FSX & Hardware/Software Questions

[5er driver]

Hi, I hope this thread fits in this forum. I just bought FSX Professional and have not yet installed it on my current PC because I don't want to be disappointed with poor performance. It's a 6 year old PC, too old to upgrade, FS9 runs so-so on it so we won't even talk about that PC. I am configuring my Christmas present, a “flight sim PC”, and because I’m not so knowledgeable about hardware/software I’ll ask some questions relating to FSX and hardware & software. The options I want to put on the new PC will be:

Mainboard: Asus P5N-D, FSB 1333MHz, Max RAM 8192MB, 4 RAM slots
RAM: 4 x 2048MB
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz or Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz
Graphics Card: GeForce 9800 GT 1024MB PCIE
Hard Drive: Generic 500GB SATA II 7200 rpm 16MB Cache
Software: Vista Home Premium 64 Bit or Vista Home Premium 32 Bit

Now my questions are:

With the above specs, will FSX perform well with the sliders maxed or almost maxed?

The Duo E8400 is rated at 3.0GHz, the Quad Q9300 at 2.5GHz. Which is really faster? Can you calculate that the Duo is 2 x 3 GHz and the Quad is 4 x 2.5GHz? Or, is the 3GHz and the 2.5GHz the end effect, so the 3 GHz processor is really the faster one?

I want to use a 64 bit OS so that I can use all 8GB of RAM. Will FSX, a 32 bit program, run better on a 64 bit OS than a 32 bit OS? If the bit factor of the OS won’t make a difference then I’ll go with a 32 bit OS and cut the RAM down to 4GB.

Will a 32 bit OS run on a 64 bit processor?

I know a 10,000 rpm HD would be better than a 7200 rpm but a 10,000 rpm unit is not an option that I can choose for this PC. I can upgrade later.

I’ll install FS9 on the “flight sim PC” also, my joystick is a Saitek X52 for which 64 bit drivers are available.

I think that's all for now, I appreciate your replies.

Thanks,

[pam123]

Looks good.
A quad core that can split the processing 4 ways will trump the dual core but that's, not yet, critical.

You are going to have to go over to the FSX forum and find out, real world experience, how the sim runs on Vista 64 ( Don't just read one post read all you can find. ).

[5er driver]

Thanks Pam.