FSX Core i7 mini review

[Guest Nick_N]

Thanks, Terry. I'm running Thermalright cooler (if I can ever get one, maybe another week) and 1600 RAM here, too with a CoolerMaster CM 690 case. It's good to know the values to get in the ballpark safely. I've never OCed before so I don't want to blow out an expensive processor first time out of the chute. I believe Nick achieved the same 4GHz. with a little higher voltage and a little lower multiplier. I guess there's more than one way to skin a cat. Nick, if you're reading this, is there an advantage to running the lower mulitplier and higher voltage or is it 6 of one and a half dozen of the other? Thanks,Jeff

Yes Jeff.. I am trimming Bclock and Multiplier in order to tune my memory speed based on its multiplierThere is more than one way to skin a cat and get everything where one needs it based on their installed hardwareThere are very simple methods to calcualte everything... the overclocking sites will have all that information. When I get home I will see if I can find a good source for those calcs940 and 965 is exaclty the same when it comes to those numbers although 965 allows the CPU multiplier be worked along side the other values but 920 is different which is why I posted to the forum in one wishes to get the most out of the upgrade they should stick with at least 940 and 1600 memory... 920 can also be clocked but as I recall it has a limit on the memory multiplier so having the right memory can make a real difference when playing with tuning on any of these procs.It does not mean you 'must' use 1600.. it means you have that option to be just under or somewhat over 1600 in a high clock and are not limited by the settings combinations available.

[Guest JNS]

Thanks, Nick. As you might have noted I'm using 1600 RAM also. Looking forward to the additional info on the OC if you come up with it. I'm trying to be conservative so I guess the lower the voltage I can get away with (and still have everything work well) the better. I just wish I could get my cooler so I could get the darn thing built.Jeff

[Guest Nick_N]

Thanks, Nick. As you might have noted I'm using 1600 RAM also. Looking forward to the additional info on the OC if you come up with it. I'm trying to be conservative so I guess the lower the voltage I can get away with (and still have everything work well) the better. I just wish I could get my cooler so I could get the darn thing built.Jeff

I think they have them in stock at quiet PC http://www.quietpcusa.com/Thermalright-Ult...er-P507C61.aspxyou may want to contact them to be sure before ordering but according to the site they are in stock

[Alan_A 1,650]

I think they have them in stock at quiet PC http://www.quietpcusa.com/Thermalright-Ult...er-P507C61.aspxyou may want to contact them to be sure before ordering but according to the site they are in stock

I just bought mine from Frozen CPU. They're out of stock again but keep an eye on them - they seem to be getting shipments in pretty quickly.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Xoxide, CrazyPC, Coolerguys, and Jab-tech are all out-of-stock as well. None of the mainstream e-tailers have it yet either.

[Guest JNS]

Xoxide, CrazyPC, Coolerguys, and Jab-tech are all out-of-stock as well. None of the mainstream e-tailers have it yet either.

I had contacted Thermalright at the beginning of the week and they said they thought all of the resellers were out of stock. Thermalright indicated that product would probably ship out in a week or maybe two. The unit I'm speaking of is the Ultimate 120 Extreme-1366 RT (with fan). I understood that the 1366 brackets would be shipping a little sooner and could be used with the standard Ultimate 120 Extreme cooler.BTW, does anyone know about HeatSinkFactory.com. Supposedly they will be handling them. I've called numerous times, left two messages regarding the Thermalright cooler, and sent an email and have received no response although their voicemail assures me that "my call is very important to them". Hmmm. We'll see.Jeff

[TechguyMaxC 516]

I had contacted Thermalright at the beginning of the week and they said they thought all of the resellers were out of stock. Thermalright indicated that product would probably ship out in a week or maybe two. The unit I'm speaking of is the Ultimate 120 Extreme-1366 RT (with fan). I understood that the 1366 brackets would be shipping a little sooner and could be used with the standard Ultimate 120 Extreme cooler.

Nice. I hate soft launches. Announce limited availability, ship a few dozen parts, then take weeks to actually build up inventory. That's exactly what happened too because I can assure you short of contacting every reseller they deal with, Thermalright would have no way of knowing what their stock is unless they knew that the initial batch was of such limited quantity it would sell out immediately.

BTW, does anyone know about HeatSinkFactory.com. Supposedly they will be handling them. I've called numerous times, left two messages regarding the Thermalright cooler, and sent an email and have received no response although their voicemail assures me that "my call is very important to them". Hmmm. We'll see.Jeff

According to resellerratings they're quite good.

[TerryS 0]

Hi to you all,and thanks Terry, for the performance report.Regarding all FPS numbers which are reported, I have two questions (I don't think that this is mentioned, sorry, if I didn't see it):1. do you use anti aliasing (4x? 8x?) and do you use it via FSX graphics settings or via the gfx driver?2. what's your resolution?Thanks,Roger

Hi Roger, I'm running at 1920 x 1200 with Trilinear Filtering on and AA off within FSX settings. I'm using Nvidia Drivers 180.48 with nHancer v 1.4.2 to set AA and AF within the graphics card drivers. To give me an idea of which settings to use I done a Google search of FSX and nHancer. I've left mine at AA 8S combined and AF 16 within nHancer.Terry

[Guest JNS]

I think they have them in stock at quiet PC http://www.quietpcusa.com/Thermalright-Ult...er-P507C61.aspxyou may want to contact them to be sure before ordering but according to the site they are in stock

