The wait is over.The Eagle has landedBliss is here....and on, and on....1. Super crisp textures2. Super crisp sound with fantastic engine rasp where you'd expect it.3. STELLAR control and force-effect with my new Logitech Force 3D Pro (this...needs a review all on its own...with frame rates either locked at a steady never-go-below 30, or unlimited at 60/70 fps.)After having set up UTX Can and U.S., GEXenhanced, etc on the new 730x, I just came off of my first flight.I am blown away. I can't BELIEVE what visual CRAP I had been so used to...and put up with, for having no choice. FSX-UTX-GEXhanced is simply BEAUTIFUL to behold when everything is crisp from 10 feet off the ground, up to the FL's.Edit: and oh...I haven't even tried yet to overclock yet, the i7-975...all this with the system idling along at stock settings. I feel no pressure to overclock..until I get some flying time to bring me up to speed of what the developers WANTED FSX to look and run like! :) The way I 'see' it' if you excuse the pun...overclocking will just be 'gravy'.I am happy, and satisfied BEYOND BELIEF. This 730x/i7-975/nVidia GTX-285 was WORTH EVERY DOLLAR SPENT!THIS......THIS......is Flight Simulation, folks....Cheers!, and back to the sky....a totally REAL experience now! Later,....Mitch

Add Orbx and some add on airports, and REX, and see how you feel then.I'm having some fun too.

Nice to see happy folks!What OS are you using Mitch?

Welcome to the club. I have just upgraded to an I7 975 from an E8500. Although both chips run at just under 4GHZ the I7 Quad blows the E8500 out of the water. The I7 runs cooler as well simple overclock to 3.95 GHZ with stock cooler no problem. FSX is coming into its own at last. I use Vista 64 and swapping the Mobo RAM and CPU caused no issues. New activations for Vista and FSX done online in seconds. :(

Nice to see happy folks!What OS are you using Mitch?

------------------------------------------------------I'm using Vista 64 bit, Ultimate. I spend about four hours whipping around the thing...figured out how to turn that blasted Defender and UPC(or whatever you call it...) off. Now it acts much more like XP Pro. I had a couple of issues with trying to load up a couple of programs...but finally got Administrator's rights. Just stuff like that.Vista doesn't seem to be affecting how the i7-975 is putting it to the graphics chore! While I am in full clouds, everything cranks three quarters to the right as my baseline, my CPU is running at a very cool 38 C. In fact, you can hardly feel ANY heat on the back of your hand just in back of the puller fan's exit on the copper-bottom cooler. On my P4, you could have seriously cooked a steak over two hours!!!! This wouldn't even warm a muffin, LOLOLOL.I am so impressed, Dave. BTW, from what I am seeing...and that is crystal-clear scenery now...if there is not another version of FS, ever...then I really have met my goal of hardware that will keep me happy for years, absolute years!This might be my last platform...other than swapping out parts that fail, or increasing storage capacity and such. But needing more horsepower other than what the i7-975/GTX-285 gives? Uh uh....this was THE ONE...:)Mitch

Wait until you get Win 7 on that rig. Way way better than Vista.Cheers jja

Wait until you get Win 7 on that rig. Way way better than Vista.Cheers jja

Yup, when it is published and not before. It gives me another "Upgrade" to wait for. I am also checking out SSDs for FSX partition. Anyone else have any comments on these?

Know how you feel :( I even deleted the century of flight 9 avsim site from my favorites.

Win 7 is SWEET!

------------------------------------------------------I'm using Vista 64 bit, Ultimate. I spend about four hours whipping around the thing...figured out how to turn that blasted Defender and UPC(or whatever you call it...) off. Now it acts much more like XP Pro. I had a couple of issues with trying to load up a couple of programs...but finally got Administrator's rights. Just stuff like that.Vista doesn't seem to be affecting how the i7-975 is putting it to the graphics chore! While I am in full clouds, everything cranks three quarters to the right as my baseline, my CPU is running at a very cool 38 C. In fact, you can hardly feel ANY heat on the back of your hand just in back of the puller fan's exit on the copper-bottom cooler. On my P4, you could have seriously cooked a steak over two hours!!!! This wouldn't even warm a muffin, LOLOLOL.I am so impressed, Dave. BTW, from what I am seeing...and that is crystal-clear scenery now...if there is not another version of FS, ever...then I really have met my goal of hardware that will keep me happy for years, absolute years!This might be my last platform...other than swapping out parts that fail, or increasing storage capacity and such. But needing more horsepower other than what the i7-975/GTX-285 gives? Uh uh....this was THE ONE...:)Mitch

