I recently picked up FSX and realize my system is a little outdated. I would like suggestions as to what to upgrade. Also, would prefer quiet (fanless) video card.Current system is:Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L link 1E6750 2.66ghzMSI GeForce 8600GTS4GB (4x1gb) Crucial ballistic DDR2 800I'm thinking video card is the first item. But don't know if I need to upgrade CPU as well. Whatever help would be appreciated.

Your system's not that bad actually. Your graphics card is extremely under-powered but other than that you've got a solid base which could be used to get some very decent performance out of FSX at mid-high settings. I'd suggest you look into overclocking your CPU to get the most out of FSX. An overclock to 3.3-3.4GHz should be easily attainable with an aftermarket cooler. You don't want a fanless video card either, not if you care about performance and image quality anyway. Fanless cards are not designed for high heat loads such as those produced by running 3d games. Depending on your budget, a card like the GTX 260 or 275 would be a great match for your system and deliver a tremendous performance increase over your current card. Also you'd be able to run much higher quality settings for an even better picture.

Thanks for the info. In regards to a quiet system, most of the time I am doing normal work/web/email etc and don't want a screaming fan on a video card. Obviously when playing FSX there are plenty of background noises in program so fan is not going to bother me. My question is, are there cards that control their fan speed (and therefore noise?) or what other solution might you suggest.

All modern cards have variable fan speeds. Of course, noise is subjective so what is tolerable to me may not be tolerable to you, but I'd say most every graphics card in the current era should be quiet enough to not produce any overly-loud fan noise outside of a 3d load.

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