22 hours ago, Noel said:

I swear you and a few others here work for Steam.  I've had exactly zero problems with initial MS Store install, all updates, 5 purchases thru the Marketplace, and simple one-click reinstall when I needed to reinstall Win 10 and once before when I did a complete uninstall and reinstall of MSFS due to problems w/ Process Lasso before I knew that was what the problem was.  i have exactly zero desire to clog up my system w/ Steam, which is mainly hot, wet air!  And this is true for the vast majority of store users who noticed the ONLY real requirement is to insure you have the MS Store and Xbox App installed and signed into--thenceforth, completely easy, maintenance and reinstalls.  And this same story is true for the vast majority of users--save the loud few who work for Steam 🤣.  I never liked the fat interface and advertising in Steam and only have it installed because of the phenomenal Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon:  Wildlands

Well, that's great. I'm happy for you.

But...

I was an Alpha tester, and back then, updates were, as you say, very easy. I had no trouble at all. However, the last few Sim Updates were a different story. Not sure what they changed, but it took forever to figure out the proper procedure to install the update. Sim Update 4, I guess it was, I couldn't get to download at all. Went to Steam, which I have had forever anyway, and one click and done.

And, upon reviewing my bank balance, I definitely don't work for Steam... 😄

On 10/2/2021 at 4:23 AM, Noel said:

I swear you and a few others here work for Steam.  I've had exactly zero problems with initial MS Store install, all updates, 5 purchases thru the Marketplace, and simple one-click reinstall when I needed to reinstall Win 10 and once before when I did a complete uninstall and reinstall of MSFS due to problems w/ Process Lasso before I knew that was what the problem was.  i have exactly zero desire to clog up my system w/ Steam, which is mainly hot, wet air!  And this is true for the vast majority of store users who noticed the ONLY real requirement is to insure you have the MS Store and Xbox App installed and signed into--thenceforth, completely easy, maintenance and reinstalls.  And this same story is true for the vast majority of users--save the loud few who work for Steam 🤣.  I never liked the fat interface and advertising in Steam and only have it installed because of the phenomenal Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon:  Wildlands

I 100% agree with this. I've never had an issue with the MS store and I've bought plenty of stuff from there. Btw, I also have a vast steam library. 

I highlighted the pertinent sentence in your post. Not being set up this way is the cause of the majority of issues folks are having with installs and updates via the MS store. 

On 9/30/2021 at 8:49 AM, forshaw said:

HI Tom;

Very interesting!!! My current PC is exactly the same as yours in every respect (Processor | RAM | Graphics Card | Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB). That is so weird, the only thing that is different is 850 vs 860 on the drive. Mine is also 7 yrs old, Jan 2014. I can't believe this...

If you noticed from my original post the only reason I was getting a new rig is because my graphics card is failing and i was trying to get the GTX 1070 to replace it which is so hard to acquire since it's so outdated. There were a few refurbished ones out there but they want $600.00 +US (close to $700.00). I really didn't want to spend that amount of money just for a very outdated card and not knowing what else will go bad soon, so just as well get a new rig to last awhile.

Thanks for the input on the 16GB but since I am investing in a new rig I might as well get the 32GB since who knows what else I would be adding in terms of "In Flight Utility" software and add-ons that may make use of the additional memory.

Hope your rig continue to last for awhile longer, I wouldn't be upgrading or replacing mine if it wasn't giving me problems.

Cheers.

Forshaw..

 

Ah no way! Is yours also a Z87 Pro board?

The only issue I've got with mine is continuing issues with the USB interface on the board which I've had since it was new. I work around it by using high speed USB 3 hubs. Sometimes (about once every year to 18 months) the board firmware throws a complete hissy and refuses to boot but normally a BIOS flash fixes it for another year!

It's been through 3 graphics cards (not due to failures, just upgrades) over those 7 years and overall has served me extremely well even through two house moves and 4 different flight sims! In fact with MSFS sim update 5 performance is extremely good.

I expect next year will probably be the year for a complete upgrade as I think I've hit the ceiling now that any new graphics cards would probably be bottlenecked by the board and chipset. Not least because also Microsoft will not support it for Windows 11. I shall be sad to see it go though!

On 10/3/2021 at 7:09 AM, Tom Wright said:

 

Ah no way! Is yours also a Z87 Pro board?

The only issue I've got with mine is continuing issues with the USB interface on the board which I've had since it was new. I work around it by using high speed USB 3 hubs. Sometimes (about once every year to 18 months) the board firmware throws a complete hissy and refuses to boot but normally a BIOS flash fixes it for another year!

It's been through 3 graphics cards (not due to failures, just upgrades) over those 7 years and overall has served me extremely well even through two house moves and 4 different flight sims! In fact with MSFS sim update 5 performance is extremely good.

I expect next year will probably be the year for a complete upgrade as I think I've hit the ceiling now that any new graphics cards would probably be bottlenecked by the board and chipset. Not least because also Microsoft will not support it for Windows 11. I shall be sad to see it go though!

No.... I have got the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming, That's probably the only difference.. Actually the original graphics card was the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 and I did upgrade to the new GTX 1060 sometime back. I never really had any issues until now, I noticed that I am getting more frequent blue screen crashes so I think  a component or 2  may be on its last legs.

Also, you hit on a good point which is the current board chipset wouldn't be able to support any better Graphics Card through 2022 and eventually a major upgrade would be inevitable. For me it's better that I do it now rather than spend money to replace components which would become totally obsolete a year from now.

Keep yours as long as you can (best ROI) and then replace when you really have to.

Happy Flying.

Cheers.

Forshaw. 

On 10/3/2021 at 2:29 AM, Ricardo41 said:

And this is true for the vast majority of store users who noticed the ONLY real requirement is to insure you have the MS Store and Xbox App installed and signed into--thenceforth, completely easy, maintenance and reinstalls.

That may very well be. As I said previously, I was an Alpha tester and had no problem with Alpha updates, as well as the first few Sim updates. (I have MS Store and Xbox installed.) Then, something happened and it turned into a nightmare. Nothing I did would allow me to download SU5. Finally gave up and went to Steam. Problem solved. YMMV, of course. I just wanted to let people who were possibly in the same situation know what worked for me. That's all.

Out.