Glad it worked out for you and your happy. Still can't believe you spent 4k though. I don't have a million bucks yet, but I am pretty well off and even I wouldn't spend that much for a Dell. I do have a Dell that I bought in 2003 and it's still humming strong. Used to run FS9 on it back in the day and now it's just my internet computer. I understand your pleased with the look, finish, and warranty, but the one I had built looks great with a nice finish and of course the parts and labor have a warranty as well and at the time was 1/2 the price of a the Dell XPS. Oh well, to each their own.Glad your happy. Now you can start posting some screens :(

Unfortunately the i7-975 CPU is still way too expensive at least here in Europe where it costs around 950 euro (or US$1340) - and this is just the CPU! Add a good Mobo, power supply, a generous amount of RAM, a graphics card and we get a good rig but certainly still too expensive for the majority of FS users!Enjoy your systems guys! RegardsEdmundo

Glad it worked out for you and your happy. Still can't believe you spent 4k though. I don't have a million bucks yet, but I am pretty well off and even I wouldn't spend that much for a Dell. I do have a Dell that I bought in 2003 and it's still humming strong. Used to run FS9 on it back in the day and now it's just my internet computer. I understand your pleased with the look, finish, and warranty, but the one I had built looks great with a nice finish and of course the parts and labor have a warranty as well and at the time was 1/2 the price of a the Dell XPS. Oh well, to each their own.Glad your happy. Now you can start posting some screens :(

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BTW, I re-read my O.P. and was aghast at the bad syntax, etc. I was just so tired, had come off of a plane yesterday, but raced home to have some fun...lol. Post some pictures?!?~? Who would devote the time, LOL?. I'm now flying, and no more squeezing (well...trying to...), tuning, primping, etc....FSX just so it will fly (I now know that is NOT the correct term to use, lol) on a P4 3.4!Truly, my screen resembles all the other user's i7975-based systems. If you look at those, you are also looking at my display.Now..(slapping hands together)...where do we fly today? Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw :)Mitch'er

I am happy, and satisfied BEYOND BELIEF. This i7-975/nVidia GTX-285 was WORTH EVERY DOLLAR SPENT!

I couldn't agree more - a great combination !

Guys, Why spend that much?Save your money and get the I7-920 it will overclock up to heaven and you can spend what you save on a big 30" screen, buy a ton of add-ons or just keep it :)

------------------------------------------------------I'm using Vista 64 bit, Ultimate. I spend about four hours whipping around the thing...figured out how to turn that blasted Defender and UPC(or whatever you call it...) off. Now it acts much more like XP Pro. I had a couple of issues with trying to load up a couple of programs...but finally got Administrator's rights. Just stuff like that.Vista doesn't seem to be affecting how the i7-975 is putting it to the graphics chore! While I am in full clouds, everything cranks three quarters to the right as my baseline, my CPU is running at a very cool 38 C. In fact, you can hardly feel ANY heat on the back of your hand just in back of the puller fan's exit on the copper-bottom cooler. On my P4, you could have seriously cooked a steak over two hours!!!! This wouldn't even warm a muffin, LOLOLOL.I am so impressed, Dave. BTW, from what I am seeing...and that is crystal-clear scenery now...if there is not another version of FS, ever...then I really have met my goal of hardware that will keep me happy for years, absolute years!This might be my last platform...other than swapping out parts that fail, or increasing storage capacity and such. But needing more horsepower other than what the i7-975/GTX-285 gives? Uh uh....this was THE ONE...:)Mitch

Nice :--))I have a quite similar platform with Win7 though.And yes, the i7-9xx/GTX-285 is a wonderful combo to run FSX for years!