First off, I just want to say that I've appreciated all the help I've received in this forum in past posts. I hope you can be as helpful again.I find myself in an interesting position. After bargaining with my wife, I have $1200 to build a new rig. Now I come to my dilemma: wait until Nehalem arrives (option 1) or build now (option 2)?1) Keep my Dell Dimension 8400 up and running (3.2 GHz Pentium 4 with 2 Gbytes RAM) until the Nehalem processors arrive with their new mobos? Pros: Nehalem promises to be a better micro-architecture with internal memory management plus GDDR3 memoery and PCIE 2.0 becoming standard on MOBOs. My Dell still runs Open Office, Firefox, Quicken, etc. just fine and probably has a good year of life left in it. It runs FS9 nearly maxed except around congested areas like NY, LA, or Chicago when flying complex aircraft (PMDG 737 w/ FS2Crew). FSX performance is tolerable (20 fps with most of the bells and whistles turned off). Cons: Nehalem may not arrive until Christmas and the initial price could be much more than my budget at that time ($2000). The mainstream nehalem processors may not show up until 2009 and not be affordable for me until this time next year. 2) Newegg has 12 month no financing, no payments right now and I managed to put together this system for approx $1000 (NOTE, I have spare keyboard, mouse, 500W PSU, and ATI 3870 I will reuse):Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L MOBOG. Skill 4 Gbyte DDR2 1066 memoryQ6600 (GO stepping "SLACR")Cooler Master Hyper TX2 CPU FanNZXT Apollo CaseWD 500 Gbyte HD at w/ Gbyte/s SATA connectionACER 22" widescreen monitorLogitech 2.1 speakersSamsung DVD Burner with light scribe64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium(NOTE: I am not married to the parts I chose. If you all have better suggestions, I'm all ears but you MUST keep the system below $1200. Also, is 64-bit Windows worth it compared to 32-bit?)Pros: Finally enter world of multicore systems with great ability to overclock. Get a free loan from Newegg which I can easily pay in one year (while getting interest in the bank). Cons: P35 chipset is on its way out as well as DDR2 memory. Have heard this system will play FS9 beautifully, but not so much FSX. BTW, weird that 18 months after FSX release, still can't build a system to play it maxed out. My Dell could play FS9 maxed out less than a year after its release -- that is until I added PMDG, Ultimate Traffic, WofAI, etc. etc. etc. Ok, so wait and use my current computer which still has some life left in it or go ahead and take the plunge knowing the P35 architecture is on its way out? Thanks,Joshua

Build it now and wait for Sandy Bridge. Nehalem is the follow on architecture to the Core2, but will not provide the same massive increases we saw from the P4 to the Core2. That was a revolution. Core2 to the Nehalelm will be more an evolution. The architectural follow on to Nehalem is Sandy Bridge. It's still too early to tell what going on there, but it will (hopefully) be at least an evolution from Nehalem's 32 nm shrink, Westmeme. The Sandy Bridge will be at least 16 cores. At 32nm, 32 cores become possible (this is only 2 years away!) Let the intrepid early adopters iron-out Nehalem's Hypertransport (ahhh, I mean Quickpath) buss strategy and (a similarly pirated!) on-board memory controller. There's no clock breakthrough either. 4Ghz is still about it. Stock clocks will be ~3.2. I imagine a Q6600 @ 3.6 would have no trouble keeping up with a Nehalem at 3.2. Clock for clock, the Nehalem might get you another easy 10% beyond a same clock Core2, but that's about it. Even if it will go to 4Ghz, that's still only 10%. There's also a rumble that Intel will lock-out AnY O/C capability on all but the "X" versions. Bummer. Your ammo's spent and gone for a Sandy Bridge buy. (Every year is too often to build a computer, at least in my modest world). Spend that $1K now on a system that will Reallymakea difference from where you are right now. It will run anything within 10% of any other hardware choice that will be available for the next 2 years. Then, spend the next $1K on something that will Really make a difference from where you Will Be. Sandy Bridge is the next great hope. Nehalem will be just a way for Intel to keep the revenue flowing. Frys has that darn Q6600 for $200 and I saw the Abit X38 for $130. Ram at $10/gig? 8800GTSs for $200? 750GB HDs for 120? It a magic time to be building a 'puter. Plan your next build in 2-3 years.

