Hi Guys,I currently haveAMD 3700+ 64 BitAsus A8NE SLI Deluxe edition mobo1gb geil ram512 Gainward Bliss goes like #### 6800GT CardNow this runs fs9 like a dream, but is way ove the settings that fs9 ever needed. But no one thought ai would kick off as much as it did with fs as it has.So I guess my question is, Whats a sensible realistic goal of fs9 max ai, in hardware terms for fsx. Should I stay with socket 939 mobo (My one of which is a v good one). I think a processor upgrade and a gpu upgrade will be needed for sure, then i can sell the old on ebay. However, will the conflicting demands of the best mean complete re-rigs of systems every 6 months?It will be interesting to see what people go with...

Go for a minor upgrade such as upgrading your CPU to a dual core (AMD dual core cpu's are dirt cheap right now) and maybe upgrade your video card. Imo I wouldn't upgrade the mobo, no point honestly. I would wait until Vista and DirectX 10 for any major upgrade. I'm in the same boat as you and honestly im waiting until FSX is released to make any major uprgades but I am planning to upgrade my CPU to a dual core.

My guess is that your rig will work fairly well. You can't go much further with your processor or video card, perhaps one more gig of RAM might be needed. I have a AMD 3000+ 64 bit and I just upgraded to 1 gig of DDR400 RAM and a new 80GB SATA hard drive. With my older ATI 9500 pro 256 MB video card it does fine for me with FS9. If needed I can add one more gig of RAM and a upgrade to an AMD 4000+ processor for FSX. Other than that I won't do anything until the expected dual chip CPU and DX10 video card wars show a useful direction. Have a great day.

WAIT. Don't do anything unless FSX is released and there is plenty of data available what it needs to run. IMO upgrading now would be foolish.Michael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/for...argo_hauler.gifhttp://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpg

Well Michael, we do need someone to generate that data for us. :-wink2

>Well Michael, we do need someone to generate that data>for us. :-wink2 I do see your point :-lolMichael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/for...argo_hauler.gifhttp://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpg

There are plenty of front runners out there already, with many having already made the jump to conroe. The hard bit will be getting us all to produce comparable performance benchmarks before we each go our separate tweaking and addon installing ways after FSX comes out.My hope is that one of the major FS websites, preferably AVSIM, will do a proper "what hardware makes FSX tick" test and report. Not just the usual "more CPU, more GPU, more RAM and faster HDD stuff makes it tick" I've seen in previous articles, rather that they baseline against a couple of common configurations, then show just how much better FSX performs by upgrading each major component (CPU/GPU/RAM) individually at first, then collectively. A couple of static and dynamic benchmarks should cover the spectrum of the new FSX world.eg. take a base A64 system like mine (but in a PCI-E flavour), change the CPU to dual core X2 then FX, change the GPU to a 6600GT, 7900GT then X1900, change the RAM to 512M and 2G, then fastest stuff together, and see what component(s) make the biggest overall difference to FSX. Same with a base P4 system with say a 2.8GHz single core, 6600GT, 512M, then bump the CPU through dual core then conroe, GPU through ... etc.The end result would be a matrix of relative performance against each components that hopefully shows which CPU, GPU and RAM, or combinations thereof, provides the best overall performance or the best bang for buck upgrade experience.Gary

>WAIT. Don't do anything unless FSX is released and there is>plenty of data available what it needs to run. IMO upgrading>now would be foolish.>>Michael J.>http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/for...argo_hauler.gif>http://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpgUnless if you happen to do other stuff with your computer too and the upgrade will affect more than just FS, then by all means, go ahead.

I agree that waiting is a good idea. those amd x2 processors will only get cheaper and there is a cracking site that has 300 left and is selling them dirt cheap, but is not too well known :SI think bench marks would be the best way forward. An official site doing them....even better

If I get a 4800+ (to upgrade my present 3700+) I may very well do such a comparison. In fact I know I would.The question is, WILL I get the 4800+. The answer is, probably, but not before FSX is out, and not before the price drops to low 200's $$ for the Socket 939 4800+. I want to see what results others get. :) Catch-22Rhett