This is wordy, but does chronicle my Sandy Bridge experience. I know I’ve gleaned a lot from reading all of your posts, and in particular, your reasoning for the choices you’ve made.I’ve been overdue for an upgrade on my system – like 1.5 years overdue. For one reason or another, I’ve waited. When Sandy Bridge came out, I figured the time was right, since I was still limping along with a C2D machine. That, and my once faithful GTX8800 crapped out on me.I read and read, trying to determine the best components. In the end, it became almost a matter of which hardware would give me the least trouble. Do you ever notice that, for example, you find a MB that looks really good, you’re thinking “For sure, this is the one to get”, and then you bump into comments or other articles that chronicle hair pulling experiences?I hate those (hair pulling experiences with hardware). I’ve built a few machines over the years, and have etched in my memory, episodes stretching long into the night trying to troubleshoot some issue. The elation and anticipation with which you started the build, degenerates into a long session of frustration and disappointment. Makes you wish you’d never spent all that money on this ‘boat anchor’. One ends up looking longingly back at the now forlorn old machine “that never gave me a lick of trouble”. (Never mind that it can’t run modern programs even at the lowest settings – at least it works!)So then, my criteria was, ‘best performance and least likelihood of grief’. Easier said than done, since it seems that no matter what you’re looking at, someone has something negative to point out. I’m talking about those really scary stories where the hardware arrives DOA, the customer support is lambasted, and you think “I wouldn’t touch that with a ten foot pole!” That, and it’s rare for one manufacturer to have all of the right things. OK, so now we’re down to the lesser of evils. :Thinking: I narrowed down the hardware list, and now had to just figure out the logistics of actually getting everything. I’m currently living overseas from my home country (the U.S.), so some things would have to be purchased locally (the heavy stuff), and some would come from the less expensive US sources (Newegg).STOP! And then the Sandy Bridge chipset issue was announced. What? I waited this long and am ready to order the parts, and now I can’t buy them for at least 2 more months? Newegg pulled the i7-2600K CPU’s off their website. Fortunately, my host country was still selling SB MB’s and i7-2600K’s. Phew!. A bit more expensive, but tolerable. From my reading, the SATA II issue shouldn’t bother me in the near term as I’ll be using SATA III HDD’s.Here’s what I ended up with:i7-2600KMushkin Redline 8Mb (996981 2x4) Gigabyte PA67A-UD7 (Using Bios F8x)Gigabyte GTX580 (GV-N580UD-15I) x 2 Noctua D14 CoolerCoolermaster 1200W Silent Pro GoldCoolermaster HAF X 942Lite-On 24x DVD-RWCrucial C300 SATA III HDD (CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1CCA) x 2Win7 Pro 64I already have an existing multiple monitor array, keyboards etc.I have no particular brand preferences and have had most major MB’s over the years. I was leaning towards Asus but the forums spooked me. The Gigabyte isn’t perfect either, but I jumped in just after a good Bios update. The dual bios feature was comforting. So far, so good. A couple of the pieces were not my first choice, and I didn’t pay as much attention to the DVD drive. I bumped into a few irritants during the build, but nothing fatal. (The CPU cutout in the bottom of HAF X 942 doesn’t line up with the actual MB CPU placement. What? Didn’t see it in any reviews…did find one Youtube reviewer after the fact that was as shocked as I was. It just meant I had to remove the MB, put the cooler back plate on, and reinstall the MB. I don’t take the cooler out usually anyway, but still, this is an expensive case that’s supposed to fit all kinds of MB’s.)I was thrilled with the first smoke test – everything worked. Isn't that a cheap thrill? And the successful flasing of the Bios was another one (especially after all of the horror strories I've been reading.) I have not received the second GTX580 or the SSD’s; they come next week. So I popped in a clone of my existing Vista64 (don’t laugh) system which is on a very slow old HDD. The thought was, that I can setup the overclock and also compare my existing FSX installation on the new equipment.You know all of those reboots you do when overclocking? Ya, well I wish those SSD drives were already installed!After loading all of the new MB drivers etc, and deleting programs that were looking for the old hardware, things were stable enough to take a run at FSX. I started the machine at 4.3 Ghz by just adjusting the multiplier. SB is just too easy to OC. Anyway, because I run multiple monitors, to keep the frame rates up on the old C2D @ 3.8 Ghz, I just left autogen off. SB ran surprisingly smooth. This was a quickie test before bed the other night, but it quickly became apparent that things had sped up considerably, and with more sliders moved over, including autogen. This is of course the point of the upgrade, but it was one of those ‘grin moments’. I’ve not gotten serious with this yet, since the ‘real’ deal won’t come until I load Win7 and a fresh FSX install on the SSD’s next week.Last night I sat down to turn up the wick a little. I had my share of BSOD’s, trying to balance the voltages with the mulitiplier and ended up at 4.9. I don’t recall all of the voltages etc, it’s a work in progress, though the Vcore was 1.45 or so. I have read conflicting accounts on this - what is the safe limit really? The temps are in the 60’s under load, and this is not a 24/7 machines - it's only used for simming.OK, so now let’s see how it behaves now at 4.9 Ghz. The first night, I’d just used the Realair Duke with TIR on three screens. Last night, I used one of my favorites, that unfortunately due to it’s implact on framerates, I’ve left mostly parked for the past year. I just don’t like to fly if it’s not smooth. The Maddog MD-80 isn’t the worst addon airplane, but it taxed my C2D. It’s configured to use instrument panels on four screens plus the 3 outside view screens. Pleasingly, it was smooth on the SB. That made my night. I have a long history with the real airplane, and the Leonardo rendition is excellent, with so many of the right sounds and so on. I hope this is a harbinger of good things to come with other addons.One other little thing I noticed. The airplanes feel different to me. I use CH controllers, but it’s almost as if the CPU has more time to poll the controllers, and it’s particularly noticeable in the flare. I can more finely feel for the ground. I certainly don’t know the intricacies of USB, but I can say that for me, something is different. An unexpected bonus.Sleep called again (or was that my wife?), so I left it there. I’ll certainly try to get things stable at 5.0Ghz…well…just because. I still have to setup the SSD’s and I want to replace my outside view monitors (currently 19” 4:3’s) with…hmmm, I haven’t figured that out yet. So there’s a lot to do coming up before it’s all done. But I can say, thus far, I’m delighted with the new SB system. Coming from a C2D, it’s a no brainer. A high end X58 might be another matter. That’s not a pleasure I ever got to enjoy.Cheers

