[everclear]

AFAIK, IL-2 is a strictly single-core, 32-bit sim. It may max out one core, but you'll see that the other core is just loafing at 1-2%, taking care of the system housekeeping. I guess the second core is useful for that (hey, you can even have a copy of photoshop running in the background, it'll just use the "free" core. That said, you can have a whole heap of slow cores, IL-2, along with most other apps, just won't see more than one, and will only run as fast as *one* of those cores. With old single-core P4's, it actually made sense to "tweak" the OS by disabling all but the essential services, running pairs of Raptors in RAID 0, hacking together absurdly complex water-cooling systems (my silliest one had *6* waterblocks, which took weeks to machine, and hose leading out to a chopped office water-cooler, so i can clock everything to goofy levels), all for a few extra fps. Not even double. Now that rig wouldn't even be considered *average* . So much for buying procs with an eye towards the future ... just doesn't seem too economically sound. The raciest rigs of a year ago are just curious relics of today. Why not hold off buying new hardware 'til there's a chunk of software *you use*, which runs too slow on your rig? (When i dime out all the settings on Crysis Demo, the frame rate gets really choppy at times - better CPUs & GPUs would help that, but ... I don't *like* Crysis as anything but a benchmark.)
Of course, if you just like building fast boxen (I shoo' used to), then disregard what i just said. Fun is fun.
-d