It seems the forums are full of people planning to buy a quad core Q6600 next week with the big price drop. I've not purchased a PC for some time, hoping for some suggestions of what to add to the Q6600 with FS(X) in mind, for my other PC uses I'm sure the system will do.Here's my list so far, welcome comments, suggestions, and just what to expect with FSX moving from a Northwood P4 at 3.5Ghz with ATI x850 to the new setup:CPU: Q6600 GO stepping hoping to o/c to 3.4GHzGPU: eVGA 8800 GTS 640MB, worth going for more memory on it?MB: Asus P5K Deluxe ? can I run 3 monitors with itMemory: 4 x 1GB PC2-8500, not sure on brand or timings?Case / PS: Sonata III with 500 EarthWatts PSUO/S: Vista Home PremiumMy goal is to get about 20-30 fps 1920x1200 with most options on high and be able to run Google Earth for tracking and other apps on a 2nd or 3rd monitor at the same time as running FSX. With my current system that's impossible.Also, how noisey will the system be with stock fans?Thanks for any comments...

>CPU: Q6600 GO stepping hoping to o/c to 3.4GHzGood luck. Please report your success or otherwise at getting to this speed back here.>GPU: eVGA 8800 GTS 640MB, worth going for more memory on it?The max I've used is 600MB @ 3360x1050 16XQ MSAA, 16X AF :-eek, so 640MB should be plenty for 1920x1200. >MB: Asus P5K Deluxe ? can I run 3 monitors with it# of monitors is a function of how many video outputs your PCI-E / PCI cards have, not the mobo itself. If you want to run 3 monitors off one video card (even with 2 video outputs), you'll need the Matrox TripleHead2Go. Otherwise just buy a cheap extra nVidia video card to drive the third monitor for non-3D displays.>Memory: 4 x 1GB PC2-8500, not sure on brand or timings?Go name brand slow over no name fast if you can't afford name brand fast, as stability is very important too.>Case / PS: Sonata III with 500 EarthWatts PSU>O/S: Vista Home Premium>My goal is to get about 20-30 fps 1920x1200 with most options>on high and be able to run Google Earth for tracking and other>apps on a 2nd or 3rd monitor at the same time as running FSX.>With my current system that's impossible.>>Also, how noisey will the system be with stock fans?It really depends on how well ventilated your case is. Slower turning 120mm fans are much quieter than 80mm fans of the same air throughput.Gary

Thanks Gary.I'm still not clear on multi monitors, I know FSX does not support SLI or Crossfire, but what I'd like is to run 2 monitors off the 8800 which is normal, and then use a 2nd video PCI-E card for up to 2 more monitors if Google Earth will run accelerated on the 2nd or 3rd monitor? With my XP setup it does not.The Asus board has 2 x PCI-E x16 (blue @ x16 mode, black @ x4 or x1)Will that work or should I get SLI MB instead?

I'm not real sure about your Google Earth issue, because it seems to work OK running on my system with FSX on one screen and it on another, although running both chewed through nearly all my video and system memory! http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/175612.jpgI don't think an SLI motherboard will solve it in any case.Gary

Is the Q6600 GO stepping (SLACR) available in your market yet?Here in Hong Kong, the shops still selling the B3 (SL9UM). No further notice for when will the G0 version available.Do they need to finish selling ALL B3 before getting the G0 in market?I am very worry about the "wait" to be a long oneAlkit

Hope the G0 is available will find out soon, have one on order from the next Q6600 batch. The Q6600s are flying off the shelf with the new pricing, it wont be long for G0 stock to arrive, unless Intel drops the price big on the Q6700 too.

I ended up with this setup , very happy with results, see my post in the main FSX forum.Intel E6750 CPU o/c to 400x8 3.2GhzAsus P5K Deluxe2GB Memory 4-4-4-12 @ 1:1 400Antec Sonata III case and included PSSeagate 500GB SATA driveeVGA 8800GTS 640MBVista 32FSX w/SP1Locked in 25fps options turned up, no problems even at KSEA with a c172. I'm sure I could go higher, but 25fps looks very very smooth with sp1 and leaves overhead for other things.

Congraduation to you!!!I think 25fps may be a bit slow to your new system. Especially without many addon added into it yet. I think you can make it 40-60 with reasonable nice graphic setting.Alkit

>Congraduation to you!!!>>I think 25fps may be a bit slow to your new system. Especially>without many addon added into it yet. I think you can make it>40-60 with reasonable nice graphic setting.>>Alkit>Right now, 25 looks fine, and its nice to see it locked there 99% of the time. I installed Vancouver+ FSX and it's the first time I seen the rates drop below 25, they added so many neat things around Vancouver it drops to the mid teens at times.Anyhow, looks good so far. The store just got the Q6600 and Q6700's in, offered an upgrade since they were OOS last time. Hard choice, if I could hit 3.2Ghz with a quad I'd upgrade, not so much for FSX but I do a lot of video and photo work where tests indicate quads run a fair bit faster.

You should consider getting the P5K combo board with the 1333FSB and takes DDR2 1066 and DDR3 1333Mhz RAM too for futureproofness. Extra cost is very little and when the DDR3 prices drop you're positioned well.

Or a Gigabyte DS3R, you really can't go wrong with either, they're great overclockers. I'm seeing people push the new G0 stepping Q6600's to 3.6 GHz on air, so I think you're in luck if you go that route.;)