Greetings everyone, I recently purchased a new Dell; I7 chip, 6 GB ram (thought I ordered 12!) an ATI 4850 512MB, and 2 320GB hard drives configured Raid 0. The OS is Vista 64. I finally bought FSX Gold Edition w Acceleration so I am a complete newbie to FSX.

Is there a guide specifically for setting up Vista prior to this specific FSX Gold version installation? I have read that once FSX is installed there are certain procedures such as allowing the initial default flight to load, then shutting down FSX and rebooting. Then defraging. Is this still the same for this Gold version too?

I just want to have an extremely realistic simulator with as close to max settings as possible. I assume my ATI 4850 512 card is not a hindrance and is very suitable for my goals.

Thanks for any help and/or guidance hopefully getting me set up correctly to start with. This pc is for flight sims only...FSX, FS9, Pacific Fighters, maybe IL2 and hopefully CFS2 also.