Hey all. I've been chomping at the bit for months waiting for the Intel price cuts before building my new sim rig, but now there's news that the early Penryns will be released as soon as early Nov. and judging by the prices of the Xeon Penryns they will be surprisingly affordable - about the same as a Q6600 now.So, should I grab a Q6600 or E6850 now with a P35 MB (which will accept the Penryns) or is it worth sticking it out a few more months? Otherwise, I could go with a cheaper E6750 or 6550 to tide me over? Another options is to go for the Quad6600 and wait for Nehlem, hopefully late next year? Budget is always a concern as I need a good DX10 card yet, TH2GO with some monitors and I'd also like to get at least 2 years out of this next build. What's the best roadmap here?? Thanks.Regards, KendallDell 8400 3.2 GHZ H.T.3GB 533 DDR2X800XT 256MB/Catalyst driver - 7.1's6x AA/16x HQ A/FDiamond Xtreme/Logitech X-530'sDual Monitor: Dell 2405/1905CH Yoke/Pedals - Saitek Throttle

Man, I would wait as long as you possibly can. If you are using FS9 then you have a system which runs it well, so you can park FSX until you can get something that can run FSX enough make you happy. I am in the same boat and this is my strategy. Of course, if you just want to buy something for the sake of upgrading, well, then you can get something that will help, but if FSX performance is YOUR benchmark, then waiting will only give you more assurance of meeting your FSX benchmark with your next rig. There is no compelling reason to upgrade more often than every 4 years or so, and I am happy FSX is robust enough to make me want to wait till I wear this sucker out! I've been using this machine for over 4 years, and it runs FS9 wonderfully still.Noel

Now. The Penryns will give you 10% increase in clock for clock performance. It's just a tweaked Core2. We can far surpass that O/C'd, GO stepped Q. That's a tweaked C2 too! The big deal is they will also give a 40% increase in H.264 decoding. However, the newer Vcards are all providing this HD decoding capability independant of the CPU. With a modern Vcard, that 40% is without purpose. Also, the penryn will probably come out for servers first. They have a different socket and will not work with our desktop Mobos. It might be a while till the penryn is available for us.Let the waiting . . .continue. The penryn is no big deal to us and there will be nothing else significant for over a year. Speed costs. How long do you want to wait? Get the GO stepped, Q and turn it up. Make your own tweaked Core2 and start enjoying it now.

>The penryn is no big deal to us and there will be nothing else>significant for over a year. If that's true Sam, I'm waiting for over a year. Unless component failure beats me to the punch . . .

>They have a different socket and will not work with our desktop MobosActually they will still use the LGA775 socket much like that of the Prescotts and Conroes. However the thing is that your motherboard will require more than just that socket type, It will also require the right VRM specs. If you have unlikely right now one of those, you can run a Penn easily. But yeah as of right now since C6 and EDAT are to go to mobile tech, for day to day desktop usage, its not going to be the amazing product that the Core2 was upon introduction. That said though, they hold newer technology and work on the continuation of the Core2's legacy.. that alone does look like a nice future. Who knows FS11, 12 etc... can take advantage of it if the developers make it turn out so.

wayupthere - Noticed in your sig, you have 2 x 8800GTX on a Asus P5K , just wondering how you use them for FSX ? Is there any advantage to having 2 8800s on a non sli MB?

HiJack,>Is there any advantage to having 2 8800s on a non sli MB?The board is a Crossfire capable board, I don't well not for now, One GPU is disabled just keep it on the board, until i maybe get a dual ATI. Maybe i will switch the board, not completely done with the overhaul.

Hi I see you have Vista 64 Ultimate, have you tried it with Flight Sim 2002 and if so did you have any problems trying to load the United Kingdom airports, when the sim was running?Best and Warm RegardsAdrian Wainer

Is it safe to say that the Penryn will not really be all that much faster than todays top line Core2's? My understanding is that the Penryn is basically a 45nm Core2 design...RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

I agree about Penryn.Hopefully 'Nehalem' will give us the boost for FSX that we need..........

