thanks all, I decided to do both CPU and GPU right now. :) This is what I got:GPU:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121391CPU:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103894Now off to update the MB BIOS :P~~~~Thanks for the help! :)

That is the video card I've got installed - works like a charm and is very quiet.Good choice! Get the 266.XX driver from the nvidia site. The driver that comeswith the card has problems with FSX..

parts will be here today. :) I will let you know how it goes. :)Already did BIOS flash over weekend, so my MB is all set. :P~(for the CPU support)

hope everything works like a charm John Keep us posted

well, hardware and drivers re-install went smoothly.....but my computer now seems sluggish. :( I am wondering if I have now created a bottleneck between the MB and the new CPU? Windows Index went DOWN because of the CPU cycles?! I used to have a 6.9 rating, now it's a 3-something only because of the CPU. Anyone have some suggestions? Wondering if I should move this topic over to the hardware thread now?Don't get me wrong I have NOT thrown any FSX or other first-person-shooter games at it YET, but that is coming tonight.

hope everything works like a charm John Keep us posted

well, hardware and drivers re-install went smoothly.....but my computer now seems sluggish. :( I am wondering if I have now created a bottleneck between the MB and the new CPU? Windows Index went DOWN because of the CPU cycles?! I used to have a 6.9 rating, now it's a 3-something only because of the CPU. Anyone have some suggestions? Wondering if I should move this topic over to the hardware thread now?Don't get me wrong I have NOT thrown any FSX or other first-person-shooter games at it YET, but that is coming tonight.

Woah, thats strange, indeed. Such a drop in the rating. did you let the system recalculate the whole thing? Your rating should be higher as mine which is on 7.3 after the oc at 3 GHz and your new CPU as 500 MHz more than mine, so it should be obviously higher.

yeah, I left windows recalc it.I am tracking down some possible issues with the ASUS Bios, that is needing to turn-on cool and quiet to AUTO and letting windows run at power-setting performance in Windows 7. Again this is all perceived at this point, I am going to run some actual tests tonight to see what the speeds are. But something isn't right.As for HT's on the AMD pipeline......not a problem as both chips run at "4,000" and the board supports it. Memory also runs at 1066ganged, even with the new chip.Considering flushing the BIOS and going back to default settings...maybe I had something in there tweaked for the old 9850BE CPU.

Woah, thats strange, indeed. Such a drop in the rating. did you let the system recalculate the whole thing? Your rating should be higher as mine which is on 7.3 after the oc at 3 GHz and your new CPU as 500 MHz more than mine, so it should be obviously higher.

yeah, I left windows recalc it.I am tracking down some possible issues with the ASUS Bios, that is needing to turn-on cool and quiet to AUTO and letting windows run at power-setting performance in Windows 7. Again this is all perceived at this point, I am going to run some actual tests tonight to see what the speeds are. But something isn't right.As for HT's on the AMD pipeline......not a problem as both chips run at "4,000" and the board supports it. Memory also runs at 1066ganged, even with the new chip.Considering flushing the BIOS and going back to default settings...maybe I had something in there tweaked for the old 9850BE CPU.

what's exactly going wrong John? I would outright ignore what the windows experience rates your system at and run some CPU and memory benchmarks for a startUse CPU-Z to make sure your memory and CPU are working at the expected speeds.Yes, your board supports HT 3.0, so in CPU-Z the HT freq should be 2000MHz IIRC

I'll run CPU-Z and CINEBENCHR10 tonight and post results. CineBench was recommended also.Thanks all, hopefully it's just me being picky. :)

what's exactly going wrong John? I would outright ignore what the windows experience rates your system at and run some CPU and memory benchmarks for a startUse CPU-Z to make sure your memory and CPU are working at the expected speeds.Yes, your board supports HT 3.0, so in CPU-Z the HT freq should be 2000MHz IIRC

I'll run CPU-Z and CINEBENCHR10 tonight and post results. CineBench was recommended also.Thanks all, hopefully it's just me being picky. :)

Thanks for pointing me towards cinebench. I´ve just downloaded version 11,5 and ran it. Well, 3,84 points in rendering with all 4 cores isn´t that good. How good are yours?

Dunno yet, I will check as soon as I get home tonight and run it. :) Around 7-8pm Eastern Daylight Time (2300 - 0000 Zulu)

Thanks for pointing me towards cinebench. I´ve just downloaded version 11,5 and ran it. Well, 3,84 points in rendering with all 4 cores isn´t that good. How good are yours?

John. I just noticed the GTX460 I initially suggested is the one with just 288 shader processors, good thing you ignored that and picked one with 336. Sorry about that :Whew:

well, CPU-Z looked as I'd expect; HT running at 2,000 as suggested it should be. So according to CPU-Z, its all working.CINEBENCH is running now.

I just got:Single processor was 936 CB-CPUMultiple Processor was 3143 CB-CPU

Thanks for pointing me towards cinebench. I´ve just downloaded version 11,5 and ran it. Well, 3,84 points in rendering with all 4 cores isn´t that good. How good are yours?