Thanks for the responses... very informative. I think that I will focus on the Core 2 Duo for the new system.:-beerchug :-beerchug :-beerchug

>The e6600 is regularly over clocked to 3.5 GHz or>above. 3.5GHZ ?! Is that right? If I tried overclocking my E6600 that high I wouldn't need to pay for any other heating this winter would I? :-hah But then again, I don't know much about oc!! :-outta

I'm getting 3.5GHz out of the E6600's little brother, the E6400. :-hah Temps get as high as 65C during dual core stress testing, but with FSX and FS9 I've yet to see it go over 55C, with 50C being the usual (room temp is 26C).Gary

>I'm getting 3.5GHz out of the E6600's little brother, the>E6400. :-hah Temps get as high as 65C during dual core stress>testing, but with FSX and FS9 I've yet to see it go over 55C,>with 50C being the usual (room temp is 26C).>>GaryDo you see much performance improvement with FSX compared to default CPU speed?

I've run a couple of FSX benchmarks, as well as one from FS9 for old times sake ;-), to give you and appreciation of the performance boost from stock E6400 (@2.13GHz) to 3.5GHz.Settings for FSX are: all global settings sliders Ultra High, except FR set to unlimited and AA/AF enabled in game. Settings for FS9 are all sliders to the right, except weather which is on ultra high default, 80% UT AI traffic and 4xAA/8xAF set on the graphics card. Default FSX flight paused immediately after loading:Stock - 33 FPS; 3.5GHz - 46 FPS; % improvement - 39%Default flight but repositioned to KSEA rwy 34R:Stock - 9.5 FPS; 3.5GHz - 12.1 FPS; % improvement - 27%Pre-recorded flight at TNCM, bad weather, 50 second average from crossing the piano keys to the view swinging past the cruise ship:Stock - 16; 3.5GHz - 24; % improvement - 50%FS9 default flight:Stock - 27; 3.5HGz - 41; % improvement - 52%Load Temps (@ 26C room temp):Stock - 40C; 3.5GHz - 52C; ie. 12C increaseRaw CPU speed:Stock - 2.13GHz; 3.5GHz - 3.5GHz; % increase - 64%My analysis is that FS9 responds to nearly every extra CPU cycle you can throw at it, giving an 81% return on investment. Whilst the gains for the static benchmarks in FSX only give about half the potential return, the dynamic benchmark gets quite an impressive 78% return on the extra CPU cycles given to it. The temperature increase is within acceptable limits, however this is largely influenced by the after-market cooler I am using.In summary, yes I see a worthwhile improvement with FSX as a result of overclocking. :-)Gary

Thanks for the info, Gary. Well it certainly looks like I would get benefit from oc my E6600 but I would be worried my system would crash and burn!

In 10 years of doing this to as many systems as I've been able to lay my hands on (with permission of course!), I haven't killed one yet! You just have to be scientific and realistic as you go about it.Gary

>In 10 years of doing this to as many systems as I've been>able to lay my hands on (with permission of course!), I>haven't killed one yet! Yes, but you know what you're doing. :-lol

I started with Toms Hardware guide and the venerable P55T2P4 motherboard with a Pentium 120 CPU overclocked to 133MHz - woohoo! There are plenty of guides out there on the internet, and the overclocking hardware is so much more refined, so it is even easier nowadays to get started.The most basic principle to follow is to take small steps, rather than go for the big Cahuna in one go. It took me nearly a week to get a 3.5Ghz overclock that I considered satisfactory in terms of stability, temperatures and margin for a fiery video card creating its own heat.Gary

>>In 10 years of doing this to as many systems as I've been>>able to lay my hands on (with permission of course!), I>>haven't killed one yet! >>Yes, but you know what you're doing. :-lol victor.. I didn't know anything about Building a PC nor Overclocking about a month ago.I built my own PC (with the Help of Chuck and others here in this forum) and I managed to OC too. I got the E6600 (2.6G) and OCed to 3.3G. This was a rough cut OC. When I get some time, I plan to to do it methodically and try to go higher.I have a bunch of links here that helped me understand.Pring em out and read em... Twice/Thrice over... No Text book could come close.http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...ing_type=searchMannyPS: The poor performance of the FSX Beta pushed me over the edge. :(I knew..There was no way I can spend $5000 on a PC... and for that $5000 from Dell or Alienware.. what would you get.. 2 SLI Video cards and a whole lot of fluff.... thats not going to add value for FSX.I feel I built a lean mean machine. and spent the money exactly where FSX would benefit.

Ok thanks. :-)