Hi AllI am thinking of upgrading my pc.My current pc is Q6600 @3.2, 4 gigs Ram and nvidia 480gtx.At medium settings in fsx and pmdg 747 I get 10fps.I only fly the 747 or level d 767.I have most scenery add ons.Any ideas please which of the above will give the best frame gains.I will appreciate all the ideas.Many thanks.Qas

Neither would give you huge gains. The i3 is a two core CPU which will probably have a negative effect on performance in FSX, and the QX9770 should bring an improvement, considering you already got the best G-Card you can possibly have in Flight Sim. The QX will probably overclock like a banshee, too. :DIf you can get it at a decent price, that's probably the better option, unless you intend on switching to the LGA1156 platform and buying an i5-760 or an i7 in the near future. If that's the case, the i3 may work as an interim solution.

Yeah I agree on the i3 choice if only for the purpose of future upgrades. The QX9770 is the top of socket 775 and your next upgrade will have to be to either socket 1156 of 1366 anyways so save yourself a few hundred now I guess. And the i3 550 is right now $150 and the QX9770 is a ridiculous price of over a thousand for new and $500 used.

Hi Many thanks for your comments.I am thinking of buying a used QX9770-I am looking at one on ebay.I have a limited budget and my thinking is can I achieve reasonable improvement by just changing the cpu.Ideally new upgrade would be welcomed-but I think that may be mid next year.I have thought about liquid cooling the Q6600 but friends tell me there is not much more I can get out of the Q6600.Bearing in mind these comments -would you advise the qx9770 if I could get it around £250 .There is Qx9660 for £216-is there much difference between the QX9770 and the Qx9660.Many thanks.Qas

Hi Many thanks for your comments.I am thinking of buying a used QX9770-I am looking at one on ebay.I have a limited budget and my thinking is can I achieve reasonable improvement by just changing the cpu.Ideally new upgrade would be welcomed-but I think that may be mid next year.I have thought about liquid cooling the Q6600 but friends tell me there is not much more I can get out of the Q6600.Bearing in mind these comments -would you advise the qx9770 if I could get it around £250 .There is Qx9660 for £216-is there much difference between the QX9770 and the Qx9660.Many thanks.Qas

Yes the Q6600 is quite hard to overclock no point in liquid cooling. Get the best quad you can afford.

If you have no issues buying a new mobo and RAM go for... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067&cm_re=i5_760-_-19-115-067-_-ProductIf not I'd say the QX9770 is a good deal but make sure it's in good condition before you buy.

Hi AllI think I will go with the i5 760.My local trader Scan-in UK-has one for £144-they are offering a bundle overclocked @ 4.00 Ghz.Does this sound ok- 4.00 Ghz on air-could I push it any higher.many thanks.Qas

Hi AllI think I will go with the i5 760.My local trader Scan-in UK-has one for £144-they are offering a bundle overclocked @ 4.00 Ghz.Does this sound ok- 4.00 Ghz on air-could I push it any higher.many thanks.Qas

It's a good overclocker but honestly you need either watercooling to go farther or either a Noctua nh-d14 or Venemous X something really high end.