bunkersmith

A photo of my new CPU's performance under heavy load:

Definitely satisfied enough with 4.6GHz that I can stay with Vcore set to 1.35V, rather than having to watch CPU-Z. Getting to 4.8GHz would be an increase of less than 4.5%. I am going to talk to MSI tech support and add my voice to those who would rather see higher Vcore values unlocked. How does it compare to my Phenom II at 4GHz? It smokes it like F/A-18E Super Hornet afterburners! And just one more time, thanks for all your help!

The only choices for Vdroop are Auto and Low Vdroop, both of which seem to behave the same. I did flash my BIOS yesterday, with a new version that had improved Vdroop control according to the release notes. I don't see any change. The highest Vcore choice in the BIOS is 1.350V. This is also somewhat mysterious. Maybe they are really trying to keep me far away from harmful Vcore values? I could try again, but the last time I tried to go to 4.7GHz with Vcore drooped to 1.328V (as it is now) I was seeing errors in prime95.

With Vdroop Control set to Low Vdroop, CPU-Z shows idle Vcore at 1.344V. HWMonitor shows 1.34V, but I assume that's due to rounding.

I canceled all of my power saving options (see photo). I am now seeing the following Vcore values:- 1.336V in BIOS (photo confirms)- 1.344V in Windows with light load (as reported by CPU-Z)- 1.328V at 100% load My conclusion (with my limited experience) is that the loaded Vcore is thanks to Vdroop. My choices for Vdroop in the BIOS are Auto and Low Vdroop. I seem to get 1.328V at 100% load with either. Maybe 4.6GHz is my limit with this CPU/MOBO combo?

Well, now...that is interesting. I do have Vcore set to 1.35V in the BIOS, as shown in the photo below. However, the photo also shows a current Vcore value of less than 1.35V...

Well, I maxed out at a happy 4.6GHz with Vcore at 1.35V. As you said, overclocking with SB is a walk in the park. Here's a picture of HWMonitor, CPU-Z and Core Temp during a load test:

Thanks. I've been away for a bit while installing the various other apps that I use on my computer. Today I am back to installing FSX and the addons I like. Then I'll be ready to start tweaking FSX and overclocking my shiny, new Sandy Bridge CPU.

Okay - I'm now officially Sandy Bridged! Install of new MOBO and processor went fairly smoothly. The one thing I had difficulty with was mounting the heatsink (my wife provided an extra pair of hands, which made all the difference!). Ran prime95 a short (<5 min) while to see temps at 100% load. They were 51, 54, 53, and 53. Are these reasonable for my CPU at stock clocking?

If your optical drive is SATA, there are six SATA connectors on your motherboard at the front (two facing up, and four facing more forward). I have a similar MSI MOBO, and I'm not crazy about those forward-facing connectors. If you have an IDE optical drive (don't mean to insult you - I doubt you do), you need to get a SATA one instead because your MOBO doesn't have any IDE connectors. Some photos and the manual for your MOBO can be located on its MSI product page here: http://www.msi.com/product/mb/P67A-C45.html#Spec I also just got an i5-2500K with my similar MSI MOBO, and can't wait until I have FSX installed to do some high FPS flying!

Okay - looks like I'll take the plunge tomorrow! Darn it! Where did I put those LGA1156 mounting brackets from my CM hyper 212+? Oh, well...another $25. Plus (embarrassed to admit this), I banged into my old 212+ with a fan that was running at the time and bent some of the fins of one top corner. Live and learn...slow and steady, not fast and sloppy. Duh! I went a little further into the video I was watching and the brackets are the same, but adjusted a bit differently. If it were your $25, would you spend it to get a new 212+ with no bent fins?

Roger that! =)

Lots of very good advice. Paying the extra $100 for the 2600 is definitely unnecessary. And I wouldn't want to spend $200 more on a motherboard unless it translated to a performance increase. From the looks of it, the MSI P67A-C43 has what I need (slots, I/O ports, etc.) to support my current hardware. Plus, I can always buy the faster RAM at a later date if I want to. Thanks so much for everything! This has been both very educational and a heck of a lot of fun!

Are you recommending the I5 2500K (instead of the I7 2600K) and the MSI MOBO (with no new RAM) for the sake of saving money? How high can the 2500K be overclocked? I was thinking that going to 2133MHz RAM might give me a boost as well, since my current RAM is 1333MHz. Darn! Time for another sleep cycle...

Yes, I am familiar with FSX.CFG tweaks, and I have run the www.venetubo.com/fsx.html tool on my FSX.CFG. When I looked in my FSX.CFG, I found that I no longer had UsePools=0, so I put it back. Good to know about adding more than 3 cores not helping with frames. As for Vcore when running FSX, I am seeing it alternate between 1.452 and 1.464. These values compared to alternation between 1.440 and 1.452 when I'm not running FSX. So now that I've got my machine running as fast as it can, what frame rates would I see if I went out and got the same MOBO, CPU and RAM you are running (and overclocked to 4.8 GHz)? Just curious...