>I agree about Penryn.>>Hopefully 'Nehalem' will give us the boost for FSX that we>need..........When is Nehalem expected to be out? I'm kind of out-of-the-loop right now.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>>I agree about Penryn.>>>>Hopefully 'Nehalem' will give us the boost for FSX that we>>need..........>>>When is Nehalem expected to be out? I'm kind of>out-of-the-loop right now.>>Rhett>>AMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS>A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150>gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb>5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster PraetorianFound this link on Intels site http://www.intel.com/technology/architectu...n+body_overview says Slated for production in 2008 ? wonder how much more of increase will see in fsx and even fs9. but then on the wiki it states 2009 ?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehalem_%28CPU_architecture%29

http://www.dailytech.com/SMT+Multilevel+Ca...article8082.htmThis is going to be called the Core3, however I'm still getting the impression this just another tweaked Core2 with hyperthreading re-enabled. The Core2 technology will be the end of the line for seperate CPU / GPU systems . . . and it will be called Nehalem. The big news here is that the Front Side Buss is going away. The new interconnect will be called QuickPath Interconnect . . . and it is exactly what AMD has been using for years. This is very interesting to see unfold. AMD has been getting a bad rap lately, but consider: First Intel steals AMD's short pipeline strategy and calls it the Core2. Now Intel copies AMD's point to point hypertransport buss strategy and calls it QuickPath. It looks like by 2008, Intel will have finally caught up to AMD. Intel's certainly the executer. But just as certainly, AMD is the innovator. Let's hope AMD can hang on to continue to lead the way with CPU/GPU combo chip called Fusion. Still in classic form, Intel is calling their Fusion look-alike "Larabee." This is the way it will go after Nehalem. This new breed of integrated CPU/GPU will be called the General Purpose GPU. Seperate CPUs and GPUs are going away. These GPGPUs will be (simplified) 40-80 core monsters . . . and they are right after Nehalem. 3-4 years, tops. I fully expect a current build with an Nvidia's G92 (~ November) and a well O/C'd Q6600 could be the Last separate CPU/GPU/FSB system a user might have to build. In ~3 years, 40-80 core GPGPU / Quickconnect systems will start to come on-line. For one, I don't want to build another core2 system (Nehalem) in the mean time. I want this next system to run right through this Core2 transition to the GPGPU. I always look for a 10X bump as my trigger point for a new system upgrade. I'll have my 4 core Q6600, so that 40 core GPGPU ought to do it!

>http://www.dailytech.com/SMT+Multilevel+Ca...article8082.htm>>This is going to be called the Core3, however I'm still>getting the impression this just another tweaked Core2 with>hyperthreading re-enabled. The Core2 technology will be the>end of the line for seperate CPU / GPU systems . . . and it>will be called Nehalem. >>The big news here is that the Front Side Buss is going away.>The new interconnect will be called QuickPath Interconnect . .>. and it is exactly what AMD has been using for years. This is>very interesting to see unfold. AMD has been getting a bad rap>lately, but consider: >>First Intel steals AMD's short pipeline strategy and calls it>the Core2. Now Intel copies AMD's point to point>hypertransport buss strategy and calls it QuickPath. It looks>like by 2008, Intel will have finally caught up to AMD.>Intel's certainly the executer. But just as certainly, AMD is>the innovator. >>Let's hope AMD can hang on to continue to lead the way with>CPU/GPU combo chip called Fusion. Still in classic form, Intel>is calling their Fusion look-alike "Larabee." This is the way>it will go after Nehalem. This new breed of integrated CPU/GPU>will be called the General Purpose GPU. Seperate CPUs and GPUs>are going away. These GPGPUs will be (simplified) 40-80 core>monsters . . . and they are right after Nehalem. 3-4 years,>tops. >>I fully expect a current build with an Nvidia's G92 (~>November) and a well O/C'd Q6600 could be the Last separate>CPU/GPU/FSB system a user might have to build. In ~3 years,>40-80 core GPGPU / Quickconnect systems will start to come>on-line. For one, I don't want to build another core2 system>(Nehalem) in the mean time. I want this next system to run>right through this Core2 transition to the GPGPU. >>I always look for a 10X bump as my trigger point for a new>system upgrade. I'll have my 4 core Q6600, so that 40 core>GPGPU ought to do it! I totally agree with you Sam, why keeping upgrading to get just a little bit of performance, its really gonna be interesting theses coming years,with the cpu gpu combo,hopefully its really great innovated stuff.And we geta huge boost in performance! Ionly really see fs11 as in update to fsx and not a totally new engine but I could be wrong but the performance should definitely be a big step with this new technology with fsx and fs11. :)

I am skeptical that combo CPU+GPU will ever be anything more than a low-end solution.The same thing was trumpeted in the mid-1990's as the next big thing, and all we got out of it was integrated graphics.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian