Agreed bret... this is what i have been saying since my very first post here in the FSX section of the forum...

Want good FSX performance? upgrade upgrade upgrade

it was what i had to do when FS98 came out

again when FS2002 hit the shelves

Again when FS2004 came to town

now here we are with FSX

im not recommending that anyone do like i did and go out and dump mega cash into a new rig, thats what i wanted to do... i can get it now or i can wait a year for prices to change - either way what needs to be understood here is that i did not go dump cash on a new rig... various family members and friends knew what i wanted for christmas but didnt want to buy the wrong things. so i had virtually nothing "under the tree" this year... instead my friends and family gave me money here and there. when added to a small portion of what i saved up i wound up with a nice new system.

the simple solution to the flight sim problem is this.

If you like FS2004 over FSX - keep using '04. it will be supported here on SimV probably until the end of humanity 

If you like FSX, get hold of a rig that will run it right and grab a copy off the shelf and dive in.

either way your arm chair flying the way you want to