I've got the Hyper 212+ cooling my OC'd i3-540. It's a great budget cooler safely taking my i3-540 from 3.06ghz to 4.416ghz. Even at crazier, chip frying Vcores of 1.6V+, the 212 keeps things well under 75 deg C under Prime95 load. However, the tube of thermal paste mine came with was tiny. I had a tube of arctic cooling MX-3 from another project. Who knows if so-called high quality paste makes a big difference? (http://www.hardwarel...eview.php?id=14) Either way, I would recommend buying another tube of paste because I thought the tube that came with the 212+ was pitiful, especially if you use a plastic card to spread it. Most of that tube got stuck on the card!The MX-3 is also very easy to spread into a nice thin layer. Just google a howto on it. It seems that the most common mistake is too much paste.

I've got the Hyper 212+ cooling my OC'd i3-540. It's a great budget cooler safely taking my i3-540 from 3.06ghz to 4.416ghz. Even at crazier, chip frying Vcores of 1.6V+, the 212 keeps things well under 75 deg C under Prime95 load. However, the tube of thermal paste mine came with was tiny. I had a tube of arctic cooling MX-3 from another project. Who knows if so-called high quality paste makes a big difference? (http://www.hardwarel...eview.php?id=14) Either way, I would recommend buying another tube of paste because I thought the tube that came with the 212+ was pitiful, especially if you use a plastic card to spread it. Most of that tube got stuck on the card!The MX-3 is also very easy to spread into a nice thin layer. Just google a howto on it. It seems that the most common mistake is too much paste.

Yeah i got the artic silver one, i think. Its from AS anyway. And budget is ok for me, im not interested in OCing to 4.5 or anything just get it to 4ghz and the rest of my time i want to spend on FSX or other games ;)

Ok, thanks a lot for your replies, im a lot wiser now than i was half a day ago :PWith the help of both of your very informative replies, this is what im probably going to buy: Corsair HX 850W PSU, Intel i7 930 (im still thinking about the 950 although at the vendor im buying at it is not available at untill the end of the month, dont know if i can wait that long :P) If i only want to OC to 4ghz (only lol...) will the 930 cause me problems?Anyway: Cooler master CM690 II Advanced Black, ASUS P6X58D Premium, EVGA (or MSI hmm.) Geforce GTX 460 1GB, Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU, Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz 6GB CL9 and lastly windows 7 64bit EN ;)Im still open to the MSI version, and the 950 is ofcourse the one i'd chose but most of the ones on avsim that i've read about having a 4ghz OC are using the d0 920. Damn i dont know.. Im probably an idiot for even considering buying the 930 when the 950 could be mine for the same price in a month...

No two chips overclock exactly the same, but it seems rare for an i7 to be completely incapable of hitting 4GHz. You shouldn't have to worry about that with either chip. And since the wait is only a couple more weeks, I think even I would wait (impatiently, haha) until your vendor got the 950. All the 9xx series are the same basic chip, and the main difference between two with different numbers is just how well Intel believes a particular one will perform. This whole sorting process is called binning, and it's been discussed here on AVSim before if you want more info. From that perspective, they're not that different, but I'd still reach for the 950 because Intel limits the multipliers you can use after they've been binned. For the 950, you can go up to 23x, but for the 930, the limit is only 21x.At the end of the day it probably doesn't matter too much which brand of video card you get. Recommending the MSI was based mostly on noise, which was a factor for me, but as you've said, isn't one for you. It's also worth noting that a lot of video cards come with a free game or some other sort of promotion, at least in the US, so check those out before you buy.

