You've got plenty of hardware there for KSP. I'm playing on a Mac with a 2.3GHz Intel i5 and 4GB of RAM. If I recall correctly, KSP only runs on one or two cores and cannot make use of all 4. Also, I'm not an expert on computers, so I'll send someone over who is. As to the progress- it's generally a sandbox game, so you can make as much or as little progress as you want. You first few tries might get you nowhere, but you can always come back to the forums for help. If you get bored, I find that it's helpful to take a break and come back refreshed. You can also try career mode, with procedurally generated goals- imagine a sandbox with tasks to complete.