Hi there! I'm a newbie and have no idea about computers! I'm tempted to buy myself Microsoft flight simulator X gold edition for my laptop and was wondering if somebody could answer these questions? Can anybody suggest the best joystick to work with it? I don't want a mega expensive one, just one which will do the job? To add to that, i'm not quite sure if my laptop will work well with it so where do i find that information out? All i can tell you is that i'm using Vista and it's a brand new laptop! It says that i have ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics. Would you suggest me upgrading my graphics card? What to? And will all graphics cards work with my Acer Aspire 5536? Thanks for any help!

I'll leave the computer stuff to the experts, but as for a HOTAS I've been very satisified with my Saitek X52. I purchased it in 2004 to upgrade from my Sidewinder and I haven't had any issues with it. I'm also very satisified with my Saitek yoke which I just got earlier this year to replace my CH yoke. Don't forget a good set of pedals, CH or Saitek will do just fine.

As for the controllers - everything was said by Rightseater. I also use Saitek's X52, Yoke and pedals. Very satisfied with this.As for the notebook - go for the FASTEST CPU possible. It is much more important than GPU in FSX. I do not say, graphic card is idle at FSX, but CPU is where it is all about.

I'm tempted to buy myself Microsoft flight simulator X ... i'm not quite sure if my laptop will work well .. i'm using Vista ... Acer Aspire 5536?

some important information about your laptop -ProcessorClock speed 2.1 GHz Processor type AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-64 RAMRAM installed 3072 MB, DDR2Max supported RAM 8 GB Video OutputGraphics processor ATI Radeon HD 3200 Video outputs VGA, HDMI in a word ... you are much better served to find a bargin bin copy of FS9 (aka FS2004 'a cent. of flight'); or from an online seller such as amazon.com.--

some important information about your laptop -ProcessorClock speed 2.1 GHz Processor type AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-64 RAMRAM installed 3072 MB, DDR2Max supported RAM 8 GB Video OutputGraphics processor ATI Radeon HD 3200 Video outputs VGA, HDMI in a word ... you are much better served to find a bargin bin copy of FS9 (aka FS2004 'a cent. of flight'); or from an online seller such as amazon.com.--

Absolutely agree. FSX will really stretch your laptop. Do yourself a favour and go for FS9. I use FSX, but still find myself in FS9 quite a bit. It has lots of life in it still.btw - You wont be able to upgrade the graphics card in your lappy.

You might be better off running FS9. It's most likely very inexpensive now and it has a ton more add-ons.

Agreed. You laptop will run FSX (if my desktop does, your laptop should) but you will never get the full FS experience from FSX with that hardware. You can get FS2004 to run decent settings with your hardware and you will be able to enjoy 5 years of add ons. Once you get a better system, you will appreciate FSX even more.The argument many (including myself) make for FS2004 is that you can make it look almost as good as FSX with add ons and you can achieve much better frame rates with current hardware. The hardware to produce similar results for FSX is just starting to become available and the add on selection is no where close to as mature as what is available for FS2004.