Thanks again guys, i have two (probably) last questions, i have been looking at the Cooler Master 922 because of the big fans in it and my bad experience with my current PC i'd rather go overkill than be disappointed. How is Cooler master 922 compared to CM690 II Advanced? I heard somewhere that it is a pain to install motherboards and such.And another thing: I looked at Neweggs PSU calculator and with 2 HDD's, 460 in SLI, highend motherboard (which i presume the P6X58D Premium is..) one DVD-RW and 3x 2GB DDR3 it says i should have at least a 890W PSU? is the 850W PSU from corsair out of the picture then? If so that would mean another 100 ca euros :/Oh and one last thing: the mobo im looking at (read above) has 3 PCI-E ports, would that mean a higher than comfortable temp on my 2 460's? As said before these are semi external exhaust and according to what i've read about that it is well suited for either a tight case or SLI, the case 922 isn't very tight but the GPU's would sit close to eachother? And lastly (i know i know, but this is part of my last question ;) ) even if SLI won't do much for FSX, and im okay with that as i will play other games, but will a SLI setup have adverse effect on FSX performance?Thanks again for all your answers so far, means a lot! :)

I have not been in on this thread from the beginning, so please pardon me for commenting at this stage. Take the i950 (I got lucky with my i930) and the 480 GTX which is a must, and please trust me on this: no single or SLI 460s. As good as they are, they are still not good enough for top end performance in FSX. 6G of 1600 mhz (6-8-6-24) Mushkin Redline Ram and a small SSD for FSX will be the cream that raises you to the top. That can become a blazing 50-60 FPS 100% maxed machine. I know, for I have one.Kind regards,

the 480 GTX which is a must, and please trust me on this: no single or SLI 460s. As good as they are, they are still not good enough for top end performance in FSX.

Can you please substantiate this claim because in my experience, backed up with performance benchmarks, FSX does not deliver the performance you suggest with top end video cards over those slightly behind the curve, like 480 versus 460. Show me how much better the 480 is versus the 460 in FSX, because I call BS.

Can you please substantiate this claim...Show me how much better the 480 is versus the 460 in FSX, because I call BS.

Ahhh...Edit: never mind...Have a good day! :Peace: Kind regards,

Ahhh...Edit: never mind...Have a good day! :Peace: Kind regards,

Stephen,I just stumbled upon your 275/470/480 comparo thread and note that you have benchmarked the differences. You should have just pointed me to that thread! I apologise for the tone is which I made my earlier post as you clearly have done some extensive testing. I find it interesting that you acheived the FPS boosts you did from the 275 to 470/480 because, while I have experienced similar smoothness improvements and the ability to run higher AA/AF levels, I haven't seen FPS noticably change going from a 7900 to 8800 to 460 in FSX in my own testing. FSX is a strange beast!Gary

Stephen,I just stumbled upon your 275/470/480 comparo thread and note that you have benchmarked the differences. You should have just pointed me to that thread! I apologise for the tone is which I made my earlier post as you clearly have done some extensive testing. I find it interesting that you acheived the FPS boosts you did from the 275 to 470/480 because, while I have experienced similar smoothness improvements and the ability to run higher AA/AF levels, I haven't seen FPS noticably change going from a 7900 to 8800 to 460 in FSX in my own testing. FSX is a strange beast!Gary

Hey Gary,We are going to be friends! It means a lot to me to have you say that as I really try to be methodical and accurate in all I say. I was clumsy with my words about the 460 GTX. I am a real fan of it and think that the 104 Fermi is in actuality a better chip than the 480 GTX pound for pound and dollar for dollar by a fair margin. What I wanted to say, had I chosen better words, was that the 480 GTX still has the greatest bang at any buck, so if the OP wanted to have the very best ($ value aside), then he needed the very best (480 GTX). I should have added that the 470 and 460 GTX represents the next best, close enough to the top to be contenders, the first only a bit better than the latter.I also want to say welcome back to the hobby. I too am an old timer at this and have sort of drifted in and out over the years with earlier MSFS versions. It is a really hard habit to break, as you have just found out again! Hope we meet up around these parts again soon.Kind regards,

