Thanks...but I want to walk into a store like Best Buy, or go on the internet to (for example) Dell, for an off-the-shelf system. There's some flexibility in components: I might be able to upgrade the video card, add more memory, and get a bigger hard drive. But what do I look for?Better than 3.5GHz processor? How much memory...as much as possible? What kind of memory? Dual core? Quad core? Both McCrash and ryanbatcund suggested overclocking, but I have no idea how to do that! Sorry: I was technical years ago, but have been a mere user for many years now and things have changed.Vista? No way! I've tried it, didn't like it. 64-bit XP? I believe I'm running 32-bit XP now; what are the implications of running my other programs with XP 64?Sorry to be so ignorant...but I am ignorant, and don't have time to learn all I'd have to learn.I appreciate your help.Barney

I appreciate all the good advice you guys are giving Barney here....but READ what he's saying. He doesn't want to go through building a system or even COOLING it. He wants to go into a store, and buy a system that will run FSX well. He's on a budget! I respectfully disagree that you can't do that. You can. I have a dual core Dell system using Vista, and I couldn't be happier. I have all the addons and my flights are great and smooth. Some of us just want to buy a system easily and have a good experience. It can be done. My system is in my signature. Love it.

Yes, we read Barney is on a budget. But he also said "well". Budget , FSX and Well are three words that not only don't go together, but have vastly different meanings to everyone. Spilok, was that the base model Dell, or did you spend more to get better components. People just want Barney to know what he's up against. No one wants him to spend his hard earned bucks on a system and be disappointed. If he ends up being happy, great, end of story. I ran FSX on a rig like yours and always wanted more. Besides, being on a budget is the best excuse to build your own. You can do it in stages. It's not rocket science(didn't those guys crash a very expensive rocket on Mars because of a metric conversion). Besides, it's fun and educational.Barney, are you sure you don't have time to learn a little something new, but have time to use FSX.Bob

Yes, we read Barney is on a budget. But he also said "well". Budget , FSX and Well are three words that not only don't go together, but have vastly different meanings to everyone. Spilok, was that the base model Dell, or did you spend more to get better components. People just want Barney to know what he's up against. No one wants him to spend his hard earned bucks on a system and be disappointed. If he ends up being happy, great, end of story. I ran FSX on a rig like yours and always wanted more. Besides, being on a budget is the best excuse to build your own. You can do it in stages. It's not rocket science(didn't those guys crash a very expensive rocket on Mars because of a metric conversion). Besides, it's fun and educational.Barney, are you sure you don't have time to learn a little something new, but have time to use FSX.Bob

Bob,No, it was not the base model Dell. I certainly upgraded everything to achieve the XPS the way I wanted it. Although I paid for it outright, Dell is always running promos like "Interest-Free" payments for many months, and other such things to help those with a budget. I'm not just a Dell user, but I also have an ASUS laptop which I just bought for $995.00 at Best Buy. It has 4 gigs of RAM, 320 gig hard drive, NVidia 9800 Graphics card, Vista 64, and other goodies. Although I haven't put FSX on it (I will this weekend), I'll bet that even runs the program relatively well.I DO agree with you that building your own computer can be fun and great learning experience. I just got a different "vibe" from Barney when I read his thread.Stan

Gents, you're being most helpful, and I thank you.I hear what you're saying about building my own system, but consider this: I'm nearly 75 years old, don't have near the energy (or strength) I used to have. But I have a (mostly political) blog, I volunteer at the local police department, I'm president of a service organization, and I just got a new dog who is two-years old and completely untrained. I fondly remember the days before I retired: I wasn't nearly as busy, and I got paid a hell of a lot more.No, I'm not complaining. I'm trying to show you why build-it-yourself is not a good solution for me.I don't think much of Dell: their tech support people don't speak or understand either English or computers--and you saw what Plainplane and C09G had to say. I suspect they're right. I have a Compaq laptop--OK, it was cheap, but it had more bloatware than I could believe! I finally borrowed a USB-connected floppy drive and upgraded from Vista Home Basic to XP Home. It now works fine. I have a feeling that no matter what off-the-shelf machine I bought I would have terrible problems.So it seems to me that a custom-built machine is what I want. If you could answer the following questions it would help me to spec the machine:1. I don't want to overclock the processor because overclocking will reduce the life expectancy of the processor. Will a 3.5GHz processor do the job?2. Does FSX utilize a quad-core processor, or will a dual-core do the job as well, or nearly as well?3. How much memory should I get?4. How fast does my HD need to be?And the overriding all-important question: how much (ballpark) is this beast going to cost me? I'd like to keep it down to around $2,000.I really do appreciate your thoughs to this point. If you can help me with these four questions I'll be all set. I think.Barney

Gents, you're being most helpful, and I thank you.I hear what you're saying about building my own system, but consider this: I'm nearly 75 years old, don't have near the energy (or strength) I used to have. But I have a (mostly political) blog, I volunteer at the local police department, I'm president of a service organization, and I just got a new dog who is two-years old and completely untrained. I fondly remember the days before I retired: I wasn't nearly as busy, and I got paid a hell of a lot more.No, I'm not complaining. I'm trying to show you why build-it-yourself is not a good solution for me.I don't think much of Dell: their tech support people don't speak or understand either English or computers--and you saw what Plainplane and C09G had to say. I suspect they're right. I have a Compaq laptop--OK, it was cheap, but it had more bloatware than I could believe! I finally borrowed a USB-connected floppy drive and upgraded from Vista Home Basic to XP Home. It now works fine. I have a feeling that no matter what off-the-shelf machine I bought I would have terrible problems.So it seems to me that a custom-built machine is what I want. If you could answer the following questions it would help me to spec the machine:1. I don't want to overclock the processor because overclocking will reduce the life expectancy of the processor. Will a 3.5GHz processor do the job?2. Does FSX utilize a quad-core processor, or will a dual-core do the job as well, or nearly as well?3. How much memory should I get?4. How fast does my HD need to be?And the overriding all-important question: how much (ballpark) is this beast going to cost me? I'd like to keep it down to around $2,000.I really do appreciate your thoughs to this point. If you can help me with these four questions I'll be all set. I think.Barney

Overclocking if done by someone who knows what they're doing and it's done right doesn't reduce the life of the processor. I asked that before I had mine done over at Maxforce. Join his forums and give him a budget you want and what the computer is for. He'll be more than glad to help. :) And, without the soundcard the computer was $1900 + $60 for shipping and insurance. That was before I upped to a 1TB HD.

