untoweechja

It's mind-boggling how fast the technology is evolving, that's for sure. I'm a software developer and grateful to be in the sunset of my career. I have little doubt my job will be largely obsolete by the end of the decade.

No freighter in the purchase package as I do not believe there were ever any freighter variants in real life. Don't know whether there's a mod available. As for the aircraft itself, I consider it one of the best available for MSFS 2024 right now and is all I fly. It has a much higher degree of automation than the 146, yet it's still a plane you fly.

It would also be nice if they could put it in the bottom corner of the screen instead of the middle. Quite disruptive to have these things obscuring my view on final.

Did an install on a brand-new computer myself last weekend and was pleasantly surprised to discover it even brought my controller configuration over from my old machine. Saved me hours of setup I was not looking forward to.

I had their FSX incarnation, flew the Combi all over the western US and Canada. Really fun retro bird to fly, and arguably the best night lighting I've ever seen in a simulation.

The CS L-1011 is one of my favorites, and is seriously underrated in my opinion. You can also use the Flight 1 GTN-750 in the CS L-1011. There are instructions for setting it up on the CS forums. You are limited to using it in a popup window, but it does work. You do have to enter your flight plan into the GTN-750 manually, but that's so easy it's not a big deal. If you don't have or don't want to use the GTN-750 you can load an FSX flight plan into the stock INS as described above. The MilViz 737-200 also gets airtime in my sim world, especially at night. It's night lighting is arguably the best of any aircraft available in FSX. I always fly this one 'old school' and never use the FMS. I don't have the PC-12, but I feel safe in saying you can't go wrong with either the CS L-1011 or the MV 737-200.

Hi James, and welcome to AVSIM. Of the three systems you have listed the third one is the best because it has a discrete NVIDIA graphics card. I recently ditched my AMD machine and second charliearon's recommendation above: You'll get much better performance out of FSX on an Intel machine, even if it's a couple of generations behind the latest-greatest. I was able to get acceptable (for me) performance for 'low and slow' GA flying out of my old AMD machine by dialing back the eye-candy and using Steve's DX 10 fixer, but flying any study-level tubeliner (with the exception of the Majestic Q400) was usually an exercise in futility. You can certainly make an AMD machine work (I used mine for nearly four years), but there's no question that FSX benefits from Intel CPUs.

I got a new machine and FSX:SE earlier this year and didn't bother to install anything I wasn't flying regularly, which left me with the following, sorted in descending order of use. Majestic Q400 RealAir Turbine Duke 2.0 RealAir Lancair 2.0 A2A Comanche Captian Sim L-1011 PMDG 777 & 737 I've been tempted to buy some recent offerings (Carenado S500, iFly 747 v2) , but realistically I don't see myself straying too much from the above list so most of my recent purchases have been scenery instead of aircraft. I am anxious to add the MV 350i once it's available. I bought the pre-release version and in IMO its 'alpha' state it was better than the final build of some other products I've purchased.

WMKK - YSSY in the CaptainSim L-1011. I did it 'old school' by manually entering waypoint info into the INS and using radio navigation as a backup. I screwed up my LAT/LONG entries and went off course a couple of times. Nonetheless, I felt like it was quite an accomplishment to pick up the Broome NDB after a couple hours across the open sea with nothing but the INS to guide me along. Fortunately I didn't botch up navigation on that part of the journey. I also had a rough landing (tired after nearly 10 hours of flight), but I made it. My navigation errors along the way left me with less than six minutes of fuel. It was by far my most memorable flight in FSX--no magenta line, no automatic fuel management and I had to keep my head in the game from takeoff to touchdown.

Speculators and gougers, that's all. I've got a boy who has been interested in nothing but Legos his whole life and the same thing goes on in that world. Once Lego stops making a product its price on the 'grey market' increases astronomically. I've been tempted to 'buy-and-hold' unopened products myself, but that would be futile until my boy is no longer interested in them.

I left my old AMD FX-6200 behind for a 6700K and I couldn't be happier. With no tweaking at all, FSX-SE is as smooth as silk. There is one downside, though: I don't know how I'm going to keep my office warm this winter because the old machine was a pretty good furnace.

Your proposed Skylake system is more than adequate to run FSX-SE in my opinion. I've got virtually the same core components but a GTX 980 graphics card. Since FSX is more bound to the CPU than the GPU I'd speculate that you'll still get accepable performance with the GTX 745. I'm also using FSX-SE on Windows 10 and have had no trouble, and even better I've done no tweaking. To fly the PMDG birds all I do is dial the autogen back from max to normal (and I don't really have to do that but it does make takeoffs and approaches in heavy scenery areas a little smoother).

"​Oh, and by the way...is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane??"

I'm not a participant in the Windows Insider program and today's the first time I've fired up FSX-SE in a couple weeks. EZCA wasn't working for me either, so I uninstalled, got the latest version off of Flight1's website and installed that. It's working fine again now. I do remember having to go through the "install this version then that version, then throw some glitter and say 'hey booboo' three times and then install this version" nightmare when I first set up EZCA on my new machine (back in February) and when the latest EZCA update came out a few weeks later I was reluctant to update because I had it stable on my system. But, since it was acting up today I took the dive and updated. Hopefully it does not continue to be a problem. (Edit: The build I got off of Flight1's website is 1.18.7, which is what you indicate above. Did you happen to try re-running the EZDOK config?)

I second going for the WD Black instead of Blue as they have a 5 year warranty. I can't say I like the design aesthetic of Windows 10, but it sure boots up faster and I haven't had any trouble with it (I'm running FSX-SE). I almost went with Windows 7 instead of Windows 10, but I decided I'm buying for the future, not the past. My new machine came from Cyberpower as well, and I am satisfied with my purchase. My motherboard was on backorder for about three weeks, but since I used their "NORUSH" shipping option it wasn't a big deal. My only complaint (about my machine, not Cyberpower) is my on-board audio is really noisy. I half-way expected that to be the case since I bought a "value" motherboard (Gigabyte G1.Sniper), so I replaced it with an external USB audio interface that works great.

