Sam, Gary and the rest- My Gigabyte P35 DS3R MB and E6850 CPU arrive today- tracked as out for delivery! I have the CoolerMaster Stacker 830 case waiting. I'm stripping my current system for the rest. Corsair 620 modular PSU, Corsair XM2 RAM 1gig x2 total= 2g, XFX 8800GTS 320mg PCIe VC, Western Digital SATA2 320gig HD x 2 in RAID 0, SATA2 DVD-RW and SB Audigy SE sound card.This will be my first build since the P4 days- esp as far as the Gigabyte board goes, please provide any tips you think might be useful. Sam, these components are mostly based on your recommendations- I am sticking with FS9 for the next year so the 8800GTS will be fine, until the new nVidia GPU is affordable 2nd quarter of 08. I have downloaded and read the manual so far-Ok- here goes1) I will check revisions and BIOS- I'm hoping for Rev 2.0 and I guess the F3 BIOS- is that correct? Should I flash if not before or after up and running- I'm leaning towards latter. Also, a bit scared with all the issues Gigabyte seems to be having with the board. The professional reviews are glowing, the personal ones not so good- I'm hoping its a bunch of nervous nellies and not the board!2) Anything unique about the new 45mm CPUs? I do have Artic Silver 5, but I'm sure the CPU will come with Intel paste as well. I am planning on running at the stock 3ghz for a couple of months before overclocking so I could use one now, and the other when I put on the Thermalright or Tuniq or Scythe....3) Will my USB keyboard be recognized or will I need the old keyboard to get into the BIOS and then change the setting to enable USB keyboard recognition? 4) Should I install chipset drivers from the CD or should I do the Intel driver check/update?5) As far as RAID 0- will there be a floppy creation utility on the MB CD or should I get the latest ICH9 floppy extract from Intel before proceeding?6) MD seems to have 1 CPU and 2 case fan plug-ins. The CPU fan is obvious- which fan on the stacker to which plug on the MB? Might not matter as one is 3 pin one is 4 pin and that might correspond. The Stacker has a fan on the HD sound/vibration isolation box and a fan at the rear of the case. The PSU has 2 fans as well- should be LOTS of cooling- I just hope not too noisy! They are 120mm fans though, so should be moving (relatively) slowly.7) Do I need to worry about the RAM- i.e. install 1 GIG first and then add the second?Sam and Gary (and others)- I HOPE IT's YOUR DAY OFF AND YOU ARE READING THIS :). I should start the build about 1600 local- that gives me about 6 hours to pick your brains!Best-Carl F. Avari-Cooper BAW0225http://online.vatsimindicators.net/980091/523.png

Re-Reading the manual- what's the "POWER FAN" plugin for? I dont recall anything from Corsair that would allow a plugin for the PSU.....thanks!Best-Carl F. Avari-Cooper BAW0225http://online.vatsimindicators.net/980091/523.png

Hi Carl, The rest of my system in en route as well. (mobo,ram, processor) Here is what my build will be...almost identical to yours: Lian Li PC 65B CaseCorsair HX Series CMPSU-620HX 620W Power SupplyPlextor PX-810SA/SW-BL DVD/CDGiagabyte GA-P35-DS3RCrucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)Arctic Freezer 7 ProIntel E6850Reusing my EVGA 7950GT OC 512mbI don't expect to have mine up and running before Saturday. Would like to stay in touch with you re: any issues or problems we can share.ThanksCraig

Craig-Sounds good- I will let you know (here) how it works out. Just want to get XP Pro, Office and all the Net Frame stuff today. Then I plan on running Prime95 and Orthos all night! Hopefully all will be well.Tomorrow, I hope to install FS9 and all the add-ons for the LAST time, for at least a year! Too many re-installs in the past 3 months to count (at least until Michael at FS-GS did his stuff- nothing since).Keep your fingers crossed for me this afternoon! I sure home Sam and Gary get a minute to read this (perhaps on a lunch break). I'd feel a lot better knowing that they were "on board" :).Best-Carl F. Avari-Cooper BAW0225http://online.vatsimindicators.net/980091/523.png

Carl,I am packing to head off on a 7 day cruise to Alaska today, so unfortunately I won't be around when you start putting it all together. Mt quick advice is:- flash the BIOS after you get it up and running - it removes one less variable if something doesn't work on first power up.- nothing unique about 45mm CPUs, just follow the instructions on the HSF and motherboard manuals.- just keep your old keyboard handy in case you may need it to get into the BIOS to then turn on USB support if it is not enabled by default.- I install all drivers off the CD, because the whole lot normally autoinstall in one go, then later I update to the latest.- it is safest to get the ICH9 floppy extract beforehand just in case the MB CD comes up shy.- plug whatever fans you want to monitor into the mobo, usually the PSU ones.- install all RAM first. It is supposed to work first off!Good luck with the install. I'm sure many others will step in if you have any issues.Gary

Lookin forward to hearing how it goes for you. Been a long timesince I put a machine together.Craig

Well guys, with fingers crossed, thank God so far so good! Did as you advised Gary (have a super trip) and used the CD drivers first- once fully installed, then ran the Intel chipset utility.Posted without issue, running performance defaults (forgot to check BIOS version) and stable!The BIOS is a sea of settings for overclocking- going to keep it at 3.0 for a while- will overclock later- much later.Pleased with the board- doesn't have fluff like some- but I didn't want/need that. Keeping a close eye on temps etc (stock fan) but so far so good.Quiet, fast and stable- I am not fixing what isn't broken!Craig, let me know how you get on. Gary- thanks a million! Sam, couldn't have done it without you- thanks for the info!Best-Carl F. Avari-Cooper BAW0225http://online.vatsimindicators.net/980091/523.png

