OK guys, I've had it. I've been flying FS9 with this crappy HP AMD processor machine for too long. Of course, I run the FSX demo and it completely craps out on me. So, I've budgeted about $3,000 for a new rig for FSX and I want to run all the bells and whistles. I am not as up to the latest technology stuff as some of you here, so I am not sure what the best approach is.I'm open to buying a monster machine from Dell or some other reputable company, or building my own (with the help of a friend).Any tips? Thanks!

Hold off just a bit longer for the Core Duos to proliferate and the DX10 graphics cards to come out, otherwise you'll just have to upgrade again within a year to get FSXs full potential.

I agree. Don't do anything for the next six months. Trying to second-guess the hardware requirements for FSX now could prove to be a very expensive mistake.Doug

Don't do anything because there are very few things that are going to help the new technology that FSX uses.

Kind of a bummer to not be able to really fly FSX when it comes out, but good advice. So, two elements - Core duo processors and DX10 cards are the two major things to wait for, right? Might as well wait for Vista as well!

>Don't do anything because there are very few things that are>going to help the new technology that FSX uses.Well, my machine is so awful now - I gotta do something. :)

Some info on what you already have would be useful, though until FSX actually does come out nobody can say for sure what you should get. (Though now we have a better idea of what will and won't work.) :) A relatively inexpensive interim upgrade for FS9/FSX Demo might be possible though. For that kind of money I could have upgraded my system 3 times in a row.I spent less then $1000 on hardware upgrading a P3 933Mhz with GeForce FX5200 PCI and 384MB SDRAM to a P4 3.4Ghz with 1GB DDR2-533 RAM and a PCIe 7600GT. But I put the system together myself, which made me a bit nervous at times.I looked around online and bought only the components I needed: Motherboard, CPU, memory, videocard, case (With a PSU I later replaced), PSU (the replacement PSU), and IDE card. (Most PCIe boards only include one IDE slot, compared to two on most older boards.) I moved over my old drives and am using my old peripherals. (Like monitor, keyboard, joystick, etc.) And I picked a motherboard that had specific features that I wanted. Like more then two PCI conventional slots. Didn't get the videocard/PSU upgrades at the same time as the other stuff, so I was using my PCI videocard and PCI IDE/PATA card and have been thinking about getting a PCI sound card."Let me help you out. You're cleared to taxi any way you can to any runway you see."

If you absolutely have to do something now, get a motherboard that will support a core duo (I'm assuming any that do will also support a DX10 card). Then get a cheap-ish cpu and graphics card to put in it instead (don't spend more than $400 combined on those two things if you can). Then when the next gen stuff comes out in 6 months you can replace them. You will be out the $400 or whatever you spend when the CPUs and gfx cards come out next year, but you might be able to recover some of that on ebay.That way you'll most likely have something that will run FSX way better than what you have now, and you also won't be kicking yourself next year for buying a $450 processor and $350 graphics card when the next quantum leap was just around the corner.For anyone buying stuff now the key is the motherboard; get one that you can put something faster in next year if you need to. My current motherboard has lasted almost four years and I can run FS9 at (mostly) playable framerates with tons of add-ons and most sliders very high. I've upgraded the CPU once, memory once, and graphics card twice. Next year it's time for a new one though. I'm still getting FSX when it comes out - less money to spend later when I build the new system.

The trick is, buying a new motherboard may require buying other stuff. (Say a case to put the motherboard in. Some off the shelf cases are rather proprietary. A new PSU might be needed too depending on what he has.)"Let me help you out. You're cleared to taxi any way you can to any runway you see."

I have the following system: HP Pavilion a800n powered by AMD.Base processorAthlon XP (:( 3200+ 2.2 GHz:400 MHz Front side busSocket AChipsetVIA KM400AMemory1.0 GB (2 X 512 MB) PC2700 MB/secVideo cardATI Radeon X850 256MB AGP card

That's not exactly a crappy system. I would just buy 2 gig (gaming/performance)3200 DDR or higher and replace what you have and then just wait till the DX10 hardware comes out and upgrade then,If you are getting crappy performance already, you might look at tuning your system as it is a good rig.Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/ambanner.jpg

You've got to be kidding me.Three grand?Can I spec out a $3,000 dollar machine for you?EDIT: Does that include monitors?

Here's my quick build (doesn't include monitors or speakers, keyboard, that sort of stuff)https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishli...tle=Three+GrandAccording to newegg, it's $2,805.16. Pretty close, I'd say. You'd have the option of running those two hard drives as separate drives or as a mirrored raid for max security.I'm not sure if the onboard sound can operate at the same time as a separate card, but if so, you have your headset plug for comms right there.All in all, not a bad set up.

>You've got to be kidding me.>>Three grand?>>Can I spec out a $3,000 dollar machine for you?>>EDIT: Does that include monitors?See, that goes to show you how much I don't know about computer costs. :)No, I have a monitor I'll be keeping.I was told that my biggest fault was getting an AMD processor?

>>You've got to be kidding me.>>>>Three grand?>>>>Can I spec out a $3,000 dollar machine for you?>>>>EDIT: Does that include monitors?>>See, that goes to show you how much I don't know about>computer costs. :)>>No, I have a monitor I'll be keeping.>>I was told that my biggest fault was getting an AMD>processor?Maybe today.Maybe eight years ago.But in the middle there, they were the better performance per dollar processors.I'm not a very wealthy person, so I take what I can afford, and up until Core 2 Duo, AMD had the performance bang for the buck award.That system I put up there is pretty much the best you can buy.