Hi Ian,
IMHO X-plane is worth it. I have been using it on a Mac so I cannot comment on how it runs on a PC. It's only $39 US from Home of the X-Plane Flightsim Community - New Server & comes on 8 DVD's. I think the scenery is great, with the terrain as good as if not better than FS. The flight modelling is better. Weather is terrific. Good selection of a/c. Scenery tiles are good with quite convincing generic rendition of countryside & cities. Downsides are smaller comunity, resulting in fewer freeware & payware add-ons, although with the demise of the fs team this may well change. No airfield buildings, but many free download packages. ATC is pretty average. Amazing depth to this sim with ability to design your own a/c. Huge range of variable parameters. A demo is available for download. It's time limited (10 minutes). I bought my copy 18 months ago & I get free updates until the next version, probably in another 2 years. Give it a try,
Rgds Pete