Stripping a computer for 1 game

[morby]

Hey there

Im pants with computers so please forgive me.

I have a fairly old desktop now not much ram at most 256mb running xp and Im a pilot enthusiast with cravings for microsoft flight sim and addons. I've never really had chance to give it a good bash because of the computer being so slow and low graded. I dont want to splash out on a fancy gaming computer making the graphics amazing, I just want less jerks and faster gameplay.

My brother has an old dell lattitude laptop with 512mb ram- double what the desktop has that's unused (i know its still really poor for gaming). I was wondering though if there was anyway of stripping it bare and fine tuning it to give optimum performance for just microsoft flight sim, no internet, no music, nothing just 1 game to give me a little better game play?

Any ideas or feedback welcome, I have a feeling your all going to say buy a new computer but right now I have little to spend on a computer for just 1 game!

Regards
Steve

[photolady]

I doubt it, the old laptop also has onboard graphics and onboard graphics on old laptops won't play games no matter how much ram is has or how many programs are not installed.

[morby]

Not at all? Im not fussed about graphics one bit, all I want is a smoother gameplay, even if that means graphics that look awful, how would I go about speeding the laptop up though anyway, for the bare minimum of just internet and music perhaps, no typing or anything, would I just remove everything but IE?

[morby]

Ok so the laptop wont do any good, what sort of price would I have to pay for a very average desktop (just the computer no tft etc)/ laptop that could be fine tuned specifically for one game- not taking into account graphics? I would only need a second hand one, any ideas?

[photolady]

To answer your second post, you can't just remove everything except IE.

To answer your last post. A bare minimum pc, look online at the available prebuilt's. Dell, HP/Compaq, Gateway or Emachine. All of them will sell you a bare minimum pc for little monies. Used computers are sold on eBay or some local computer repair shops. Becareful that you do not get a pig in the poke though. You need at least the bare minimum specs that the game says you need.

Microsoft says Flight Simulator X needs these parts to run their game:
Microsoft® Windows® XP SP2 / Vista
PC with 1 GHz equivalent or higher processor
256 MB of system RAM for Windows XP SP2 / 512 MB Vista
14 GB available hard disk space
DVD-ROM drive
32 MB DirectX 9 compatible video card required
Sound card, speakers or headphones required for audio
Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
56.6 Kbps or better modem for online play

And I can tell you a 32mb video card won't be found in the direct x9 compatibility category.