FS 2004 helped me tremendously when I was going through it. Another thing that alot of people overlook is the fact that you dont always have to use the vectors feature while talking with ATC. You can file your IFR flight plan on there, takeoff, in the ATC menu select a different approach and request a transition and due to entire approach and ATC will still give you altitudes and stuff, Great for procedures. I wouldnt worry to much about the computer being too slow, i turned my settings all down to bare minimum and ran fine on my normally slow computer. Also another tip, dont use clouds, just go into weather and set the vis down to your minimum required for the approach becuse with the low graphics settings you can see through the clouds lol. And later on, I bought the "Wilco" CRJ and flew it for 6 months prior to getting a job on the CRJ, helped me TREMENDOUSLY in sim training. just a thought if your going that far. Good luck