zblast

bump. i got sidetracked on other things for a while and will still be buying a new system when the dust settles. There still seems to be no feedback from any who actually dealt with jetline or flightsimexpert -- perhaps because they are busy flying instead of on the forums tweaking, but I wld love ot see any feedback from anyone who has dealt with these or similar vendors.

is there an off topic forum for off topic discussions so that this thread can be a place where people can share information about prebuilt FSX pcs? Thanks.

Jonathan, I appreciate the professionalism. I'm a busy person, looking to get into this more. I can see that for some people, the best use of their time is to build their own pc, spend time tweaking it and reading forums and comparing notes with others as to what is the best new component, how to dial in that new component, and how to tweak every little line in the config file. That's a great way to develop a hobby and be with others who have a similar hobby.But that isn't me. I just want to plug and play. And if I'm not at the bleeding edge of the latest frame rate that week, I won't care or even know, because I hope to spend most of my FSX time flying instead of reading forums on how to get the latest config details from online. I understand that is a tradeoff -- but it may be a very good trade off for certain people depending on their priorities and how they like to spend their time.

More info here too: http://www.youtube.com/user/flightsimexpert

Thanks Jonathan for the prompt response and all the info. I will probably be calling you soon to discuss further. Meanwhile, you might look into the thread on this forum on FSMark11 and run your system through that benchmark and perhaps share the results. Also, I'd be interested in your thoughts on Sandy Bridge (now that the issue are fixed?) and SSD and the gtx 580 gpu.

The same way you pre install any software. I don't see what the big deal is about the pre-installed software. OEMs do it all the time, just like they buy components, they buy the software licenses and install it on the pc and sell it at a mark up to reflect their time and value to the customer. People with more money than time or expertise hire other people to do things for them. It's called capitalism. I suppose a firm could be pirating the software, but it would be pretty stupid, especially if they advertised on the web as they would be very easy to catch.

I suppose one answer is that it is hopeless, but I want to give it a shot with a i7-2720qm and one of these cards. Info from notebookcheck.net:The NVIDIA NVS 4200M (or NVIDIA Quadro NVS 4200M) is a business graphics card for laptops which is most likely based on the same core as the GeForce GT 520M. According to the Nvidia Homepage, the 4200M is allowed to be clocked up to 810MHz, compared to the 550MHz of the GT 520M. The NVS series is optimized for business applications and stability and may therefore perform a bit worse in games due to the special drivers and BIOS optimizations. As the GT 520M, the NVS4200M should support PureVideo HD (VP4) to accelerate HD videos and OpenCL / CUDA / DirectX Compute to use the render cores for other applications. The graphics card supports HDMI 1.3 up to 1920x1080 and Multimode DisplayPort up to 2560x1600. Furthermore, 7.1 channel HD audio can be trasmitted over the HDMI port.OR The NVIDIA Quadro 2000M is a professional workstation graphics card based on the Fermi architecture (probably GF104 or GF106). It offers the same amount of shaders like the GeForce GTX 460M, but only a 128 Bit memory bus for DDR3 memory (could be a bottleneck). The Quadro series offers certified drivers that are optimized for stability and performance in professional applications like CAD, DCC, medicine, or visualisation areas. The OpenGL performance for example should be significantly better than similar specified GeForce graphics cards.The shader / CUDA cores can be accessed using DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.1 for graphic rendering and DirectCompute, OpenCL, AXE, and CUDA for general purpose calculations. Due to the new Fermi core, the 2000M should offer a high performance in general purpose calculations.Furthermore, the Nvidia Quadro 2000M is compatible with the new stereoscopic solution by Nvidia called: NVIDIA 3D Vision Pro.To automatically switch between the processor graphics card and the Quadro, the 2000M supports Nvidia Optimus (if the laptop vendor chooses to integrate it).The Quadro 2000M is specified at 55 Watt TDP and therefore suited for 15.6" laptops.

Absolutely I understand some people feel that way. Some people also do their own taxes; some people hire an expert to do their taxes. I'm not an expert at building a really good oc'd pc. And I'm not an expert at tuning FSX, or knowing what combination of add-ons work well. I'd love to hire someone else who is better than me to do that. I'd prefer not to debate the pros and cons of diy vs. hiring an expert. But rather collect and share any information on experts, entrepreneurs and others who are offering their services to help people who don't have the time to become experts.At a minimum I will buy an OC'd pc from a place like maingear, and have to struggle through with the FSX + addons install and tuning myself. But I would very much like to outsource that as much as possible: less tweaking and tuning and more flying.

OEM pc builders include legitimate paid for software on their pcs all the time. Smart software makers should make it very easy for OEMs to sell their software by preinstalling on a pc. It's an easy low cost sale.I'm more concerned about the choice of components, quality of the build, install and tune of FSX and the add-ons. Those areas are where an expert could do a really good job and where I would gladly pay for good expert assistance. Would love to hear from someone who has any experience with these or similar places.

I want to pay an expert to do something that they can better than I can: build a pc and install and tune a fsx system, and, if possible, also install and calibrate the hardware and add-ons etc. The only two places I've been able to find are: http://www.jetlinesy...s.com/home.htmland http://www.flightsim...t.com/home.htmlBoth offer overclocked i7s with fsx installed. (Not clear that they are selling Sandy Bridge yet, but I would certainly insist on it.)Most importantly, Flightsimexperts also offers:"All the best 3rd Party Add-on softwareincluded: •FSGenesis Terrain Mesh X (Satellite USGS Elevation Data) •Ultimate Terrain X Scenery (Accurate airports, roads, water and more)•Ultimate Traffic II (Airline, General Aviation & Military air traffic)•Real Environment Xtreme II HD (Real time weather & winds aloft via internet) •Ground Environment X (Fly in an HD photo real environment) •premium 3rd party aircraft in addition to the 23 stock aircraft. •Choose the real aircraft type you fly or dream about flying and have it installed with your system!•More accurate ATC modeling. They use current ICAO phraseology such as "Line up and wait."•Multi-engine systems with dual throttle quadrants available•Fully customizable. Add radio stacks/switch panels pre-programmed for your system.• All software listed above installed, optimized and ready to fly.• Saitek Pro flight controls (Yoke, throttle quadrant, rudder pedals) "This seems like a really good deal and would allow me to spend more time flying and less time buying installing and tuning all that stuff. Anyone have any experience with this place or others that offer similar service? Thanks for any helpful info. (ps: I understand that for some people, building their own pc and installing their own addons is the best thing for them. It definitely is not the best thing for me. I definitely don't want to build a pc, and I"d prefer to have someone else tune FSX and install the addons and calibrate the hardware etc. so that all I have to do is plug and fly. )

Thinkpad W700:Processor Intel® Core™2 Extreme QX9300 (2.53GHz, 12MB L2, 1066MHz FSB)Graphics NVIDIA® Quadro® 3700MTotal Memory 4GB (2 X 2GB) PC3-8500 DDR3 1067MHz SDRAM SODIMM MemoryDisplay 17.0” WUXGA (1920 X 1200) TFT, W/ CameraI'll probably replace the stock 5400rpms with two SSDs and add another 4GB. Anything else?