Okay, come next week I'll be ordering my 920 system. I opted for the 260 for the video card seeing will make use of the 448 bit even if it won't use the 896mb of vid memory...that could be handy with other games. So I'm wondering if I really need the 6 gigs or will that 3 gigs be fine? I know that FSX won't even use the 5-6th but with it being about $50 more to add I wonder if it's worth it?

This triple channel strategy is attempting to force the issue of a ram buying decision. Generally, it will succeed cuz 3G is just not enough for FSX high horsepower ops. With the bigger CPU's, users are able to slide the bars more to the right. That increases memory load. One might consider 1G to be normal overhead for Vista. At high sliders. FSX will chew up 2Gs easily. I typically have FSX physical loads in the 2.5G range. 1G + 2.5G = 3 is not enough! The i7's triple channel ram tech provides a buss capacity that is simply not needed. Our current dual channel memory buss provides more than enough data transfer capacity for even the DDR3-2000 Uberclockers. Point being, an i7 will happily run in duel channel if only 2 sticks are installed - And - running an i7 in duel channel will not reduce its performance. A builder is thereby provided the opportunity to run 4G via 2x2. The 3rd stick can come later if FS11 really needs it (for $10.95 + free shipping at the EGG in 2011). There is one other thing to consider: If an O/C is planned, DDR3-1600 is the stuff to get. Ram speed is still determined by the BCK (FSB) times a multiplier. That multiplier is 8x. A BCK/FSB of (for instance) 175Mhz will drive the CPU to 20x175=3.5Ghz and the ram to 8x175= 1400. If no O/C is planned, 8 x 133 = DDR3-1066 is the stuff to get. That said, this evening I had a flight and TM running. Physical memory load was 3.7Gs (out of 4) with FS only loaded to ~ 2.5. "Dang, what's up here?" I had to stop and unload something to get the memory usage 'off-the-stop.' No biggie really, but I did have the thought, "if I had 6 on board I coulda just kept on truckin'." 6Gs won't hurt, but it's really such a waste right now, until we get 64bit - Programs- .

This triple channel strategy is attempting to force the issue of a ram buying decision. Generally, it will succeed cuz 3G is just not enough for FSX high horsepower ops. With the bigger CPU's, users are able to slide the bars more to the right. That increases memory load. One might consider 1G to be normal overhead for Vista. At high sliders. FSX will chew up 2Gs easily. I typically have FSX physical loads in the 2.5G range. 1G + 2.5G = 3 is not enough! The i7's triple channel ram tech provides a buss capacity that is simply not needed. Our current dual channel memory buss provides more than enough data transfer capacity for even the DDR3-2000 Uberclockers. Point being, an i7 will happily run in duel channel if only 2 sticks are installed - And - running an i7 in duel channel will not reduce its performance. A builder is thereby provided the opportunity to run 4G via 2x2. The 3rd stick can come later if FS11 really needs it (for $10.95 + free shipping at the EGG in 2011). There is one other thing to consider: If an O/C is planned, DDR3-1600 is the stuff to get. Ram speed is still determined by the BCK (FSB) times a multiplier. That multiplier is 8x. A BCK/FSB of (for instance) 175Mhz will drive the CPU to 20x175=3.5Ghz and the ram to 8x175= 1400. If no O/C is planned, 8 x 133 = DDR3-1066 is the stuff to get. That said, this evening I had a flight and TM running. Physical memory load was 3.7Gs (out of 4) with FS only loaded to ~ 2.5. "Dang, what's up here?" I had to stop and unload something to get the memory usage 'off-the-stop.' No biggie really, but I did have the thought, "if I had 6 on board I coulda just kept on truckin'." 6Gs won't hurt, but it's really such a waste right now, until we get 64bit - Programs- .

It comes with DDR3-1333mhz sticks and I've figured even if the programs don't use 64 bit at this point at least it's one future upgrade that I won't have to worry about. The UD5 allows for 24gigs of the stuff so I definately won't suffer in RAM upgrades later on and I'll still get the upgradable new generation i7 option next year with Westmere.