I guess it all depends on what addons you have and what else you want to run on the laptop. I'd say a safe bet/price point would be the 256 GB drives. The cost has come down a lot and they're now running around $250 (when I bought mine, they were around $350).

 

You definitely want the best CPU you can get since FSX is primarily CPU driven, but an SSD should make the overall experience feel smoother due to the faster texture load times and overall Windows application responsiveness. I've had the 7200 RPM drives in my laptop, and even the 10K Raptor drives in my desktop, but they all dragged compared to running with an SSD.

I guess it all depends on what addons you have and what else you want to run on the laptop. I'd say a safe bet/price point would be the 256 GB drives. I've had the 7200 RPM drives in my laptop, and even the 10K Raptor drives in my desktop, but they all dragged compared to running with an SSD.

 

Again thanks. So did you just have a single 250GB SSD drive - or more than one - and no disk drive at all?? I'm a bit confused about this.

 

I would like to achieve a great platform for FSX, PMDG's 737NGX and J41, AS2012, FS2Crew, heavy scenery and Radar Contact. Just that! :)

 

Best wishes,

 

David

You just swap out your mechanical hard drive with the SSD. Simple as that. If you buy a new laptop, chances are the vendor will have an option to upgrade to a SSD drive. One 256 GB SSD should do just fine.

 

That, combined with 64-bit Win 7, a fast processor, at least 6-8 GB RAM, and a strong video card and you should have a solid FSX platform. But make sure you do your research. These are personal recommendations based on my own experience, so take it as such ;-)

 

Just remember there's no silver bullet that guarantees superb performance. It often takes a lot of fine tuning, even on a high-end machine, to get them where you want but starting with a good platform doesn't hurt!

Understood!

 

Best wishes,

 

David