This is what I am looking at based on recommendations in various threads on this board. The key elements I am interested in, is the 'overclockability' of such a specification (I want to get to 4.5GHz as a minimum), and also I am not sure about my choice of RAM. All comments welcomed. This will be running a Windows 7 Home Premium O/S, primary use will be FSX.Gainward GeForce GTX 580 "Phantom" 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card- Core Clock: 783MHz (Fermi GF110)- Memory Clock: 4020MHz (Effective)Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION **- This seems to be a common board that most people use, so I thought I'd go the same way.Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9)- Tested together at 1866MHz, Vdimm = 1.50V, at latency settings of 9-9-9-24 on Intel DDR3-based motherboards.- SPD programmed at: JEDEC standard 9-9-9-24 values at 1333MHz.- XMP 9-9-9-24 values at 1600MHz, 1.50VNoctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1156/LGA1155/LGA775/AM2/AM2)- Seems like a cooler than most choose and get along with.Any comments welcomed, as for drives etc. I am going to stick with standard HDs for now and I already have a Lan Li case which I will recycle along with a high powered modular PSU (which I can't remember the name of at the moment). I also have a Asus Zonar soundcard which I intent to carry over to this build.Thoughts?Thanks in advance.. Craig

I think you should get CAS7 ram which you can mod to CAS6. There is a long and detailed thread in this forum about the advantage of tighter timings in reducing stutters with FSX. Other than that looks good. What power supply, hard drives and case are you looking at ?Mark.

This is what I am looking at based on recommendations in various threads on this board. The key elements I am interested in, is the 'overclockability' of such a specification (I want to get to 4.5GHz as a minimum), and also I am not sure about my choice of RAM. All comments welcomed. This will be running a Windows 7 Home Premium O/S, primary use will be FSX.Gainward GeForce GTX 580 "Phantom" 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card- Core Clock: 783MHz (Fermi GF110)- Memory Clock: 4020MHz (Effective)Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION **- This seems to be a common board that most people use, so I thought I'd go the same way.Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9)- Tested together at 1866MHz, Vdimm = 1.50V, at latency settings of 9-9-9-24 on Intel DDR3-based motherboards.- SPD programmed at: JEDEC standard 9-9-9-24 values at 1333MHz.- XMP 9-9-9-24 values at 1600MHz, 1.50VNoctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1156/LGA1155/LGA775/AM2/AM2)- Seems like a cooler than most choose and get along with.Any comments welcomed, as for drives etc. I am going to stick with standard HDs for now and I already have a Lan Li case which I will recycle along with a high powered modular PSU (which I can't remember the name of at the moment). I also have a Asus Zonar soundcard which I intent to carry over to this build.Thoughts?Thanks in advance.. Craig

You can easily OC this system to over 5GHz (but why?); however, proper BIOS settings, especially memory timings, are crucial. I had my system oc'd to 4.8 GHz and could easily do it again but FSX and addons run great at 4.4GHz and the system is extremely stable and temps remain cool. I may push it up to 4.8GHz again but see no reason for a faster system. It took a while to learn memory timings and I spent hours doing a lot of research on official overclocking ASUS P8P67 websites. I had sudden BSOD's until I figured out the memory timings for my memory. Everything else is easy to overclock. You'll like the BIOS program that comes with the ASUS MB's but don't trust the automatic settings as the BIOS does not automatically set the memory timings. You can click on the auto button for an Extreme overclocking but you'll have to manually adjust the memory timings. Of course, if you're getting Windows 7, make sure it's the 64 bit version as it has better memory management than 32 bit systems. Hope you are able to enjoy your SB system as much as I have (after I figured out the memory timings...)!Best regards,Jim

I think you should get CAS7 ram which you can mod to CAS6. There is a long and detailed thread in this forum about the advantage of tighter timings in reducing stutters with FSX. Other than that looks good. What power supply, hard drives and case are you looking at ?Mark.

Would you be able to recommend some memory that would work in this case? I have been looking for CAS 6 memory on sites I can purchase from and the best I can find at the moment is this..I looked at Mushkin Redline Ridgeback with this spec..Capacity 8GB(4GB x 2) Cas latency 7-9-8-24 Memory speed DDR3-1600 (PC3 12800) Test voltage 1.65v But the CAS is still 7.... ? I really need some recommendations in terms of RAM and also some links as to where to get them.. and please remember I am in the UK so US shops aren't going to help me :(

You can easily OC this system to over 5GHz (but why?); however, proper BIOS settings, especially memory timings, are crucial. I had my system oc'd to 4.8 GHz and could easily do it again but FSX and addons run great at 4.4GHz and the system is extremely stable and temps remain cool. I may push it up to 4.8GHz again but see no reason for a faster system. It took a while to learn memory timings and I spent hours doing a lot of research on official overclocking ASUS P8P67 websites. I had sudden BSOD's until I figured out the memory timings for my memory. Everything else is easy to overclock. You'll like the BIOS program that comes with the ASUS MB's but don't trust the automatic settings as the BIOS does not automatically set the memory timings. You can click on the auto button for an Extreme overclocking but you'll have to manually adjust the memory timings. Of course, if you're getting Windows 7, make sure it's the 64 bit version as it has better memory management than 32 bit systems. Hope you are able to enjoy your SB system as much as I have (after I figured out the memory timings...)!Best regards,Jim

Thanks for the information Jim, seems you're already running a very similar setup to me, should I be less concerned with the CAS timings? You seem to be at CAS 9.. Also could you recommend any threads or perhaps refer me to some of your threads on the overclocking of this setup?ThanksCraig

Many of us here will help you with overclocking but see this new thread also: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/337269-bios-settings-examples-displayed/

I was looking at those Mushkings myself but those are an older model and the new one is 7-8-7-24. I cannot find the new model in Canada but G-Skill has some in the same configuration that will work well.http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231401The only thing to worry about is making sure the Nochua clears the fins. You need 42mm (I think).Mark.

