Hi,Last Friday my computer suffered a lightning strike during an electric storm that ruined my Asus P6T Deluxe / I7-940@3,7 Ghz system. First it seemed that only the Ethernet ports gave up, then I realized that the PSU was gone too. I changed the PSU (Corsair HX750W) and installed a PCI-E network card to have a working ethernet port and then all hell broke loose and basically the system became totally unstable. So all in all I am sure the mobo got fried as well - I am lucky if the CPU is OK although I have no means to test it right now.Basically my problem is that I have assembled this system last spring when these components were still quite expensive and now looking at the prices I am surprised to realize that not much development has happaned on the mobo/cpu side of the hardware front. More or less I need to look into rebuying the same system as the I7-980X and the like are still very expensive. Normally I upgrade every 3 years and I manage to buy something classed above my existing system as I went down the P4-2400 - Core2Duo-2400 - I7-940 upgrade route. As I am facing an unforeseen upgrade right now I am stumped that I cannot really step even a little bit ahead as seemingly top of the line motherboards have not changed at all and as far as CPUs are concerned the only news compared to last spring are the I5, I3 line CPUs which are inferior to my existing one.Do you really think I am best off rebuying the same Asus P6T Deluxe V2 I have currently and an I7-940 or 930 in case my CPU is gone also or are thre some reasonable alternative upgrades where I actually manage to step ahead a little bit performancewise. I have the Gigabyte GTX285 GPU and I do not intend to change that.I am looking forward to receiving your valuable insight.Alex

OK as there are totally no replies I try to reformulate. Is a P6T Deluxe V2 with an I7-940 Overclocked to 3,8 - 4,0 still considered to be close to state of the art from a performance point of view or there are some newer components that I should rather get as a replacement - some newer components that would bring some tangible benefits.Thanks,Alex

Out of curiosity, what UPS or surge suppressor did you have on it?

Nothing otherwise I would not have suffered the strike if that is what you mean. To be honest using an UPS is mostly still more typical in a company setting protecting the servers.

IF your CPU is dead, which i assume it is if your motherboard is: why a 940? get a 930 or 920 which is less money and you'll get the same overclocking that you previously had. You could even go with an i5. its a different socket but its still a quad core and they overclock just as well. If you use your computer mostly for FS then an i7 wont make a difference ( unless its one of the six-core i7's) because FSX doesnt support hyperthreading. IMO your not going to notice a performance difference between an i5 or an i7unless your willing pay 900 to 1,000 USD for a six-core i7 processor.

well said, an I5 is equal to I7 9xx except for HT and tripple channel.not sure why you think a 980 would be an upgrade though, except for the fact that it's 32nm so it overclocks better, it's still the same thing anywaymost games (FSX is no exception and will never be) are not optimized to run on more than two cores, so I'm pretty sure a dirt cheap I3 530 on a 100-150$ P55 board overclocked to 4.2GHz (it's also 32nm technology!) will run FSX just as any I7 9xxI'll be playing the guinea pig soon as I order an I3 530 and should have it up and running in a couple of weeks when I'm done OCing it

IF your CPU is dead, which i assume it is if your motherboard is: why a 940? get a 930 or 920 which is less money and you'll get the same overclocking that you previously had. You could even go with an i5. its a different socket but its still a quad core and they overclock just as well. If you use your computer mostly for FS then an i7 wont make a difference ( unless its one of the six-core i7's) because FSX doesnt support hyperthreading. IMO your not going to notice a performance difference between an i5 or an i7unless your willing pay 900 to 1,000 USD for a six-core i7 processor.

Nothing otherwise I would not have suffered the strike if that is what you mean. To be honest using an UPS is mostly still more typical in a company setting protecting the servers.

NOT~You can buy a full featured one for half the price of a high-end video card! This should be the first thing you buy before you spend a dime on replacing your system. Also, there has been a number of times where the power has shut down for five minutes or so, and I have merrily carried on with what I was doing....the UPS was keeping everything working happily away.

A UPS may be a little overkill for most users, unless your power outages are frequent, but you should at the least get a surge protector.

IF your CPU is dead, which i assume it is if your motherboard is: why a 940? get a 930 or 920 which is less money and you'll get the same overclocking that you previously had. You could even go with an i5. its a different socket but its still a quad core and they overclock just as well. If you use your computer mostly for FS then an i7 wont make a difference ( unless its one of the six-core i7's) because FSX doesnt support hyperthreading. IMO your not going to notice a performance difference between an i5 or an i7unless your willing pay 900 to 1,000 USD for a six-core i7 processor.

An I5 is dual core I am afraid... It does offer 4 logical cores but there is only two physical ones. Nevertheless I was wondering about these - namely the i5-670 - however where I live it costs exactly the same as the I7-930. I would probably never buy an I7-940 as that is a discontinued model with the old c0 stepping however still debating about the I7 or I5 platform. My gut feeling is that life (and games development) is moving towards multicore optimization so in that respect the I7 platform is safer for the future. (that was the original reason why I had the P6T a year ago together with the 940.Alex

A UPS may be a little overkill for most users, unless your power outages are frequent, but you should at the least get a surge protector.

My new PSU that I installed is supposedly equipped with one (a Corsair HXU-750W) or did you think about a separate one? Never heard that stuff like that existed.Alex

he meant the I5 750 (45nm quad core)if you play other games, then it might be the way to go, yes. better choice than a C0 stepping 920 as it won't overclock so well and tripple channel is unnecessary

An I5 is dual core I am afraid... It does offer 4 logical cores but there is only two physical ones. Nevertheless I was wondering about these - namely the i5-670 - however where I live it costs exactly the same as the I7-930. I would probably never buy an I7-940 as that is a discontinued model with the old c0 stepping however still debating about the I7 or I5 platform. My gut feeling is that life (and games development) is moving towards multicore optimization so in that respect the I7 platform is safer for the future. (that was the original reason why I had the P6T a year ago together with the 940.AlexMy new PSU that I installed is supposedly equipped with one (a Corsair HXU-750W) or did you think about a separate one? Never heard that stuff like that existed.Alex