I have been away from Flight Simulator for about 4 years. I am considering having a local computer shop build a fairly high end computer, primarily for using FSX. I am leaning towards using the XP 32 bit OS, coupled with an Intel i7 950 processer, Nvidia GTX 285 video card and 6 GB Corsair Triple Channel RAM.I exclusively fly GA aircraft (RealAir SF260 and Scout, etc.) and want to get UTX, GEX, terrain mesh, REX2 and possibly Orbx PNW.I am not a hardware guy and don

I am not a hardware guy and don’t feel comfortable overclocking my CPU. Could someone please chime in a comment about how fluid my FPS would be with this rig. Do you think there are many overclocking cowards like me out in the Flight Sim world? How much of a performance penalty will I be paying for not overclocking? Is the penalty roughly 10% or 25% or what?Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

Why not? It's easier than it ever was.I think that not overclocking a CPU is simply like having a car with many HP but only using like a 3rd of power. I read that most are overclocking i7s, just because it's so easy to do it. I am not talking about the extreme OC like I do, which was ridiculously easy to accomplish, but requires very good cooling, but rather something in lines of 3.6-3.8.My FSX works 40% faster with this OC. I think it's worth it. 2.4 -> 4.2 Ghz with watercooling. Check sig.

Don

Try to get the newly released i7 960, it's a bit faster than the 950.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...5-224-_-Product

For now, lets just assume that I am hesitant to do the overclocking

I would say yes absolutely, depending on your sliders and addons.Also as stated 32bit OS is not going to use all that ram, get 3gb or a 64 bit OS.

Another suggestion..if you're having a local store build it for you, why not ask them to overclock it for you? I'm sure they will be more then willing to do a modest overclock for a minimal fee.

Save yourself $300 and just go for the I7-930 for the same exact performace for you., take the money you save and buy the better graphics card or do the deed and buy a better cooler and overclock it, it is easier than pie.Even if you dont want to mess with putting a better cooler on it, you can safely O/C it to 3.3-3.5 with the stock cooler - Dont waste your money!

PDX, I don't overclock. I use an i5 660 (around 3.5ghz with intel's in built turbo boost) with 6gb ram, Win 7 Home premium and Geforce GTX260. FSX is very smooth with good FPS. Sliders are moderate to high. I'm sure if I overclocked I could crank things up a bit more, but I'm happy with it. I can't comment on the i7 processors, but I just wanted to let you know that you don't have to o/c to have a good experience. I think you'd enjoy the rig you propose. But you should follow the advice on overclocking if you want to maximize your investment.

First of all, thanks for all of your replys so far. I find this all fascinating .It appears that there is a

I was driven to OC by necessity in earlier rigs, and I

Add a nice aftermarket cooler and have them install it. See if you can get a copy of XP-64bit with SP2 loaded on the disk. Right now it is the best platform for FSX.I never thought I would OC my CPU until I bought this system (also built by a local shop). I had them do the overclock but once I got home, I started reading the forums again and realized that there are a ton of overclock templates out there. Nick has posed a few things right here on this forum. I used his settings and have never looked back. It was so much easier than I though it would be. Really.Even if you don't, still install a good cooler so you can have the option available.

Check out my rig in my signature, this is an FSX beast. Go with Win7 64b, do not stay in the dark ages with XP, time to move on and up! Go with 6GB of ram with Win7 64b, while FSX will only use 4GB Win7 will use the other 2GB while FSX is running, this make is faster.My motherboard is an Asus P6T Deluxe v2 and it was easy to overclock. Here are some links, read through them, a lot of the reading is duplicated, but it will give you all the information that you need to get started. Getting my rig to 4.2GHz was easy, what took awhile was tweaking voltages and additional stress testing to get rid of the random BSOD's. I got random BSOD's every week to two weeks, but tweaking voltages fixed it. Tweaking is quick, stress testing is what takes awhile.http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?board_...SLanguage=en-ushttp://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclockin...-beginners.htmlhttp://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/...alem_its_limitshttp://forums.pureoverclock.com/showthread.php?t=5736Here is a link to a thread where NickN recommended OC settings for my rig. Note that these settings are for a 920, but they work well for a 950. These settings also include settings for my ram, you will need to adjust accordingly for what ever ram you go with.http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1263037900/0By the way NickN also recommend the parts that went into my rig. GTX285's are getting harder to find by the week, just get the one with the fastest clock that you can find.The memory that he recommend is Mushkin Redline #998691. The below link is for the same memory, but is only for a 6GB application since the spreaders are to wide for a 12GB application.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820226052He only said I needed a 750W PS, I just went with 850W. For the GTX285 you want to get one with a +12V single rail so I would go with a Corsair Corsair CMPSU-850TX or a CMPSU-750TX.Monitor, keyboard, joystick etc. is just whatever you want.Last, but not least, I had MaxForce PC build mine. You should at least have Max give you a quote for the same parts as your local builder, this way you will at least have a price comparison.http://www.maxforcepc.com/Under System Status Reports in the forum my PC is Store PC. I highly recommend Max!Rod

Rod - I see your CPU is clocked to 4.2GHz.Are you able to fly quality payware in big cities with AI traffic with reasonable FPS? I only ask because I haven't seen many people above 4.0GHz, and most of them only tweak and never post screenshots lol.Eventually, what I'd like to enjoy would be the Flight1 Mustang (PMDG MD11, LevelD 767 etc) approaching JFK with payware scenery and Ultimate Traffic with at least 20 fps, preferably 30.

Lian LI PC 50 [Love it, great cooling]Asus P6T [Not deluxe or SE]i7 920 DO6GB OCZ DDR3Noctua NH D-14 cooler [Superb cooler]BFG 7900 GTX. [soon to be replacedWas overcloking to 4.2GHz with total stability at 1.3 volts for CPU voltage and 1.3 volts QPI DRAM Core Volts.Backed off to 4GHz simply because 4.2 was pointless. Now at 4GHz at 1.275 volts.All Intel power saving features, like Turbo and Speed Step are on. HT off.Temps under load, I never see above 50 degrees in FSX.FSX frame rate is high, no issue whatsoever with frame rate, only minor Windows 7 graphical issues. With UTX, REX, F1 Mustang.Frame rate locked at 40 in FSX, rarely see less than that. Medium to high FSX settings.This is with an old 7900GTX card.http://forum.justflight.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=12705Hope it helps in some way. :(