Forgot to post this earlier... According to cnet (http://news.com.com/2100-1001-898978.html?tag=fd_top), the major OEMs will start offering 533MHz FSB P4 systems as of this monday (05/06). The new CPUs will be released in 2.26GHz, 2.4GHz, and 2.53GHz parts. I believe these Northwoods will be branded P4"B's", but there was no mention of this in the article at cnet. Pricing will start at an arm and a leg ;)Max Cowgill

Max tell me what it will take to virtually double my throughput for FS2k2: I'm on a P3@1120mHz, 512mb PC112 ram, Radeon 64 DDR. I want to do an upgrade of me whole system but only after I can virtually double performance. In practical terms, what I want my upgrade to do is where FS gets down to 10-12 in the worst of situations I want it to remain locked at the 22FPS it's locked on now. I fly at 1792 x 1344 x 32 and she drops down to 12 or 13 using default aircraft in the bigger terminals when lots of clouds are showing. Anyway, and minimum of a 100% perf boost is what I am waiting for. Pref 150%.Right now I'm guessing that is a P4 2.5GHz oclocked to 3GHz, with 1GB ram, GF4 Ti4400/128mb. Do you think this sis will truely double throughput, or is this wishful thinking still?Noel

>Max tell me what it will take to virtually double my >throughput for FS2k2: I'm on a P3@1120mHz, 512mb PC112 ram, >Radeon 64 DDR. I want to do an upgrade of me whole system >but only after I can virtually double performance. In >practical terms, what I want my upgrade to do is where FS >gets down to 10-12 in the worst of situations I want it to >remain locked at the 22FPS it's locked on now. I fly at >1792 x 1344 x 32 and she drops down to 12 or 13 using >default aircraft in the bigger terminals when lots of clouds >are showing. >>Anyway, and minimum of a 100% perf boost is what I am >waiting for. Pref 150%. >>Right now I'm guessing that is a P4 2.5GHz oclocked to 3GHz, >with 1GB ram, GF4 Ti4400/128mb. Do you think this sis will >truely double throughput, or is this wishful thinking still? Noel, your estimate is as close to being correct as is possible without actually having FS2k2 performance figures available for the aforementioned setup. A 3GHz P4 with a 19x multiplier (2.53GHz/(133MHz x4) 533MHz FSB original clock) would produce a (158MHz x4) 632MHz FSB, so make sure you have some fast RAM and good system cooling if you want to o/c that much. I'd say a 3GHz P4 w/632MHz FSB should perform a little better than twice as fast as your current setup. Ya know, someone really needs to make an FS2k2 benchmark... Wasn't there discussion of doing this not too long ago? Then we'd be able to see how things like CPU clockspeed, FSB speed, GPU core/memory speeds, etc. affect FS2k2.Max Cowgill

Thanks Max. The other requirements are I want the system to be max stable, and I DO NOT want any noisy cooling options, nor any water cooling or other such added expense and hassle. With these things in mind, give me you best recommendation as to which P4 to get, at what default FSB so that the ram i use is not on the verge of stability problems and so on. In other words, to get this sys, will i need to wait til Intel ships a P4 with a default speed of say 2.7GHz or so?I have one KEWL idea I may just do: I was looking at some hi output inline fans for hydroponic gardens and was thinking of setting up some quiet circulation fans BELOW MY SUBFLOOR, in the crawlspace of my house. Drill two holes in the floor about 3" in diameter in my PC room, put some ducting down and put two fans down below the house, one that blows through ducting to an intake port on my case on the bottom, one that sucks air from the PC case around the top exit port. This way one could turbo charge this system's air flow, AND keep the noise down. The air temp under my house is cool any time of year.Noel

>I have one KEWL idea I may just do: I was looking at some >hi output inline fans for hydroponic gardens and was >thinking of setting up some quiet circulation fans BELOW MY >SUBFLOOR, in the crawlspace of my househehe, hehe, hehe, no comment ;) :-lolAs per your other questions, if you want to o/c your system by any significant amount, you're going to have to live with a bit of noise; just comes with the territory. A couple good (but noisy) HSFs for o/cing your P4 are the Swiftech MCX478 and the Alpha PAL8942. If you want quiet you might as well stick with the stock (retail) P4 HSF and o/c by a lesser amount.Max Cowgill

Max I did this with a Celeron 300A once, only all I did was run a hose from outside the case to directly onto the retail HSF for a whopping 5 degrees C drop in CPU temp. Cost: $5 for the hose and a fitting.The idea of taking air from under my house which in winter is 30 degrees cooler, and in summer is probably a minimum of 16 degrees F cooler than room temp is def intriguing. I am def interested in minimal noise. Just need to find a high output fan and of course there's the static pressure from having to small a hose . . .Cheers,Noel