I got extremely lucky today and found a Q9450 available at an online retailer. They must have got one returned or something, because immediately after I placed my order I noticed that the Q9450 was showing up as on backorder again. I guess I got the last one, or the only one, they had in stock.Anyway, does anyone have any experiences to share about how this processor is running FSX? It is a 2.66 GHz Quad Core, and I am sure that it will be easy to overclock. I would guess something in the 3.5 GHz range would be very attainable at the least.Just curious.

4GHz on air if you got skillz hehe

I don't. In fact, this will be my first build, and the first time I have done any overclocking. I will have everything that is necessary for good air cooling; Stacker 830, Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, plenty of case fans, ect....).Any advice? Or, links to nice overclocking tutorials? Will I see a major difference in FSX by overclocking this processor?

>I don't. In fact, this will be my first build, and the first>time I have done any overclocking. I will have everything>that is necessary for good air cooling; Stacker 830,>Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, plenty of case fans,>ect....).>>Any advice? Or, links to nice overclocking tutorials? Will I>see a major difference in FSX by overclocking this processor?That's skillz with a "z". :) Your Q9450 has an 8 multipler. That means you'll need to run 500 x 8 = 4.0 ghz. 500 is a very high front side bus (FSB) speed, especially with a quad-core cpu.You'll need a motherboard that is known to be able to run very high FSB's. Do your research, aim it towards ASUS or DFI brands.500 FSB will be more mainstream in the future but right now that's pushing it with a quad especially. You'll need to look for the X38 or X48 chipset on the motherboard.If it were me I'd get DDR3 memory, or at least DDR2 1066 if you want to go cheap. Your limitation will be in what FSB you can run. The cpu itself is easily capable of 4.0 ghz, but there are other factors that will limit it (FSB).I suspect also with a quad you'll need to do voltage bumps. You're going to need an overclocker's motherboard, that's for sure. You have a good case and cpu cooler already.RhettE8500, Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64

Here is what I planning on putting together:Case: Cooler Master Stacker 830 (with 7 total 120mm fans in it)PSU: Cooler Master Power Pro 1000WCPU: Intel Q9450 2.66GHz Quad CoreCPU Cooler: Thermalright Ultra 120 ExtremeMobo: ASUS Rampage Formula 48X (DDR2 version)RAM: Corsair Dominator 1066 MHz DDR2 2X2GB Dimms (4GB Total)GPU: EVGA 8800GTXHD: 2 x Seagate 7200.11 500GB (No Raid Configuration)HD: VelociRaptor 300 GB (when they come out any day now)Audio: Auzentech X-Fi PreludeOS: 64Bit Vista UlimateThat is where I am at right now. I am not planning on taking this CPU up to or beyond 4.0Ghz. I wouldn't be comfortable with that at all. I am hoping to settle into the 3.5-3.6 GHz range somewhere.Let me know if I have anything listed that may present trouble for me. Thanks.

Watch out for 4 sticks of memory - that hampers stability quite a bit on Intel boxes because the north bridge (MCH) can't keep up, especially at 500MHz unless you have major voltage and major cooling going into it.2 sticks should be ok at + 0.1V on the MCH, 4 sticks really get into iffy territory.Etienne

I didn't think the Velociraptors were coming out that soon! I should have waited, oh well.Consider using DDR3 memory with the X48 chipset. FS likes all the bandwidth it can get. You're getting expensive parts anyway.RhettE8500, Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64

Actually, the prices on all these components are great right now. I was expecting to spend upwards of $3000-$3500 to build a capable FSX PC, but all these components that I mentioned above are going to run me around $2000 if that. I am pretty happy about the pricing.With that said, I am going to stick with the ASUS Rampage Formula X48 and DDR2 memory for now. I doubt I would get a big enough improvement in FSX jumping to DDR3 from DDR2. The cheapest "Good" DDR3 memory will run me somewhere around $400 for 4GB. I am getting 4GB of excellent DDR2 RAM for around $130 after rebate (including a memory fan that comes with it). That just sounds bizarre to me to spend that little for so much RAM.By the way, when I say "2X2GB of RAM for 4GB total", that means that I will be installing only 2 sticks of RAM, each stick being 2GB, for a total of 4GB. I am not running four sticks, only two. This is definitely the way to go due to the trouble some boards are having with overclocking a CPU with 4 sticks of RAM.As far as the VelociRaptors, they should be available any day now. I am watching for them daily. They are supposed to be available at retailers towards the middle of May according to Western Digital. Alienware is already putting them into new systems since late April. Expect pricing to be somewhere in the $330 range for a while, and then it will drop back towards the $300 suggested retail price after a few months I would expect. I am only planning on getting one (they are 300GB drives), and that will be my gaming drive where I install all my games.

I just got a Q9450 and love it! Much better frame rates over the Core 2 6600. O/C to 3 ghz with no problem or major adjustments. It'll go much more than that I'm sure, but I'm a novice OC'er. My question. I currently have 4 gigs of DDR2 - 800. Would it be worth it to go to 8 gigs? I'm running XP 64, so the memory should be utilized.

That is a good question about going to 8gb of memory. I am uncertain myself at this point rather to go with 64 bit Vista or not for this very reason. I guess Vista 64 bit has a larger memory footprint than the 32 bit version. So, if you only have 4GB of memory installed on a 64 bit version of Vista, you will gain anywhere from .5 - 1 GB of memory over the 32 bit version that is limited to using only 3-3.5 GB's of memory. This .5-1 GB of memory that you gained from going to Vista 64 is then immediately lost to Vista 64 because it has a much larger memory footprint than Vista 32 bit. In the end, I guess the only reason you would fool with Vista 64 bit is if you have a large amount of memory, which would mean 8 GB's. This can all be read at the following link:http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vista-workshop,1775.htmlNow I don't know which direction to go. Vista 32 or 64, or Vista 64 and XP 32 dual boot.

I ended up going with Vista Ultimate 64. If I so choose, I will get another hard drive, and put XP on it. Hard drives are cheap, and I have XP ready to go if I want to.I thought about the same things you are considering. I took a lot of things into consideration. I don't make decisions like that lightly.Based on all of the user reports I've read, users seem to have fewer problems with Vista64 than Vista32, oddly enough. This is a controversial statement, since many V32 users feel affronted for some reason, but all I can say is, what I've heard and read and seen is that V64 is more robust--assuming one doesn't have too many legacy devices. Often that is the bugaboo with V64 and should be an important thing to consider if you're trying to decide XP vs. V32 vs. V64.But if you're going with new hardware, all new devices, 4+ gigs of ram, V64 presents a strong case. I went for it. It's performing fine with FSX.RhettE8500, Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64