The first stage of this project will focus on building a computer to run FSX. So far as gaming goes FSX is probably one of, if not the most, demanding programs currently on the market. I mean think about it, the software contains a 3D dynamic simulation of the entire world whilst also simulating the systems and physics of an airplane, traffic, ATC… all in high-resolution graphics. Not surprisingly, many people report struggling to run the software on their own systems.

Some have been very critical of this, saying that Microsoft shouldn’t release software which perhaps (although I am to test this myself) can’t be run at full power on any reasonable consumer computer. I, however, share a different view. I think it’s good for the software manufacturers to test the limits of current hardware. Specifically with FSX, one can always turn down the settings to achieve better performance. But more importantly, I think it’s great that designers are building software that demands state-of-the-art computing technology. There isn’t much point in investing in a top-end high-performance gaming computer if the software isn’t going to test the limits of the hardware!

Anyway enough of that and onto some specifics. My first area of research for building my FSX computer (as I’m calling it) is how well FSX works with Scalable Link Interface (SLI) video card technology and multi-core processors. In short, is it worth investing more project money in these additional technologies or would such an investment just be wasted money? If you’re not familiar with SLI and multi-core processors here is the super-quick summary:

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