Friends,

I am running an E6700 at 3.6 gHz. I am currently unemployed and cannot afford a new system, i.e., the new generation of processors, mb, etc. I am using 4 gigs of memory (with the 3gig switch) under XP Pro 32. Which oc'd processor (given the socket of the 680i) would give me the best performance increase ... or is it even WORTH IT to try? I am not even knowledgeable as to which processors will and will not work in the 680i, though I know the "I" series requires a different MB.

I lost track of what the consensus was on quad core. Meaning, all things remaining equal is the dual or quad the best performer for FSX, and then again, what is the fastest one I can use on the 680i? I haven't even priced processors, but I'm assuming they have come down considerably since this system was custom built over 2 years ago, and with the new series release.

Also, I keep reading that 64 bit is the way to go. Would things work more SMOOTHLY (less stutters) with 64 bit than even a new processor? I can hardly bear the thought of the pain of taking everything down and starting over with XP 64 bit. I've been through that after getting fed up with Vista.... and with that would be the pros and cons of messing with a Windows 7/64 rebuild.

But I am searching for a bit of improvement on performance AND/OR smoothness.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts or advice.

Steve

You won't (or shouldn't) see any improvement in FPS from going to 64bit or vista/win7. Your best bet, esp for FS, is to upgrade to the fastest CPU you can afford.

multi-threaded memory bandwidth on NV chipsets for Intel platforms is horrible compared to their Intel counterparts. If you're going to go quad, you'd want a board with an Intel chipset. At that rate may as well go i5/i7.