Thnx for the feedback Gumps. I can relate to some of your experience:"A couple of the pieces were not my first choice, and I didn’t pay as much attention to the DVD drive. I bumped into a few irritants during the build, but nothing fatal. (The CPU cutout in the bottom of HAF X 942 doesn’t line up with the actual MB CPU placement. What? Didn’t see it in any reviews…did find one Youtube reviewer after the fact that was as shocked as I was. It just meant I had to remove the MB, put the cooler back plate on, and reinstall the MB. I don’t take the cooler out usually anyway, but still, this is an expensive case that’s supposed to fit all kinds of MB’s.)"I experienced that also. Saw no mention of that in any of the reviews on the web. Not too big a deal though.And yes the SB overclocks easily, so easily it is not a science anymore. You will probably tweak the CPU voltage a bit to keep it under 1.4; at least that is my safe personal max. I presently run at 4.7 with mem at 1866, cpu volt is around 1.35 and temps are in the fifties with FSX.So I upgraded from a C2D also and the step towards SB is huge (from my perspective). FTX NA can now be enjoyed at full autogen and scenery complexity with fluidity that has to be seen (no picture or video can actually reproduce it).I'm sure there is still quite a big of fun waiting for you when you get the SSD in.Finally, I don't think the extra 300mhz to 5ghz are worth it: fps increase is low and like to keep my cpu "cool". Personal opinion only.Pierre

Guys. Thought I would give an update. My sim is running nice and smooth now. have been installing random pieces of software most of the day. I installed speedfan, but can't seem to actually use it properly. It doesn't appear to even show me controls for the various different fans I have in the case. I am not OC'd yet. CPU runs around 27c at idle. I noticed during some flying that it crept up to 58/60c. I really want to get control of these fans so I can start getting this thing cranking. Needless to say, I'm liking it so far. Any tips are welcome. You guys have been more helpful thru this build then you realize. Take care. Dave

I installed speedfan, but can't seem to actually use it properly. It doesn't appear to even show me controls for the various different fans I have in the case

My bad. You need the new 4.43 beta version for SB, the one I linked won't work properly. I use it to monitor my Vcore since I had to bump it up a few notches because of what I think is a BIOS bug

Guys. Thought I would give an update. My sim is running nice and smooth now. have been installing random pieces of software most of the day. I installed speedfan, but can't seem to actually use it properly. It doesn't appear to even show me controls for the various different fans I have in the case. I am not OC'd yet. CPU runs around 27c at idle. I noticed during some flying that it crept up to 58/60c. I really want to get control of these fans so I can start getting this thing cranking. Needless to say, I'm liking it so far. Any tips are welcome. You guys have been more helpful thru this build then you realize. Take care. Dave

Here's a thread about overclocking that you might find interesting. On page 5 of the thread, they talk about fan controls:My linkI control my fans through the EFI Bios.Pierre

Finally, I don't think the extra 300mhz to 5ghz are worth it: fps increase is low and like to keep my cpu "cool". Personal opinion only.Pierre

PierreYou're probably very right about this. Maybe I'll relegate my climb to 5Ghz with those other mountain top experiences - "Why do we climb mountains?""Because they're there.""OK, nice view, now let's go home and have pizza!"

