My WD Raptor crashed which was my dedicated FS9 drive on an XP SP2 system.Well since waiting for the RMA to be resolved I installed Vista 32 HE, a new seagate HD and another 2gig of RAM. I have owned FSX ultimate for a over a year it has been shelved and never used since I was impressed the way my FS9 was running with all my many many payware addons and was not too impressed with the initial FSX release. Well the new drive has arrived and I want to only add 1 FS on the drive ,should I go with FSX with all the released updates ? ,if so what else is a must.I own PMDG,LDS,all F1 heavies and other a/c in addition a ton of 3rd party sceneries. I would surely appreciate an unbiased opinion and if FSX is the way what needs to be added to it.ThanksAndy

You're not the first to think of this, so there's lots of threads to search from to find out answers to you question. A lot depends on what kind of flying you want or expect to do, so I don't know if there's any one answer. Certainly, start by combing through the reviews. There's one fellow out there, gahhh, what's his name? Jeff Skylark? Shylock? Something like that. That guy really knows what he's talking about. He's written a number of reviews, and it looks like he took a lot of time and effort to do so. Of course, there's many other tremendous reviews out there too. I mean, look at all of the crazy hours the AVSIM reviewers put in to make sure everyone knows about the new products. Pretty amazing, if you ask me. In fact, I'd say that all of the AVSIM reviewers are really exceptional. Beyond that, there's who things I can suggest:1) Having your operating system on one physical hard drive and FSX on another (two separate physical drive boxes, not just partitions) seems to help a fair bit. The answer why is technical, again, you can search for it.2) If you like FSX and want more of the same, the Acceleration Pack is pretty smart. Jeff ShylukAssitant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

FTX!Cheers,Noel.

I fly mostly commercial above FL100 so terrain is important on t/o and approach but at high altitudes it might just be a toss up I guess.I will search for reviews but I was hoping someone from this Forum would be kind enough to lend their unbiased opinion.BTW after the RMA /WD Raptor I will have 2 physical unpartition drives one for Vista 2nd all window utilities and other software and the Raptor is for FS9 or FSX.ThanksAndy

I would say you be the judge.Seeing how you already own a copy of FSX, what harm is there in installing it along with the SP's and seeing for yourself? If your not satisfied you could always delete FSX and revert back to FS9.Regards,Chris

Just to let you know.A few weeks ago my 150g Raptor DIED in flight.A lock up and no reboot. DOA...Lost FS9 with over $600 in addons.Lost FSX and $500 in addons.Decided then and there FS9 was history. Just too much time and effort to dig through al the emails and rebuild it.There have been times I wanted to reload FS9 but its almost like trying to keep 2 wifes happy.One is enough...Good luck though..

Install them both!! Problem solved!!! Both on the same drive won't be much different than one, if you keep it properly defragged with a program that can put the /Scenery folders on the outer edges of the drive.

I have FSX on it's own drive and most of the time, I fly FSX using the default Cessna or great add-ons like RealAir, Flight1, and Dreamfleet aircraft.FS9 is on the same hard drive as the OS since it does not need as much systems performance and every once in a while I go fly a PMDG flight on FS9..

I like the 2 wife analogy since have that situation in my real life wish it was a virtual life lol.On the serious side I really only would like to inventory 1 FS and since I do mostly High altitude flts and I own all the software I think Fs9 might be better for now.I hope I am not missing the better of the 2. What advantages really are there to FS when I own FSGENISIS,FLTENVPRO,AS6,UT and so on ....ThanksAndy

>I like the 2 wife analogy since have that situation in my>real life wish it was a virtual life lol.On the serious side I>really only would like to inventory 1 FS and since I do mostly>High altitude flts and I own all the software I think Fs9>might be better for now.I hope I am not missing the better of>the 2. What advantages really are there to FS when I own>FSGENISIS,FLTENVPRO,AS6,UT and so on ....>>Thanks>AndyI really meant to say advantages of FSX

Well, again, the advantages to FSX depend on what style of flying you like. And again, one of the main advantages to FSX is that you can add to it with Acceleration. As far as eye candy goes, FSX beats out FS9, which makes the part of writing reviews where I have to present pretty screenshots easier. The Missions in FSX are a lot of fun and are very well put together. FS9 runs smooth and stable (now), and still gets great support. You can fly a PMDG 737 NG in FS9, which is just science fiction for FSX at this writing. At high altitude, I don't think there's a lot of difference between the two, except at very high altitude, where you start dealing with the curvature of the Earth. Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviwerAVSIM

If you are still debating, allow me to say this:* You mention your flying style is more heavies. Do some forum reading to see which heavies will work in FSX, and which will require to to purchase new versions... that might skew your decision. FSX is great for bush pilots and prop spinners, but many would contend that FS2004 is still superior when it comes to heavies, if only due to the variety of airplanes available. * Your computer should handle FSX quite well. NO, it will not run full sliders, but I can say that my specs are quite similar and even with reduced sliders, I get a MUCH better visual presentation with FSX than I did with FS2004 (eg: same FPS, better visuals)I love FSX (so much for unbiased!), but if you are a pilot who seriously enjoys his addons for FS2004, you might find that you are sacrificing a lot in your update to FSX. -Greg

Having 1024x1024 bitmaps (1m resolution) for scenery really is much more lifelike than 256x256 bitmaps (5m resolution)... Also, the default Cessna's virtual cockpit is much better than the FS9 version. So, for flying around, FSX is amazing.Having said that, 16x the bits means significantly additional load... and the PMDG addons also take serious computer cycles, so for the heavies, FS9 may very well be your flightsim of choice.Luckily, FS9 and FSX co-exist nicely and you do not need a lot of add-ons to make FSX look just great ! Try taking off from Lihue and fly around Kawaii.. stunning !