I am looking to build an excellent FSX desktop computer, which as you know is extremely demanding on the cpu, hdd, and graphics card. FYI, I plan to over-clock the i7 920 to approximately 4.0 GHz, I will be running Windows 7 64-bit, and I already own a great monitor, keyboard, and mouse. After quite a bit of research, I have identified the following components for my "dream" FSX system ($1700 total from NewEgg): Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129043Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136313GIGABYTE GV-N275SO-18I GeForce GTX 275 1792MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125293CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131365LG Black 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Internal Combo LG Blu-ray Reader & 16X LightScribe DVD

Only thing to add is a dedicated HDD for FSX. The Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB is still the best, albeit expensive, choice but something like the new Samsung Spinpoint F3 is also a VERY good choice. Either way get FSX on its own drive.

I'm not sure if a second hard drive would be worth it because as of now I don't think I will be running anything but FSX and the OS. But I could add a second hard drive if it would really help.I've thought about the Velociraptor, but I'm more worried about size than cost. They say the first 1/3 to 1/2 of a drive is the fastest, but with all the addons I already have or expect to get, I might fill that pretty fast.But maybe it would be worth it. Thanks for the input.

A 2nd drive dedicated to FSX will definitely be worth it. I understand your concerns over the Vrap's capacity though. Get an F3 500GB or 1TB then...

Or get an SSD just for FSX, a 128GB or similar would be perfect and not suffer from coventional drive issues. The OCZ vertex are excellent or the crucial M225 range. Both can be trimmed to maintain top class performance and have no firmware issues.I have Raptors in my existing rig, and they are f great, but just built an O/C'ed i7920 rig to supercede it and have for SSD's for the OS (60GB) and FSX (256GB) and a single 1TB drive for back up , storage etc.rgds,Mark

I would definitly go for the 300bg Velociraptor. You can always move add ons around or install them to a different drive. An example would be GEX - the main program doesn't need to be on the FSX drive as long as it know where FSX is.

If you live in the U.S. and have a Micro Center nearby, I'd suggest you buy at least the CPU there, rather than Newegg. i7 920's are $199 in store every day at Micro Center. That's $80 less than Newegg and no waiting for shipping either.Also, the hard drive you have chosen is a bit of a puzzling choice. It's a fine hard drive but the RE drives carry a pretty heavy premium price for very little difference in performance or reliability. May as well just go with a standard non-RE drive and save a decent chunk of change.

Ditto on Microcenter. The price on the 920 is great and their other prices are in line with Newegg. I bought all of my stuff from them except the RAMMake sure you grab a salesperson and get the prices from them.