derelyth

Forgot to mention (or more I haven't sorted my profile yet!) that I'm in the UK. My supplier is actually still selling the affected boards, surprisingly. They are aware of the issue and Asus UK released a statement regarding starting the release of board replacements on the 25th - the supplier has said they hope to have all stock replaced within the next 30 days...According to Asus the new boards will be clearly makred as b3 revisions, on the box, board and about 3 other locations from what I have read. I'll be keeping a close eye on it in the next week! I did wonder if it would be OK - it does seem that the die shrink has done a fair bit for temperatures. It just looked quite thin to me, not to mention it's made from aluminium (I'm not sure if it has a Copper core where the die/Heatspreader on the CPU is in contact). I'll keep reading around and make a more informed decision once I've spoken to my neighbour to see how he feels about OCing. I'd heard that 1156 and 1366 were being deprecated soon (already!) - hence SB looks even more promising. I will probably take the plunge on an SB soon, or if time and finances mean so, I'll wait and see how IB fares. Can't put it off forever though - with Intel chucking out new Chipsets and CPUs this fast if I kept delaying I'd never upgrade!Thanks for all your input so far, I'll be sure to update on progress as and when

Hi Jim :)Thanks for the reply - I have to say I didn't actually look at your specs until now and they are fairly similar, both old and new builds. Having looked into it a bit more, the OC'ing does make sense. I'll factor in a 2500K and speak to my neighbour about it, including the whole SB bug debacle - from what I've read online so far, Intel are hoping for full resolution by April so my neighbour may be happy to wait until then - seeing as he wants the system for "up to 5 years" (I imagine it'll be nearer 3 myself!) - the last thing he will want is to have to have me rip it apart to swap the board in a few months time!On the OC side of things, would the stock cooler hold up to it? All this talk has got me wanting a new PC too now...oops...

Hi again,Sorry for going silent on this - been very busy lately. Got in contact with my neighbour again today and had a further discussion. Bottom line is 99% of what he uses the PC for is and will be FSX. He is wondering whether an upgrade over his current system or a new system will give the best for his needs. Both the upgrade or the new PC will include 64bit Windows 7 for certain now - you've explained the good reason for that :) He also mentioned that very soon he will be getting a wall-mounted 32" TV for use as a Primary monitor for FSX. Bearing in mind he says he wants to run FSX with a lot of Addons "with all Sliders at Ultra" at I'm guessing what eventually will be 1920*1080 when the TV is fitted, which would give the best bang for buck?Upgrade - £300Windows 7 64bitExtra 4GB RAM (2x2GB) to add to 2x1GB to effectively double his RAM to 6GBUpgraded PSU(For an extra £150, would the GTX 460 1GB provide anything that the 8800GT doesn't?)Full System - £900Windows 7 64bitIntel Core i5 2400 LGA 1155 (I know the K chips are good for OCing but I haven't ever attempted to OC even my own Hardware, so I won't be starting on this one!)Asus 1155 MotherBoard (I am aware of the Sandy Bridge bug)8GB DDR3-1600 (4x2GB)Nvidia 460GTX 1GB1TB HDDCreative SB PCI-Exp.Case + 750w PSUI did have the idea of having him demonstrate the original issue whilst also monitoring his Graphics settings and the respective Framerate using FRAPS, however he did mention that the crash sometimes takes upto 30 minutes to occur so that may not be viable. Any more advice will be appreciated :)Many thanks for your time all!

Thanks for the replies I'm aware of needing 64bit for upwards of 3GB RAM, I made him aware of this too at the time. However with 3GB at the moment, would 64bit really make much of a difference? Maths calculations aside, I know 32bit is realistically limited to just under 3.8GB RAM, so anything above this (i.e 4GB+) is where 64bit really comes into it's own (providing the Mobo chipset supports more than 4GB)? He has asked me in the past about upgrading to 7 x64, so it is an option - however him having mentioned a new system is making me wonder if it is worth sticking with 32 until he decides yes or no on a new system. The hardware struggling regardless doesn't surprise me - more and more games are coming out now that need more powerful systems than are financially viable to most - and they say Technology is moving too fast - not fast enough! Forgot to mention, I also updated his Graphics driver just in case - considering it was version 167 from 2007, nVidia's latest is 267+ so something may well have changed that could benefit his card. If not, then it is still something else crossed off the list. He called me this morning to say he has re-installed FSX, and I talked him through the SP2 install over the phone and that went fine. I left him restarting the PC and firing up FSX before installing any further content just to see how it runs from there on. I'll also bear that switch in mind - I'm guessing it gets appended to the FSX executable? I'll either try and talk him through setting it or set it myself the next time I pop round. Thanks again

Hi allI have a neighbour who plays Flight Sim X. He currently has a Dell XPS 420 (all stock speeds):Intel Q66003GB DDR2-667 (2x1GB, 2x512MB)8800GT (not sure on RAM)1TB Sata HDD, 750GB+ freeVista 32bitThe main problem he said he was having was about 20minutes in to a flight, the game would visually freeze (Audio would continue) then eventually CTD. At first I thought this was strange - until he proceeded to show me at least 8 install discs for expansion content, all of which he said he had installed. My mind then immediately clicked to: Is it just running short on RAM? I did suggest running the game with Task Manager open to see if the RAM did get choked, but he's un-installed it all, game included - reinstalling of which he says takes hours. He got talking about wanting a system that would be capable of running FSX with ALL his add-ons installed (with vision to installing scenery to enable him to fly round the world in a flight (I don't even know myself whether that is possible?)) - at this point I checked the max RAM for the current system (as I guess the more scenery = more RAM) and it is 8GB which he could have for ~£120. Considering he has an 8800GT and a Quad already, I'd hazard a guess that it could stand up to what he wants with 8GB RAM?Sorry for this muddled post, I'm just trying to get this guy running FSX the way he wants whilst keeping costs down for him. Any help is appreciated :)Thanks!