Hi! I've been trying to resist it, but I think the geek in me have won. I'm thinking of upgrading my i7 950 to Sandy bridge after seeing the 10-average-fps-jump in the FS11Mark thread.I have 3 questions:1. The 2600K costs about 150USD more compared to the 2500K, where I live. I'd like to keep my upgrade as cheap as possible because my inner cheapskate (the one that lost against the geek) is telling me that it was less than half a year ago since my big i7 upgrade. Damn that sounded schizophrenic lol. So is the 2600K with its HT really worth the extra cost? Is there any performance gain in FSX?EDIT: Just saw that this question has been asked before, 2500K it is then, am I right?2. Right now I have 6Gb of Mushkin Redline RAM (1600Mhz CL6), if I "upgraded" to dual channel I would have 4Gb, is that enough for FSX and Win7 64bit? Looking at Mushkin Redline's 8Gb Dual channel kits, I can only find CL7, right now i have CL6. Is there a CL6 kit or could I "OC" my ram to CL6? I think I've seen someone around here with 8Gb Mushkin Redline 1600Mhz at CL6, was that 4x2Gb?3. Should I buy the P8Z68 Motherboard or will P8P67 pro/evo/deluxe B3 (which version is the best?) do? I recall hearing that Z68 will support Ivy Bridge, is this true? And/Or does it have any other advantages over P67?4. Oops, did I say 3 questions? :P I have a GTX 480, as you can see in my sig. Updating the CPU, mobo and maybe the RAM feels okay, even though its very soon after going to LGA 1366, but if I bought a GTX 570/580 that would almost double the cost. Please tell me that's not necessary?Thanks and forgive me in advance, if any of my questions has been asked before

1. Not an SB'er here (poor man's excuse: I'm holding-off for IB!) but everybody here has posted the 2500K is good enough (and HT doesn't really work for FSX, just generates more heat lowering the max OC GHz you can get.)
2. There is no electrical/electronic difference at all in 2-Channel vs. 3-Channel RAM. They are exactly the same (2 in one kit vs. 3 sticks in the other). You should get the 1600 MHz sticks with the lowest timings.
3. Z68 support for IB would be a factor for me at least. Also the Z68 supports transparently caching HDD data (up to 64 GBy) onto an SDD via Smart Response Technology
4. With IB we are getting close to a switch to PCIe v. 3.0 video cards. PCIe 3.0 is 2x the BW of PCIe 2.0.

Cheers,- jahman.

you can get a 2x2GB 2000Mhz CL7 ram kit and run it at 1600 CL6 if you want 8GB, but 4GB is okthe 480 is still a very capable GPU

Personally I would not upgrade from a 9xx-chip, don't fall for all the hype. FSX is FSX an old game written in the early 2000-year on XP code; nothing more nothing less and hardly worth spending the money on. If I was upgrading, because I like computers and I am in constant seek of the elusive epiphany and bragging rights to bench tests, I sure wouldn't spend any more than needed in doing so.That memory is fine and 4GB is plenty for FSX, you will not get an ounce better performance buying an additional 4GB.The difference between 1333MHz and 2133MHz is negligible at best and you would not perceive any difference. If your gig is synthetic scores then go for the 2133GHZ but do me a favor and don't try passing it off in the name of FSX. Call it what it is a pure wanting unnecessary and decadent in the name of a computer hobby. Then when the money is gone you will have maybe two-months of bragging rights before the next big thing hits the block and you can return to feeling small and inadequate and wanting. :biggrin:The beauty of upgrading and why I don’t do it, because by the time one component is obsolete there are usually (read almost always other components that need upgrading). If you are going for the SB then drop the 480 and go to 570 minimum prefer 580..

you can get a 2x2GB 2000Mhz CL7 ram kit and run it at 1600 CL6 if you want 8GB, but 4GB is okthe 480 is still a very capable GPU

I've some times had CTD's in FSX that were suspiciously close to OOM's, is this more likely because of FSX running out of the 2GB memory and would 4GB be of any difference in these cases or is it enough? 6 or 8Gb just feels safer, but maybe I'm worrying too much?If i can stay with my current sticks of 2gb at 1600Mhz and CL6, I'd rather do that than have to buy 2x4Gb at 1600Mhz and CL6, the 2133Mhz ones are at CL9. I don't get it though, does increasing the size of the individual RAM stick from 2Gb to 4Gb make it slower? Why else would all the 4Gb memory kits from Mushkin be at a higher CL than the ones i bought were?@Jahman: Does Z68 support PCIe 3.0?

Personally I would not upgrade from a 9xx-chip, don't fall for all the hype. FSX is FSX an old game written in the early 2000-year on XP code; nothing more nothing less and hardly worth spending the money on.