Sam,Thanks for the advice. I was under the impression that Nehalem would be a much more radical change from the Core Duos. Yes, I can't build a new machine every year either. I get a new computer about every three or four years and that aligns my next purchase with a mature Sandy Bridge architecture.So, do you have any recommendations on a good MOBO for overclocking a Q6600 to 3.6 GHz? The MOBO I have listed in my original e-mail seems good, but I've been reading mixed reviews when trying to OC the Q6600. Also, DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066 at 4 Gbytes?Thanks!Joshua

Considering your allowance ;), please find my thoughts below.>Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L MOBOSome agrue the Asus P35 boards overclock better. I do like my P5K-E>G. Skill 4 Gbyte DDR2 1066 memoryGood, I just isntalled some 2x2GB sticks myself, good and stable at 1066.>Q6600 (GO stepping "SLACR")No agruement here. Running like a champ for me at 3.6Hz >Cooler Master Hyper TX2 CPU FanNot familiar. Read lots of reviews on this forum and NewEgg reviews. FWIW, I'm pefectly happy with my Zalman 9700.>NZXT Apollo CaseI just got a Antec 900 case. Dropped my CPU 10 degrees and MB 20 deg.>WD 500 Gbyte HD at w/ Gbyte/s SATA connectionGet at least one 10,000 RPM drive for FS, such as WD Raptor.>64-bit Windows Vista Home PremiumWinXP-x64 has me perfectly happy, especially with all the known tweaks and edits to maximise every CPU cycle.

I would recommended getting a PCI-E 2.0 motherboard. Fsx will benefit from it and they aren't too much more than a non 2.0 motherboard. I was just looking around and found an abit x38 cross-fire for $129.99 after rebate (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127033&Tpk=abit%2b2.0)There's also a couple of open box units for $99 if you wanted to go SLI, but they only support DDR2 800http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...82E16813131232Rhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...82E16813130159R

A revolution like P4--->Core2 only happens every once in a great while.I don't look for mainstream (read: affordable...non-Extreme Edition) Nehalem processors to be available until well into Q1 of 2009...as in maybe a year from now. Intel is going to milk the Core2's for as long as they can, because AMD is not pushing them to release any more quickly than that.So having said that, I do think this is a good time to build--we have a mature architecture with Core2 now, and the chipsets are mature, too. This means fewer problems when sys building, and also with configging and tweaking--lots of info is well-established and widely available on Core2's.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 like the looks of that X38 Abit.I'd seriously consider that one. However this one is working fine for me: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131196It has been sitting at a 400Mhz FSB, 24/7 for months now. I leave the speedstep function enabled so the Q runs at 2.4Ghz in 'noload,' then ramps up to 3.6Ghz under load. That'd been a bulletproof, 24/7 setup. Initially, I simply reset the FSB to 400 and Vcore to 1.43v and never looked back. The Q ramped up to 3.6 on the 1st Prime run and just ran. (Gotta have the Thermalright Ultra 120 CPU cooler).It's had its moments, though. The last bios update messed up the memory speed's auto setting. It had been clocking my DDR800 ram at simply DDR x the FSB, 2 x 400 = 800. Perfect! But after the last bios update, the 'puter would not boot. The trick with these Asus boards is take out all but one stick of ram. It booted and CPUZ showed that one stick was running at 1000Mhz. Go Patriot!. One stick of Patriot DDR2-800 would run at 1000, but 4 would not. The bios had reset my memory to a 5:4 and massively overclocked my ram. Now I have to manually set the ram speed to 800. It will not matter what board you get, something will need attention. But Stay Away from the Nvidia chipsets. Go with Intel. PCIe 2.0 will be a non-issue until well beyond the next build. Current Vcards have not used up even 1/2 of the available bandwidth of PCIe 1. Actually AGP 8X would still be adequate.You are after a specific goal. That is a stable 400mhz FSB. That will take the Q to 400 x 9 = 3.6. The P5Ke will do that . . . but so will Abit's X38. DDR2-800 is the appropriate ram. 400 x 2 (DDR) = 800. DDR2-1066 is rated to run at 1066, but this speed capability is useless. You can turn up the ram to run faster than 2X (DDR) the FSB, but it will take a double-blind scientific study to see any difference. (See the DDR post in this forum). If you are a tech buff, it's great fun. If you just like to fly, forget it. Nehalem begins to take advantage of increased memory speeds (without the user needing a computer science degree), but Sandy Bridge is where this will really start to make a difference for us normal folks.

