Hi all,I'm a long time flight simmer, but I haven't touched FSX in years. The release of PMDG's 737 has me interested in returning to civ simming. Things have moved on quite a bit since I last looked at this stuff, so I'm hoping you can help a noob out here. Please advice which add-ons, sceneries, utilities, etc, are needed to maximize the experience. Also, any setup and config advice would be appreciated. I've got a new system so hardware shouldn't be a problem. Also, santa kicked me a couple bucks, so don't worry too much about the cost of the software.What I have so far------------------------Intel Sandy Bridge 2500k @ 4.7ATI 6950Win 7 64 bitTrackir 4TM Hotas WarthogFSX w/ SP2Happy holidays, and thanks in advance!-George

IMO The following would be considered FSX Essentials in no particular order...Mesh: FS Global 2010 (I've used Genesis it's good to but I like the simplicity of FS Global)Weather and Textures: REX or AS2012 I have both and use both. I believe the new AS has the superior weather engine; REX currently win's the bang for the buck game and is due an update soon. If I had neither I'd pop for AS2012Textures Landclass: Depends on where you want to fly but Flight One's UTX and GEX should be high on the priority list. As well as any scenery areas made by OrbxUtilities: Flight planner (your choice) I use Flight Sim Commander but FS Build also has a large following and then there is some pretty good freewhere. Track IR head tracking for looking around the VC and EZdoc Camera for setting up views and effects. FSCaptain I used FSpax and it's good but it's not being developed further FSCaptain has progressed slowly but has really came into it's ownIndividual Airports: Fly Tampa, Orbx, FS Dreamteam, UK2000, and Aerosoft IMO, consistently deliver quality payware airports there are others like Baja Sim and Flightbeam but they don't have many products yet.This topic surfaces from time to time so use the search engine and you should find a wealth of info at your fingertips.Good Luck and enjoy.

The best thing I have done for my copy of FSX:Geneses MeshUTXGEXREX2 w/ OverdriveThe above really transformed the sim for me, it is absolutely beautiful.Congrats on the new system, you should have no problem running FSX!

I would highly recommend you get rudder pedals (and if you can stretch, the GoFlight EFIS and MCPPro as well).Cheers,- jahman.

+1 to what everyone said. It is a personal preference thing but I absolutely can't fly without the ENB series on. It really changes the entire look and feel of the sim for me. I think Shade accomplishes a similar thing but I haven't purchased it. If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch I would look into some of these - http://fswidgets.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=51. Kind of small but a nice touch when flying to reference charts and whatnot.

Thanks guys. Forgot to mention that I have the CH Pro Peddles aslo.Regards,G

Have you used that Warthog yet?I would be curious on your thoughts on it, once you have some time on it.I have a great setup, but may someday get the new Warthog setup, especially since according to TM my Cougar stick is interchangeable with the Warthog stick.

For some nice scenic and fun flights:Orbx PNW scenery and the RealAir Simulations Scout (Taildragger)..does not get much better than that!

The Warthog is amazing, particularly for DCS obviously. I'm hoping it works as well in FSX. I do seem to have some difficulty with the split throttles so far...

Hi all,Tks for the help so far. A follow up question:Some of these seem overlapping. For example GEX and UTX *appear* to do the same thing. REX and UTX also overlap on the water textures. So my question is, do these work in concert, or does one take precedence? How does this work? And how does Orbx fit in?Thanks, and Merry Xmas!!-G

Quick follow up on the TM Warthog Throttle, I figured my problem out. The two throttles weren't in sync, and it turned out that they had different sensitivity levels & null zones set. Fixed and working perfectly now.

"Some of these seem overlapping. For example GEX and UTX *appear* to do the same thing. REX and UTX also overlap on the water textures. So my question is, do these work in concert, or does one take precedence? How does this work? And how does Orbx fit in?"Disregard, I figured this out by reading the avsim review of these. Thanks!

Hi guys,Thanks for the help. I've got the system running smoothly now, with better visuals than I thought possible in FSX. Really impressive. I needed the VSync fix, the HIGHMEMFIX, the UIAutomation fix, and a few other tweeks to get this thing stable, but stable it is!I spent most of this weekend (that I wasn't eating something somewhere) playing with REX themes and tooling around in the Realair SF.260. So impressive. I've downloaded the PMDG and haven't yet gotten started on that.And btw Don, the Warthog works flawlessly. I've got all three axes on the throttle quadrant for throttle/prop/mix, and most everything else mapped to a button on the stick. The only compromise is that I had to move trim to a different hat switch, as the main stick hat is only usable for view pan in fsx.Regards,George

Hi guys,Thanks for the help. I've got the system running smoothly now, with better visuals than I thought possible in FSX. Really impressive. I needed the VSync fix, the HIGHMEMFIX, the UIAutomation fix, and a few other tweeks to get this thing stable, but stable it is!I spent most of this weekend (that I wasn't eating something somewhere) playing with REX themes and tooling around in the Realair SF.260. So impressive. I've downloaded the PMDG and haven't yet gotten started on that.And btw Don, the Warthog works flawlessly. I've got all three axes on the throttle quadrant for throttle/prop/mix, and most everything else mapped to a button on the stick. The only compromise is that I had to move trim to a different hat switch, as the main stick hat is only usable for view pan in fsx.Regards,George

Glad to hear you have it running well, that is quite a nice system you have there! The more I see guys posting about their I7 2xxx cpu's the more tempted I get, but I really want to hold off upgrading my system till latter part of 2012. I get fairly good performance with my current system, but know if I had one I could get 4.5-5 ghz out of it would really shine.Thanks for the feedback on the Warthog, makes me even more tempted, will have to wait and see. I will probably pick one up sometime in 2012 as well.

Hey quick Warthog update. I figured out how to make the thrust reversers work using the engine cutoff detent of the throttles, which is basically SWEEET. Pull the left throttle to idle, open the config window, click on "Throttle reduce fast" and click assign. Then pull the left throttle into the cutoff dentent. Move the repeat slider to full. Next move the throttle back to idle. Select "Throttle cutoff" and click assign. Again, pull the left throttle into the detent, this will assign the same key, but this time, check the checkbox "do this action when released".Now when you want throttle reversers, pull the left throttle to the detent. To shut them off, return to idle. Nice....-G