You should've taken the wise route and waited 6 more months before buying FSX.

I haven't found any short-comings in FSX; outside of an expected bug or two..

My short-comings are MY hardware.. not FSX..

The only fix for this is to upgrade..

The capability of the available technology is probably the biggest issue.

Hey Brett....

See those water droplets on the wing-struts ?

No I can't, I've had to turn the bloody water detail down so far........

Seriously though...

I got used to running FS9 with everything at max.. and being able to fly big, complex models into O'hare.. with dozens of AI  (I had so much PIA stuff loaded that every gate was always full and there were always planes in line to take off) and never getting FPS low enough to notice.

I've found a good mix of autogen, scenery density and AI (planes, airport vehicles and boats (no cars)) for FSX, to make it all new and fun.

Once I turned the FPS indicator off and just started flying.. I got to see just how amazing this new sim is (it really is a step up).

Rivers, lakes and roads are more accurate and more identifiable (for true VFR flight).. Everything looks better.. EVERYTHING sounds better..

The V/C  has come of age.. The default planes are more detailed..

Airport scenery and building are better and more accurate..

The whole experience is a notch better (even tuned down)..

The class Delta airspace is now recognized.. the charts are bigger and better..

The views (which you can customize) are more and better..

The weather is better.. the clouds are better..

I can't wait to start making planes for FSX.. and the graphics are so much better, I'm tempted to start designing scenery too..

I just went back and ran FS9 to compare..  It's tough.. FS9 is flat and stale..

I'll go about upgrading hardware soon.. 'cause there's no going back once you get a taste of what's here.

I guess when the Reality XP stuff is ready I'll have to upgrade my stuff,
here's what I got so far,

LIAN LI PC-60BPLUSII Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
ASUS P5W64 WS Professional Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 975X ATX Server Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Thermaltake Big Typhoon CL-P0114 120mm Cooling Fan with Heatsink,  Artic Silver 5 Thermal Paste
eVGA 512-P2-N570-AX Geforce 7900GTX 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C Power Supply 90 - 264 V UL/ULC/CE/CB/TUV
2 X's  Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Sony DRU-830A 18x Internal Double/Dual Layer & Dual Format DVD Burner with DVD-RAM Support
Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1

Overclocked to 3.6Ghz