Question on DDR2 RAM

[SE14man]

Hi people,

Have just fitted 4 GB RAM to me PC (2 2 GB Sticks) DDR2.

Was just wondering why windows only sees it as 3.37 GB RAM and not the full 4.00 GB?
Also what should i be putting my virtual memory paging file size at?
Atm i have it set at 'system managed' is this a good thing to do?

Thanks guys.

[TimA-C]

You're running a 32-bit version of Windows which can only address about 3.25Gb of memory. You'll need to go to a 64-bit operating system to use more.

[jman98]

System managed virtual memory should be fine. I suppose your experience could always be different but at 4 GB of memory I've never been able to get an XP box to run out of memory. It's been a long time but at lower memory (ie. 512 MB) I've seen Windows put messages on the screen about the paging space and I would just allocate more space to stop the messages.

[SE14man]

Thanks guys for your very quick reply!
would you recommend 64 bit xp over 32 bit xp and if so, why?

Thank you.

[OldMan64]

For a system running WinXP, drivers will be a problem for the 64 bit OS and hardware. If a 64 bit OS is needed or wanted, try Windows 7 after finding all the drivers for the hardware, other wise WinXP 32 bit is fine. I would not recommend WinXP 64 bit.

[SE14man]

I do like XP ive never really got on with Windows 7 i think the security features annoy me too much.
Thanks so much for your help.

[jagabo]

In 32 bit mode the processor has a 4 GB address space. Part of that address space is reserved for the graphics card and other I/O devices. Exactly how much you have left depends on the graphics card and sometimes a BIOS setting (for how much address space the graphics card consumes. You typically have somewhere between 3 and 3.75 GB left for DRAM.

64 bit operating systems are somewhat of a pain, especially with video editing software because 32 bit and 64 bit programs run in separate systems that can't see each other. For example, 64 bit programs can't see 32 bit codecs, and vice versa. So you need to find and install both 32 bit codecs and 64 bit codecs if you use any 32 bit video programs.

As has been mentioned, driver support for 64 bit XP is limited. It's better in Win7. But I would just stick with the 32 bit XP that you have and live with the loss of some of your memory. Look through your BIOS for a "graphics aperture" setting. If it has that setting try setting it to a smaller value. That should free up more address space for DRAM.