So after months of figuring out what I would need to make my FS9 experience even better than it is now and to finally pull FSX out of the drawer where it has been since three hours after I brought it home from Best Buy and get it on my HD I have decided on the following SPECS... I am upgrading from a AMD 2400 939 CPU. * 935 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case * AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz AM3 Quad- Core Processor * ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 ATX AMD Motherboard * Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC3-12800 DDR3 Dual Channel * Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA Hard Drive * Evercool HPKC-10025EA Intel Core i5 & AMD Heat PipeAnd I will SCAVAGE off of my other two PC the following..... *GT 430 VID CARD NVidia * WIRELESS INTERNET CARD * SOUND CARD Creative Tech *DVD-S 2 * CASE FANS 4 I am planning to run Windows XP So I can fit this in my budget.... Does anyone have any thoughts

Thoughts:The thing that jumps at me is the GT 430. You def need to upgrade to a newer GPU. I recommend the GTX 560 Ti. Second, I know that there are a lot of die hard AMD lovers out there, but the Intel Sandy Bridge is offering the best fsx experience right now. Third, for a new PC you should invest in an SSD. The 128GB Corsair Performance 3 is a great drive with 410Mb/s read speed. This is big enough for your OS+FSX. I'd still get a regular HDD for all of your other stuff. With an SSD, you will eliminate texture loading stutters and blurs, as well as creating extremely fast boot/load times. My 2¢

Thoughts:The thing that jumps at me is the GT 430. You def need to upgrade to a newer GPU. I recommend the GTX 560 Ti. Second, I know that there are a lot of die hard AMD lovers out there, but the Intel Sandy Bridge is offering the best fsx experience right now. Third, for a new PC you should invest in an SSD. The 128GB Corsair Performance 3 is a great drive with 410Mb/s read speed. This is big enough for your OS+FSX. I'd still get a regular HDD for all of your other stuff. With an SSD, you will eliminate texture loading stutters and blurs, as well as creating extremely fast boot/load times. My 2¢

+1 to everything, EXCEPT the SSD. SSDs are expensive per GB still, and like it or not are an infant technology. The biggest thing is to have separate hard drives for the OS and FSX/FS9. Some Caviar Blacks or the Barracudas will suffice. I promise! I am still under the impression that SSDs are --GASP-- a waste of money, and I own one! On my WD Hardrive in my signature, I get no blurries. Ever. And I am only saving 20 seconds on boot time with this SSD. That just doesn't seem worth it...Save some more money and jump over to Intel, or hold out and wait for AMD's "Bulldozer" CPU. It may just be worth the wait. :Waiting: I hate to say that the 965 is comparable to the C2Quads, and below the newer ones! The i7's are LEAPS ahead in performance. The 965 will not be future proof for long (at all). All that being said, I know there's a budget in mind, but I wold think that you were wasting your money if you want FSX performance.

You would have very good FSX performance if you could upgrade the video card someday,but I'm guessing fs9 should be fine.

So far after loading up the LEVEL-D 767 with default Seattle (KSEA) scenery I am very happy...I am getting a steady 45 FPS and not stutters....tonight I am adding my FlyTampa scene and fly it again...

Did you buy your hardware already, if not you may want to take a look at this since you are buying AMD http://www.legitreviews.com/news/10289/http://www.guru3d.com/news/amd-fxseries-processors-unleashed-june-11-/http://www.fudzilla.com/processors/item/22101-more-bulldozer-specs-surfaceHoping this will not be to much over your budget when they release it in June if you wait.