Vista or XP for FS2004

[Guest XJCRJPilot]

Hey guys I am gonna be running an E8400 with 4GB of RAM. What would you prefer for OS?

[Guest Tom R]

I run an E8500 but fly FSX and use Vista Ultimate 32bit.I think for FS9, you should stick to XP 32bit, and use the userva=2560 switch to avoid OOM's.Anyone else?Good Luck to you

[Guest XJCRJPilot]

I run an E8500 but fly FSX and use Vista Ultimate 32bit.I think for FS9, you should stick to XP 32bit, and use the userva=2560 switch to avoid OOM's.Anyone else?Good Luck to you

Hey Tom! What does this mean....use the userva=2560 switch to avoid OOM's?Is it true that XP 32bit doesn't read the full 4GB of memory?

[Chuck_B 2]

FWIW, I humbly agree with Tom. But I would never even consider VISTA for FS9 -- just my opinion. I just went to XP64 from a stable XP32 setup -- took a complete pass on anything that sounds like VISTA in the name -- and, although I think it's a bit more stable than the 32 bit version. with my OCing and numerous addons at least partially to blame, I have still experienced CTDs and OOMs (although with my new memory, the latter is basically a thing of the past).If I'd know what hassles I was in for, I probably would have stuck with XP32, but now that I'm settled in I will never go back and it was a great learning experience for me.

[Guest XJCRJPilot]

FWIW, I humbly agree with Tom. But I would never even consider VISTA for FS9 -- just my opinion. I just went to XP64 from a stable XP32 setup -- took a complete pass on anything that sounds like VISTA in the name -- and, although I think it's a bit more stable than the 32 bit version. with my OCing and numerous addons at least partially to blame, I have still experienced CTDs and OOMs (although with my new memory, the latter is basically a thing of the past).If I'd know what hassles I was in for, I probably would have stuck with XP32, but now that I'm settled in I will never go back and it was a great learning experience for me.

Okay great, then I will go with XP 32 bit edition. Here is my final draft on the computer.Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8400 3GHz 1333MHz 6MB LGA775 CPUINTEL STANDARD PROCESSOR COOLING FANAsus P5QL PRO Core 2 Extreme/ Intel P43/ FSB 1600/ DDR2/ A&GbE/ ATX/ EPU MotherboardSUPER TALENT/AMPO 4GB DDR-2 800MHZ PC-6400 (2 x 2GB)Western Digital/HITACHI WD3200AAKS 320GB SATA2 7200rpm 16MBLG/SAMSUNG 20X DVD-RW DUAL LAYER W/LIGHTSCRIBE (PROMO ITEM)nVidia GeForce 9600GT 512MB DVI/TV-OUT PCI-Express Video Card6-CHANNEL DIGITAL SOUND ONBOARD10/100/1000 ETHERNET ONBOARDNZXT ALPHA MID-TOWER ATX CASE - cooling package for caseROSEWILL/NZXT 600 WATT SLI POWER SUPPLYMicrosoft Windows XP Home Edition 32BIT (DVD & LICENSE INCLUDED)

[Chuck_B 2]

Looks pretty solid to me. What kind of "cooling package" for the case. Just want to be sure your temps are always manageable.

[Guest XJCRJPilot]

Looks pretty solid to me. What kind of "cooling package" for the case. Just want to be sure your temps are always manageable.

THERMALTAKE case cooling system with one 80mm fan in the front of the case for air intake and one 80mm in the back as the exhaust for the hot air. So I shouldn't get heat spreaders should I?

[Kosta 122]

I would strongly suggest you go XP64. Mainly because of OOMs with 32bit system. You are getting 4GB of RAM, thus will 32bit only be able to use 2GB per application and see at most 3GB. With 64bits, you can use and see complete 4GB with FS9. There are usually no problems with hardware. And since I went XP64, I am yet to see an OOM. See an Active Sky Advanced post in FS2004 forum.

[Guest Tom R]

Yea.. Word Not Allowed basically explained it, XP 32 will show you at most 3.25GB of ram and will allow 2GB per application. However, to avoid "Out of memory errors", i used the userva switch and allowed more ram to be used per application, due to the amount of addons that i run. What you should do is get a copy of XP32 and dont use the switch yet. Run a few addons and do a few flights. If you start to get the errors, go ahead and complete the switch. If you have questions on how to do that, just ask.Good Luck to you.

[Chuck_B 2]

Yea.. Word Not Allowed basically explained it, XP 32 will show you at most 3.25GB of ram and will allow 2GB per application. However, to avoid "Out of memory errors", i used the userva switch and allowed more ram to be used per application, due to the amount of addons that i run. What you should do is get a copy of XP32 and dont use the switch yet. Run a few addons and do a few flights. If you start to get the errors, go ahead and complete the switch. If you have questions on how to do that, just ask.Good Luck to you.

