snpower

My planned budget is as little as possible. Seriously. I have hard drives that will work and don't need an OS. I'd like to stay between 400-500 max, with the ability to upgrade the CPU later if possible. A local quoted me 400 for this:corsair 4gb 1333mhz ddr3 memoryapex case480 watt power supplyphenom II dual core processor 3.2Ghzwestern digital hard drive 250gb 7200rpm 16MB cachecd/dvd burner MSI 785GM-P45 AMD 785G Socket AM3

First post here in years!I started simming in '88 with Sublogic and monochrome! Converted to mac in 04 and am now using FSX, Xplane 9 on a Dell xps 210 with a 4550 video card. I'd like a new build, and, money is very tight. My presumption is that guven the age of fsx I can get something that ran it great 2 years ago, and that should be fine. Of course, I would prefer things to be upgradable for when I gave mSorry - post was ended prematurely... for when I have more $$$.Are there sources for used gaming systems? Should I build it - if so, how do I separate wgeat from chaff in terms of ruling in/out components?From what I read sp2 can use multi core and higher cpu cycles is more critical, than say, marginal improvements in video cards.I fly for a living, this is for my son and I on the weekends.