Hey all,I've been looking to incrementally upgrade my machine and wondering what your thoughts are. My current specs are:Athlon XP 2000+, 512MB PC2100 (266) RAM, Geforce4 Ti4200 128mb (Gainward Gold Sample), 7200 RPM HDD using ATA66.Given $100, what would you upgrade? I can go to a XP 2600+ CPU (266 FSB) on my motherboard. Would you upgrade the proc? Would you bump up to 1024mb RAM? What would likely have the most affect on framerates? Would upgrading either likely give me a noticable increase? I'm getting around 15-20 FPS in the VC and spot view most of the time, but the 2D panel is driving me nuts, getting no more than 12 FPS in there...Thanks all!

I have a more or less comparable system. I'm also looking at gradually upgrading. I started with adding more RAM. It didn't increase the framerates much, but it made the sim load faster and run a lot more smoothly. Stutters were my major gripe with FS9, and they have largely vanished now. If I were you, I would start with that, and it would fit nicely into your budget.P4 2,53 Mhz, 768 Mb PC 1066 Rambus RIMM (was 512 Mb), Geforce4 Ti 4600, WinXP Home, 7200 rpm HDDPaul

The videocard is enough for FS unless you want to run at the highest resolution and enable high levels of FSAA and AF.RAM is enough, but upgrading to 1 gig may speed up loading times and view switching slightly.Since the fastest CPU you can put in your mobo is a 2600+, and because you're running your drive at ATA66, I'm guessing you have a rather old motherboard? I suggest you get a new motherboard first, preferably NForce2, then a faster CPU later. The mobo alone won't give you a very big increase, but if you can afford a ~3000+ or faster later, or overclock a slower CPU to those speeds, it will be worth it.Alternatively, you could buy the 2600+ now, then buy a NForce2 board later and overclock the 2600+ to around 3000+ speeds.

Thanks. It's not an old board, bought last year. Giga-Byte 7VRXP. Supports ATA133 but I think my HDD is only ATA66 compatible. I could be wrong...maybe it is running ATA100+? But it's limited to a 266 FSB. It is one generation pre Nforce2 though. I think a mobo/proc upgrade is a bit out of my budget at the moment though.So you think upgrading the RAM likely won't increase FPS? I don't mind load times or view switching, I would just like to bump FPS by maybe 5 if possible. Think going with the 2600+ would do that for me?

I have found FPS in FS9 to be pretty linear with CPU fequency. I think that if you divide the lowest FPS you currently get, with the frequency of your current CPU (I belive it's 1660 MHz), then multiplay by the frequency of the new CPU (2600+ = 2133 MHz) you'll get a fairly accurate number. I think an increase of 3-4 FPS at the low end is possible with that upgrade.

Thanks. Sounds like it might be worth it. I also have plans to strip the machine down and basically just us it for FS2004. Right now I have more junk than I want on the box.