Here's how I understand it, the 2500K-2600K aka Sandybridge replace the1156 socket chips with the new 1155 socket.The I7 socket 1366 chips will be replaced with a new 1356 socket for highend desktop systems and the socket 2011 will be for the server platform. Supposedly, these will be released Q3 of 2011 and boast quad channel DDR3 memory support plus have 8 cores making 16 threads with HT. This is what I really want.I want to upgrade now but not sure if I should bother with the dual channel 2600K setup. I still think a triple ch 3x4GB setup with X58 will perform right along side the 2600K. Prices are very similar but with the X58 I get 4GB more of ram with benefits of triple ch. Hope this isn't hijacking your thread, I wanted to toss out a list of what I'm looking at.SAMSUNG DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223L LightScribe SupportCOOLER MASTER COSMOS S RC-1100-KKN1-GP Black Aluminum ATX Full TowerWestern Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/sGIGABYTE Super Overclock Series GV-N480SO-15I GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 | 7-7-7-21 | 1.5VGIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATXIntel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-CoreCORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 80 Plus Certified$1,471 with shipping from Newegg minus the pwrsup, I already have that.

Every review I have seen so far tells me that the i5-2500K at 4.6 or 4.77GHz on air out performs every thing out there except very high end 1366 based systems, and even they need to work very hard against the i7-2600K at a fraction of their price. To be honest, if I bought a decent system in the last twelve months, I think I would be pretty peeved at the moment.

I would have waited until the i9s came out.

...Hope this isn't hijacking your thread, I wanted to toss out a list of what I'm looking at.SAMSUNG DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223L LightScribe SupportCOOLER MASTER COSMOS S RC-1100-KKN1-GP Black Aluminum ATX Full TowerWestern Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/sGIGABYTE Super Overclock Series GV-N480SO-15I GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 | 7-7-7-21 | 1.5VGIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATXIntel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-CoreCORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 80 Plus Certified$1,471 with shipping from Newegg minus the pwrsup, I already have that.

Consider an i5-2500k saving $70, A GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD4 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard saving $50, and CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9 Memory costing you an extra $100. So for (about) the same price, you get a box that will push 4.5GHz or better easily instead of 4.0 (with a little luck) or 3.8 to be safe. If you really want the extra threads more then the extra ram, scale back to 8Gig Ram and the i7-2600K.

I had a question regarding the statements that the 2500-2600k will o/c much easier to higher speeds vs the i7 9xx series. Before I built my I7 930 system with a 4.2ghz o/c, I owned a e8600 that o/c'd higher to 4.4 ghz. But in comparision, the 930, even though its 4.2ghz vs 4.4ghz, is way smoother and faster in FSX.So, clock speeds being equal, are these new budget priced 2500/2600 chips really faster than the 9xx i7s released last year?

Reviews that I trust such as Tom's Hardware etc., all suggest that the only thing on the market that will outperform a i7-2600k at 4.6Ghz is a properly overclocked i7-980X. The comparision between your i7-930 and the e8600 is a good one, next generation hardware doing even more per cycle. There have been two significant steps since your chip was launched, which is why the i5-2500k can now outperform at the same clock speed, and has access to higher speeds.

I would have waited until the i9s came out.

You'll be waiting a long time considering there's no such thing as an i9.

So, clock speeds being equal, are these new budget priced 2500/2600 chips really faster than the 9xx i7s released last year?

Yes, they are. Read the benchmarks at sites like HardOCP, AnandTech, Maximum PC etc. The only thing that bests an overclocked 2600K is an overclocked 980X, and it's only in certain applications that take advantage of all 6 cores too. The 2600K beats it in many tests that are more like "real world" use as opposed to a synthetic benchmark.

To be honest, if I bought a decent system in the last twelve months, I think I would be pretty peeved at the moment.

Yeah, that will be me, but it happens. I'll just have to build another system.

To be honest, if I bought a decent system in the last twelve months, I think I would be pretty peeved at the moment.

It's never been otherwise though in computers:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law

True enough, unless you spend thousands every quarter on bleeding edge tech [which is pointless] you'll never be ahead of the performance curve.The difference is in the numbers, you won't really see any *real* difference over a healthy, well maintained system that's a year old though. Three year old system? well, yes, of course.Not worth worrying about it.Also, when I built a pro Photoshop computer I realised the importance of spreading the load over several hard-drives. You will benefit from having a dedicated drive for - (my configuration Photoshop and fsx computer)1. OS (ssd) 2. Files and personal cr@p, 3. FSX (ssd), 4. Large photosceney add-ons (if you are into that sort of thing). 5. Photoshop scratch disk (ssd)

Just been and picked the parts up for mine also....Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - will split this and have two windows 7 installs on it one for normal use and other for FSX only useCrucial RealSSD C300 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - This will be FSX onlyHIS ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - toyed with Nvidia 580/570 etc but price vs performance wasnt worth the extra for Nvidia probably get a second one at some point and CF them, I know FSX doesnt massively gain from this but may do in my case with 3 22inch montitors running at 5040 , alot of the forums have suggested at this res on multiple monitors CF the 6970 will trounce a 580 and in essence be not much more in cost, and I dont need to use my TH2Go then.Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 - will overclock to anything above 4.5 easily!Gigabyte P67A-UD7 Intel P67 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge)Antec TruePower Quattro 1200W Modular Power Supply - overkill probably but when i stick another GFX card in it make it good, and all USB crap i got plugged in.Coolermaster HAF X Gaming Tower Case - Black (RC-942) - really didnt know what to get here, my present PC is in a Lanli case which I love, but was unsure enough room for GFXCorsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8) LG BH10LS30 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM)Corsair Hydro H70 High-Performance CPU WaterCooler (Socket LGA775/LGA115/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) - keep it cool hopefully when it overclocksWestern Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - to stick all my apps and docs on - still fast though as motherboard supports 6gbs sataAkasa AK-FN057 Apache Super Silent 120mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM - to aid the H70 water cooler.Going to take a few days to get all my FSX stuff back onto it as I got hundreds of addons in scenery and aircraft and utils. but will let you know the results when it all runningmy present system is a Q9650 running on air at 3.8 so be interesting to see how much better it all runs...looking forward to seeing perfomance of windows on the SSDS. So PMDG if you want me to test your NGX out on this hardware please feel free to send me a Beta copy LOL :(

So my external drive failed and i lost my 747-4 and 800 install exe files and don't have the money atm to rebuy the downloads /cry....

I been using ssd's for around 7 months and I have noticed they are fast for loading FSX initially and Win7 loads in around 10 sec from bios. However, I still get slow loading of photoscenery around London despite tweaks, so they are not the holy grail on my system, but then London has always been a pain in the fps butt in that aera - just too much going on with loads of big airports. With ssd's I get around 21 fps going into 27R and 20FPS for 9L with CS 767. They're still better than my old Raptor's.Slightly O/T - It just occurred to me that any benchmarks/fps published by PMDG [even if informal] should be based on non-O/C systems as the general user, usually, may not be comfortable with computer ' going-on's ' and may not have an O/C'd system. I remember reading a while back a statement referring to 40-70fps (I think) for the NGX over LA (I think), this may be misleading if it's on a O/C'd system. Sorry, I'm having a skewy :D

So my external drive failed and i lost my 747-4 and 800 install exe files and don't have the money atm to rebuy the downloads /cry....

You can buy the EDS for 5 bucks and not pay the whole price. It is best to send a PM to support and they'll take care of you.

says my info is wrong on the support panel and i can't submit a ticket.