>Thanks for the clarification. From your sig it appears your>CPU is overclocked 50%. Crikey! I would have thought it would>start smoking when pushed that hard. I know the manufacturers>build them all the same and then group them according to tests>but that does seem extreme.>>I see you have liquid cooling. That probably helps with the>heat ;-)Hi Ray - I guess we both haunt the same places - :)It was an easy overclock. 3.6 was my goal without pushing it so I left it there but I had it running at 4.0 for a while but it wasn't 100% stable and I didn't want to waste the time playing around with it. I've seen others in the overclocking forums that are running fine at 4 and above. I'm not into benchmarking and such - I have FSX running the way I want it with smooth flight and beautiful scenery.Liquid cooling helps a bunch BUT I could have done it on air, the temps stayed quite low - with all 4 cores maxed in stress tests they didn't get above 62C!VicQ6600 G0 CPU 2.4 o/c 3.6Evga 680i A1 with P30 BIOS 2G XP2-8500 DDR2 1066FSB Mushkin 996535 RAM 5-5-4-12-2T320G 7200 HD partitioned for XP/Vista/Programs 2 - 74G Raptors in RAID0 500G 7200 HD for backup SATA DVD burner Evga 8800GTS 640 PCIx Kandalf LCS case w/ built in liquid cooling 850W Thermaltake power supplyVisit the Virtual Pilot's Centerwww.flightadventures.comRadar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/

>>As for prices being the same that certainly isn't the case>>with the E6850 (C2D) and QX6850 (Quad) with the latter>costing>>nearly FOUR TIMES more over here.>>The E6850 is more often compared its similarly priced quad>core cousin the Q6600, even if the latter comes clocked at>2.4GHz. >>For the non-overclocker, the dual core solution will net the>highest FSX performance for the lowest dollar. ie. $270 buys>you 3.0GHz of dual core action, but you have to pay over $1000>to buy 3.0GHz of similarly FSX FPS pumping quaddage.>>For the overclocker, the latest quads go nearly as high as the>dual cores do (3.4-3.8GHz), even the value ones like the>Q6600, hence Vic's recommendation to go for the quad. At>least I think that's what he is getting at ;-)Now, why didn't *I* explain it that way????:)Yup, that's what I meant.Thanx,VicQ6600 G0 CPU 2.4 o/c 3.6Evga 680i A1 with P30 BIOS 2G XP2-8500 DDR2 1066FSB Mushkin 996535 RAM 5-5-4-12-2T320G 7200 HD partitioned for XP/Vista/Programs 2 - 74G Raptors in RAID0 500G 7200 HD for backup SATA DVD burner Evga 8800GTS 640 PCIx Kandalf LCS case w/ built in liquid cooling 850W Thermaltake power supplyVisit the Virtual Pilot's Centerwww.flightadventures.comRadar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/

Hi Vic,<>Clearly processors have become more resiliant to overclocking. A 50% increase is remarkable and you wonder why Intel didn't just market the 2.6 as a 3.0 or even faster.I may dabble with overclocking when I get my new system but it won't be as high as yours. I don't fancy water and electrics in the same box however well things are designed.Thanks.

>>As for prices being the same that certainly isn't the case>>with the E6850 (C2D) and QX6850 (Quad) with the latter>costing>>nearly FOUR TIMES more over here.>>The E6850 is more often compared its similarly priced quad>core cousin the Q6600, even if the latter comes clocked at>2.4GHz. >>For the non-overclocker, the dual core solution will net the>highest FSX performance for the lowest dollar. ie. $270 buys>you 3.0GHz of dual core action, but you have to pay over $1000>to buy 3.0GHz of similarly FSX FPS pumping quaddage.>>For the overclocker, the latest quads go nearly as high as the>dual cores do (3.4-3.8GHz), even the value ones like the>Q6600, hence Vic's recommendation to go for the quad. At>least I think that's what he is getting at ;-)>>Gary >that makes a lot of sense.Manny

Up til now I've had an E6700 (Stock) 2GB mem with ATI X1950XTX Crossfires. If you have read any of my posts or seen my videos on Youtube, you would see I got very good performance in FSX with it. Recently though, it was fried (Along with other electronic equipment) by a direct lightning strike on my house, even though it was surge protected by a quality surge protector from Monster. So I'm now in the market for a replacement myself! Right now I'm leaning towards an E6850 system. Since this will be primarily a Vista system, although I'm planning a dual boot to XP, I am waiting at least a month to see what the new GeForce 9800 cards which are rumored to be released sometime in November brings to the table. While I don't expect a bib frame boost in FS it should have a significant performance impact with it's reported 1 terraflop computational performance rating. Also by then hopefully there will be more information on the Penryn release to see if it's worth waiting for that. (provided it's in by price range).