Wow I didn't know there were so many i7 975 users!

I have my i7-920 at 4 GHz now. Best move I ever made. But yes any i7 is great for FSX.

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.

Hi John,Looking at the FSX operation only, what is better with the new I7 975 @ 4 GHz compared to the former E8500 @ 4 GHZ?

I am also checking out SSDs for FSX partition. Anyone else have any comments on these?

Hi John,The FSX and all my add-ons are located on a Ultradrive SSD 128 GB from Super Talent. That is a great solution. All stutter has gone. The texture reload is ultra fast. I don't face any blurries even at high speed flights on low level. I can highly recommend a fast SSD for FSX. :(

Hi John,Looking at the FSX operation only, what is better with the new I7 975 @ 4 GHz compared to the former E8500 @ 4 GHZ?

Briefly, It's the way it handles memory operations. The northbridge is in the cpu instead of the MB and all that information is processed faster. And the i7 is more efficient, 90% available bandwidth vs. 60% for the E8500.-jk

And what faster memory does for the i7 is fantastic. I used to have Corsair DOMs @ 1600 8-8-8-24 and now I'm lucky enough to have a good set of Mushkin 1600 6-6-5-18 sticks that run 1686 same timings (and would do 1708 if my poor 965 would cooperate)! Go get Fly Tampa's Kai Tek and your i7 clocked will run that baby full tilt and it'll be smooth as glass and crystal clear! ManhattanX will be stunning (but a little slower than Kai Tek).Throw some FS Dreamscapes 5m mesh and photoscenery on there. Just wait for those guys...they'll have the whole US pretty soon and a lot of Europe too.There's nothing out there that this chip can't handle well at reasonably high settings and it's all clear and crisp!-jk

I recently built a new I7-920 machine with 6 gig DDR3 and love it. I was wondering if anyone could lead me to a guide for "safely" overclocking it. To the OP, congrats on the new 975...it's nice finally having a computer to run FS well, isn't it?KP

Hi Ken,Try this http://www.overclock.net/index.php.

Hi Ken,Try this http://www.overclock.net/index.php.

Thanks Ralph, I appreciate it!KP

And what faster memory does for the i7 is fantastic. I used to have Corsair DOMs @ 1600 8-8-8-24 and now I'm lucky enough to have a good set of Mushkin 1600 6-6-5-18 sticks that run 1686 same timings (and would do 1708 if my poor 965 would cooperate)! Go get Fly Tampa's Kai Tek and your i7 clocked will run that baby full tilt and it'll be smooth as glass and crystal clear! ManhattanX will be stunning (but a little slower than Kai Tek).Throw some FS Dreamscapes 5m mesh and photoscenery on there. Just wait for those guys...they'll have the whole US pretty soon and a lot of Europe too.There's nothing out there that this chip can't handle well at reasonably high settings and it's all clear and crisp!-jk

Park your plane (any plane) at KSFO, Gate 100. Set your Airline / GA traffic to 75-80%. Do an outside view towards the South. FPS will be around 11 guaranteed!jja

Park your plane (any plane) at KSFO, Gate 100. Set your Airline / GA traffic to 75-80%. Do an outside view towards the South. FPS will be around 11 guaranteed!jja

I loaded up FSX with UT2 full commercial traffic and jetways operational. I landed the default 737 at KATL smooth as silk. It was very surprising as I was only clocking 11FPS (due to the jetway operation I think) by the time I braked to taxi speed I was back up in the high twenties and back to thirty five at the gate. I have never seen FSX performa as smoothly at such a low frame rate. I counted 85 commerical aircraft at the gates using the overhead view.Converting from an E8500 to an I7, particularly the 975, cost big time but the warm fuzzy feeling I now have was worth every penny. As for overclocking a tool came with my Gigabyte EX58-UD5 mobo called Easytune one click took me up to 3.75GHz checked out OK another click took me to 3.95GHZ no problem (except my PC won't recover from a sleep state which is trivial). I am a very happy chappie. :(

Nothing compares to the combination you are talking about here. My new system being built will be ready in about 1 and 1/2 weeks:Jetline Systems Hellfire FX Series Flight Sim PCChassis: CM Storm Scout Mid-Tower ATX, with Red LED Lighting (HellFire Edition) - One button turn off of Red lighting if desired.Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1 (64 Bit) w/ free Windows 7 upgradeProcessor: Intel Core i7 975 Extreme (factory o/c 3.86GHz) Quad Core CPUCPU Cooling: Corsair H50 CPU Liquid Cooling Unit (maintenance free)Mainboard: EVGA X58 SLI System Memory: 6GB (3 x 2GB) Corsair Dominator Triple Channel DDR3 1600MHzGraphics Processor: 1GB EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 System Power: 1200 Watt BFG Tech SLI Power SupplySound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCIePrimary Hard Drive: 300GB WD VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM, Secondary Hard Drive: 750GB Western Digital Black Edition 7200 RPM, 32MB CacheOptical Drive: 22X DVD/CD Burner with Lightscribe TechnologyNetworking: Gigabit Ethernet Controller/ High Speed Internet ReadyKeyboard/Mouse: Logitech 350 USB Keyboard & MouseSystem Testing: Prime95, Memtest, FSX Stability Testing, 48 Hour Burn-inService: 1 Year Hardware Warranty & Lifetime U.S. Based Tech Support Stan

If I were to go from my current E8500 to an i975 would I see significant gains and improvements? Thank you.

If I were to go from my current E8500 to an i975 would I see significant gains and improvements? Thank you.

Looking at you specs, If you got the i7 AND DDR3 1600 CL6 memory AND a GTX285 then yes absolutely you would see gains. You have to replace that 8800 GTS card though. You may want a Vraptor as well. The biggest gains would be in smoothness and clarity and ability to run higher settings, with some framerate improvements but remember, you won't get huge framerate improvements with ANYTHING out there these days yet. But you don't need more than 30 fps.I would never go back to the core2 and DDR2. It was good until the i7 came along but now there's no comparison.-jk

I loaded up FSX with UT2 full commercial traffic and jetways operational. I landed the default 737 at KATL smooth as silk. It was very surprising as I was only clocking 11FPS (due to the jetway operation I think) by the time I braked to taxi speed I was back up in the high twenties and back to thirty five at the gate. I have never seen FSX performa as smoothly at such a low frame rate. I counted 85 commerical aircraft at the gates using the overhead view.Converting from an E8500 to an I7, particularly the 975, cost big time but the warm fuzzy feeling I now have was worth every penny. As for overclocking a tool came with my Gigabyte EX58-UD5 mobo called Easytune one click took me up to 3.75GHz checked out OK another click took me to 3.95GHZ no problem (except my PC won't recover from a sleep state which is trivial). I am a very happy chappie. :(

It is a true indicator that FSX smoothness depends on the CPU clock. I may upgrade my Core 2 to an i7 920. I heard that guys can OC it up to 4.5ghz on air. I have never been able to OC my 6800 extreme beyond 3.75 but even .5ghz makes a huge difference in FSX. Nice system.jja