Having made the switch to XP64, I agree with Tom. 64 bit is nice but not at all necessary with FS9. I had to be careful to find 64 bit drivers and installers for all my hardware and my FS addons too (!), some of which still don't exist. It's not usually a problem to run a 32bit app "inside" XP 64, but every once in a while you run into a road block on the one add on you want to use THAT day! :-) Looking back on it my switch to 64 was not smooth or easy, and had I known then what I know now I would have not bothered.I would say if you had to buy a new OS anyway, and XP32 was significantly cheaper than 64 version, go with the 32 bit version. I was able to get XP64 Pro OEM at Tiger direct for LESS than what it would have cost me for the 32 bit version, so that's why I went with the 64 bit.Really, really good luch to you. Let us know how everything turns out.

[Guest XJCRJPilot]

Having made the switch to XP64, I agree with Tom. 64 bit is nice but not at all necessary with FS9. I had to be careful to find 64 bit drivers and installers for all my hardware and my FS addons too (!), some of which still don't exist. It's not usually a problem to run a 32bit app "inside" XP 64, but every once in a while you run into a road block on the one add on you want to use THAT day! :-) Looking back on it my switch to 64 was not smooth or easy, and had I known then what I know now I would have not bothered.I would say if you had to buy a new OS anyway, and XP32 was significantly cheaper than 64 version, go with the 32 bit version. I was able to get XP64 Pro OEM at Tiger direct for LESS than what it would have cost me for the 32 bit version, so that's why I went with the 64 bit.Really, really good luch to you. Let us know how everything turns out.

Alright cool, thanks. I'll give it a shot and see what happens. If I needed to make the switch with the 32bit version of XP, how would I do that?

[Chuck_B 2]

Alright cool, thanks. I'll give it a shot and see what happens. If I needed to make the switch with the 32bit version of XP, how would I do that?

(Drum Roll, Please.) Complete reinstall -- there's no way to "upgrade" from 32 bit to 64 architecture. Sorry, man. But really, don't worry about it.Do a search for the 4 gb switch and XP32. Takes some tweaking, but it worked for me for months.

[Guest XJCRJPilot]

Do a search for the 4 gb switch and XP32. Takes some tweaking, but it worked for me for months.

Yea thats what I meant lol, not going from 32 bit to 64 bit

[Kosta 122]

The switch is an easy thing, BUT, it limits you to 3GB per application (I believe this is the right statement), instead of 2GB, which STILL "can" give you an OOM. Though, I never saw FS9 cross the 3GB, but I saw it come closely to it.My point, I wanted to make a system which runs with all my addons, without a chance to OOM. As I mentioned in another post, my BAV ACARS is not working on 64bit, but I decided to buy a laptop with XP32 on it, so I can run it separately over WideFS, and other applications, so that I can run my FS9 in full screen, and get the max possible immersion. I figured that windowed mode is not as near immersive as full screen.After I tested everything from XP32, XP64, Vista32 and Vista64, I decided to settle with XP64 due to its stability with FS9 compared to Vista generally, and with 64bit version due to memory possibility. And remember, its not about the physical RAM, but the size of Virtual Size of the application.

[Guest XJCRJPilot]

The switch is an easy thing, BUT, it limits you to 3GB per application (I believe this is the right statement), instead of 2GB, which STILL "can" give you an OOM. Though, I never saw FS9 cross the 3GB, but I saw it come closely to it.My point, I wanted to make a system which runs with all my addons, without a chance to OOM. As I mentioned in another post, my BAV ACARS is not working on 64bit, but I decided to buy a laptop with XP32 on it, so I can run it separately over WideFS, and other applications, so that I can run my FS9 in full screen, and get the max possible immersion. I figured that windowed mode is not as near immersive as full screen.After I tested everything from XP32, XP64, Vista32 and Vista64, I decided to settle with XP64 due to its stability with FS9 compared to Vista generally, and with 64bit version due to memory possibility. And remember, its not about the physical RAM, but the size of Virtual Size of the application.

Alright I bought it today, should have everything done next week. Hopefully I can run an efficient FS9 with it.Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8400 3GHz 1333MHz 6MB LGA775 CPUINTEL STANDARD PROCESSOR COOLING FANAsus P5QL PRO Core 2 Extreme/ Intel P43/ FSB 1600/ DDR2/ A&GbE/ ATX/ EPU MotherboardSUPER TALENT/AMPO 4GB DDR-2 800MHZ PC-6400 (2 X 2GB)Western Digital/HITACHI WD3200AAKS 320GB SATA2 7200rpm 16MBLG/SAMSUNG 20X DVD-RW DUAL LAYER W/LIGHTSCRIBE (PROMO ITEM)nVidia GeForce 9600GT 512MB DVI/TV-OUT PCI-Express Video Card6-CHANNEL DIGITAL SOUND ONBOARD10/100 ETHERNET ONBOARDNZXT ALPHA MID-TOWER ATX CASE - with cooling packageROSEWILL/NZXT 600 WATT SLI POWER SUPPLYMicrosoft Windows XP Home W/SP 2 (CD & LICENSE INCLUDED)