Congrats. Now you can start giving us some tips. . . like what's that Intel Storage Matrix all about? A raid 0,1,5 and maybe a couple of singles, all running on the same set of 3 HDs? Woah. Makes me dizzy just to think about it. We ARE having fun now!Oh BTW, that's still a 65nm CPU. The XX50 just means it defaults to a 1333 FSB. The Penryns will be the 1st of the 45s. Server chips in Nov, then we get ours in Q1/08. But not to worry. You are not missing a thing. These will still be just a Core2 that uses that 45nm manufacturing technology (5nm is the size of an atom!). They might run a bit cooler and might O/C a little better, but that's really about it. You're gold for 1+ year(s). The software guys will have multi-cores thoroughly figured out by then and you're gonna need to eBay that thing for a Quad, for sure.

Carl, Assembled the system this am and booted with no problems. Running at stock speed and it runs FSX better than I even hoped for!! It's Christmas in Sept. Haven't even dug into the bios much yet as I just wanted to get it up and running. The 6850 is a screamer ! Craig

Sam/ Craig/ Gary:So far rock solid- no issues! I read all the sites (loved the board) and all the reviews (not so positive) and got a bit worried- but so far so good!I am running optimized defaults, and stock clock. XP sees as 3.0/1333 but CPUid sees it at 2Ghz- I'm guessing that's a speedclock thing.....FS9 is silky- a lovely experience at any airport I've been to, including Heathrow, Las Vegas, JFK etc. Fly Tampa's Boston is a dream!Really like the board- simple- no bells and whistles- but super fast and seems good for OC- though that will be after I get my cooler (running Intel now).Can't seem to decide between the Tuniq or the Ultra 120....- love SILENCE.....thoughts.Also, right now the fans on my Stacker 830 (HD box and rear, both 120 cooler masters) are just plugged into PS. My board has 2 places to plug in fans- 1 3 prong and 1 4 prong. Are there adapters that will let me extend and convert from the old (molex?) connectors to these board plug-in types? Will the BIOS see them or do I enable there?This case has room for a LOT of fans (12 120mm I think total) but all seems well with the 2 mentioned, and the 2 in my Corsair PSU (620W)- and the Intel CPU fan of course. What temps are good for longevity...optimum etc?Sam, just running the ICH9 drivers in RAID 0- the rest is so far beyond me I don't even know what you're saying....help.Loving Gigabyte and the E6850 (so far)!Best-Carl F. Avari-Cooper BAW0225http://online.vatsimindicators.net/980091/523.png

I too have a Stacker 830 and an E6850. I am running the front and rear fans directly off of the power supply. I am using a Zalman 9700 on my CPU which is at 3.7Ghz. I have added one 120mm fan to the side of the case, which is plugged into the motherboard and blowing directly on my memory which is running at 1315Mhz (all I could get trying to overclock 4 sticks of RAM).Max load CPU runs around 52 degrees celcius and the noise level is very low. As long as you stay at 60C or below you should be fine. Max is 72C per Intel specs.

I installed an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro during the build. Fits fine. Craig

S- very interesting, thanks! I am pleasantly surpriesd with your clockspeed and temps- super.I am using the Corsair XMS2 memory (2x1gig sticks) so I'm not too sure how well that will work with the OC. Currently runninc stock clock CPU and stock PC-800 memory.Still trying to select the cooler- the Stacker 830 should fit most anything. I'm looking for the fastest STABLE OC possible and 3.7ghz sounds great! At temps in the 50s it sounds even better!Any word on the fan plugin converters- can't the old style 4 pins be converter to the small 3 and 4 pin connectors to allow for interactive fan speed controlling?Learning a LOT- thanks all!Best-Carl F. Avari-Cooper BAW0225http://online.vatsimindicators.net/980091/523.png

If you haven't O/C'd yet, you are still at a 333 (1333QDR) FSB. That means your ram is running at a DDR'd FSB, or 666mhz. It's rated to be able to go to 800mhz, so no problem there. The E6850 is a 9X333=3.0 CPU. If you want a 3.7 FSB, you will need a 411mhz FSB to get there (411x9=3.7). The ram will still be DDR'ing the FSB, so it will be running 822mhz. Corsair doesn't O/C very well, but let's hope it will at least go that far. If not, you will be ram limited to 400x9=3.6. For the cooler, either this or the Ultra 120. This one is a bit cheaper. Theses are the best you can get and that 90 is a real bargin. If you want that big O/C, don't mess around with anything else. http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3068

Sam, Gary et al-Am I correct in assuming that 3.6 or 3.7ghz is the fastest, STABLE on-air overclock possible for the E6850? I would assume that at 3.7 we are begining to approach acceptable FSX performance? Of course, once the SPs allow for more transfer of processes to the other cores, that should become a non-issue. Gary (and anyone else familiar with the Gigabyte BIOS)-what is the best way to achieve this overclock? Thanks for your help!Best-Carl F. Avari-Cooper BAW0225http://online.vatsimindicators.net/980091/523.png