Thanks again, Nick. I called QuietPC and ordered the cooler today. Very nice salesman answered. They don't have the actual retail box in stock yet, but are selling a "kit" as he called it which consists of the Ultimate 120-Extreme, the LGA1366 bracket, and the fan and its plastic mounting bracket. These are all of the parts that come in the "retail" package, just in three separate boxes. The price for the kit is the same as retail, $74.95. Just thought I would let everyone know the status of the coolers there.Now, let the games begin!Jeff

[Guest Nick_N]

Thanks again, Nick. I called QuietPC and ordered the cooler today. Very nice salesman answered. They don't have the actual retail box in stock yet, but are selling a "kit" as he called it which consists of the Ultimate 120-Extreme, the LGA1366 bracket, and the fan and its plastic mounting bracket. These are all of the parts that come in the "retail" package, just in three separate boxes. The price for the kit is the same as retail, $74.95. Just thought I would let everyone know the status of the coolers there.Now, let the games begin!Jeff

Thats where I got my bracket a few weeks agoGood people there... Im giving away my little cubby holes for parts on that one :( I hate noise.. even clocked to the hilt all my towers are dead silent at idle or normal use.. If I am using them for rendering under max load they do not exceed a 32db noise level and all are on air controlled by Speedfan,... but I also replace the VC cooler too and install my own PMW fan for total VC temp/fan speed control using Rivatuner.I use Sony fluid dynamic bearing case fansThe PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750 is also nearly silent under full load and dead silent under normal use.. love that PSUyou can hear a pin drop in the room with my towers I just got in so I will look for those clocking guides tomorrow

[lost16 0]

I have made some obsevations when running FSX on an i7 CPU. My old rig was an E8600 overclocked to 4.33Ghz. My new rig is an i7 965, initially at 3.2Ghz but now overclocked to 4Ghz. I used the same OS, Vista 64 and graphics card, a 280 GTX. I mostly fly over the UK using photo scenery with addon airports/scenery such as Aerosoft Heathrow, VFR London and UK2000 airports. The ai I use is My Traffic X. I normally keep scenery complexity to dense and autogen to medium for when I'm flying outside the UK. With the E8600 at 4.33Ghz and the i7 at 3.2 Ghz, the average FPS were slightly higher on the E8600. These are just numbers however and when actually flying, the i7 was far smoother and fluid, more akin to X-Plane's smoothness. It gave the impression that the FPS were higher. When flying over photo scenery, all 4 cores are being heavily utilized however when flying over default scenery, 3 cores aren't being used much at all except when approaching a city or major airport. I put the smoothness of the i7 down to the fact it has more cores than the E8600 and a much faster memory interface so it can load and process data more quickly.I like to fly with the FPS at least 20, preferably more, however when flying into very dense scenery areas such as KJFK in PMDG 747, the FPS still dropped to the mid to low teens which I notice and it spoils the illusion of flight a bit for me. I decided to overclock the i7 and managed to acheive 4Ghz with voltages and temperatures well within Intel Specs, suilable for 24/7 use. As a test for my own information, I used Fraps to measure average FPS on a flight from EGLC (London City) to EGLL (Heathrow), over Aerosoft London with photo scenery installed in the Flight 1 ATR 72. The E8600 @ 4.33Ghz and i7 @ 3.2Ghz both managed around 15 FPS average however the min FPS for the E8600 was 2 as opposed to 8 for the i7. Both maxed out at 27 FPS. The i7 overclocked to 4Ghz managed an average 18 FPS with a min 10 and again, a max of 27 FPS. Switching Hyperthreading on and off in the Bios didn't make any difference to performance except that Task Manager shows up with 8 cores. These are really worst case scenarios, flying over really dense areas with a complex addon aircraft with ai traffic at 40 % etc. Normally, with my settings in default scenery areas, the FPS stays well above 30 with either CPU. I think that the i7 is definately a faster CPU for FSX, certainly making for much smoother flights however it's not a massive improvement even when overclocked and I still found myself tweaking the FSX.CFG file. FSX is definately CPU bound, running the actual flying part on one core and scenery loading on the remainder. I don't think a CPU will be released in the lifespan of FSX which will allow all the sliders set to maximum over complex scenery areas. For this, you would need a CPU clocked to at least 8Ghz regardless of the architecture.

A large part of the FPS hit on either rig is the choice of using the Flight 1 ATR. Aside from issues with Sp2 and Vista64, it is just a conversion. Model was built using FS9 SDK and just ported over to run on FSX. To see an example of this use a Carenado 182Q FS9/adapted for FSX, then use the newer FSX/DX10 182Q (model converted to FSX SDK format). Even on my old E6700, I get a 10+ fps difference between the two. I think a more objective evaluation would be using FSX scenery, FSX optimized complex A/C (PMDG MD-11 comes to mind), FSX SDK built AI (not the current FS9 AI that is mostly being used now) and FSX weather program (ASX,FTX,REX)

[Guest djt01]

The PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750 is also nearly silent under full load and dead silent under normal use.. love that PSUyou can hear a pin drop in the room with my towers

Although it

[Guest Nick_N]

Although it

[Guest djt01]

And your point is?and by the way,,, just an FYI.. Seasonic did not start manufacturing them for PC until OCZ purchased PCP&C

As I remember it PC Power and Cooling released the 750 Silencer before the OCZ purchase was finalized. Like I said before I

[davethewave2 20]

Well, i just had a go at overclocking the little baby!Quite impressed with the result so far.Info here core i7 overclock (a bit!)