I fully agree

Personally I would not upgrade from a 9xx-chip, don't fall for all the hype. FSX is FSX an old game written in the early 2000-year on XP code; nothing more nothing less and hardly worth spending the money on. If I was upgrading, because I like computers and I am in constant seek of the elusive epiphany and bragging rights to bench tests, I sure wouldn't spend any more than needed in doing so.That memory is fine and 4GB is plenty for FSX, you will not get an ounce better performance buying an additional 4GB.The difference between 1333MHz and 2133MHz is negligible at best and you would not perceive any difference. If your gig is synthetic scores then go for the 2133GHZ but do me a favor and don't try passing it off in the name of FSX. Call it what it is a pure wanting unnecessary and decadent in the name of a computer hobby. Then when the money is gone you will have maybe two-months of bragging rights before the next big thing hits the block and you can return to feeling small and inadequate and wanting. :biggrin:The beauty of upgrading and why I don’t do it, because by the time one component is obsolete there are usually (read almost always other components that need upgrading). If you are going for the SB then drop the 480 and go to 570 minimum prefer 580..

Seems like you made my later reply reduntant. Thanks for the info. I agree with what you said, and upgrading from my current rig to sandy bridge is probably quite decadent lol. Dropping the 480 is just not something I could see myself doing, that almost doubles the price tag. I'll have to think about all this, as a student I'm not exactly wading in cash, and I may end up not upgrading at all.

While I enjoy my SB (even though I can't get it past 4GHz), if I was already at a i7 950 @ 4GHz, there's no way I'd spend the money on an upgrade. I cam from 3-4 yr old tech, AMD6000, 8800GT etc.

Seems like you made my later reply reduntant. Thanks for the info. I agree with what you said, and upgrading from my current rig to sandy bridge is probably quite decadent lol. Dropping the 480 is just not something I could see myself doing, that almost doubles the price tag. I'll have to think about all this, as a student I'm not exactly wading in cash, and I may end up not upgrading at all.

I did not mean to rain on your parade Will, or anybody else’s. I get into a rant now and then (hormones).If you want to upgrade by all means you will see some improvement even with the 480, it is just that I think FSX ran basically adequate on a socket 775 chip I had prior so your 1366 chip has got to be doing better than that. All the SB hype around I just don't want people to be misled into thinking that there will be this revelation change in the what FSX is and that a SB is a must have at all costs. SB is a beautiful chip no question about it but just not a necessity in life like say food and shelter. I was just thinking if you were going to spend the bones and upgrade to the SB you might as well when able go for the 580 as well as the 480 will inhibit the SB a little bit.Your CTD are not directly result of 4GB memory. With a 64-bit system FSX can use full 4GB (if you had 8GB installed it would still only use 4GB). If you suspect a memory issue there are several steps to confirm and diagnose. I would make sure I had the highmem thing in the cfg file and throw in the UIAUTOMATION DL for good measure. If you still have the issue post back and we all will try to help.

While I enjoy my SB (even though I can't get it past 4GHz), if I was already at a i7 950 @ 4GHz, there's no way I'd spend the money on an upgrade. I cam from 3-4 yr old tech, AMD6000, 8800GT etc.

LLC to level 1 (if only two settings in bios level 5 or 6 if ten) [email protected] and still nothing Ryan?

I think I hit a wall with my board... next time I'll shell out the cash for a better one.My UD4 doesn't even have levels of LLC - it's either enabled or not. (and before a bios flash there's not even an option lol)I did all the combinations... 40-45x multi, 1.3-1.4 vcore... most failed to boot (sometimes I got the boot loop yippe!), the ones that didnt got me into Windows but then a freeze a few seconds later.I learned my lesson. It's ironic because I was going to get the UD5, but decided I didn't need to spend the extra 80 dollars on convenience - boy was I wrong.In retrospect I feel a little bitter - I'm happy I can run @ 4GHz, and run FSX most excellent in many of my favorite locations. It's just a few things that rain on my parade:1) G3D.dll errors - which I believe the culprit is the v.02 frame rate external limiter.With this I went back to in-game fps locking, but now I get more stutters with cpu hungry planes like Flight1 Mustang or Duke.2) FPS hungry planes at payware airports - 4GHz still isn't enough to overcome this scenario. 5GHz seems like it would be able to do it or get damn close.All in all I'm human and crave more.... always :)edit: scratch the theory on the fps limiter - I just got a G3D.dll CTD with the F1 Mustang without the external limiter.Chalk another error up to FSX dated buggy code. I seriously need a break from FS. Hurry up Battlefield 3!