New Computer E8400 and FSX help

hi guys and awsome forum. Lots of great info here but somethings do get a bit of confusing to me. But I will ask them if the appropriate forums.

first my computer.
Core 2 Duo E8400 running at default 3.0 Ghz
Intel Regular Cooling Fan that came wiht the CPU
Asus P5Q Turbo motherboard
OCZ 4MB 800 DDR2 mem
1TB 7200 SATA Hard Drive
Generic MID Case with 500watts Power Supply
ATI Radeon HD 4650 1GB Video Card with DVI/VGA/HDMI Outputs
Saitek Pro Flight Yoke system
22" Acer LCD Monitor
15" HP LCD Monitor
22" LG LCD Monitor (Planning to buy this one soon)
Windows XP 64-bit latest updates and drivers
DirectX 9.0c
Fsx with acceleration pack
REX addon and nothing else

O' i've also done the tweaking from Nick's guide at Simavation forum and also have done the defrag to the hard drive...

Now my question is.

The sim runs pretty good but sometimes I see the sim especially when I'm landing and close to the runway the game stutters or not as smooth so makes it difficult keep the plane straight and land. I notices that airports that have lots of building, the sim stutters from that point onwards..

what is the reason for that.

My setting are customized. and are pretty much the same as in Nick's guid at Simavation forum.

I've seen users using almost the same system as mine and have great and smooth results (on youtube).

First.... When I run PC Probe II from the ASUS MB CD, I see that the CPU temp is at around 80 C or 73 C or in that rage. The limit is set for 65 degrees C but it takes a very long time for the temp to drop down to 65 C if noting is running and I don't use the computer.

Is that becuase I'm using the CPU fan that came with the CPU and not an afetr market fan or ?????

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Please help in correcting my computer specs as I planning now to build a cockpit with 3 monitor setup and I like to have a nice and smooth fsx running as much as possible.

I'll start with the computer first to make sure that I have everything to run fsx properly before I assemble and make my cockpit.

I am not sure how to overclock this CPU as I've check out many YOUTUBE videos but for some reason I do manage to OC the CPU to 3.6ghz using one of those videos, and the system work fine. But when I run FSX, after maybe like 2 to 5 min, the computer turns off by itself. To me I think the OC setting is not right and the CPU s over heating and thats why it's shutting down. If that is true, then do i need to change my CPU cooler/fan...

thanks... sorry for making this post so long... trying to explain myself as much as possible so that users can understand my issue..

I can offer a few comments:

If your computer is shutting down after using FSX with your OC CPU, then it is overheating. Most motherboards will automatically shutdown when a maximum CPU temperature is reached.

FSX's performance is related to your CPU speed. High end video cards and high RAM doesn't yield that much increased performance.

My computer has lower specs and I have very reasonable framerates, even at dense airports. A few differences (although may not be a factor) I am running Vista 32 bit and have a DirectX 10 video card.

flightsim.com's PC hardware,video and audio forum has an extensive forum on hardware specs. I usually visit there once and awhile to see what others are getting for framerates - but I always come back to mycockpit.org when I'm done!;-)

First of all I have a Intel Q9400 Clocked to 3.5GHZ and running the standard heatsink and fan that came with it. So far I have not seen my CPU temp higher that 55 Degrees and I put that down to the Case I am using. Cant remember the make but it has 2 off 7" fans, PSU fan and 2 more fans on the drive bays so moves lots of air.

As for the the stuttering, I have been battling that for months and have cured it by fitting a hardware Raid card with 4 off SATA 2 drives in Raid 0 mode.

I also found that turning off the Anti-aliasing in FSX and enabling it in nHancer ( nvidia cards only ) helped too.

hi guys... and thanks all for the replies and help..

for some reason why which I don't know, my cpu temp is always jumping to aorund 80 t0 90 degrees C if i run FSX... when I exit from FSX, afetr a litle while the temp starts to drop to maybe about 65 to 70 and sometimes to 55 degrees C ...

So, I'm really confused here...

I know my case is one of those generic low end cases (and I plan to upgrade that case soon) cuase even the power supply is only 500watts...

So, you think I would need to replace my CPU fan as I've seen pople useing water cooled fans etc...

Do you think I'm getting the stutters becuase my cpu temp rises very high or ?????

Please advise as what to do cause I know I have good hardware except for the case and cpu fan... I don't mind spending a few more $$ to get this SIM to work nice and smooth...

I will try the few above suggestions and see if it makes any difference...

As for the RAID thing I have no idea what that is as I'll have to do a little bit reserch to find out more about what raid is and how to use it..

thanks.

O i forgot to mention... Tasking, I see your using so many fans in your computer... You think I should also installed a few more fans in the computer to make things a little bit more cooler inside the case... ?