EVGA Nforce 680I SLI LGA775
Thanks Stef for the detailed response, and the warnings too. My motherboard is the EVGA Nforce 680I SLI LGA775. I think this is popular with overclockers as well.
The warnings about overheating would explain why cooling has become such big business. I bought an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro which is massive and it's keeping the temperature around 40dec C, but that's in the bios. Presumably when I crank up FSX in Vista it has to work harder. Is there any way of monitoring CPU temperature within Windows? I'm guessing it's down to motherboards.
From your information, it sounds like the way ahead is to make small steps and closely monitor temperatures, performance & reliability. I'd rather have a system that performs at 90% of maximum but is 99% reliable, than one that blue screens or worse.
Thanks again for your response. This has really demystified it and I can now read further a feel a little less lost.
Cheers -
Paul