Thanks! I am running some software that recommends 2GB RAM and I have
always been able to out-spec the recommended requirements, so I'm looking
for a bit of head-room if that makes sense.
oh.. and, thanks for "I'll forego my predictable rant on the archaic nature
of XP..." etc. This current box is running just fine and serves all my
current needs. I imagine I will upgrade within a year or two, especially
when support for XP is gone. Until then, I am content to add external
storage or RAM as needed since everything else is working ok.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Sevart" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2011 23:14
Subject: Re: [H] RAM Upgrade Question
The Windows 32-bit kernel is technically capable of using over 4GB of
system
memory using technology called Physical Address Extensions (PAE). However,
Microsoft only exposes this capability in Server versions of the operating
system, Enterprise edition or greater. On the client side, Windows XP
prior
to SP2 could technically use it as well--MS apparently didn't feel
compelled
to artificially limit it at that time given how rare >4GB of memory was
back
in those days. However, beginning with SP2, there's no longer any way to
make memory over 4GB accessible to the system or to user applications in
XP,
Vista, or Win7 x86 editions. 64-bit versions of Windows do not have this
limitation--Win7 Professional x64 and above support up to 192GB of memory.
Also worth noting is that even with 4GB, by default, Windows will split
this
into 2GB of user memory and 2GB of kernel memory. You can use 4GT (/3gb
switch in boot.ini) to modify this split to 3/1, but that can introduce
its
own (rare) issues with poorly written drivers/software, and still doesn't
modify the per-process 2GB memory limit unless your memory-intensive
applications are compiled with LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE (also rare).
In short, there's rarely significant benefit in putting 4GB in a box with
a
32-bit client Windows edition.
I'll forego my predictable rant on the archaic nature of XP and relative
virtues of newer versions with principle development occurring within the
last decade. :)
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:hardware-
[email protected]] On Behalf Of Veech
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 12:50 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [H] RAM Upgrade Question
I have a 5-year old PC that is humming along just fine using XP SP3. The
board is an EVGA nForce 680i which NewEgg says will support up to 8GB
RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188013
however I
have always thought that XP will only "see" 4G RAM> Is this true or will
my
board actually see the 8GB RAM with XP SP3? I doubt it will, but just
wanted to throw it out there, see what you guys think.
Currently I have 2 x 1GB DDR2-800 RAM Patriot brand. There are two more
DIMM slots available. Should I toss the 5-yr old sticks and get 2 x 2GB
RAM
or just add 2 more 1GB sticks? RAM is cheap enough now that in this case
the cost isn't a major issue.
thanks!
