Folks,I'm gonna order a PC through Dell soon. I've been customising on the site and I'm after some opinions.Assuming everything else is equal, I can afford 1024MB DDR Ram, or an ATI Radeon Pro with 256MB, but NOT both.The PC will be used for general household use, with a definite leaning towards MS Flight Simulator.Options are:512MB DDR Ram and 256MB graphics; or1024MB DDR Ram and 128MB graphics.Which would you pick, and why? I want to "future-proof" to a large extent, and don't think 512MB will cut the mustard in a year or two...But then a 128MB graphics card won't either!Hmmm.....help!CheersTimPS: I know $$$ can be saved elsewhere, but can we just stick to the above :)

I would go with 1GB of ram and 128MB card, cause games now dont use the full 128, most are 32-64, so 256 really isn't worth it unless you run at super high resolutions.

RAM is always less expensive to upgrade later on compared to a graphics card. I suggest the 256 card and add memory down the road when you think you need it.

I agree. Go with the card. Also, you will get very little benifit from the extra ram as far as FS is concerned.512 runs very nice on XP, so unless you are going to use this thing for Video or Photoshop, I would go with the Graphic card.

Depends how many add-ons you use for FS. My usual loadout for a flight includes:FS9PMDG 737NGFS BuildServer InfoSB RelaySquawkboxActive Sky 2004Word (flight info)Excel (flight log)Couple of IE web browser windowsRoger Wilco or AVCUlitmate traffic for offline AI.. and I constantly use up to 700-800M of RAM. I used to have only 512M of RAM and was sort-of happy that I had 32K free when running all this, but realistically, Win XP was swapping stuff in and out to make this show go on in the past. Things are soooo much smoother for me with 1G RAM.As for 256M for the video card. Maybe it will help in future versions of FS, but for this one 128M is just fine and dandy for FS9 IMHO. I only rarely peg under my 30fps limit.In short, I recommend the system RAM over the Vid RAM if you intend to run a couple of heavy add-ons.Gary

Well, Like JSkorna said, usually RAM can be purchased at a later date for less. Still, I would recommend 1 GB of RAM. I also have a few apps running when I start my sim, and number of add-ons in FS2004. I have my desktop at and run my sim at 1600x1200 resolution and have seen ALL of my 1 GB of RAM in use(97% used + 2.4% cached) when flying a complex aircraft that uses 32-bit texures(the POSKY 757 for instance). Get a pretty good 128 MB video card if you can though. Try not to skimp too much on your vid card.Reagrds,Jim

Hi Tim,I basically agree with the suggestions made by the other contributors to this thread. However, I would also consider the cost - RAM is disproportionally expensive if you buy it from Dell, while the graphics cards aren't that much more, compared to the 'open market'.For that reason, you may want to consider buying the graphics card, and then put in some more RAM at a later stage. Just imagine you get a new program that would run so much better with 256MB of video RAM. Buying a new graphics card would cost a lot more than just a stick of RAM. Cheers,Gosta.http://www.hifisim.com/images/as2betateam.jpg