Since I think I have FS2004 "tweeked" about as good as it can get and my really only complaint with it is that the mid to distant scenery (ground) is not clear enough for me , I'm thinking of trying FSX. A couple of questions:1. I have an extra harddrive that is not being used on my main flight computer. Should I install FSX on it (drive D) or can you have Fs2004 and FSX on the SAME harddrive running both with no problems?2. From Amazon.com I see three difrerant versions for sale.A. FSX Gold $31.80B. FSX Deluxe $49.99C. FSX Aceleration Exspansion $40.00What's the differance and/or advantage between these three differant versions? Thanks jerrycwo4

Since I think I have FS2004 "tweeked" about as good as it can get and my really only complaint with it is that the mid to distant scenery (ground) is not clear enough for me , I'm thinking of trying FSX. A couple of questions:1. I have an extra harddrive that is not being used on my main flight computer. Should I install FSX on it (drive D) or can you have Fs2004 and FSX on the SAME harddrive running both with no problems?2. From Amazon.com I see three difrerant versions for sale.A. FSX Gold $31.80B. FSX Deluxe $49.99C. FSX Aceleration Exspansion $40.00What's the differance and/or advantage between these three differant versions? Thanks jerrycwo4

A. FSX Gold $31.80 -------------------------------------Includes FSX Deluxe plus Acceleration PackB. FSX Deluxe $49.99-----------------------------------Just FSXC. FSX Aceleration Exspansion $40.00----------Expansion pack for FSX that includes a few more planes and missions. Also required to have by some addon aircraft developers because of some guages that dont come with regular FSX. Good to have if you like Naval aviation since it includes an F-18 and carrier landing missions.Get FSX Gold because it has Deluxe and the Acceleration Expansion pack included for the same price, plus according to your prices it's cheaper. Otherwise if you buy FSX Deluxe then later decide you want to add the Acceleration pack, you will have to spend the extra money on it. On a side note, since FSX Gold it includes Acceleration, you wont need to download and install SP1 and SP2 since they are included.Here's more info on the differences : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Flight_Simulator_X

1. I have an extra harddrive that is not being used on my main flight computer. Should I install FSX on it (drive D) or can you have Fs2004 and FSX on the SAME harddrive running both with no problems?

You will get 100 different answers on this question. I had set up done by a company that specializes in setting up FS9 and FSX, they recommended doing them on the same drive as my operating system, but like I said every "expert" will give you a different answer. Some insist on seperate drives, others say it doesn't make a bit of difference. I have FSX and FS9 on my main C: drive which also contains my OS. That drive is 500GB and I keep it defragged using a seperate defrag program. Bottom line, I have never had a problem, and frankly I doubt putting them on seperate drives would make any noticable difference, as long as you have ample space on the drive you are installing it to.

Definitely get FSX gold, as previous poster said it's FSX Deluxe + Acceleration bundled together.

1. I have an extra harddrive that is not being used on my main flight computer. Should I install FSX on it (drive D) or can you have Fs2004 and FSX on the SAME harddrive running both with no problems?

Won't make much difference provided that you have enough free space to have both of them installed on the same drive. If the extra harddrive you have is as fast as your primary drive and it's empty right now, then installing FSX on it might give you very tiny performance gain.

Bottom line, I have never had a problem, and frankly I doubt putting them on seperate drives would make any noticable difference, as long as you have ample space on the drive you are installing it to.

100% correct! No difference at all. Wherever you have free space on HD, you can install it. I have both FSIX and FSX installed, uninstalled FSX a few times, never ruined my FSIX installation or vice versa.

I always install it to the default location.Just an additional noteyou can make a few absolutely free enhancements to FSX that will make your simming expereince outstanding1) FSwater configurator...changes the rather bland FSX water shader2) ENB bloom3) Pablo Diaz's High definition environment cloud textures(for FS 2004 but works in FSX)4) Check out the freeware planes by Dino Cattaneo and Tim "Piglet" Conrad. payware quality.5) PAC NW or Orbx Tasmania demos, or the OZX freeware Italy or Grand Canyon/Death Valley.Have fun...

I always install it to the default location.

When using Vista or Windows 7, it's bad idea to install FSX to default location (C:\program files...) because its a special folder with restricted permissions and some addons have problems with that.

Since I think I have FS2004 "tweeked" about as good as it can get and my really only complaint with it is that the mid to distant scenery (ground) is not clear enough for me , I'm thinking of trying FSX.

If mid to distant ground scenery is your only complaint, I would suggest asking for suggestions about those rather than going to FSX. You may end up with more headaches than you expect. No one asked what your system specs are before going ahead and recommending the various versions, but that might be a pretty important thing to consider. Oh, and I'm certainly no expert, I don't even own FSX, but I've read enough about the various problems with FSX to know that it's not for me and my machine.

A very special thanks to all that replied. That was just the type of information that I was looking for. I'm going to go ahead and give it a try and of course I'll make a good back-up of the "C" drive before I include the FSX.Here's the specs for my FS2004 computer:XJETT 780 SLI- Windows XP Professional SP2C- XJETT Windtunnel ATX Tower Chassis- 1000 Watt Corsair SLI Power Supply- EVGA nForce 780i SLI Mainboard 1600MHz FSB- Intel E8500 Dual Core Processor (4.0GHz Factory OC, 1600MHz)- Jetline HyperThrust! CPU Liquid Cooling Unit- Arctic Cooling MX-2 CPU Thermal Compound- 4GB Corsair XMS2 Dominator SDRAM @ 1066MHz- Triple (3) 512MB GeForce 9800 GTX, PCIe 2.0 (SLI Disable)- 300GB VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM SATA Hard Drive, 16MB Cache- 500GB SATA II, 7200RPM Secondary HDD, 16MB Cache- Dual (2) DVD+/-RW Optical Drives with Lightscribe - 1.44MB 3.5

nice setup.about the blurries, what res are you running FS9 on? I ask because on LCD screens (which you have), unless you run at its native res, the image will be blurry.Since your monitors are 23", i'm assuming their native res is 1920x1200. Therefore, your screen res should be at 5760x1200. Anything less, and it'll be blurry (at least to some people)....even FSX won't be as clear. This is because the native pixel is not displaying at 1:1...and thus it'll use a blurry-scaling effect to fill the screen....am i making sense?I've tried running FS9 on 3" Apple 30" cinema displays at 7680x1600...and it's insane! But at lower res, even with three crystal sharp 30" screens, it looked terrible...-feng

I think your talking about the situation when you use that Matric "Triple Display Program" and you have to multiply the native resolution by 3 when your using 3 monitors. I do NOT have this. I have three differant monitor being run with 3 DIFFERANT video cards so I don't have that problem. The "blurry" problem I'm refering to is the same one that everybody has when flying on FS2004 from a mid point to the distant horizon. That's why I'm going to give FSX a try. I hear it doesn't have this problem, or at least as bad as FS2004. jerrycwo4

You definitely can install FSX and FS9 on the same drive/partition. Sometimes, the registry entries can get messed up, but all you need is the Flight1 registry repair tool to fix that:http://www.flight1.com/view.asp?page=libraryJust be very careful when installing FSX, it likes to default into the FS9 folder, which is bad. You obviously want a separate folder.I have fs9 in c:\fs2004\ and FSX in c:\fsx\ and I've never had a problem.