Advise wanted

[tmhs]

Dear forum,
Being out of office for quite some years I need a little advise before I'll be able to start the Darts on the magnificent series of Viscounts and "smelling" the Conways on the fantastic VC10. I hope somebody will have the patience......
My first question is: Regarding my unconditional love to especially the Vickers planes from the developpers on this site, will it pay to buy the fsx or do I better stick to the good, old fs9?
As I am going to get a new pc I would like some advise of which graphic card is the better for fs. Or will it pay to purchase as "heavy" as my wallet permits? I want a smooth run and on the other hand being a peaceful man I am not interested in any kind of combat or other reactionminded games. Bad flying weather provides sufficient suspension....
Finally if somebody could tell me about the best processor and / or motherboard for fs and perhaps recommend a good monitor for fs you would really make my day.

With the hope of not having streched your patience beyond limits I give my thanks in advance remaining yours sincerely
Thomas

I hope you can understand my english. It is not my paternal language.

[Airspeed]

Hi Thomas
G'day, hope you can read Australian! (Just kidding )
Firstly, are the aircraft you want to fly suitable for FSX? You'll need to read the notes, and if possible, search any forum posts about peoples' experience reports.
Some FS9 aircraft do not easily convert to FSX. Some features or views do not work fully in the newer sim., in particular, instrument panels.

There's a lot of FS9 scenery around, and there are enhancements to clouds and textures which make FS9 look good.
Personally, FSX does it better for me. Some users do not like the style of depicting buildings in the standard FSX scenery.
You may over-ride most of that with specific scenery areas though, so default buildings wouldn't be an issue.
You need to be happy with what you're looking at from your usual flying point of view. Some scenery looks good at 30,000ft, others are amazing at 1500ft.
The visual experience is a personal thing, and if you don't like what you see, you won't enjoy it. There are many you-tube videos of simulator flights; watch a few and see what appeals.

I don't know how much space you have, but think about these points:
A large flat screen will always be better than the older style. You may consider multiple screens to give the wrap-around look, or to track your map on one, with pilot view on the main screen. I've wanted a projector display for mine, for years.
The price of them is falling, but you have to look out for low resolution on the really cheap models.

Controllers add a huge slice to the experience; a yoke, throttle, flaps & undercarriage levers, and rudder pedals with toe brakes are essential to me. Decent Hz range, comfortable headphones are a must, and if you are flying VA, you may need a good microphone too (I don't do VA, so can't answer)

The rest of the hardware is always a big issue, some will tell you that FS will only use 4Mb of RAM, but then you'll see offers of software which claims to use more, like FSXBooster, and multi-core utilisers.
One fact never changes, and that is, 6 months after you buy, the hardware retailer will tell you that your system wasn't bad for its time!
If heat is an issue where you come from, make sure that your computer cooling is going to cope with the load.

Hopefully someone else will give their opinion too. When I upgrade, it is always a compromise between the goods and my wallet.

Good luck

[Garry Russell]

Welcome aboard

I'd say load up both and move between FS.9 and FS.X to get the best out of what you are running.

It seems, the general belief is that loading FS.X means uninstalling FS.9, but there is no reason why you should not have both. New PC should not have any disk space issues.

However, I don't know how FS.9 runs in the latest Windows versions which is wher future problems may arise. In the meantime, load up what you can and get the best of both.

[Scorpius]

Hi Thomas,

The advice here is top notch so you have come to the right place!

I use both FS9 and P3Dv2.5 and can use all of the aircraft from this website on both sims. You just need to alter the view parameter in the aircraft cfg and all is well, if you have a problem with cockpit views in FSX.

All the best,

Nev

[Garry Russell]

Hi Thomas
G'day, hope you can read Australian!

Never have a issue with Mike's Australian as he uses a special upside down keyboard making it appear here the right way up.

Saves standing on my head

[Filonian]

Never have a issue with Mike's Australian as he uses a special upside down keyboard making it appear here the right way up.

Saves standing on my head

Graham