XP memory limit

[sbanks]

Thanks everyone for all the advice/help in other threads where I asked for help spec'ing my new PC. I've now bought all the bits and have pretty much assembled it. I've also installed XP Pro.

That's as far as I've got so far, but I've found something I wasn't expecting and am not too pleased with!

My system (Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, ASUS P5B Deluxe motherboard) has 4 gig of RAM. However, XP sees just under 3 gig of it!

When reading the manual for the motherboard it said that it (the board) could handle up to 8 gig but that 32-bit versions of XP won't see more than 3 gig and that it advised no more than 2 gig to be installed.

Having bought 4 gig, it's a bit annoying!

Has anyone else encountered this? Is there any way to fix it?

Or will I have to live with it until Vista, and will that fix it?

[sbanks]

Yep, I thought it might not be something I can fix. However, as Vista's coming out soon (?!) I'm hoping that it will handle the extra memory so I'll probably keep it. I'll be annoyed if it doesn't work with Vista, though!

[Anonymous]

Well, that ram is DDR2, coz its in a conroe system.

[mac124]

Vista should be able to see alot more than 4gb and no it doesn't need to be ddr2 for vista to see more than 3gb :wink:

[sbanks]

Yes, it's DDR2 RAM.

If Vista wasn't due out so soon then there's not be much point me keeping the extra, so I'm lucky I suppose. It is annoying that XP won't use it all, though.

[mac124]

Its because xp is 32bit and that is the most it can physically address, or something like that, so as vista is 64bit (i believe it is 64bit anyway) it can address alot more.

[djdaface]

Wow i have an XP MCP and i never knew that.

It mentioned the minimum & Recomended in the book but not the maximum, unlike the rest of the MS Manuals.



Ah but it does teach you how to renamed your windows directory properly


because thats something you need to do often