Nah, Raptors are a thing of the past. I use this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148262 which can be had for $60.00 shipped w/couppon and it's as fast or faster than that spendy Raptor. FWIW, I have the DS3L and it's been a rock-solid bargain, but if I were building now I'd also go for a X38 MB. I also might consider the C2 8400 @ $200 shipped if I were only building for FS9.Regards, Kendall#1: [email protected]/Coolermaster HyperTX2 Gigabyte P35-DS3L 4GB Ballistix Tracers PC6400 EVGA 8800GT - 174.74 beta Seagate 250GB 7200.11 CH Yoke/Pedals/Saitek Throttle Dual Monitor: Dell 2405/1905 #2: Dell 8400 3.2 H.T. 3GB PC4200 - X800XT Diamond Xtreme/Logitech X-530's

>Nah, Raptors are a thing of the past. I use this>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148262>which can be had for $60.00 shipped w/couppon and it's as fast>or faster than that spendy Raptor.You're pulling my leg, right? Why would you think a 7200RPM 8.5ms drive is old and any better than a ~4ms Raptor? Old technology? Heck, the VelociRaptor just came out adding SATA2 specs to the Raptor's 10Krpm platters. Remember, FS is nothing but a truck-load of little files and the faster you can access and read those files, the better the direct texture loading performance will be.

That's the question. When does a faster transfer rate begin to compensate for a slower access time? There will some point, but where? Seagate -11s are up to 110MB/s transfer rates at 8ms access times. I personally have a 3 drive Raid-0 at ~ 300MB/s. Even if a Raptor Still provided faster load times (etc), how much would that cost? 150G raptor and 750 gig (modern) 7200s will cost about the same these days. How much additional performance can we expect from a raptor? Maybe 10% (if that). If it's Not Greater than Five Times, it's a bad buy. The Raptor's cost to benefit ratio is simply ridiculous. Looking ahead, this lots-of-little file format is going to a few-bigger file format. The 7200 RPMers also are more future proofed.If you really feel the need for speed, Raid-10, 3 (or 4) of the new Seagage -11 single platter 320s. Speed + redundancy + massive capaciety. You'll never go back.

Wow guys! This is great feedback. Ok, so the general consensus is I should take advantage of my "allowance" (I can tell there's a man who truly understands marriage) and take advantage of all the deals to be had.So, some new questions:1) Love the ABIT board and that is an amazing price. Since I have a Diamond 3870 card which is PCIe 2.0, should I expect better performance on the ABIT mobo then a P35 MOBO? Or as Sam mentioned, maybe it's a moot point?2) Multiple hard drives? Is there a perfomance improvement by having a dedicated flight sim hard drive and if so, what size should it be? Thanks again for all the great feedback.Joshua

Tom's hardware just did an article on the performance of PCI-E 1.1 vs 2.0For the 2.0 an 8x interface is the same as a 16x interface for 1.1. The difference is pretty remarkable. Of the games that were benched the only other game that improved some with 2.0 was crysis. The article is found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-ex...s-2-0,1915.htmlhttp://media.bestofmicro.com/B/N/98915/ori...tsimulatorx.pnghttp://media.bestofmicro.com/C/0/98928/ori...tsimulatorx.pngI think it's great that a measly 3850 is on par with the 9800 gx2! But then again no one seems to be a fan of the 9 series (except for the 9600.)