I am preparing to upgrade to the the i7-2600k with a P8P67 PRO as well and shopped around considerably until i ran into a very helpful tech. who recommended and pointed me at where i could buy G SKILL RIPJAWS F312800CL8D-8GBXM (1.5v) They are specifically designed for Sandy/P67 systems. I am by no means an expert on memory and the whole overclocking concept but the tech i was talking to seemed to know his stuff.Just a suggestion. Regards,

I am preparing to upgrade to the the i7-2600k with a P8P67 PRO as well and shopped around considerably until i ran into a very helpful tech. who recommended and pointed me at where i could buy G SKILL RIPJAWS F312800CL8D-8GBXM (1.5v) They are specifically designed for Sandy/P67 systems. I am by no means an expert on memory and the whole overclocking concept but the tech i was talking to seemed to know his stuff.Just a suggestion. Regards,

There's no such thing as "specifically designed for SB". At best it was tested for compatibility in some SB boards, but that's it. Many of us are using our old RAM kits in SB. DDR3 is DDR3 now and before SB

There's no such thing as "specifically designed for SB".

Hey. I was just trying to make a suggestion and that didn't come from me, it came from G SKILL. so i thought i would pass it on.

Hey. I was just trying to make a suggestion and that didn't come from me, it came from G SKILL. so i thought i would pass it on.

Ok Rick, it was just a comment, nothing else

Ok Rick, it was just a comment, nothing else

Not a problem.:Peace: Me, i'm just a beginner at this stuff. Your remark makes me wonder. Is that just a sales pitch? Because i bought this ram as my old set in my existing P58 board is 6gig - triple channel.

Not a problem.:Peace: Me, i'm just a beginner at this stuff. Your remark makes me wonder. Is that just a sales pitch? Because i bought this ram as my old set in my existing P58 board is 6gig - triple channel.

Yes, it is pure marketing gimmick as well. RAM sets are not dual or triple channel, they are simply sets of 2 or 3 DDR3 RAM sticks. You can use 4GB of that "triple channel" set in dual channel, or even all three in Flex mode, meaning that the lower 4GB wil work in dual channel, and the remaining 2GB will work in single channel. Even if single channel is slower than dual, if you need the extra RAM it's better to have 3x2GB sticks in a dual channel board than just 4GB. (Better to have 2 extra GB of slower RAM than swapping to disk, again provided that you really need 6GB. otherwise it makes no difference)Many people think (and I was one of those until not so long ago) that populating 3 RAM slots in a dual channel system will downgrade your whole RAM to single channel but it's not true. Not only because of the Flex mode thing, you can have 3 RAM sticks and still have them working entirely in dual channel, if both channels are the same size, for example, 3 sticks like this: 2x2GB + 1x4GB. If you use the two 2GB sticks in Cannel A and the single 4GB stick in channel B, you have 8GB of fully dual channel memory in three sticks.They don't even need to be matched RAM sitcks, you can mix brands, models and speeds and latencies, but you will need to run them all at the speed of the slowest stick (or set different speeds for each memory channel, but I've never tried that)

Yes, it is pure marketing gimmick as well. RAM sets are not dual or triple channel, they are simply sets of 2 or 3 DDR3 RAM sticks. You can use 4GB of that "triple channel" set in dual channel, or even all three in Flex mode, meaning that the lower 4GB wil work in dual channel, and the remaining 2GB will work in single channel. Even if single channel is slower than dual, if you need the extra RAM it's better to have 3x2GB sticks in a dual channel board than just 4GB. (Better to have 2 extra GB of slower RAM than swapping to disk, again provided that you really need 6GB. otherwise it makes no difference)Many people think (and I was one of those until not so long ago) that populating 3 RAM slots in a dual channel system will downgrade your whole RAM to single channel but it's not true. Not only because of the Flex mode thing, you can have 3 RAM sticks and still have them working entirely in dual channel, if both channels are the same size, for example, 3 sticks like this: 2x2GB + 1x4GB. If you use the two 2GB sticks in Cannel A and the single 4GB stick in channel B, you have 8GB of fully dual channel memory in three sticks.They don't even need to be matched RAM sitcks, you can mix brands, models and speeds and latencies, but you will need to run them all at the speed of the slowest stick (or set different speeds for each memory channel, but I've never tried that)

It's a bit late for me but i am sure this won't be my last update, so i will remember this one for the future.Thanks,

There's no such thing as "specifically designed for SB". At best it was tested for compatibility in some SB boards, but that's it. Many of us are using our old RAM kits in SB. DDR3 is DDR3 now and before SB

This is incorrect. RAM that is designed to be used with Sandy Bridge will run at voltage of 1.5 or less. You run a risk by using anything with higher voltage.

This is incorrect. RAM that is designed to be used with Sandy Bridge will run at voltage of 1.5 or less. You run a risk by using anything with higher voltage.

My RAM is at 1.65 factory. Should i have bought a different set? I just noticed that Spiritflyer and Dazz, both have 1.65v RAM as well. I did find these, and for a good price too.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233147&cm_re=corsair_ram_ddr3_1600-_-20-233-147-_-Product