Gents, you're being most helpful, and I thank you.1. I don't want to overclock the processor because overclocking will reduce the life expectancy of the processor. Will a 3.5GHz processor do the job?2. Does FSX utilize a quad-core processor, or will a dual-core do the job as well, or nearly as well?3. How much memory should I get?4. How fast does my HD need to be?I really do appreciate your thoughs to this point. If you can help me with these four questions I'll be all set. I think.Barney

OK, let me take a shot:1. Overclocking if done right (with a proper cooling solution) will not reduce the life of your processor. And yes, a 3.5 GHz processor is a good choice.2. FSX uses all available cores when loading scenery (both initially and during the flight). Other than that, a dual-core will do the job nearly as well.3. 2 GB if running XP 32, 4 GB if running Vista or XP 644. 7200 RPM is good, 10,000 RPM is best. Suggest getting two drives: one 7200 RPM for the OS, and one (possibly 10,000 RPM) dedicated to FSX.My rig (two years old):Q6600 OC to 3.0 GHz, 2 GB PC800 RAM, 1xWD 7200 RPM drive, 1xWD 10,000 RPM drive, 9600GT 512M, Win XP Pro

I'm running a Q6600 OC to 3,2 Ghz, 4 GB DDR2-800, RAID0 with 2x320 GB Samsung, 8800 GTX (better than the 9800 GTX) and Vista Ultimate 64I have an avr. of about 25-30 FPS and its ok. I Play in 1920x1200 @ Ultra High.If you buy the comp. and build the pc yourself go with AMD Phenom II Black Edtition CPUs since the Multi is Unlocked = EASY OC!. They cost about $250 an Intel with the Multi unlocked cost $1000! The i7 is not that good to game with a High End 775 will beat any i7 at the moment.Why so I recomend this? I am CompTIA A+ and N+ certified and I would give this advice to anybody who buys a pc atm. The Intel is just to expensive and DDR3 only has about 2-5% more performance than DDR2 so you will only see it in benchamrks!If I had to build a PC atm I'd go for this:Phenom II X4 940 Black EditionATI 4870 X28 GB DDR2 (Corsair, OCZ, G.Skill, GEIL)Some Asus Board for Sockel AM2 or MSI (both are the same quality and price)With that system you will play anything until 2010 maybe even 2011.Edit With the Sys at top I get a Price of 1400 € ~ $1850

I'm running a Q6600 OC to 3,2 Ghz, 4 GB DDR2-800, RAID0 with 2x320 GB Samsung, 8800 GTX (better than the 9800 GTX) and Vista Ultimate 64I have an avr. of about 25-30 FPS and its ok. I Play in 1920x1200 @ Ultra High.If you buy the comp. and build the pc yourself go with AMD Phenom II Black Edtition CPUs since the Multi is Unlocked = EASY OC!. They cost about $250 an Intel with the Multi unlocked cost $1000! The i7 is not that good to game with a High End 775 will beat any i7 at the moment.Why so I recomend this? I am CompTIA A+ and N+ certified and I would give this advice to anybody who buys a pc atm. The Intel is just to expensive and DDR3 only has about 2-5% more performance than DDR2 so you will only see it in benchamrks!If I had to build a PC atm I'd go for this:Phenom II X4 940 Black EditionATI 4870 X28 GB DDR2 (Corsair, OCZ, G.Skill, GEIL)Some Asus Board for Sockel AM2 or MSI (both are the same quality and price)With that system you will play anything until 2010 maybe even 2011.Edit With the Sys at top I get a Price of 1400

I'm usinf both AMD/ATI and Intel + nVidia and both run perfect with FSX......

I'm usinf both AMD/ATI and Intel + nVidia and both run perfect with FSX......

And, for the i7 not to out perform the new AMDs....If that was the case Intel might of lowered the prices on them. From what I know that even the 920 will perform on the level of the high end QX chips in some areas. And, as far as FS goes Intel + Nvidia is a good combo. Barney try looking into a system with a 9650 it's a 3.0ghz Quad. The prices came down and I'm sure if you want to go with a 775 system it's the best chip to go with now.

OK...I have what I need, I think. Thank you all--especially Bert, who seems to have netted it out.Barney

BarneyLook in local newspapers and see if there are any PC experts in your area who advertise that they can build PC's to personal specs. Here in the UK there are loads of them. Always try and find out who they have built one for before and talk to that person to see if they were satisfied with the service.Failing that, just take a punt with someone, you are of an age where you can spot a conman just by talking to them.Good luck

Hey Barney,I just saw this company in another thread: http://www.jetlinesystems.comI don't know anything about them, but the guy in the other thread seemed to be happy with them.Looks like they are the type of builder you are looking for... and they specialize in Flight Sim systems.Thanks,Don

ppgstf, I have a tech here who will build me a system...the question (now answered) was what to have him build. Of course I will also check out your suggestion, DonMR, and see what jetlines is all about.Thank you both!Barney