I am building a new FS X computer. Asus P5NT WS mobo, QX6700 CPU, 4GB Corsair RAM, 2 SLI eVGA 8800GTX GPU's, 2 Samsung SATA 500GB and 2 Seagate Cheetah SCSI 37GB HDDs both in RAID "0" all Koolance water-cooled. I want to utilize all 4GB memory. I want to clean load MS Vista, but my dilemma is whether to use 32 or 64 bit. I want to utilize all 4GB of my memory, but the 32 won't allow it. I've heard and read all the horror stories with the 64 bit drivers. Any and all recommendations on which OS version to use with FSX will be welcomed. Thank you for your help and consideration. Thank you in advance.
Hi there and welcome to DH! I would go for 32-bit edition of Vista. Since the driver support for 64-bit Vista isn't that good that it is in 32-bit. And I play FS2004 and I know that it don't have any performance gains when going from 2Gb to 4 Gb of RAM.
Not to start an argument with anyone, but I'm running the 64-bit edition of Vista Ultimate, and have yet to NOT find a driver for my gear. The way I look at it, game requirements are going to keep climbing, and the ability to take advantage of 4 GB of RAM will certainly be a benefit in the future.
Actually, I'm really glad you asked about Vista and FSX. I've just finished building a Vista Ultimate x64 machine for a client, and FSX is one of the things they specifically wanted to run. The motherboard and memory is fairly ordinary (they're using DDR400) along with a 4600+ dual core, and it all works a treat. They opted to add the Saitek x52 Pro joystick and peddle system and wow, it's amazing to use. I had no problems finding x64 drivers for any of their hardware (and believe me, they have a lot!) So I would say go with x64 if you can, especially if you want to take full advantage of your 4GB of memory. As clicker said above, 4GB will be standard soon and I can forsee 8GB of RAM becoming the norm in a year or so, especially as the price of 2GB sticks of RAM is dropping. Don't forget, MS has said that for a piece of hardware to be Vista certified, it has to have drivers for both x86 and x64 or the vendors don't get the certification.
