Good CPU and mobo for Flight Sim X?

My friend's a big Flight Sim fan and has finally decided he needs to
upgrade. His current system is a Socket 754 Athlon64 3000+ with a
Geforce 6600GT AGP so I've convinced him there isn't really a worthwhile
upgrade path without replacing the entire motherboard etc.

So what's good for Flight Sim X?

I've pretty much decided on the graphics card: Sapphire HD4850 Toxic
edition (I'm sure he'll prefer its Zalman cooler to the weak reference
design).

CPU. Does FSX work better with quad core or two faster cores? He'll want
good value for money rather than the very best, so is AMD worth
considering? Is AM2 a dead horse, or still better value than AM2+?

He's got 2 IDE HDs and 2 optical drives ATM. He can afford to lose a
couple, but it would be nice if he could keep them all, preferably
native to the southbridge instead of relying on a 3rd party controller,
because judging by some posts here, there are "issues".

His current PSU is a 380W Tagan. Is it up to the job? Sapphire's site
recommends at least 450W for the HD4850, but I presume that's for
no-name crap rather than a decent brand like Tagan which really can do
what it says on the tin. The main issue would be the PCI-E power
connector. Can you use an old PSU with an adaptor on one of the Molex
connectors? There's also the issue of the 20/24 pin motherboard
connector. On the whole I think it would be best to use a new PSU and
point out it might eventually pay for itself with improved energy
efficiency.

Finally, he's got a retail copy of XP Home. Does FSX benefit from Vista
because of DirectX 10 and 64-bit etc or should he stick with XP at all
cost?

--
TH * http://www.realh.co.uk

.

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