Guys. Thought I would give an update. My sim is running nice and smooth now. have been installing random pieces of software most of the day. I installed speedfan, but can't seem to actually use it properly. It doesn't appear to even show me controls for the various different fans I have in the case. I am not OC'd yet. CPU runs around 27c at idle. I noticed during some flying that it crept up to 58/60c. I really want to get control of these fans so I can start getting this thing cranking. Needless to say, I'm liking it so far. Any tips are welcome. You guys have been more helpful thru this build then you realize. Take care. Dave

Hi Dave, Glad your sim is running well for you. I had some issues with install as well, but it's been well worth the troubleshooting. Regarding your H70 and temps creeping up to 58/60, I experienced the same with my H50 setup on an Asus P8P67-M Pro, and solved the problem by moving the pump over to the CPU fan header (Even though corsair tells you to mount it to a chassis fan header) I then moved my radiator cooling fan over to the chassis fan header. On startup go into the bios, under the advanced tab, select the Monitor Menu, make sure CPU Qfan control is enabled, under fan profile, select Turbo mode, which gives the maximum rpm instead of Standard which is the default. This brought my pump rpm up from 1100 to just under 1400rpm. Now my temps stay in the low to mid 40's while using FSX under stock clocks, where they were in the mid to high 50's before I made this change. I moved the pump over to the cpu fan header so I can use two fans push/pull connected to the Chassis fan header and have them run at the same speed. You can also change your chassis fan profile in the same manner. Hope it helps,Matt

I have read conflicting accounts on this - what is the safe limit really? The temps are in the 60’s under load, and this is not a 24/7 machines - it's only used for simming.

Unless I see an Intel spec sheet that tells different 1.35v max and 72.6c on temps. My current is 1.33 and 58c @4.5 under 1-hour OCCT or Intel burn test.Be aware 24/7 refers to non-benching settings and does not denote actual 24/7 operation. In other words simming would be considered a 24/7 application.

Hi Dave, Glad your sim is running well for you. I had some issues with install as well, but it's been well worth the troubleshooting. Regarding your H70 and temps creeping up to 58/60, I experienced the same with my H50 setup on an Asus P8P67-M Pro, and solved the problem by moving the pump over to the CPU fan header (Even though corsair tells you to mount it to a chassis fan header) I then moved my radiator cooling fan over to the chassis fan header. On startup go into the bios, under the advanced tab, select the Monitor Menu, make sure CPU Qfan control is enabled, under fan profile, select Turbo mode, which gives the maximum rpm instead of Standard which is the default. This brought my pump rpm up from 1100 to just under 1400rpm. Now my temps stay in the low to mid 40's while using FSX under stock clocks, where they were in the mid to high 50's before I made this change. I moved the pump over to the cpu fan header so I can use two fans push/pull connected to the Chassis fan header and have them run at the same speed. You can also change your chassis fan profile in the same manner. Hope it helps,Matt

Thanks for the help. That did the trick. Now running upper 30's/lower 40's in Flight Sim.

Hello Everyone,After being able to tweak incrementally over the last few days this computer is stable and cool at 5.0g at 1.4 volts. Idles out at 40ishC and maxes at 68C. Runs FSX really nice. This is a happy machine, so that makes 2 of us.Kind regards,

Gigabyte PA67A-UD7 (Using Bios F8x)

Can you advise where you obtained BIOS #8.5, the latest I can find is #7 which I have installed?Thanks

Hello Everyone,After being able to tweak incrementally over the last few days this computer is stable and cool at 5.0g at 1.4 volts. Idles out at 40ishC and maxes at 68C. Runs FSX really nice. This is a happy machine, so that makes 2 of us.Kind regards,

Hey Stephen, congrats, very nice OC man. Just a little heads up: The 22nd of Feb, W7 SP1 will be out and it will add support for AVX instructions that SB chips implement. Be careful because those stress the CPU quite a lot more and you might end up with an unstable system or with higher volts than expected depending on what app you are running and how much LLC you have set in BIOS. Tested with Linx here, the stress level is so ridiculously high that I highly doubt it will ever be an issue for 24/7 and normal apps operation, but just in case, what I did is to set Speedfan to run on startup and have it warn me with a popup message if my Vcore gets any higher than my Vcore threshold of choice. It's so easy to do that I think the screenie is self explanatory:

Can you advise where you obtained BIOS #8.5, the latest I can find is #7 which I have installed?Thanks

http://hwbot.org/forum/showthread.php?t=15952http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=18190455&postcount=1

Unless I see an Intel spec sheet that tells different 1.35v max and 72.6c on temps. My current is 1.33 and 58c @4.5 under 1-hour OCCT or Intel burn test.Be aware 24/7 refers to non-benching settings and does not denote actual 24/7 operation. In other words simming would be considered a 24/7 application.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=31120367&postcount=23http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18227647

http://hwbot.org/forum/showthread.php?t=15952http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=18190455&postcount=1

Thanks Gary. I have a memory problem on my new UD7 Mobo that I am investigating. I can only boot with one memory stick if I try more than one I get a repeating restart with C1 diag and with fast memory the video signal doesn't show. I am beginning to think I got a lemon but I want to investigate further. The possibility of overclocking is a mile away at the moment. :Praying:

has anybody had a hard time getting their sound cards to work on the Asus Deluxe? I've tried two???