Good evening Gents. I´m finally puting together my new rig and I have pretty much followed Ryan´s (and most other simmers) recommendations to the letter. I´ve decided on the following thus far: Intel Core i5-2500 Processor 3.3GHz 6 MB Cache Socket LGA1155 Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop Hard Drive Bulk/OEM - WD1002FAEX Corsair Hydro Series H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CWCH100) Corsair DOMINATOR GT 8 GB (2x 4GB) PC3-15000 1866 MHz DDR3 Memory Kit for AMD and Intel Dual Channel Processors CMT8GX3M2A1866C​9 EVGA GeForce GTX 570 1280 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 2DVI-I/Mini-HDM​I SLI Ready Limited Lifetime Warranty Graphics Card, 012-P3-1570-AR Corsair HX Professional Series 750-Watt 80 Plus Certified Power Supply Compatible with Core i7 and Core i5 - CMPSU-750HX I basically don´t know which of the recommended MOBOs to get. Ryan said something about getting a MOBO based on the Intel p67 or Z68 chipset. And that those from ASUS and MSI are good and trustworthy. So what does this mean? Which one should I get? Is the rest of the system okay and overclockable? Thank you in advance.

Good evening Gents. I´m finally puting together my new rig and I have pretty much followed Ryan´s (and most other simmers) recommendations to the letter. I´ve decided on the following thus far: Intel Core i5-2500 Processor 3.3GHz 6 MB Cache Socket LGA1155 Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop Hard Drive Bulk/OEM - WD1002FAEX Corsair Hydro Series H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CWCH100) Corsair DOMINATOR GT 8 GB (2x 4GB) PC3-15000 1866 MHz DDR3 Memory Kit for AMD and Intel Dual Channel Processors CMT8GX3M2A1866C​9 EVGA GeForce GTX 570 1280 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 2DVI-I/Mini-HDM​I SLI Ready Limited Lifetime Warranty Graphics Card, 012-P3-1570-AR Corsair HX Professional Series 750-Watt 80 Plus Certified Power Supply Compatible with Core i7 and Core i5 - CMPSU-750HX I basically don´t know which of the recommended MOBOs to get. Ryan said something about getting a MOBO based on the Intel p67 or Z68 chipset. And that those from ASUS and MSI are good and trustworthy. So what does this mean? Which one should I get? Is the rest of the system okay and overclockable? Thank you in advance.

Make sure you get a 2500K, the K is very important for overclocking!

Technically, Z68 is the more capable, but whether you will use that capability is another point altogether, since some of its capabilities are for fairly specialised stuff. Nevertheless, if you are looking at overclocking, then you probably ought to go for a Z68, since that is far more likely to have better options where overclocking is concerned, if you are going to leave the processor speed alone, then a P67 will do just as well. You can find a lot of articles on the intertron about the relative merits of the two, here's a good one that will help clear a lot of stuff up: http://www.pugetsyst...-right-for-you/ Al

As always you show up in matter of minutes to lend a helping hand. Thank you so much for the help and for the link Alan!

Asus, MSI, EVGA - those are the brands I'd look at. Make sure you get one that supports overclocking well! Some of the ASUS boards I know don't.Check out the reviews at sites like www.hardocp.com, www.anandtech.com, www.xbitlabs.com etc.

I am very happy with my ASUS P8P67 Deluxe...Running at 4.6 GHZ like charm...Once I OC it to 5 GHZ but I was afraid won't be stable with FSX and lots of addon stuff.. By the way, if could afford to add SSD in your shopping list (dedicated for FSX + OS if possible) that could be lovely.

Gigabyte Z68 X-UD4 B3...Rock solid and a great overclocker.

You guys are awesome. thanks for the replies. Now I´ll go study the subject. Not everyday I get to spend 1000 bucks on a hobby that alienates me socially, so it better be worth it

Gigabyte boards

I specifically left Gigabyte out because I hate their BIOS. (uses a bunch of non-standard terms for things and non-standard ways of setting things like the RAM speed) I had their P35 board and it gave me tons of trouble.

I'd be very careful about recommendations for this or that brand from people, since one bad experience with a brand can unfairly damn an entire range of products when there may have been other issues at stake which were the true cause; I once had an AMD processor give me a ton of trouble, but it was more down to it being plugged into a motherboard that wasn't ideal for it voltage-wise, rather than the processor itself being a poor product, more recently I had an AMD processor that was really great, because it was on the right board. The lesson there is simple, do plenty of research. To help with that aspect, here is a website that I have found is very useful - not necessarily for buying, although it is good on prices - what it is useful for, is that most products have a lot of info links on the page for them, plus advice on compatible hardware and such, also worth looking at is the 'what other people are buying' bits that you can find on the site, since there is invariably a good reason why other people are buying certain combos of stuff: http://www.scan.co.uk/ There is certainly nothing to stop you using their knowledge and then buying the same product from a place more local to yourself. Al

I specifically left Gigabyte out because I hate their BIOS. (uses a bunch of non-standard terms for things and non-standard ways of setting things like the RAM speed) I had their P35 board and it gave me tons of trouble.

They have got a lot better since the P5, the Bios is certainly not as friendly as an Asus, but the stability with this board more than makes up for it. Setting the memory timing and O/C was simple and have an excellent forum. Asus or Gigabyte are the 2 boards I would be looking at.

I specifically left Gigabyte out because I hate their BIOS. (uses a bunch of non-standard terms for things and non-standard ways of setting things like the RAM speed) I had their P35 board and it gave me tons of trouble.

Non standard to who? Gigabyte is standard to me? Those other boards are non standard....

Not sure if this is really "advice" because ultimately it comes down to your budget, but personally I would suggest going for whatever is the top P67 or Z68 model (makes no difference for FSX) of whichever manufacturer you choose.My reasoning is that this way, you'll never be left wondering whether it's your MB holding you back from reaching your desired temperature or o/c or whatever.In my case, I went for the Asus Maximus Extreme IV-Z. It took a while for me to get used to the new BIOS, but with hindsight and sobriety it was actually pretty straightforward and my 2600K works fine (so far!) at 4.8GHz in offset mode at +0.030v with 110% overcurrent, reaching ~1.41v under load now that I've set it up properly.On the same principle - though others will say this, too, is complete overkill - may I suggest you aim for the 1000W version of your Corsair PSU? Apart from peace of mind, you should find it brings peace to your environment too, as it should run much quieter than the 750W version at the outputs you're likely to need: mine is virtually silent, because I hardly ever draw above about 45% of its capacity.Finally, I agree with those who recommend SSDs if you can afford them.Tim

For the motherboard, avoid micro ATX boards and those branded "Light" like the Asus LE series or Gigabyte's GA-Z68MA-D2H Z68 does not overclock any better than P67, nor does it include new OC features/options, so pick the board based on the features you need or want, and also price