I've just placed an order for some components to upgrade my old Q6600 system to an i7 system and will hopefully experience a nice boost in FSX performance. My old system is:Q6600 @ 3.6GHzArtctic Freezer Pro 7 cooler4G DDR2 800MHz RAM (2 x 4G paired)Gigabyte DS3 motherboard8800 GTS 640MB video card480W Antec True Power Power SupplyVista Home Premium 64Matrox TH2G (3 x 19" LCDs @ 3840 x 1024)The new bits I have ordered are:i7 950 @ 3.06GHzCorsair H50 watercooling kit6G DDR3 1600MHz RAM (3 x 2G matched)Gigabyte X58A-UD3R motherboardThermaltake 775W Toughpower XT Power SupplyWindows 7 Home Premium 64I am planning to OC the CPU up to 4GHz and hopefully beyond. I'm keeping the 8800 GTS for now and will see whether the rest of the stuff I have purchased brings FSX into line before upgrading this component. My past FS benchmarking experience is that video card plays a very minor role in FS performance, even when running a TH2G setup with AA/AF turned up, but it is easy enough to upgrade later if it does play a more significant role.I'll do some FSXMark07 runs before and after the upgrade so people can get an idea of the worth of doing such an upgrade. My i7 is on backorder, so it may be a week or two before I get back with both the before and after results.Gary

I've just placed an order for some components to upgrade my old Q6600 system to an i7 system and will hopefully experience a nice boost in FSX performance. My old system is:Q6600 @ 3.6GHzArtctic Freezer Pro 7 cooler4G DDR2 800MHz RAM (2 x 4G paired)Gigabyte DS3 motherboard8800 GTS 640MB video card480W Antec True Power Power SupplyVista Home Premium 64Matrox TH2G (3 x 19" LCDs @ 3840 x 1024)The new bits I have ordered are:i7 950 @ 3.06GHzCorsair H50 watercooling kit6G DDR3 1600MHz RAM (3 x 2G matched)Gigabyte X58A-UD3R motherboardThermaltake 775W Toughpower XT Power SupplyWindows 7 Home Premium 64I am planning to OC the CPU up to 4GHz and hopefully beyond. I'm keeping the 8800 GTS for now and will see whether the rest of the stuff I have purchased brings FSX into line before upgrading this component. My past FS benchmarking experience is that video card plays a very minor role in FS performance, even when running a TH2G setup with AA/AF turned up, but it is easy enough to upgrade later if it does play a more significant role.I'll do some FSXMark07 runs before and after the upgrade so people can get an idea of the worth of doing such an upgrade. My i7 is on backorder, so it may be a week or two before I get back with both the before and after results.Gary

It looks good except maybe the Corsair H50 particularly if you want to overclock to 4ghz. The H70 would be more appropriate or a Noctua nh-d14 for example for roughly the same price as the H50. The next weak link is the 8800gts of course...Pierre

It looks good except maybe the Corsair H50 particularly if you want to overclock to 4ghz. The H70 would be more appropriate or a Noctua nh-d14 for example for roughly the same price as the H50. The next weak link is the 8800gts of course...Pierre

Thanks Pierre.I don't mind high temps under load, as long as the CPU is stable, so I am hoping the H50 will be good enough to get me there. It's gotta be better than my Arctic Freezer 7 Pro, which has served me well for the last three years of high overclocking with my Q6600 despite high temps (only when stress testing though).And yep, the 8800 GTS is getting a bit old in the tooth but at least that's one component I can easily upgrade later if it puts my new system out of balance. Any specific recommendations for one that FSX likes to play along with (driver wise too)?Parts were shipped today, so hopefully I'll get my stuff up and running before next weekend.Gary

Wow Gary's back!It plays well with a GTX480 if your pocketbook can afford it :Big Grin: Otherwise think GTX460/470

Wow Gary's back!It plays well with a GTX480 if your pocketbook can afford it :Big Grin: Otherwise think GTX460/470

Ryan,Yes indeedy. I had a break from FSing altogether over the last year, but have recently cranked it back up. I don't know what it is about it, but I just enjoy the challenge of simulated flight, especially in older complex birds like the SSTSIM Concorde. If FSX goes well enough after the upgrade, the new Flight Sim Labs Concorde might be on the cards for me.I'm definitely considering a video card upgrade, but I'd hate to do it without knowing how good my current card will run in its new supercharged environment so I'll be patient for now. As you suggest, a GTX 4X0 something looks like the go.Gary

