Upgrade Question

[moish]

Hi,
I want to upgrade (only) my processor and/or graphic card in order to get the maximum performance from Microsoft FSX Simulator on my machine. I have no idea if this will improve anything because I have no idea how to figure out where is the "bottle neck" of my system.
Please guide me if it will be efficient to upgrade the proc and/or graphic card and to which best available components today, from the following existing configuration:

Proc: Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.4GHZ
M/B: ASUS P5K DELUXE WI-FI EDITION
2xHD: WD 160GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA RAID
Graphics: ASUS GEFORECE 8800GTX 768MB
Case: ANTEC P182 BLACK with an extra fan
P/S: ENERMAX INFINITI 720W SLI
Cooling: Thermaltake V1 Volcano CPU COOLER
4GB RAM: 2xCORSAIR XMS2-6400 800MHZ DDR2 2048MB DUAL CHANNEL 4-4-4-12 DHX

Appreciate your assistance
Moshe

 

[foxhound009]

I would(though you may wanna be carefull here) OC the cpu and buy a GPU... but that's just me.
Read the sticky on OC forums and ask, ask and ask on forum I think you can get it to 3.2(higher if you r a person that replaces hardware every 1.5 year) safely with good ventilated case and decent cooler.

I went from 2.6 to 3.3 on my e6750(stock cooler) but I've got 6 case coolers and besides chips differ.

So that's about CPU.

as for the GPU goes try looking at bemchmark to see which GPU has the advantage in FSX.

 

[shiv666]

only bottleneck i could see is the cpu could be faster or the gpu

 

[jitpublisher]

If you are not overclocking, your processor is your biggest concern.
A CPU running at 2.4ghz will have a tough time running any mid-high end GPU to it's potential. You can pretty easily run the quad you have to 3.0ghz. Do that first, then see if you are satisfied with your performance.
If you do not overclock, and want gaming performance, go for an e8500.
Then again, if you are not satisfied, start looking for a GPU.
Regardless, first concentrate on the processor. Buying a new high powered GPU at this time will do little for you until you fix your processor problem.

 

[evongugg]

Welcome to the forums!

You can follow this guide to voerclock your proc:

HOWTO: Overclock C2Q (Quads) and C2D (Duals) - Guide v1.6.1

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/240001-29-howto-overclock-quads-duals-guide

 

[moish]

Thank you all, will go for the OC.
I have seen the Q6600 @ 3.2 as well... according to my cooler, do you think it will be possible and make a difference from 3.0?