Hi again guys. Thanks Stephen and everyone else for giving me your opinions, this is why i made the thread While you are probably right about the 480 being a little bit better than 2 460's, I have gone ahead and ordered them anyway, because : i will play other games and the reviews i have read has shown that the 460 in SLI is above or at the same level as the 480 in most games. Also i have read many times that FSX is way more CPU dependant than GPU (although i have read threads about tweaks that put more pressure on the GPU). Lastly i am quite used to 15-25 FPS so even a 3/4 or even a steady half of the 50-60 FPS you mentioned would be a great improvement. And i might be wrong but i think that the big difference in FSX performance will come from the i7 950.Speaking of the i7 950, i have ordered it (got it from another vendor) and as i intend to overclock it im looking into aftermarket CPU coolers. The hyper 212 plus was not available () but that gave me an excuse to buy a more expensive one . I am currently looking at the Noctua NH-U12P SE2 and the NH-D14. I would like to buy the NH-D14 because the it seems absolutely amazing from the reviews and tests I've read. I am a little worried however about size. I have bought the HAF 922 and the moderboard i bought was a P6X58D Premium with 3 x 2GB DDR3 CL9. Will the NH-D14 fit? Or can it be made to fit if not (preferably by leaving things intact ofc) Or if that doesn't work does the NH-U12P Fit (seems about the same size however)From what I've read so far the HAF 922 should handle it, but the ram sticks being so close is what worries me the most.Thanks again to all of you

I had similar worries when I was building mine. What I did was just google the motherboard, cooler, and case to see if other people had reported any trouble getting them to fit. I was satisfied when I saw a picture of them all put together, haha.You could also hold off on buying the cooler and just do a little measuring once your other parts come in. After that, it shouldn't be too hard to find the dimensions of the heatsink online and compare that to the amount of room you have.

Hey Gary,We are going to be friends! It means a lot to me to have you say that as I really try to be methodical and accurate in all I say. I was clumsy with my words about the 460 GTX. I am a real fan of it and think that the 104 Fermi is in actuality a better chip than the 480 GTX pound for pound and dollar for dollar by a fair margin. What I wanted to say, had I chosen better words, was that the 480 GTX still has the greatest bang at any buck, so if the OP wanted to have the very best ($ value aside), then he needed the very best (480 GTX). I should have added that the 470 and 460 GTX represents the next best, close enough to the top to be contenders, the first only a bit better than the latter.I also want to say welcome back to the hobby. I too am an old timer at this and have sort of drifted in and out over the years with earlier MSFS versions. It is a really hard habit to break, as you have just found out again! Hope we meet up around these parts again soon.Kind regards,

No worries Stephen and thanks for the welcome back. Last night I put down the tweaking and just started flying around in FSX, enjoying its newfound performance boost. I did encounter a few performance dips below 20 FPS but the effect was no where near as detracting as it would have been at similar FPS on my old system. The new rig is certainly a lot smoother and more pleasurable to fly FSX with, and since that was my original objective I consider my mission to be accomplished!Gary

Hey guys thanks for your replies, i went ahead and ordered it and received the parts this wednesday. Everything is running smooth, and very quiet :P I do have a little higher CPU temp than i would've expected (34-36c), but maybe thats just because i read in a review about 29c being the idle core temp there. Do you know if this is normal or should i check to see i havent used too much/little thermal paste? Also as i will start OC:ing my cpu soon i'd like to know two things that has come up in the different places i have been checking around; what is the 7-7-8-x-x latency thingy for DDR's that i see so often? And what effect does different numbers have in that circumstance? Also: i have heard that the 1600mhz DDR3's, that i have, are "on the edge" so to say, i.e. if i would overclock my 950 to, say 4.0Ghz, and had the DDR3 frequencies follow it could get unstable. First of all is this true? And if so can i just skip the ratio thing and have the ram's stay at the current clock? Would this have any performance effect plus or minus?Lastly, I have a dilemma (and this is the most important question i have): I knew the GPU's would sit tight on my motherboard, but when i installed them i found out how tight, the GPU's sit so close that i cant get my soundblaste x-fi in between them and the cooler on the outer card blocks the second pci-port, result: no soundcard. Now i think i could get the soundblaster to fit between the graphic cards if i but the outer card on the 8x PCI-e slot. This is my dilemma: with the integrated HD audio there is a noticable degradation in audio quality, it sounds like the sounds are coming from inside a box. But i have read that there is a performance drop when putting a graphics card on a 8x pci-e slot. My question is ofcourse: is this performance drop (in FSX) justified to skip the pci-card? I have read about a 1-4 drop in fps (2500x1200 saw the highest drop) in GPU intensive fps-games. I guess im answering my own question here, but do you guys think that i would do the right decision to put one GPU in the 8x pci-e slot and put a pci-card inbetween?Oh just to be safe, i don't think this is the case but if the clearance was not enough between the first card and the middle pci-slot would it be possible to set the first card in the second 16x slot and the second card in the 8x slot? This would let me have the pci-card "behind" the first gpu. (hope you understand what i mean.)Anway,thanks in advance

