Best choice?

[elite marksman]

Im stuck between a rock and a hard place with my comp. Its an old dell 4500 2.0GHz P4, recently upgraded to 768MB RAM, 160GB HD, and a radeon 9200se. My old MS Sidewinder(had it before FS98) is going to hell on me and every couple of months i need to make the deadzone larger and larger. I need to chose between 1 of 3 things to blow my first to paychecks on, a new graphics card for about $150, which would be the best choice? A new DVD drive, again best choice. Or a new joystick, preferably one that has a separate throttle control and rudder pedals, im tired of hitting the throttles my accident or changing my attitude when i use the rudder.
     Firstly, with the graphics. I have everything set to about 75% of max except for ai, thats at 100, and I get 31fps when im over water or clouds, normally 20-25 over land and, and 15-20 near a busy airport or city. Water is set to detail, reflections killed the fps, same with aircraft reflections.
     Secondly, with the DVD drive. All i have now is a CD-RW and many of the newer games that I want are coming out on DVD only, although the other 2 things are more important.
      Lastly, my joystick went to hell about a year ago and is really lose, just turning it sideways makes the top of the stick move about half an inch and it gets more and more every coulple of months.
      Im kinda leaning towards the getting a new stick, then a new graphics card, and finnally a new dvd drive, but Ill probably only be getting one, maybe two depending on the cost. Maybe I can convince my parents to get a graphics card, but getting all 3 is out of the question unless I can somehow work my fare off for Lufthansa, as going to Germany this summer supercedes all three.

[congo]

Well, unless you are going to change your screen name, I would get the joystick.  

BTW.  The Sidewinder is the best stick out there. I can't tell what your problem with it is from your post. Don't throw it out, someone needs it, at least for parts.

[ctjoyce]

Ya I agree with congo., Get a Saitek X45, and a DVD Drive. Those two will cost you about $100 from newegg. Then when your next paycheck rolls around Shoot for getting a BFG Tech 6600GT AGP or PCI-E (depending on your slot) for about $140
or a 9800XT from Sapphire for about the same ammount. Then work on getting 1G of RAM, and mabe a 640 Prescott or a Pentium D to be able to run Windows Vista.

However the new stick will make you much happier than better graphics will.

Cheers
Cameron

[GA_Pilot]

I concur with the Saitek X-45

[elite marksman]

Yeah, the stick seems to be the better option. The problem with my current stick is that the spings that center the stick are losing thier tension and dont hold it centered properly, its good enough for fs2002, but I wouldnt want to try using it for any online combat flight sims.

My name actually comes from Rainbow Six: Rouge Spear. Im in a clan called Elite Snipers and I am the best shot of us, in real life and in the game. Went to a shooting range yesterday and a Marine luitenant kept telling me I should join, he was right next to me and I was consistanly putting shots in the v-ring at 800 yards.

[ctjoyce]

Sorry to hijack, but what were you shooting. The last time I went to a range it was the marksmen qualification over at Ft. Benning, and I managed to qualify for Sharp Shooter ( 30 / 40 targets)

Back on topic:
Sticks last only 3 mabe 4 years of heavy use, before they become rubbish. I had a really nice logitec one that had the same problem.

[elite marksman]

HK G3A3, semi-auto of course. Germans really know how to make good guns.

[ctjoyce]

Indeed they do. I personally own a HK MC-51 (airsoft) and a close friend ownes a Real G-3A4 Beautiful piece of wepon.