I am posting because I am not a techie and am in the limited funds mode presently. I have a 3 1/2 year old machine which basically is an EVGA 680i MB with an E6700 running at 3.6 ghz. Also have the 8800GTX vid card. 4 gigs of Crucial Ballistix RAM, dual channel (I think and I can't remember the speed). Have an old XP Pro op system with the switch so it sees 2.75 gigs of RAM.Bottom line ... Would dropping the bucks for a faster processor with the same socket give any bang for the buck, since I can't afford to buy/build a new system right now? Seems like there was a general concensus as to whether the quad or dual core in that family of processors was better. But I don't remember the conclusion.What choice of processor should that be for the same socket? Seems like some of the Extreme ones that are so much cheaper now were not "locked" when it comes to OC'ing.Considering what I have, if you think I'm just spitting in the wind with this idea ... let me know.Thank you so much, Steve

I am posting because I am not a techie and am in the limited funds mode presently. I have a 3 1/2 year old machine which basically is an EVGA 680i MB with an E6700 running at 3.6 ghz. Also have the 8800GTX vid card. 4 gigs of Crucial Ballistix RAM, dual channel (I think and I can't remember the speed). Have an old XP Pro op system with the switch so it sees 2.75 gigs of RAM.Bottom line ... Would dropping the bucks for a faster processor with the same socket give any bang for the buck, since I can't afford to buy/build a new system right now? Seems like there was a general concensus as to whether the quad or dual core in that family of processors was better. But I don't remember the conclusion.What choice of processor should that be for the same socket? Seems like some of the Extreme ones that are so much cheaper now were not "locked" when it comes to OC'ing.Considering what I have, if you think I'm just spitting in the wind with this idea ... let me know.Thank you so much, Steve

Hi Steve is this system for fsx and fs9 or just for one of the sims? I would wait for others to comment on there experience. I would think something like a E8400 or something like a Quad Processor Q9550 not sure if your motherboard supports it. I'm sort of in the same boat as you I have hopefully some money coming in and unfortunately, my budget will be very small. will try my best to see if I can pull it off, by getting a budget I5 system. if not, going to head for the E8400 overclock it. or if possible a Quad core like the Q9550. I will be flying both sims. its impossible for me right now to get the one I want which is in I7 920 and evga 460 1gb card :( hopefully next time lol.Just checked and it looks like the 45nm quads like the Q9550 and your 680i chipset would be a bad idea. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=304914

This is for FSX only. I didn't know the 680i had such a bad reputation. I read on the anandtech post that a couple of guys flased the BIOS. Believe it or not, I have never done that. Is that something I should do. Will flashing the BIOS change my settings in the current BIOS ... i.e. will I have to set everything up again. It sounds like there is no guarantee the 680i will run the Quads correctly.

If a quad core is not advised I´d go for the E8600, overclocks like it was meant to do nothing else. Should take you to 4 GHz with no problems, just make sure your cooler is up to it. I´d look into what issues the latest BIOS covers. If you should try a quad core anyways, don´t be fooled by the Extreme editions, as for the Q9650 at least, they´ve only unlocked the multiplier. Not a great overclocker, I´ve heard, nothing else fancy about that processor...except the price tag.

A E8600 retails for close to $300......I have my E8400 overclocked to 3.6Ghz on a 1600 FSB. The cpu handles it without breaking a sweat, with core volt. topping 1.14 and temperature in the low 40s under full load. The motherboard on the other hand is working very hard since it's designed to run at a max of 1333 FSB. The north bridge runs hot. Adding a cooling fan to the passive heatsink is the least that should be done.Also check that your ram is getting enough voltage. By default my moboard feeds 1.8v to it and my ram needs 2.1 to run at its designed speed (1066). I added +0.3v to the ram and +0.1v to the north bridge.

I had a Q6600 clocked to 3.6 on a 680i board. Flashing the bios is simple if you follow the steps - do NOT use the windows flash mode - IIRC they also have the awflash utility that is available and a flash utility built in to the BIOS - use either of those.Most BIOS upgrades change voltages and some parameters, usually transparent to the users.I ran FSX quite nicely on the 6600 w/4G ram for a long time - 3.6 will be about it for that CPU.Good luck,Vic

I have the same issues. and I think, I should either wait for first qtr 2011 to see what Intel comes out with or go the i7 route with i7-650 ($299) and get a decent mother board with decent memory totaling $800 and cannibalize everything else from the old PC.

For 800 bucks you should just anout manage a Gigabyte mobo, an i7 950 (now very cheap) or 930, a tad cheaper, and 6gb mushkin ram. No?! Why wait for the next thing, when prices drop and you (I) can afford it, there's the next new thing on the horizon.

I had a Q6600 clocked to 3.6 on a 680i board. Flashing the bios is simple if you follow the steps - do NOT use the windows flash mode - IIRC they also have the awflash utility that is available and a flash utility built in to the BIOS - use either of those.Most BIOS upgrades change voltages and some parameters, usually transparent to the users.I ran FSX quite nicely on the 6600 w/4G ram for a long time - 3.6 will be about it for that CPU.Good luck,Vic

Hi Vic, long time no see! I'm still running my now old Q6600 @ 3.6GHz, which has run FS9 like a champ for the last three years but FSX + TH2G + 4 screens has been a little out of reach for it with anything other than stock aircraft. I see you've moved on to an i7 system, and a top end one at that. Is there any chance you ran a FSXMark07 after your upgrade (I have your before results) so that I can have an idea of whether such an upgrade would be worthwhile for myself and finally make the move to FSX?Gary