On a whim today I went out and bought a GTX460 for my new system, not so much for FS but for a few other games I play or want to play. Amusingly, FSX turned its nose at the new card, preferring the old 8800 GTS for slightly higher performance (yes I uninstalled drivers first and ran driver cleaner before installing the new card). FSXMark07 reported a 12/37/23 for the 8800 and 12/34/21 for the GTX460, both at 3840x1024, 4xAA, 8xAF, windowed, global high settings and fingers crossed. FS9 however loved the new card from a graphics quality perspective and I was able to crank things up to 8xS AA, 16X AF and 8X transparency AA. I'm not too worried about the FSX result, as I am about to change to Windows 7 64 bit and do a clean reinstall of everything, but it's funny how FSX continues to be finnicky in its behaviour, well for me at least anyway.My other bits should arrive mid-next week and I'm hoping that FSX will REALLY excite me this time, although I'm not holding my breath :P

I'm looking forward to your report on your upgrade Gary. I built an almost identical system to yours last year:Q6600 @ 3.6GHzNoctua NH-C12P CPU Air Cooler4G DDR2 800MHz RAM (2 x 2G paired)4-4-4-15Gigabyte EP45-UD3L motherboardBFG GTX 285 video card750W PC Power and Cooling Power SupplyWindows 7 64 Bit ProfessionalDual 21 inch CRT monitorsComing from a Pentium 4 3.0 ghz this Q6600 has allowed me to enjoy FSX. I used your great benchmarking tool and was pleased to be able to match your results. I am finding the more complex aircraft a little bit taxing on the ol' Q6600 so once again I am looking at upgrading and once again to a similar system that you have ordered: i7 950 @ 4.0GHz (hopeful overclock)Reusing my same CPU air cooler6G DDR3 1600MHz RAM (3 x 2G matched)Asus P6X58D motherboardStaying with the GTX 285 video card for nowReusing same 750W PC Power and Cooling Power SupplyWindows 7 64 bit professional (hoping Microsoft will let me use the same OS).So I'll be monitoring this forum for your FSXMark07 benchmark runs. Really looking forward to reading them.Ted

I'm looking forward to your report on your upgrade Gary. I built an almost identical system to yours last year:Q6600 @ 3.6GHzNoctua NH-C12P CPU Air Cooler4G DDR2 800MHz RAM (2 x 2G paired)4-4-4-15Gigabyte EP45-UD3L motherboardBFG GTX 285 video card750W PC Power and Cooling Power SupplyWindows 7 64 Bit ProfessionalDual 21 inch CRT monitorsComing from a Pentium 4 3.0 ghz this Q6600 has allowed me to enjoy FSX. I used your great benchmarking tool and was pleased to be able to match your results. I am finding the more complex aircraft a little bit taxing on the ol' Q6600 so once again I am looking at upgrading and once again to a similar system that you have ordered: i7 950 @ 4.0GHz (hopeful overclock)Reusing my same CPU air cooler6G DDR3 1600MHz RAM (3 x 2G matched)Asus P6X58D motherboardStaying with the GTX 285 video card for nowReusing same 750W PC Power and Cooling Power SupplyWindows 7 64 bit professional (hoping Microsoft will let me use the same OS).So I'll be monitoring this forum for your FSXMark07 benchmark runs. Really looking forward to reading them.Ted

Interesting how we are making very similar upgrade jumps Ted. Well, today I received the final bits for my upgrade, so it's just a case of finding the time to change the guts of my computer over and go through that nauseous process of install the OS, FS and everything else. I hope to have it together by the weekend then I'll run the benchmark.Gary

Gary,Long time no see. Glad to see you back!Regards,Bob

Gary,Long time no see. Glad to see you back!Regards,Bob

Thanks Bob! I'm enjoying my foray back into FSing after a year-long break.Assembled the guts last night, but it got too late to do open heart surgery on the case; that's tonights task. Here's a pic of what I have assembled so far:Gary

Thanks Bob! I'm enjoying my foray back into FSing after a year-long break.Assembled the guts last night, but it got too late to do open heart surgery on the case; that's tonights task. Here's a pic of what I have assembled so far:Gary

Thanks for the info so far Gary.I am going to purchase similar components to yourself when I can get excited enough about the improvements in performance that I will get. I don't want to spend the money just to get small improvements as am happy enough with what I have now in the majority of situations. (E6850 @ 3.4, Win 7 64 and 4 gig DDR2)Be interesting to see how your performance is after your setup is complete.

