Its time I made an upgrade to my system for FSX but its so hard to decide between updating my present system or stepping up to new technology.Upgrading my present system of an E6850, with ASUS P5W DH Deluxe and 9700 GTX. This m/b does not O/C very well and so with the Q9650 I will be stuck at almost stock speed. This system will turn out much cheaper as all I need to buy is the cpu.With the i7 920 I would spend more but should be able to O/C to 3.5 Ghz.So which system would give me a significant performance increase over my present E6850?????.

I7 all the way...FSX at high settings gets over 30fps. The lowest is at least 20fps.-Vincent

The ddr3/quickpath/etc aspects of the i7 platform are not provding a performance advantage over the P35/et al platform. However, the i7 is providing an approximate 15% performance increase over the core2, at identical clocks. So. an i7 at 2.6Hhz will will provide approximately equal preformance to a core2 at 3.0. Any i7 clock above 2.6 will begin to outpreform the Q9650 at a stock clock at a 1:1 (clock for clock) ratio. For instance the i7 at 3.5 will provide (about) the same performance at a core2Q at 4.0Ghz. (Just an FYI: to give ya an idea of what you'll get and how much it will cost.)