I've had a few orchestra vsts. On the cheap end the samples are dated and you're not going to get many layers of sampling. For personal projects that is often not a big deal.

Here's a quick list.

IK Multimedia Miroslav Philharmonik 2
Vienna Symphonic Library
East West Symphonic Orchestra
ProjectSam Symphobia
Spitfire Audio Albion One
Garritan Personal Orchestra
Native Instruments Symphony
Spitfire BBC Symphony Orchestra

Of these.... I've used kontakt full version.... As well as miroslav, East West silver, and GPO. I'm pretty sure I have a few others on my several computers that are just collecting digital dust. If you're willing to look around you can occasionally get limited versions for free. My EWSilver was such a thing.

GPO was a good vst that was used by a lot of the Cakewalk crowd a decade ago.

I've even heard someone post a composition using TTS and the general midi patches in it to good effect.

I reckon it all depends on what you want to do and how much time you're willing to invest in the project.

Of course, the higher quality libraries are going to cost a considerable amount but they sure sound good.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.