I'm FINALLY getting around to putting my next system together. I had planned on building it several months ago, but life intervened.

I'm going to move to Windows 7 64 bit as an OS. I was hoping that some of you might be able to tell me if I'm going to run into any problems running any of my usual programs on W7 64.

Here's a list of what I know I'll be using: Il-2:1946, ARCA Sim Racing, Rise of Flight, Track IR 4, Teamspeak 3, CH Products joystick, throttle, and rudder pedals using CH Control Manager, Logitech G-25 (I don't use the Logitech Profiler), Mozilla Firefox, PC Tools Spyware Doctor. I also use DivX, Real Player, and FRAPS. I would suppose that enough people are using 64 bit operating systems now that there shouldn't be any trouble finding the appropriate versions of nearly anything nowadays, but I thought I might save myself a headache by asking before I started loading programs onto a fresh hard drive.

My system specs will be: Athlon X4 965, MSI 870 A-G54 mobo, Western Digital 1 tb hard drive with 32 mb cache, Lite-On DVD-RW, 8 gb Crucial DDR3, ATI 5850, Thermaltake 650 watt modular power supply, and Thermaltake Element V case. I'm still debating on whether to move my sound card to the new system or just use the on-board sound.

I had the same concerns much earlier this year when I moved onto Win 7 64. Don’t worry ... you'll love it.

Early 64 bit had driver worries, but by now I can't imagine they are a problem.

Can't offer any experiences, I chose 32 bit for legacy 16 bit software support. Happily my Windows 7 upgrade package came with both a 32 and 64 bit media, so I can reconsider my needs down the road.

The only game I have that I can't get to install is Lucas Arts Rogue Squadron because it has some 16 bit code. The original Combat Flight Simulator, WW2 Fighters, Crimson Skies, Starlancer and many other old games that were intended for Win 98 run fine. Most of the problems are not Win 7 related but screen resolution related since they did not have these wide screen monitors back then.

I want to upgrade too at the end of next month, because i plan to get a new HOTAS and an SSD drive, so XP should be left behind for good. But i don't know which version of Win 7 i should get. Is there one which suits better for gaming purposes or is faster in general? I have once read that a certain version si faster, but that was right after WIN 7 has been released and i tend to feel that it was only a rumor or "placebo". Although i am probably going to get the Pro version, it might include alot of stuff not really necessary for a gaming rig. Maybe " Win 7 Home" is more than enough? I guess it also supports the max possible RAM amount an multiple cores?

The pro version has a couple of networking additions. Premium will be fine though. I think you can get a premium OEM DVD for 99 bucks. Pro OEM is around 129 and just make sure you get the 64bit.

Dual Boot 32/64 Bit versions :p and you keep 16Bit support.

I bought Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit for $99 at Tiger Direct:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5213932&Sku=M17-7302

I'm liking it so far. Just having to learn the little differences between it and XP.

I'm loving it! I still have XP on an old laptop, and whenever I'm forced to use it, it feels clunky and horrible. So far had no trouble with Win 7 64bit. It's been around long enough that anything I want to run on it has a 64 bit version. Also, I keep an XP Virtual Machine (running in VMWare Player) around in case any of my older Windows games won't run, and have yet had the need to use it.

Thanks guys. But all versions are equal when it comes to game performance?

Yes. Just don't get the home version. From Premium up is what you want and the 64 bit version. Get the OEM disk.

I was old school a long time, I used W2K when XP was long out, I used XP until last spring.

Then I built my current machine with 7 64pro. Great OS (here in the company we have 2008R2 sinde last year so I was already used to the new GUI).

Plus, due to the 64-bit OS and 8 GB RAM, the *"§$%&# OOM-bug in FSX is finally history.

Can`t compare gaming performance since I changed the hardware at the same time.

What's wrong with the 'Home' version, Speedy? I'm not having any problems with it...