hoteltango Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 After having massive problems with my existing computer over the last several weeks I have bitten the bullet and ordered a new computer. Core i7 860, ASUS P755D Motherboard, Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM, plus ASUS NVIDIA GTX275 896MB Graphics etc. Hopefully this setup will run FSX a lot better than the current machine. I have also ordered Windows Vista Business SP1 32 bit with upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. It seems that 64 bit may be a better option certainly for FSX and FTX but I am concerned that my current printer, scanner and external drive may not work with 64 bit. The budget doesn’t allow for the replacement of these items as well. The printer is a Canon Pixma iP4500, the scanner a Canon CanoScan 5200F and the external drive a 300GB Maxtor One Touch III Firewire400/USB 2.0. Could anyone advise me whether these items will still work with Windows 7 64 bit or even with the interim Vista 64 bit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Before committing to an OS 32 v 64 I'd be doing some serious research into the Drivers for various peripherals because it isn't much good having a shit hot 64 Bit PC if the drivers won't work due to them only being 32 and it has toy run 'em in compatability mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Routley Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Hmmm .. Upgrading from a 32bit O/S to a 64bit O/s is problematic (at least potentially). Different default directory structure, different registry entries and hierarchy. A 64bit O/S will provide better performance in FSX (and lots of other things as well). There are an increasing number of 64bit native apps (7Zip, Photoshop spring to mind) that perform streets ahead of their 32bit equivalents. I don't think you'll have difficulty getting driver support for core peripherals with standard chipsets (like a Nvidia GTX275 and Intel chips). Things like the printer aren't really going to matter - so long as they run in compatibility mode, which they almost certainly will. My major beef would be Vista Business. It misses some basic functionality (try playing a DVD for example) - which makes it exasperationg. If you run a network, and do file-sharing then cut-down versions of Windows O/S are horrible. If you are serious about your FS experience - Win7 64bit - fresh install seems the way to go (... and the way I will be going when I get over my strong streak of laziness) Ultimate would be less annoying in the long run, although you are probably not going to spend a great deal of time playing "Purble Place" or "Tinker". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoteltango Posted October 14, 2009 Author Share Posted October 14, 2009 Thanks Maurice and Ian The Canon products apparently are catered for in Vista 64 and they will be catered for in Windows 7 but there is no reference to 32 or 64 bit. The Maxtor (Seagate) site seems to say that the external drive is only geared for Vista 32. As the computer needs to be a multi purpose machine I think I will stick to Windows 7 32 bit. While it would appear that Windows 7 Professional has the Media Centre in it the Vista Business version does not. I may have Vista for a while before I receive the upgrade disk so have changed my order to Vista Ultimate 32 upgrading to Windows 7 Ultimate 32. Thanks again Noel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Webb Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Windows7 Upgrade Advisor might help - might not as well. It does scan your devices and report on their compatibilty... http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx Cheers, Matt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squeeker Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 I run Win7 64bit with an ancient canon scanner (lide20). The scanner won't run under any 64bit OS (canon never made the drivers), but you can use the freeware program "vuescan" to interface with it in win7 64bit, or run an old 32bit windows OS (i used my old XP install disc) inside your new Win7 intallation using the free "sun xVM virtual box" virtual machine, and all will be fine.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoteltango Posted October 15, 2009 Author Share Posted October 15, 2009 Thanks Matt & Squeeker Ran the Windows 7 Compatibility test and it said the printer is compatible while the scanner is not. No mention of the external drive. I guess I may miss out on some performance in FXS with only the 32 bit but will probably not notice the difference with anything else. Seeing that I am no genius with computers the 32 bit may give me less trouble as a multi purpose machine. Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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