I assembled the new parts over the last few days. Apart from the water cooler radiator protruding too far out of the case and thus stopping me put my case side cover back on, everything went as planned. Early days with overclocking, but so far I have achieved my minimum goal of 4.0GHz at only 1.25V Vcore, passing the 1 hour OCCT stress test with no issues. After haggling with Microsoft product activation ##### on the phone due to too many FSX installs in the last month, I installed FSX and Acceleration this morning. Again, early days of testing but FSX impressed me greatly (for the first time!) when pegged against FSXMark07, pulling in a score of 26/65/46. This is with global high config, 8XAA, 16XAF, TH2G windowed at 3840x1024. Contrast this with my last run at the same settings on my Q6600 @ 3.6GHz after installing the GTX460, which yielded a result of 12/34/21. Temp didn't crack more than 42C during the run versus about 60C for the same run on my old rig.Yes folks, that's over DOUBLE :Hypnotized: the FPS of the old setup for min, max AND average FPS and running nearly 20C cooler. I'm wondering whether I am dreaming and that soon I'll wake up to see only 2 FPS more than my old rig and flames coming out of my case. I expected maybe a 50% boost, not this much, but I'm not complaining at all. :Big Grin: Very happy so far and I'll keep you posted on my further test results.

I assembled the new parts over the last few days. Apart from the water cooler radiator protruding too far out of the case and thus stopping me put my case side cover back on, everything went as planned. Early days with overclocking, but so far I have achieved my minimum goal of 4.0GHz at only 1.25V Vcore, passing the 1 hour OCCT stress test with no issues. After haggling with Microsoft product activation ##### on the phone due to too many FSX installs in the last month, I installed FSX and Acceleration this morning. Again, early days of testing but FSX impressed me greatly (for the first time!) when pegged against FSXMark07, pulling in a score of 26/65/46. This is with global high config, 8XAA, 16XAF, TH2G windowed at 3840x1024. Contrast this with my last run at the same settings on my Q6600 @ 3.6GHz after installing the GTX460, which yielded a result of 12/34/21. Temp didn't crack more than 42C during the run versus about 60C for the same run on my old rig.Yes folks, that's over DOUBLE :Hypnotized: the FPS of the old setup for min, max AND average FPS and running nearly 20C cooler. I'm wondering whether I am dreaming and that soon I'll wake up to see only 2 FPS more than my old rig and flames coming out of my case. I expected maybe a 50% boost, not this much, but I'm not complaining at all. :Big Grin: Very happy so far and I'll keep you posted on my further test results.

Impressive. Yes, you should be happy. Keep us posted. What are you planning for the water cooler radiator? I am off to Norway tomorrow, will read about your updates from there.Pierre

Impressive. Yes, you should be happy. Keep us posted. What are you planning for the water cooler radiator? I am off to Norway tomorrow, will read about your updates from there.Pierre

I'm not too concerned about the open side case caused by the water cooler sticking out as that side of my case goes up against the drawer of my desk, so it's not obvious at all. I'm just going to leave it for now and see how it fares with the dust bunnies.Got around to doing a run at stock CPU settings (3.06GHz) and the default memory setting of 1066 (even though my memory is 1600). FSXMark07 result is 21/64/37. This is still pretty impressive, especially that my lowest FPS (which is what I really care about) is up from 12 with my Q6600 working its guts out to 21 on the new rig. And as usual with FSX, there is a neglible difference in result if I have AA/AF and transparency AA cranked up 8x/16x/8x respectively or turn them completely off. They do make a difference to memory use though, with the full settings consuming over 500MB video memory in this benchmark and up to 900MB flying around elsewhere in cloudier conditions. This is only when spanning 3 screens, with only 1/3 of these memory use readings on a single 1280x1024 screen. I'm glad I got the 1GB version to go with my TH2G setup.

Excellent news! Don't forget some screenshots ;)