Hey there everyone, I have some questions regarding what to buy as far as a hardware upgrade for christmas for my PC. I already have everything I need as far as FSX hardware and software which include the Saitek Rudder pedals, Pro Flight Yoke w/ another quadrant, and Track IR 5 PRO. For software I have all the "important" stuff like REX OD, UTX, GEX, FSUIPC, Concorde-X, 744/8, Level-D etc... Anyway, as you can see in my signature, those are my PC specs and I would like to upgrade any one hardware peice this Christmas, what should it be? I'm gonna let you guys decide. I have a crappy 350W PSU BTW so don't recommend anything too crazy

Get a new computer. PSU to small for new video card. Also not sure about the whole upgrading dell thing

I've seen that I can get a substantially better video card with my PSU and I can't buy a new PC because I just bought this one like 5 months ago and don't know what i'd buy anyways... When you mean buy a new PC, what do you think I should buy and where from? Because w/ this PC i'm doing pretty good so far.

I've seen that I can get a substantially better video card with my PSU and I can't buy a new PC because I just bought this one like 5 months ago and don't know what i'd buy anyways... When you mean buy a new PC, what do you think I should buy and where from? Because w/ this PC i'm doing pretty good so far.

Knowing Dell, there's probably not much you can do as far as upgrades go, but a new PSU would be a start. 350W PSU is pushing it. 500 to 750W would be better. You could conceivably upgrade your processor to an i5 or even an i7. I guess the question would be, other than a video card, what are you looking to upgrade?As Tamadeez stated in his post, when you are in the market for a new PC (maybe a year or two down the road) consider building one yourself. It's not hard and it will be of course highly customizable. It can be as cheap or as expensive as you would like ti to be.

I dont know if this rig is upgradable if yes i would buy a new psu for sure. Corsair HX series is my favourite minimum 650w. I dont know how much money can you spend but i would buy a decent vidoecard. Minimum gtx 460 or wait for the 5 series nvidia. Last but not least i would consider OC, but in this case you will need a good cpu cooler.Thats my humble opinion

Knowing Dell, there's probably not much you can do as far as upgrades go, but a new PSU would be a start. 350W PSU is pushing it. 500 to 750W would be better. You could conceivably upgrade your processor to an i5 or even an i7. I guess the question would be, other than a video card, what are you looking to upgrade?As Tamadeez stated in his post, when you are in the market for a new PC (maybe a year or two down the road) consider building one yourself. It's not hard and it will be of course highly customizeable. It can be as cheap or as expensive as you would like ti to be.

Well, my only intent is to increase the smoothness in FSX because I use VERY demanding software for the sim. I use Concorde-X with the highest details, REX with HD clouds and 4096 resolutions, I ust GEX, UTX, MyTraffic X, and I always buy mega airports and fly only big jets/airliners from big airports to big airports. So let's say if I were to keep my PC but just upgrade some hardware for example instead of my i-3, I could go to an i-7 9xx. Instead of built in graphics card, I could buy a GTX xxx which would obviously be better than my built in one. And then lastly, I could upgrade from my 350W built-in PSU to: http://corsair.price...__utmk=59308333 or whatever other PSU you guys would recommend for my PC.

Processor: Intel® Core™ i3 CPU 530 @ 2.93GHz, 2933Mhz, 2 Core(S), 4 Logical Processor(S)GPU: Intel® HD GraphicsInstalled Physical Memory (RAM): 6.00GB

You need a video card, as your integrated graphics just won't cut it. I see on the Dell website that a dedicated graphics card is an option on the Inspiron 580, but you'll need to be sure that you actually have a PCIe slot on your mobo and that you can fit a video card inside the case. Size varies, but they can be up to 27cm in length!!You can find a psu calculator here, which shows that at 350 watts, you'd be cutting it fairly fine with a mid-range card, so I'd be inclined to upgrade your PSU to (say) 500W. Assuming your Dell has the standard ATX psu form factor, you can get a new one for well under USD$100. Chances are that your existing psu won't have any of the required 8-pin PCIe connectors anyway.cheers,Jeff

You need a video card, as your integrated graphics just won't cut it. I see on the Dell website that a dedicated graphics card is an option on the Inspiron 580, but you'll need to be sure that you actually have a PCIe slot on your mobo and that you can fit a video card inside the case. Size varies, but they can be up to 27cm in length!!You can find a psu calculator here, which shows that at 350 watts, you'd be cutting it fairly fine with a mid-range card, so I'd be inclined to upgrade your PSU to (say) 500W. Assuming your Dell has the standard ATX psu form factor, you can get a new one for well under USD$100. Chances are that your existing psu won't have any of the required 8-pin PCIe connectors anyway.cheers,Jeff

