My HD just gave up the ghost. I'm not sure whether the problem is the drive or a controller failure. I'm using it as an excuse to upgrade to a Core 2 Duo system. I'm looking at the E6600. It also gives me another reason for moving to FSX with it's Dual Core capability. (Which I'm increasingly changing my initial reluctance too) My question is about overclocking it. Normally I don't ever consider this for it's risk and minimal performance boost. Reading some of the reviews of the Core Duo 2 E6600 though indicate ot may be possible to O/C this chip 4Ghz and still be stable. That could be a significant increase in performance, which would offset O/C negatives. I wouldn't even try to go this high but going to to 3Ghz or maybe a little higher could give yo X6800 performance or greater. Has anyone tried to do this? If so what kind of gains in performance do you see over the stock E6600?Thanks

Here is a good article on overclocking the E6700.http://legionhardware.com/document.php?id=570The trick is using a high quality MB, RAM and good cooling. The basics of the article should work with the E6600.,I'm currently building a system based on the E6700 using the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe MB, X1900XTX GPU etc... It'll be interesting to see how it performs.Cheers,JohnBoeing 727/737 & Lockheed C-130/L-100 Mechanichttp://www.sstsim.com/images/team/JR.jpg

I just cannot believe it's that easy. I never have looked into overclocking a CPU before.Some comments from the article referenced above by John."So why did I not use the Core 2 Duo E6600 processor for this overclocking article? Well simple really, I dont have one and Intel for some reason, were not keen on sending one over for such an article. Since I imagine the E6700 and E6600 will share similar overclocking headroom, I decided to go ahead and complete the article using the E6700. The results of course were impressive which ever way you look at it, there is no denying it. Right out of the box using a typical performance air-cooler the Core 2 Duo easily hit 3.66GHz."" Surprisingly in order to run the Core 2 Duo E6700 processor at 3.66GHz there really is very little involved. In fact, other than boosting the front side bus (FSB) frequency to 366MHz, there are no other tweaks required. The processor is locked at the standard 10x multiplier, so that takes that aspect of overclocking out of the equation. Bumping up the voltage was not exactly a requirement and although it did increase the thermal output slightly, it did ensure 100% stability through-out the testing phase."

I've been looking into a C2D upgrade myself, and was intially set on getting an E6600 and one of the better motherboards until I saw these overclocking results: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1075792 and associated threads on this forum.What caught my eye is that the faster C2Ds don't clock that much higher than the slowest, and indeed the E6300 and E6400 parts are able to achieve this on cheaper motherboards and without being too fussy about RAM quality. And in real world benchmarks (ie. games), the 2M vs 4M is only showing a 5-10% difference at best.What this means is that if you set a reasonably overclocking goal of say 3.2GHz, then you can get there quite cheaply with an E6400, a mid-price board and basic brandname RAM. The other benefit of this combination is that an overclock to 3.2GHz means running the bus at 400MHz, which means your PC2-6400 RAM runs at exactly the 800MHz it was rated for.Looking at it pricewise, and E6400 combo will set you back around $240 for the CPU, $150 for mobo and $210 for the RAM (2GB), giving a total of $600. An E6600 combo would be $370 for the CPU, $270 for mobo and $260 for the RAM, giving a total of $900 ie. nearly 50% more.I'm still sitting on the fence, but this is definately food for thought.Gary

See my signature.The only thing stopping me going higher is that the FSB is currenty capped at 333mhz by the BIOS. It should be fixed in BIOS v1.5 apparently.I'm actually fairly happy at the moment. 333 x 8 = 2.66 ghz on stock cooling and voltage. It is that easy!All I did was push the FSB in the BIOS to 333mhz and rebooted. I now have better than FX-62 performance for $277 CAD!!Typically, I would suggest going up in 10mhz steps, but 333 FSB with the Core 2 Duo's is a very mild overclock and is backed up by recent internet reports.What a processor family!PS - The X1900 GT is amazing value at less than $200 USD. A great choice if you don't want to splash the cash before DX10 cards arrive.Glenn

Where'd you get the X1900 GT from Glenn?Gary

Hi Gary,As I am in Canada, NCIX had it for $235 CAD (price matched)It's listed at newegg.com for $195 USDhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16814102022Glenn

Thanks. I'm tossing up either a 7900 or an X1900. If FSX likes either, then the cheapest will win!Gary