I got a new Win10 machine about a month ago and planned on using FSX-SE as a stopgap until my wallet recovered from the hardware outlay, whereupon I'd make the jump to P3D. I am rethinking that now: FSX-SE is working well enough for me that I'm sticking with it for the forseeable future. No fiddling, no tweaking and I'm getting great performance. I, too, am using the DX10 fixer and Nvidia Inspector tweaks and all is well. The hardware jump accounts for most of that, of course, but I'd bet that if I were to install FSX-SE on my old machine I'd see a notable performance improvement over FSX.

Same here. I've used the DX10 Fixer since its initial release and I've never had any problems with PMDG's offerings.

On my old AMD machine (FX 6200 3.8 ghz, GTX 550ti) the 777 performed a little better than the NGX, so in my opinion that is a safe assumption.

FSX-SE + Steve's DX10 fixer is running beautifully on my new Windows 10 machine, and that's with no tweaking, no fiddling, no messing with affinity masks, no nothing. I don't have any stuttering and the eye candy is good enough for me (but I'll confess that no popping autogen would be nice). I had originally planned on hobbling on FSX-SE just long enough for my wallet to recover from my recent hardware upgrade, but I'm in such a happy place right now that I'm thinking my money might be better spent in other places. In my opinion FSX-SE is worth taking a look at for anyone who is on a limited budget or who doesn't have the money or inclination to re-purchase pricey add-ons, especially since it can be picked up for 7.49 right now.

After several years of getting by with sub-par hardware, I've got a shiny new 6700K with a GTX 980 GPU. My original plan was to hobble along on FSX-SE until my wallet recovered from the hardware outlay and then make the jump to P3D. I have to say I am pleasantly surprised with FSX-SE and Steve's DX10 Fixer. Unprecedented smoothness, no stutters, frames never drop below 30 in my favorite aircraft (Q400 and Turbo Duke) and for the first time ever I can fly my PMDG fleet without the experience turning into a slide show. Plus, all of this with absolutely no tweaking. In short, I'm unexpectedly in a really happy place right now with FSX-SE. I think I'll put my next big chunk of money into a 4K monitor instead and hold off on P3D. I can use the monitor for work and my other computer hobbies so it's better spent there than on another flight sim.

You know those sparkly mirror balls at discotheques? I install those. Work has been hard to come by lately. Actually, I'm a software developer. Our company specializes in database intensive web applications. We also do e-commerce websites for businesses who have needs beyond off-the-rack solutions or who require deep integration with other software products and services. I also have a lot of EDI and integration experience in the medical industry. I've worked from a home office for nearly 20 years now.

I've never used F2Crew, but can see where it could be a helpful and immersive addition. You can certainly fly without it, though. I would, however, recommend ASN if you don't have it. The Q400's weather radar works without ASN, but the Q400's icing is really sensitive (Have a Big Gulp or Slurpee in your hand? Expect ice.) ASN tames this and makes it much more realistic. BTW if you've used the FMC in the Milviz 732 you'll be right at home in the Q400.

Yes, it's that good. The Q400 does have a bit of a learning curve, but it's not difficult. The Universal FMC is a little less sophisticated than what you'd find in a Boeing (and you cannot import flight plans--you have to key them in manually), but if you have a general understanding of how an FMC works you can easily adapt. The beauty of the Q400 is this: First, it is not a frame rate killer. Majestic claims that if the default aircraft work on your machine, the Q400 will too and they are absolutely correct. Second, its flight model is second to none. It's a quirky plane in real life and by all accounts they have captured its behavior perfectly. It does not "fly on rails" which makes it a challenge--in a good way. Third, it is automated enough to not be overwhelming, but it is a plane that has to be flown vs. a plane that has to be 'managed.' This makes for some truly exciting final approaches and landings. I love the Q400 because I usually don't have time to do long-haul flights, and I like that you can fly at low enough altitudes to enjoy the scenery. Plus, I can get in and out of airports where jetliners fear to tread, and I prefer going to places that are off the beaten path.

Up until a couple weeks ago, my system was about the same as yours (AMD 6200 3.8Ghz, 550 Ti). Though you'll have to make a few compromises, you can enjoy flight simulation with this machine and on a budget. P3D is uncharted waters for me, so I'll share with you what worked best in the FSX world on my old machine: 1) Get FSX-SE: As others have indicated, it is an improvement and you'll spend a lot less time going 'tweak crazy' with it than you will with the original boxed version. 2) Steves DX-10 Fixer: A huge visual improvement and an absolute must on an AMD machine. It will not 'up your frame rates' but it will keep the sim running smoother at lower frame rates. 3) Majestic's Q400: Not only is this one of the best simulations available, it is astonishingly frame rate friendly. This is the only heavy duty bird I could fly on my AMD machine and maintain respectable frame rates in bad weather and detailed scenery areas. 4) Anything from RealAir: RealAir's offerings will also maintain respectable frame rates and are very well done. 5) Active Sky Next: Another must-have IMO and you can run it and maintain acceptable performance. Really, you can stop right there and get a whole lot of enjoyment out of FSX-SE without breaking the bank. You can fly PMDG too, but you'll probably have to dial back the eye candy big-time (especially autogen, cars, boats and AI aircraft) to get acceptable performance. I have the 777 and the 737NGX, and the 777 was the better performer of the two on the old box. I was never to get beyond a slide show with the Aerosoft Airbus X.

There's the tweak I've been looking for!