With some research and all the new tech stuff, I decided its time to shell out those hard earned cash and hopefully get myself a "stutter-free" FSX system. Here's what I'm planning to get and I would love any suggestions from my fellow enthusiasts:Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K ........$328.99ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard ....$164.99G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-8GBRH 7-8-7-24 ......$149.99EVGA 015-P3-1580-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card ........$499.99( 2 ) x Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)......$508.98Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" ....$169.99CORSAIR Hydro H70 CWCH70 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler ....$104.81CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-950TX 950W ATX12V v2.3/EPS12V v2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply .....$149.99Corsair Graphite Series 600T Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case .......$144.99...Total : $2222.72What OC suggestions could I squeeze out of this system (CPU, GPU, RAM)?Thanks in advance!!!!!

Sounds great!!... But you'll need to OC the cpu at least to 4.5Ghz and your GPU to 850Mhz or 900Mhz... and of course... heavy tweaking of your fsx.cfg...Dexter...

That's quite a nice system. You'll be happy with it! I am still strongly opposed to spending that sort of money on SSDs. I mean, that was $500 of you system for what? Shorter load times and no defrags to run bi-monthly? Yes, I own|ed| (sold) one before someone gets upset with me.As is usually the suggestion in this forum (from me and a few others), I believe that power supply to be a little overkill for you purposes. If you're running a single GPU, 650-700W is enough. Not to mention it's not modular (for $150?!!!), so you'll have quite a bit of cable managing to do.Anyway, great system! Have fun! I'm interested in hearing what you think about that Corsair case.

Looks fun, I think I'm going with the Corsair 650D instead of their 600. Looks a bit better imho :) That 600 reminds me of the "old" coolermaster cosmos!

Thanks for the input, well let me update the list with the 650w Corsair PSU, the Antec 900, and a cheaper SSD. Most excited to see how this will put up with the Mark11.:Praying:Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K ........$328.99ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard ....$164.99G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-8GBRH 7-8-7-24 ......$149.99EVGA 015-P3-1580-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card ........$499.99( 2 ) x OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD3-2VTX120G 3.5 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)......$419.98Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive ....$59.99CORSAIR Hydro H70 CWCH70 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler ....$104.81CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-650HX 650W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power ... .....$119.99Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case .......$99.99Total : $1948.72

Unless you're completely opposed to it, you might consider the Rasa RS240 kit depending on whether or not your final case choice supports it. It will probably drop temps almost 10C from the h70. Sandy bridge does start to put off some heat at 5GHz, but it may not be necessary if you don't live in Texas like me!It's true, 950W is unnecessary, but with both a very high-end CPU and GPU, I would still recommend 750W minimum as well as 80 plus gold rating. You're going to want sufficient clean power if you try pushing the CPU and GPU. My recommendation is always the Seasonic X-750 or Corsair AX750...650D case is AWESOME and it's what I plan to get myself, but I would at least take the 600T over the Antec 900 any day! I got a chance to handle the 600T a bit in the store and I was extremely pleased with the quality.

Unless you're completely opposed to it, you might consider the Rasa RS240 kit depending on whether or not your final case choice supports it. It will probably drop temps almost 10C from the h70. Sandy bridge does start to put off some heat at 5GHz, but it may not be necessary if you don't live in Texas like me!It's true, 950W is unnecessary, but with both a very high-end CPU and GPU, I would still recommend 750W minimum as well as 80 plus gold rating. You're going to want sufficient clean power if you try pushing the CPU and GPU. My recommendation is always the Seasonic X-750 or Corsair AX750...650D case is AWESOME and it's what I plan to get myself, but I would at least take the 600T over the Antec 900 any day! I got a chance to handle the 600T a bit in the store and I was extremely pleased with the quality.

Alright thank you, I think this is my final list. Got the 650D and the 800W PSU, and I live in L.A. so I think the H70 wouldn't be a problem (but I am considering the RS240 since its only $19 extra). Was thinking of getting a good UPS for my investment. Does it have to match the wattage of the PSU?Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K ........$328.99ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard ....$164.99G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-8GBRH 7-8-7-24 ......$149.99EVGA 015-P3-1580-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card ........$499.99( 2 ) x OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD3-2VTX120G 3.5 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)......$419.98Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive ....$59.99CORSAIR Hydro H70 CWCH70 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler ....$104.81COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series RS800-80GAD3-US 800W ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS ... .....$159.99Corsair Obsidian Series 650D Black Steel / Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case w/Side Panel Window .......$209.99Total : $2098.72

Mark I'm also finalizing my SB build but I'm still looking over the motherboards...Can't decide - I'm looking at the one you listed but it got a lot of negative reviews, dead boards, undervolting ram problems, qpin overheating, and also XP won't boot on it by default.I'm not intending on XP but there seems to be a lot of issues with the board. I have been considering the same mATX board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131707&cm_re=ASUS_P8P67_%28REV_3.0%29_LGA-_-13-131-707-_-ProductDon't ever intend on SLI, and I don't need all the extra features like LCD debug etc so I think this one would be fine. I just want to know if there's any issues with fitting a Noctua DH14 cooler to the mATX board, and if the board will be fine in my proposed Corsair 650D case?Anyone know?

