I7 920 upgrades

So I have an I7 920 (2.67 ghz) 16 gig ram and a 1 gig radeon 5700 gddr3
Was thinking about upgrading. I contacted Dell, they told me they would overclock it for me to a 3.2ghz for $200 ( 1 year warranty included ) and was looking at the Gforce GTX660 ti 2gb gddr5 to increase quality and performance.

But could I have some inputs on what you think? Would I see an epic improvement or not enough for the amount of $ I'm going to spend, and also, can you guys give me any tips

NextgenerationX wrote: I contacted Dell, they told me they would overclock it for me to a 3.2ghz for $200 ( 1 year warranty included )

WHAT????

That's just the sort of rip off I would expect from Dell. It's a BIOS setting that takes less than 5 minutes to set and a little bit of experimentation.

A 920 with a decent cooler you can clock to 4GHz easily. I've had mine for nearly 4 years and apart from some unrelated memory issues it's still good.

The only reason I'd let dell do it is exactly that slopey, don't feel comfortable enough. I don't want to fry the CPU or motherboard. Yes, I know I can go up to 4gig but I'd have to have it water cooled but this would require to much money. Also I'm pretty sure I'd need a new power supply ( which dell said they would replace whatever they would have to for the total of $200 and the insured part is a big thing.

I got rex and made a big improvement to the scenery, but you know how it is.. Just want to make it look as real as possible. When I max everything out it doesn't run as smooth, and when I turn on the direct X 10 the lines on the runway flicker constantly kinda like a strobe light. Also in mid flight if I try clicking on option to pull up an additional instrumental panel fsx freezes up. I'm pretty sure my pc needs more power but hoping ones I do the changes it'll run better.

As far as what I want it to look like, I watch a lot if clips on fsx on YouTube with people who have 3.2gig i7 920's and like the realism and how smooth it is. That's why I figured, 2.67 to 3.2 and a better graphics card might do the trick.

The only reason I'd let dell do it is exactly that slopey, don't feel comfortable enough. I don't want to fry the CPU or motherboard.

I understand why you wouldn't want to overclock, if you aren't technically minded. However, I have to say, modern motherboards are made for overclocking, it's a feature that's actively encouraged. Furthermore, modern CPU's like your i7920, will throttle back to avoid damage if they get too hot. And if the temperature does increase higher, the CPU will shut down. These days, damaging a CPU through overclocking, while not impossible, is actually quite hard.

As for a CPU that's 6 months old or less, Intel provide overclocking insurance, mine cots a mere £25. Thus taking all the risk out of overclocking. Intel wouldn't do this, if they thought damage was likely.

I can go up to 4gig but I'd have to have it water cooled but this would require to much money.

No, totally untrue. My old i7920 was at 4GHz, courtesy of a NH-D14 air cooler. My newer i73770k is at 4.5 GHz with the same cooler. Temps are very low, well away from TJMax.

I'll need to review the DX10 discussions on Avsim, but it's never made any different for me, aside from introducing loads of glitches. But that was prior to the 4Gb 680 I suppose.

Hi, I have an i7 930 DO and have just upgraded my graphics card from a GTX480 to a GTX670 4gb 3fans great card that allows me to have more weather without effecting locked 30fps...also crisper detail...

I have had my cpu overclocked at 4.2 with a megahalen air cooler for a long time, but have recently had instability issues with the o/c so have backed off to 3.8 and also fitted a H100i cpu watercooler and I know a lot of others have found 3.8ghz to be a safe/stable overclock with a good graphics card on a 920/930 rather than "live on the edge" running 4ghz and above.

At 3.8ghz and with my new GTX670 I am getting really smooth frames whilst in Orbx land with high end aircraft like NGX, Lancair and Q400...

Hi Martin, always interested in other users overclock settings, so a copy of yours is most appreciated...

I am running water cooling and stress testing shows nice low temps all round...

I would like to get back to 4ghz but the 0.2 really appears to make no/little difference, but the stability is reassuring when engrossed in a flight...