I'm no expert on hard drives, but I read a post someone made comparing various hard drives from the old school EIDE to professional RAID setups. He said that performance in FSX was about the same for all of them only the load time, when you first start a flight, differed. It's a good idea to have a dedicated hard drive or put it in it's own partition. Doing that will help keeping the files together on the disk. My current FSX folder is just over 20 gigs if that gives you an idea. I would recommend a large main hard drive no matter what you end up doing.

Keep in mind PCIe and PCIe-2 are just busses. Like the EIDE and SATA hard drive discussion, it will not matter which one the Vcard uses until it fully utilizes its buss capability. PCIe-2 cards can use either a PCIe or a PCIe-2 buss on the mobo. Even a card that can use a PCIe-2 buss does not need PCIe-2's capability. It will still run flat out on a PCIe buss. The buss is Not the limiting factor.All modern Vcards today can use a PCIe-2 buss, but do Not need it. They will All run full blast on a standard PCIe buss. Actually, Vcard capability will have to double before they get anywhere near close to actually needing this PCIe-2 buss capability. They are just trying to sell us stuff that we do not need. Someone will fall for the 'faster is better' sales pitch . . but we know better.I agree that the only real benefit of a faster HD is for initial flight loading. Inflight scenery loading is not bottlenecked by any modern single HD. We've come a long way, baby!Modern 3rd party defraggers (like Ultimate defrag) will let you consolidate and then place your FS install at the outer edge of your boot disk for maximum performance. Maximum Performance will be Maximum Performance regardless of what (or which) HD the game is installed. I really can't imagine why a separate HD would work better for a FS install.

Again, thanks to everyone. This post has been very informative and has led me to purchase a new machine today. The specs are as follows:Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 MOBOIntel Q6600 at 2.4 GHzG. Skill 4 Gbytes (2x2Gbytes) DDR2-800WD 500 Gbyte SATA 3.0Gb/s HDSamsung 20X DVD Burner with Light ScribeACE 22" HDCP MonitorCooler Master TX2 CPU FanNZXT Hush CaseArtic Silver Thermal PasteLogitech 2.1 SpeakersWindows Vista Home Premium 64-bitDiamond 3870 VC (already owned)500W PSU (already owned)Wireless Keyboard + Mouse (already owned)Total cost including monitor was only $1100 (under budget even!). Thanks to Sam (and Nick N. from another thread) for helping me decide on RAM. If I'm not going to see a big performance for 50% more money between DDR2-800 and DDR2-1066, then I can't justify it. Plus, many reviews said I could overclock the G. Skill RAM rather easily. At this time, I'm "only" looking for a 3.6 GHz speed on the Q6600 which makes the DDR2-800 a nice pairing.I went with a single HD. After all, they are cheap now and I can always buy one later if I really need it.My current PSU should be adequate. I'm not running crossfire video cards. I have one HD and one DVD. If the PC for some reason ends up being underpowered, I can buy another and still not bust my $1200 limit. An X38 MOBO was suggested. The Abit was sold out and had limited return policy (no refunds-no substitutions). For $70 more I could return the Gigabyte. So, will the PCIe 2.0 bus lead to better performance like Tom's hardware suggests for FSX? I figure it's worth finding out for myself. If it doesn't and I don't like the MOBO, I can return it for a strong P35 MOBO and save $70. This will be my first build. I should have the components by early next week. If you like, I can tell you how it goes (or most likely be begging for help). I figure at this stage in the game, anything I build would make my current 4-year old Dell Dimension 8400 seem slower than molasses in January. Thanks again,Joshua