Hardware / FSX installation sequence query

[Michael G. Fallon]

Hello,  
Well after purchasing FSX (Deluxe & Acceleration) about two years ago on the business trip to the US, I finally have completed my home built PC so I am almost ready to join the flight sim community.  During that time I have also got some Saitek panels and pedals as well as the CH Eclipse yoke with TrackIR 5 on the way.  I was wondering would it make a difference to install either the hardware or FSX software first?  I have also seen reference to fsuipc which I am not sure about.  Would I need this in order to get the hardware to integrate properly with FSX.  I am also considering getting Ultimate Defrag 2008 which I remember getting a good review on FS Break podcast some time ago.  Anyway I am hoping to have a conflict free installation so fingers are crossed.  
Michael


System; Windows 7 home premium operating system with E8400 3GHz dual core duo processor and 4GB RAM.  

[Terry McGee]

Install FSX first, then run FSX and do a short flight BEFORE installing Acceleration (I recently read about doing this).
After installing Acceleration, do another flight.
Now you can add your Hardware - one at a time i.e. install, check it out on FSX, then install the next and repeat.
You will likely need FSUIPC for some hardware to interface with FSX.

When it's all up and running, post some photos for us all to see.

[Michael G. Fallon]

Thanks for the feedback Terry - much appreciated.  
I had heard of various issues around installing FSX regarding the sequence of various service packs etc but I had no idea if there were any issues with hardware add-ons.  I was just checking and realised that the newest version of Ultimate Defrag is out on August 2nd so I plan to get it and install it before I load up FSX Deluxe.  They have released the software manual so I will read up on that over the next week.  The wait will give me some space to get to grips with FSUIPC as I am at the bottom of the learning curve at this stage.