worth the money when you can>increase FSB speed and still overclock a E8500 by a>substantial amount.>>I wouldn't recommend one HD for everything. Have one for the>OS and programs and another purely for FS. 2 * 500Gb is>plenty.>>The 8800 series from nVidia are old technology. Consider the>new 9800GT with twin GPUs or maybe the 3870X2. FSX will eat>all the video memory you can throw at it. 1Gb cards are the>future.>>The QX system will probably give you more fps but at a far>greater cost. The E8400/E8500 are the new 45nm processors and>are excellent value for money and run cooler than older>processors. The QX series are for people who have money trees>in their gardens. ;-)>>Cheers,--------------------------------------------------------Thanks for the feedback, Ray. I hear you about the QX6850. I was actually leaning towards the E8500 in thinking about it during the day. I see from most posts, that systems such as these don't really crank up the FPS...but instead, make everything sharp on the ground and smooth above it. That's actually what I am after. Thanks for your points to think about! I'll look into that 9800 for sure.Mitch

I hit on the link you provided and read about the high-performance system. :)Thanks for that!If the above is actually your system, I do have a question. Does this system give you absolutely sharp ground textures running FSX, with no out-of-focus at any time, ***AND***...no matter which way you pan your view, do they appear sharp to the gaze, or do they 'snap' in, such as they do on my P4 3.4Ghz?Thanks for the feedback!Mitch

Mitch,The E8500 is more expensive than the E8400 and offers very little extra. It has a 9.5 multiplier on a 333FSB giving 3.16GHz. The E8400 has a 9.0 multiplier also on a 333FSB giving 3.00GHz.As it's 45UKP more expensive I don't see it's worth the extra. Increasing the FSB by 20 to 353 will result in 3.354GHz compared to 3.177GHz for the E8400. That's 5.5% faster or 21fps compared to 20fps.Invest the difference in that second HD. That will reap far greater rewards.

>>These two systems are the Dell XPS 630's. Loaded right>up...I'm only looking at $2,200.00 and $3,099.00. You can't>beat this price with a stick, at this high-performance>plateau.>I paid 3,300 for this....Digital Storm DesktopWindows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) (For Enthusiasts)Case: Digital Storm 850Si Power Supply: 750W Corsair HX (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition)Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (1066MHz FSB) (8MB Cache)(overclocked) 3.38GHzMotherboard: nVidia 780i Core 2 Quad (By: eVGA) (nForce 780i SLI)Memory: 4GB DDR2 Corsair at 1066MHz Dominator (Dual Channel) (Extreme-Performance)Hard Drive 1: 150GB Western Digital Raptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)Hard Drive 2: 250GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (nVidia GeForce 8800GTS 512MB (By: eVGA) (PCI-Express)Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi FPS Fatal1ty Champion (Includes Front I/O Unit)Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 3 WindTunnel (Copper Heatpipe Heatsink & Zalman Case Fans)

Have you considered any of the non-extreme edition 45nm quads?I say that in the context of your desire for good texture loading and smoothness, rather than raw framerate. This too, is my desire in a new system.I mean, a 45nm quad will deliver the frames--maybe not to the level of an E8400 or E8500 but still plenty good (what's 30 fps vs 35 fps?); it's just that with a quad, you'll have the good texture loading, and room for other processes like ActiveSky.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

>Have you considered any of the non-extreme edition 45nm>quads?>>I say that in the context of your desire for good texture>loading and smoothness, rather than raw framerate. This too,>is my desire in a new system.>>I mean, a 45nm quad will deliver the frames--maybe not to the>level of an E8400 or E8500 but still plenty good (what's 30>fps vs 35 fps?); it's just that with a quad, you'll have the>good texture loading, and room for other processes like>ActiveSky.>>Rhett>>AMD 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-------------------------------------------------Noted Rhett, and thanks! Something to think about for sure.Edit... Here's a quote from a recent E8500 review I read:'At the stock 3.16MHz it already provides excellent performance for office use, encoding and gaming; and given that it is also an excellent overclocker, it absolutely shines and screams when pushed to the limit.Frankly, for a gamer, an E8500 is a better choice than a quad core QX9770 - and it will remain a better choice for a gamer until such time as the games are no longer GPU bound and are extremely multi-threaded - which will not happen for quite a while.'Mitch

Mitch,Have you considered AlienWare - the gamer arm of Dell which has some of the best specified PCs around. Have a look here and it may give you more food for thought. http://www.alienware.com/

Well, Mitch, afraid I'm not much help because I do not have FSX (run FS9), the rig is an M-Tech FL-90 with their top choices for cpu and vid card (but its a laptop and certainly not M-Tech's best).BTW, M-Tech (imported by Compal) has always specialized in notebooks (and with those they currently beat Alienware all to H in performance and price). XP is optional, and recommended, on almost all their systems.But for a desktop, I imagine that Alienware offers better. Until very recently M-Tech didn't even do desktops.I get perfect FS9 at 30+ f.p.s. Image sharp with FSAA using Nhancer, all sliders max with mesh, Ground Environment, Ultimate Terrain, and Horizon brand photoreal VFR scenery, But I don't expect my rig would perform well at all in FSX!Intel Core2 duo 2.4 GhzNvidia 8600M GT 512 MB.7200 RPM 160GB HD2 Gig Kingston RAMWin XP Rro

>Edit... Here's a quote from a recent E8500 review I read:>>'At the stock 3.16MHz it already provides excellent>performance for office use, encoding and gaming; and given>that it is also an excellent overclocker, it absolutely shines>and screams when pushed to the limit.>>Frankly, for a gamer, an E8500 is a better choice than a quad>core QX9770 - and it will remain a better choice for a gamer>until such time as the games are no longer GPU bound and are>extremely multi-threaded - which will not happen for quite a>while.'>My concern with the reviewers statement, is that FSX is not like these games they typically review on. We must ask ourselves, what effect does 4 cores have on the blurries, vs. 2 cores?This is not a consideration for a gamer. All they are interested in is the following: "Since my game doesn't use multiple cores, I need the fastest single-core I can get".That's still *somewhat* true of FS. But not _*as*_ true. This is the dilemma we face in cpu choice.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

Hi Ray, no I have not considered Alienware to date...but did follow your link..and in no time (LOL) had a system topping out near about $5000.00!!!!!! Oh boy.....Let's see...I look at systems between $2000.00, up to $5000.00...ALL so I can get smooth animation and clear crisp ground textures from flight simulation software. My girlfriend thinks we all have a serious 'habit' that needs breaking...lol.She said only yesterday; "...don't even RAISE an eyebrow...if I come home with another pair of shoes..because I had a bad day at the office...that is of course...if you wish to **continue** living....."I kept my eyebrows buried below my chin......and smiled. She bent down, gave me a kiss, and then left the den.....Mitch