SitnFly: My system is Intel based, P4 641 3.2ghz on an Asus p5B-E motherboard. Nothing fancy really but it is at least "current" in terms of technology. I was running a GF 7300gs and 1gig of dram with acceptable performance. I've now moved up to 2gig. I wanted to run at the screens "native" resolution in order to avoid any weirdness and that's specific to MY situation, not everyones. I think for most people the 7300GS or GT would probably work fine since they may only be running at less than 1280x1024 which those cards could probably handle just fine with power to spare.

I totally agree with you in regards to trying it out first and I am an avid supporter of both FMS and Clearview which I also use in addition to FSone partly because they are more "open" in terms of development of models. Infact they are the reason I bought FSone. For a beginner I think they are both hard to beat. I used to think FMS was junk but I don't think that anymore because I've got hours of practice on it and I've learned quite a bit about how to fly that has already proved itself on the field. Sure it's not perfect at all but it's close enough that it will translate to the real world. I like being able to create your own planes. Not everyone will, but I do. That's the only thing that bums me out about FSone. At least it looks like you can "reskin" them which is "almost" good enough.

I tried out both G3.5 and FSone off and on for about a month at the local stores and found I always gravitated toward FSone. I didn't really know much about it at the time, it just felt different and more realistic.

$.02

Ken-