I think someone has told me before that I have a PCIe 16x slot or something like that :( Can you recommend me a PSU from corsair then? I can buy just about anything there as far as PSU but not going over 750. Where can I take my PC to get all this done because i'm sure that if I tried this myself I would either lose some screws or brake something or do something wrong and brake it etc.... :(

Honestly I would save my money for a new PC. In preparation for Flight get a decent video card. Nothing too fancy, just integrated video cards are really crappy. Your desktop is basically a stationary lowend laptop from the specs. Wow just reread your desires and GTX and i7? you really want a whole new computer. Dell is know to use cheap proprietary hardware. I would recommend going for a custom built machine for gaming (non-name brand).

On a similar note, does anyone know what the real world differences would be between a ATI Radeon 4870 and GTX480 or 580 in FSX? Both single GPU's with at least 1GB memory but how much use does FSX get out of greater speed and newer architecture? $500 is a lot of money for me and I'd want to see some good gains.My system: Windows 7 64 bit, i7 930 @ 3.6 GHz, 6 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, 24in Dell widescreen @ 1920x1200, Gigabyte X58A-UD3R, Thermaltake 800W power supplyBrett Duggan

Honestly I would save my money for a new PC. In preparation for Flight get a decent video card. Nothing too fancy, just integrated video cards are really crappy. Your desktop is basically a stationary lowend laptop from the specs. Wow just reread your desires and GTX and i7? you really want a whole new computer. Dell is know to use cheap proprietary hardware. I would recommend going for a custom built machine for gaming (non-name brand).

I'm 15, I am quite busy with school, still trying to save money for the NGX as I just got TIR5 and I don't have a job as of now... I can't really save any money atm because I keep spending it all on new stuff for FSX and I haven't even bought new shoes which i've been wanting for a while or anything for the same reason. So what graphics card would you recommend me getting and what PSU from Corsair keeping in mind that i'm strictly on a budget but for christmas I might be able to afford one good hardware peace atleast... So please give me some suggestions on a graphics card and PSU and i'll see what I can do about getting one. And I still haven't found an answer to this question. Where can I take my PC to get lets say a graphics cars for example hooked up and stuff?

I'm 15, I am quite busy with school, still trying to save money for the NGX as I just got TIR5 and I don't have a job as of now... I can't really save any money atm because I keep spending it all on new stuff for FSX and I haven't even bought new shoes which i've been wanting for a while or anything for the same reason. So what graphics card would you recommend me getting and what PSU from Corsair keeping in mind that i'm strictly on a budget but for christmas I might be able to afford one good hardware peace atleast... So please give me some suggestions on a graphics card and PSU and i'll see what I can do about getting one. And I still haven't found an answer to this question. Where can I take my PC to get lets say a graphics cars for example hooked up and stuff?

There's no simple answer. To be honest, upgrading a new graphics card will dmprove FSX for you but it's not worth it as it will still run fairly slow. Get a job and save up for a computer with a good CPU. By the time you have the money, Intel's new Sandy Bridge CPUs will come out and the 560 or 570 will be out. Well worth the wait.

Thanks. I'm currently chatting with one of the sales experts in the upgrades dept. of dell.com and they're telling me that the maximum PSU W for my PC is 300W and that the best graphics cars I can upgrade to is a GeForce GT 220 which is what i'll do for Christmas and then I will start saving money to build my own PC after I apply for a job AGAIN at Publix lol... Thanks for all your help everyone, took it all into concideration

I wanted to upgrade my Dell 530 a while back, not for fsx, mind, it was my light use Photoshop machine.I couldn't use a off the shelf PSU or Micro Motherboards as Dell built this particular system with Dell only parts. I was not impressed. The Dell was soon added to my antique computer collection.Contact Dell and see where you stand with updates.I personally build my own computers now and I get exactly the specs I need and it's very easy to do.Chris Farrell

Personally for the original posters question I would for your current COMP get like a very cheap video card at the most fro your DELL. Anythings better then integrated. And when you feel it's time for an upgrade build your own system. My comp a couple months ago cost $1200 AU with WIN7 and that's bloody cheap in this country because I built it.