Hi everybody. I need some advice for the upgrade I’m about to make for my computer. I just bought a new power supply Thermaltake 600W yesterday and I’m wondering if that’s going to be enough for my upgrades. I already have the Nividia GTS 250 1Gb DDR3 graphics card and want to keep it for a bit. But are these upgrades going to help increase my FSX performance very much? Or do you have some suggestions? Overclocking? By the way my budget is very low and I don’t know much about sell building a computer. Buying: ASUS P7P55D-E Pro - LGA 1156 - Intel P55 - DDR3 - USB 3.0 SATA 6Gb/s - ATX Motherboard Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366 Desktop Processor Cooler Master RR-B10-212P-G1 Hyper 212 Plus 775/1156/1366/AMD/AM2/AM3 Universal Direct Contact Heat-Pipe 120mm Fan CPU Cooler Already have: FSX SP2, FS9;# Intel Pentium Dual-Core Processor E5300 2.6GHz # 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz Bus Speed # 4096MB DDR2 RAM (2 x 2048MB) # NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1Gb 256bit DDR3 Graphics # 750GB (7200RPM) SATA Hard DriveWINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM; Joystick Saitek X52 Flight Control <br style="" clear="all"> Thanks

That motherboard is not compatible with the i7 950 nor the RAM you currently have. You'll need a socket 1366 motherboard and new DDR3 RAM in triple channel configuration (three sticks of 2GB etc). The Gigabyte USB3 is a good 1366 budget board for i7 950 (although the words 'budget' and '1366' probably don't belong in the same sentence):http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128456If you don't want to go the 1366 route, you can stick with 1156 and get an i7 870 or 875K (keeping your proposed motherboard):http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115213You'll still need DDR3 RAM but in dual channel mode (two sticks of 2GB etc)You *might* be able to find a board that supports DDR2 RAM as well as 3 but I'm not for certain on that.Once you do that I recommend overclocking the 950 or 870, and then you'll discover your GTS 250 (low end true budget card) is the weakest link. A balanced card for your new proposed system would be a GTX 460/470/570/580.

Thanks for the advice. I was wondering some compatibility issue. I think I can go with 1366 motherboard. For the RAM I plan on buying this asap:Corsair Dominator 6 GB PC3-12800 1600MHz Triple Channel Core i7 DDR3 CAS 8 Memory KitI'l upgrade my graphics card to the GTX470 maybe next year when the prices go down a bit.

Ok, that's not bad ram at all, but if you can find it, I'd go with Mushkin's lower latency redline stuff:http://www.mushkin.com/Memory/Redline/998691.aspxHowever this stuff is being phased out by:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226172&cm_re=mushkin_ddr3_12800-_-20-226-172-_-Product

No matter what route you go down, 600W isn't enough. The 1366 needs minimum 750W with a solid PSU such as a corsair HX or TX750. That cooler isn't all up to scratch for OCing. Don't be fooled by the word hyper in it's title. A Noctua NH-D14 is the best air cooler out there, and corsair H70 liquid cooling is also excellent.

No matter what route you go down, 600W isn't enough. The 1366 needs minimum 750W with a solid PSU such as a corsair HX or TX750. That cooler isn't all up to scratch for OCing. Don't be fooled by the word hyper in it's title. A Noctua NH-D14 is the best air cooler out there, and corsair H70 liquid cooling is also excellent.

I was almost certain that 600W wouldn't be enough. Maybe something around 800W will do cause I plan on over-clocking the processor up to 4ghz maybe.

Ok, that's not bad ram at all, but if you can find it, I'd go with Mushkin's lower latency redline stuff:http://www.mushkin.c...ine/998691.aspxHowever this stuff is being phased out by:http://www.newegg.co...6-172-_-Product

That's seems good to despite the price!

No matter what route you go down, 600W isn't enough. The 1366 needs minimum 750W with a solid PSU such as a corsair HX or TX750. That cooler isn't all up to scratch for OCing. Don't be fooled by the word hyper in it's title. A Noctua NH-D14 is the best air cooler out there, and corsair H70 liquid cooling is also excellent.

The 212 is not a bad cooler at all. Obviously the DH14 is better... but at a cost ;) The 212 would get him up to 3.8 fairly easy.