RAM!!

[HotDamn!]

I understand that your system will only pick up about 3gb of ram if your running 32bit... but I'm trying to find 3gb of ram to buy and the damn things come in 2x1 and 1x2.

I was wondering that if I'm not able to find 3 gigs of ram that are of the same brand and timings and what-not will it affect performance If I mix the brand or possibly have to use a stick with a different timing than the others??

I really wanted to go with 4gb but it wouldnt really help me since my system only picks up 3.. or I'm I lost and talkin dumb lol.

Some help would be great, thanks!!!

[disturbed1]

Why don't you just buy 3 1gb sticks? Unless you have a motherboard with a chipset that specifies you need to install in pairs - then you buy 2 1gb sticks and 2 512mb sticks

[HotDamn!]

never mind. i just found some. thanks tho

[jman98]

I see that you got a solution. We seem to have an endless number of members who look through ancient posts, so this is for the benefit of someone in the future who will look at this thread.

Both Crucial (http://www.crucial.com) and Kingston (http://www.kingston.com) can tell you what kind of memory you can use if you input your PC model number or motherboard model number.

You're not likely to notice much if any benefit from 3 GB though. I have a 32 bit Windows PC with 2 GB of memory that runs XP and I can't even fully use all 2 GB.

[ocgw]

Dudes, get 4GB of ram, if your gfx card has 512mb of ram, anf your HDD cache and other system memories use up another 256mb of ram then 4GB of ram will show as 3.25GB of system memory in a 32-bit system

If you start out w/ 3GB of ram then you are gonna only have 2.somethin' GB of available system memory

ocgw

peace

[JohnnyMalaria]

Dudes, get 4GB of ram, if your gfx card has 512mb of ram, anf your HDD cache and other system memories use up another 256mb of ram then 4GB of ram will show as 3.25GB of system memory in a 32-bit system

If you start out w/ 3GB of ram then you are gonna only have 2.somethin' GB of available system memory

ocgw

peace

That's not true. The reason that 32-bit Windows can only use up to 3.2GB is because the rest of the address space is used by hardware - it doesn't mean that the hardware uses RAM. The hardware doesn't care whether there's RAM there or not. So, 3GB RAM will be the same (pretty much) as 4GB on a 32-bit system.

[aedipuss]

the 4 gig limit is for address space. think of any 32 bit os as having 4 GB worth of mailboxes each with a different number on it. anything that needs a mailbox uses up some space: ram, hard drive controllers, north bridge, south bridge, agp aperture, ethernet cards, video ram(another big user), etc....

if you had 2- 1GB vid cards in your 32 bit system the max available ram would be around 1.75GB !!!

[ocgw]

Dudes, get 4GB of ram, if your gfx card has 512mb of ram, anf your HDD cache and other system memories use up another 256mb of ram then 4GB of ram will show as 3.25GB of system memory in a 32-bit system

If you start out w/ 3GB of ram then you are gonna only have 2.somethin' GB of available system memory

ocgw

peace

That's not true. The reason that 32-bit Windows can only use up to 3.2GB is because the rest of the address space is used by hardware - it doesn't mean that the hardware uses RAM. The hardware doesn't care whether there's RAM there or not. So, 3GB RAM will be the same (pretty much) as 4GB on a 32-bit system.

haha you are right, I just had a "brain fart"

But not all motherboards can do "dual channel" with different size sticks of memory

If he is doing a "triple channel" i7 system (3) 1GB sticks of memory would be perfect

lol

ocgw

peace

[JohnnyMalaria]

I'll have to trust you on that. My main box is a 2.8GHz Pentium D.

[aedipuss]

I'll have to trust you on that. My main box is a 2.8GHz Pentium D.

well at least it helps keep the place warm

[videobread]

Just a note: I have systems that take one DIMM or two DIMM's or four DIMM's. They don't take three DIMM's. Three one gig DIMM's would not work. I assume you are talking about two 1 gig DIMM's and two 512k DIMM's when you are talking about 3 gig if your system is similar to mine. Best to check.

[ocgw]

Just a note: I have systems that take one DIMM or two DIMM's or four DIMM's. They don't take three DIMM's. Three one gig DIMM's would not work. I assume you are talking about two 1 gig DIMM's and two 512k DIMM's when you are talking about 3 gig if your system is similar to mine. Best to check.

Yeah, it would work, but may not operate in "dual channel" losing half your bandwith

ocgw

peace

[johns0]

Dudes, get 4GB of ram, if your gfx card has 512mb of ram, anf your HDD cache and other system memories use up another 256mb of ram then 4GB of ram will show as 3.25GB of system memory in a 32-bit system

If you start out w/ 3GB of ram then you are gonna only have 2.somethin' GB of available system memory

ocgw

peace

That's not true. The reason that 32-bit Windows can only use up to 3.2GB is because the rest of the address space is used by hardware - it doesn't mean that the hardware uses RAM. The hardware doesn't care whether there's RAM there or not. So, 3GB RAM will be the same (pretty much) as 4GB on a 32-bit system.

If you have a video card that has 256 MB of onboard memory, that memory must be mapped within the first 4 GB of address space. If 4 GB of system memory is already installed, part of that address space must be reserved by the graphics memory mapping. Graphics memory mapping overwrites a part of the system memory. These conditions reduce the total amount of system memory that is available to the operating system.

[JohnnyMalaria]

I think that's what I was saying

[jagabo]

Windows shows 3.5 GB on my 4 GB XP Pro system. 512 MB graphics card.