"Time? Do you not have 10 minutes so sit down at the tableand plug in a few parts?"Dude, there are many people that can't even install an aircraft texture, much less put a PC together. If you have done it before and know what you are doing, then great, but please don't assume everyone can sit down and "plug" a new PC together, otherwise we would all have state of the art rigs.As far as the question goes, I would go for the barebones kit and add the parts to it, and yes go with the 9800 pro, preferrably the XT with 256 mb. I would go with the ABS over Alienware, way to much money for a PC, I got a buddy that loves them, just got his new rig from them and it is really sweet and runs great.I just put together a new rig for FS9 and after checking all the prices for components and doing some searching on some PC sites, got a barebones kit with everything in it, but drives and vid card for a few hundred, saved a ton of money and time getting the basics installed and it runs FS9 very, very well. Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpgCalVirAir International VAwww.calvirair.comCougar Mountain Helicopters & Aviationwww.cgrmtnhelos.com

I tore my old Dimension XPS-R apart last summer and cleaned it all out, put in a new power supply and a new case fan, added a stick of ram and removed the old dialup modem card. After several hours of stress and several beers, most of which sweated out of my forehead and dripped onto the electronic components in the box, I closed it back up, waited for it to dry out; and fired it up and what do you know? It ran just fine without all the grinding and clunking noises. So, yes; you can build your own; but not without some experience. Like in all things in life, I imagine that after you've done it a few times, it probably does seem quite easy.Installing ATI drivers and the like is now made really easy. Trying to figure out how to mount a motherboard to a case and the like for a first timer with no experience is both dangerous and requires much alcohol. A screw driver and good hoover doesn't hurt either. It's probably cheaper to let somebody else do it.

Build your own - even if you haven't done it before ,there are plenty of books/magazines available that will tell you how.I think "10 minute" might be an understatement but a couple of hours is plenty of time.This PC (the first but by no means the last I built) took about 2 hours including loading Windows and cost about half what a comparable (at that time ) system would have cost from a shop etc.Good luck either wayDave

Home built here too.30 minutes tops needed. From first till last part. Everything clicks in itself.I would *never* buy OEM system.Word Not Allowed

IMOHO build your own, or even get a bare bones and plug in the accessories. Save a boatload of cash. I built my own power rig with better specs for a fraction of the cost of the OEM. Then again if you are not to terribly PC experienced then tech support comes in handy. Which ever your choice, best of luck and enjoy FS on the new rig! :-)Frankhttp://fsgateway.com/frank/fs9paibeta.jpg

Ok here is the scoop....I priced the parts on newegg and for what I wanted it was around 250 off what I can get from ABS or ALienware.That to me is not a fraction of the cost, but about 10% and given my time and tech support/warranty I think it is worth the 250.I am experienced in PC have been using and abusing them since 1982 so I am not lacking in the tech arena, but I would rather get all the parts I want tested b4 it is shipped and warranteed withiut the worry of bad memory or bent pins.I am goiung to order an ABS X5 with the P4-3.0 ASUS P4C800 512 RAM RAID 0 config with 2 seagate 8mb cache,Lite-ON CD-RW,dilemna is what vid card to get choices are FX5900,FX5950,ATI 9800 pro ,and ATI9800XT all 256,and a audigy 2v,klipsch pro media 2.1 all for under $2K.All benchmarks I have read places this near or at the top inclding 64 bit 2.0 and FX-1.Any answer on the vid card I would appreciate.Thanks

Andy,In regards to videocards, I was a long time nVidia user until I went to ATI. Not only was the performance better for me, but I think their driver releases are a lot more stable than the countless nVidia video releases. I'd go with the 9800 Pro or XT.Good luck, I'm sure you'll be happy with your new rig.edBTW, I'm still not sure why it priced out so much at Newegg. As I mentioned in a previous post, I've used accessmicro for barebones systems. They also custom build/test complete rigs. They can outfit you with the same rig (as could many others) for under $1,500. It's been many moons since you had to pay 2 G for a new computer.It's been my experience that computers are nothing but a bunch of assembled parts. They all use same the mobos, cpu's memory, etc. There is no master crafstmanship involved in assembly - (well other than this 14 year old kid down the street who needs a life. )from different manufactures. The only thing you are getting is a named slapped on a box and hopefully some good customer support.While I'm sure you'll be happy with your system - I would be blue if I spent hundreds more than I had to....

Might want to also check out some vendors on http://pricewatch.com and also power sellers on ebay, you can find some good deals on quality hardware... :-)Frankhttp://fsgateway.com/frank/fs9paibeta.jpg

>Andy,>>In regards to videocards, I was a long time nVidia user until>I went to ATI. Not only was the performance better for me,>but I think their driver releases are a lot more stable than>the countless nVidia video releases. I'd go with the 9800>Pro or XT.>>Good luck, I'm sure you'll be happy with your new rig.>>ed>>BTW, I'm still not sure why it priced out so much at Newegg. >As I mentioned in a previous post, I've used accessmicro for>barebones systems. They also custom build/test complete rigs.> They can outfit you with the same rig (as could many others)>for under $1,500. It's been many moons since you had to pay 2>G for a new computer.>>It's been my experience that computers are nothing but a bunch>of assembled parts. They all use same the mobos, cpu's>memory, etc. There is no master crafstmanship involved in>assembly - (well other than this 14 year old kid down the>street who needs a life. )from different manufactures. The>only thing you are getting is a named slapped on a box and>hopefully some good customer support.>>While I'm sure you'll be happy with your system - I would be>blue if I spent hundreds more than I had to....Iwent to accessmicro and yes I can get most of what I want there but they dont have corsair memory in their bare bone systems just Kingson and some other manufacturers.

"Iwent to accessmicro and yes I can get most of what I want there but they dont have corsair memory in their bare bone systems just Kingson and some other manufacturers."Got me there- actually I only got 256 and installed a meg of Crucial. I've always been a Crucial fan.