Hey guys thanks for your replies, i went ahead and ordered it and received the parts this wednesday. Everything is running smooth, and very quiet :P I do have a little higher CPU temp than i would've expected (34-36c), but maybe thats just because i read in a review about 29c being the idle core temp there. Do you know if this is normal or should i check to see i havent used too much/little thermal paste? Also as i will start OC:ing my cpu soon i'd like to know two things that has come up in the different places i have been checking around; what is the 7-7-8-x-x latency thingy for DDR's that i see so often? And what effect does different numbers have in that circumstance? Also: i have heard that the 1600mhz DDR3's, that i have, are "on the edge" so to say, i.e. if i would overclock my 950 to, say 4.0Ghz, and had the DDR3 frequencies follow it could get unstable. First of all is this true? And if so can i just skip the ratio thing and have the ram's stay at the current clock? Would this have any performance effect plus or minus?Lastly, I have a dilemma (and this is the most important question i have): I knew the GPU's would sit tight on my motherboard, but when i installed them i found out how tight, the GPU's sit so close that i cant get my soundblaste x-fi in between them and the cooler on the outer card blocks the second pci-port, result: no soundcard. Now i think i could get the soundblaster to fit between the graphic cards if i but the outer card on the 8x PCI-e slot. This is my dilemma: with the integrated HD audio there is a noticable degradation in audio quality, it sounds like the sounds are coming from inside a box. But i have read that there is a performance drop when putting a graphics card on a 8x pci-e slot. My question is ofcourse: is this performance drop (in FSX) justified to skip the pci-card? I have read about a 1-4 drop in fps (2500x1200 saw the highest drop) in GPU intensive fps-games. I guess im answering my own question here, but do you guys think that i would do the right decision to put one GPU in the 8x pci-e slot and put a pci-card inbetween?Oh just to be safe, i don't think this is the case but if the clearance was not enough between the first card and the middle pci-slot would it be possible to set the first card in the second 16x slot and the second card in the 8x slot? This would let me have the pci-card "behind" the first gpu. (hope you understand what i mean.)Anway,thanks in advance

About the overclocking/RAM i'll commentThe 7-7-8 is the latency which will make the RAM run faster if the timming is tighter. When your overclocking and stressing the RAM keep those timmings at default.The thing with the DDR3 1600 is that if you have to put the RAM frequency over 1600MHz you might have some instability. Most RAM dosen't really respond well to overclock. I wouldn't set the frequency to more that 700Mhz higher that stock. And second of all you have to up the BCLK frequency to overclock which directly bumps up the RAM frequency. Remember RAM SPEED (mhz)= BCLK X Memory Multiplier so if you set the BCLK higher the RAM speed can go higher. depending on what the closest mutipiler has to be i.e. 8, 10, 12To claclulate the RAM speed you would take the stock frequency (1600) divide by teh BCLK and use that numer (rounded) as the memory multiplier.ex 1600/160= 10

Check out some of the USB sound cards. You won't need anything inside the box which may aid cooling.