Hey simming folks,unexpectedly, I had to invest in new hardware. Instead of buying another budget laptop, I decided to go with a budget desktop. After some days I decided it's going to be cheaper and more satisfying to buy the parts and build it myself.I got a good deal on a combo. Nothing out of this world:Gigabyte G41M-ES2L Motherboard - G41 Express, Socket 775, microATX, PCI Express, Audio, Video, Gigabit LAN , USB 2.0, SATA1I69-5300Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 Processor BX80571E5300 - 2.60GHz, 2MB Cache, 800MHz FSB, Wolfdale, Dual Core, Retail, Socket 775Seagate 500GB LP Serial ATA HD 5900/16MB/SATA-3G1ULT40089Ultra 2048MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz MemoryI know, the limitations might be RAM bus speed, Ram size, spindle speed of the drive, the integrated Intel x4500 graphics and 300W power supply.This is by no means a gaming rig. I needed to buy it because my laptop gave up and I'm on a budget. Nevertheless, I enjoyed FS2004 + addons on my laptop with a T5450 Core 2 Duo 1,6 Ghz, 3 GB Ram and Intel X3100.Now, there is a lot of room for upgrading the new rig (haven't received it yet). Naturally, since I'm on a budget, it will happen gradually.I ordered it without a graphics card because I found it hard to decide which card would run my FS2004 installation (plus addons) best on budget. For days I've been reading reviews and learned a lot but unfort. not enough to take an informed decision.I want to get a card that is around $100 or less, and doesn't require a better PSU right away. I thought first the ATI 4670 was the perfect buy. Low power consumption and it performed better in reviews of recent games than anything Nvidia of low budget. BUT, then I read FSX performance tests with budget cards and it seems that the 9600 GT is a fine card for FSX in general.I do think, a 9600 would do well with FS9 on a 300W power supply until I upgrade next year the PSU and then evaluate the market of GPUs again.Or, would a 9800 GT and an immediate PSU upgrade serve me better in regard that I could dare a FSX installation right away?Or, would you recommend anything ATI? My impression is from the reviews that in FSX the fps are always worse than with Nvdia. But maybe the new generation has changed that???Thanks a lot.

Well, the past weekend saw some PC building, mediocre results, running to the shop to exchange parts, assembling, unsatisfied customer, disassembling, exchanging parts at the shop......It was quite an experience. Things learned:1. It's possible to get a decent machine from parts at a price that won't brake the bank.2. Never ever again I'll go for the least expensive parts if it means to submit to lowish quality or just a bad user experience.The PC I'm running now, the only parts from the original order are Ram and hard drive. Everything else saw exchange, even the case and PSU.I ended up, so far, with the XFX 9600 GSO they had for an acceptable price. Somewhere in my heart I knew it's not a full blown 9600 GT but then again, this was never meant to be a perfectly tuned simming or gaming machine.I'm getting great (very subjective adjective) results on stock standard installation in both, FS9 and FSX. I'll have to see when addons kick i. I'm not there yet. FS9 looks more beautiful than ever before and at one point during testing I thought it can rival my FSX installation easily. BUT, I'm not sure yet if I want to stick with the XFX card. The fan is blowing constantly and considered that 85% or more on this machine will be work or not simming/gaming related activity - I just can't picture listening to a loud fan for long until I feel the urge to get something quieter. I had the system running without the card to see the difference and there is barely noise from the system's two fans, so the GSO is really a hairdryer.Maybe I should just fly heavy metal and imagine that's jet engine noise?Could anyone recommend a card that throttles down significantly while idle or just doing 2-D? Don't know if a custom fan solution really is what I want to do.Thanks.

Well, the past weekend saw some PC building, mediocre results, running to the shop to exchange parts, assembling, unsatisfied customer, disassembling, exchanging parts at the shop......It was quite an experience. Things learned:1. It's possible to get a decent machine from parts at a price that won't brake the bank.2. Never ever again I'll go for the least expensive parts if it means to submit to lowish quality or just a bad user experience.The PC I'm running now, the only parts from the original order are Ram and hard drive. Everything else saw exchange, even the case and PSU.I ended up, so far, with the XFX 9600 GSO they had for an acceptable price. Somewhere in my heart I knew it's not a full blown 9600 GT but then again, this was never meant to be a perfectly tuned simming or gaming machine.I'm getting great (very subjective adjective) results on stock standard installation in both, FS9 and FSX. I'll have to see when addons kick i. I'm not there yet. FS9 looks more beautiful than ever before and at one point during testing I thought it can rival my FSX installation easily. BUT, I'm not sure yet if I want to stick with the XFX card. The fan is blowing constantly and considered that 85% or more on this machine will be work or not simming/gaming related activity - I just can't picture listening to a loud fan for long until I feel the urge to get something quieter. I had the system running without the card to see the difference and there is barely noise from the system's two fans, so the GSO is really a hairdryer.Maybe I should just fly heavy metal and imagine that's jet engine noise?Could anyone recommend a card that throttles down significantly while idle or just doing 2-D? Don't know if a custom fan solution really is what I want to do.Thanks.

Asus (don't know about other manufactors) has some cards of the 9600- and 9800 series that have no fan at all. They have a hugh coolingblock instead. Granted, they are a bit lower clocked than their fan-cooled counterparts, but my experience is they're not bad. I have no experience with them with FSX, but have run FS9 a couple of years on the 7600GS Silent. Then upgraded to a 8800GT and the difference in fps was minimal!Since FS (both 9 and X) is mainly a processor driven app, you might consider the "Silent" cards.Best regards,Frank