You will have no problems fitting that board and a NH-D14 in the 650D. From what I've read, lots of people have been having problems with dead Asus boards. It's kind of like a lottery. I'm not sure if it's because there's a ton of problems with Asus boards or if it's simply because a ton of people bought Asus boards. Anyway, that was with the B2 boards, so hopefully they fixed things with the B3. Either way I wouldn't worry too much about it. It seems everybody is having their quirks, so just get the board you want and hope for the best.That's a lot of case for a mATX board

You will have no problems fitting that board and a NH-D14 in the 650D. From what I've read, lots of people have been having problems with dead Asus boards. It's kind of like a lottery. I'm not sure if it's because there's a ton of problems with Asus boards or if it's simply because a ton of people bought Asus boards. Anyway, that was with the B2 boards, so hopefully they fixed things with the B3. Either way I wouldn't worry too much about it. It seems everybody is having their quirks, so just get the board you want and hope for the best.

In my observation it's been people that:A. Didn't check approved vendor's list and compatibilitiesB. People that do things like wearing wool socks on carpet while building their rigs.These are the exceptions, not the rule, though. :Just Kidding:

You will have no problems fitting that board and a NH-D14 in the 650D. From what I've read, lots of people have been having problems with dead Asus boards. It's kind of like a lottery. I'm not sure if it's because there's a ton of problems with Asus boards or if it's simply because a ton of people bought Asus boards. Anyway, that was with the B2 boards, so hopefully they fixed things with the B3. Either way I wouldn't worry too much about it. It seems everybody is having their quirks, so just get the board you want and hope for the best.That's a lot of case for a mATX board

lol I know! My cases have always been horrible messes with cabling. I figure in order to have any chance at organized cabling I need a roomy case to start :)I respect ASUS and in the past have gone with them but my last mobo was/is Foxconn I got burned on a rebate deal (they "lost" my initial submission). I'm also looking at the Gigabyte basic model UD3:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128476&cm_re=gigabyte_motherboard-_-13-128-476-_-ProductIt doesn't have all the fancy stuff but seems to get good reviews. Uggh, I just want a dependable board. RMAing is such a PITA!

My advice would be to see which boards seem to have the best Load Line Calibration (LLC) - not necessarily an easy task. I can tell you, for example, that the P67A-UD5 has one more LLC option than the P67A-UD4 and that LLC1 on the UD5 hits the target voltage much better than the LLC on the UD4. I think the UD4 only has LLC on and LLC off. With it on, the board operates at the voltage specified in the BIOS, but at load it massively overshoots the specified voltage and can cause BSOD.There's been an interesting thread over at XtremeSystems with regards to the UD4 on the issue. Perhaps this issue fixed with the B3 boards as well - I dunno... just something to inquire about on any of the boards you're looking at.EDIT: Actually, further reading at XtremeSystems yields that UD4 bios is now supposedly fixed and "freaking GOOD"Motherboards: which one is more stable to do 5GHzGigabyte P67A-UD4 Discussion Thread

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128479This one?Would the DH14 fit on it with the heatsink around the cpu socket? I see you have the H50 - which of course I also looked into. That and the H70. Honestly I bet all of those would work fine for cooling, just a matter of the RAM heatsinks hopefully not touching the cooler, which I why I want to go with Mushkin redline.SOOO many choices argh! I just want to do it right.Are you the guy that modded the H50? What do you think about stock H50/H70 compared to Noctua? If I go with the H50/70 I'll be able to get the RAM I wanted (same as yours actually hehe).Actually I still have a lot of questions... sorry to hijack OP thread :(I'm not pressing check out until I've answered all of them... lol

Haha, it's tough. The cooling is very much personal preference on whether or not you like the look of a huge heatsink vs small watercooling system. I am indeed the one who modded my H50 - it was lots of fun but a waste of money, honestly. I love the minimalistic nature of the h50 and h70 series. If the h50/h60/h70 isn't cooling good enough, I don't really see any point in the NH-D14 as I would go just straight to a Rasa kit. But I also don't care for the look of a huge heatsink covering my motherboard. I believe the NH-D14 will work on the Gigabyte boards, though.I haven't really been keeping up with any of the other brands, but it seems Gigabyte really got their act together with the new B3 boards. Yeah, I have the B2 version of that board and overall I'm very happy with it. I'm looking forward to getting the B3 version.

Hmmmm....is it worth the wait for the P8Z68 mobo to come out then?