F131 config question; RAM related.

[Nosfera2]

Greetings,

I am planning to go with the following config:

1000W Enermax Galaxy Power Supply
ASUS P5K DELUXE/WIFI
E6850 Core 2 (3.0GHz x 2)
4GB Corsair XMS2-8500 DDR2-1066
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache - SATA II
2x ATI Radeon HD 2900XT 2GB DDR4 in Crossfire (FREE CROSSFIRE!)
Microsoft Windows Vista Business (32-Bit)

I've read in random places that in such a setup, windows vista 32bit will not be able to see 4GB of ram; instead it will report 3.1GB (or something related). Is that true, is how much ram the system sees determined by the type of os, or by the motherboard chipset. I mean, wouldn't an ASUS P5K mobo see 4GB of memory and report 4GB even if vista business 32bit is running? I'm a bit confused in this matter :(

Any feedback on this would be appreciated.

[ginfan]

I don't know specifics either, but would love to see them.

I can share my limited understanding. From what I've read, the amount of memory addressed is limited by what ever has the smaller max, the Motherboard or the OS. In this case your OS will have a smaller limit than your motherboard, and that limit will be less than 4 gb. Similarly, some apps can't address as much and may have their own limits that are even smaller. I've heard rumors that video card memory can count against software memory address limits as well, but haven't any confirmation of that and have no idea how that would work.

Last week I ordered a very similar pc, same proc and memory, but 64-bit Vista and a single 8800 Ultra. I've requested to have it red-lined with the Zahlman fan in the Ephex case. I'd be very interested in sharing benchmarks when our systems are delivered.

[carsonmd]

Greetings,

I am planning to go with the following config:

1000W Enermax Galaxy Power Supply
ASUS P5K DELUXE/WIFI
E6850 Core 2 (3.0GHz x 2)
4GB Corsair XMS2-8500 DDR2-1066
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache - SATA II
2x ATI Radeon HD 2900XT 2GB DDR4 in Crossfire (FREE CROSSFIRE!)
Microsoft Windows Vista Business (32-Bit)

I've read in random places that in such a setup, windows vista 32bit will not be able to see 4GB of ram; instead it will report 3.1GB (or something related). Is that true, is how much ram the system sees determined by the type of os, or by the motherboard chipset. I mean, wouldn't an ASUS P5K mobo see 4GB of memory and report 4GB even if vista business 32bit is running? I'm a bit confused in this matter :(

Any feedback on this would be appreciated.

A 32-bit OS cannot address 4GB of memory. It has nothing to do with hardware. Your motherboard's BIOS will report 4GB, but a 32-bit OS can address around 3.2GB.

[RottynDawg]

Here is one of the best explanations I have seen:

http://compreviews.about.com/od/memory/a/Vista4GB.htm

[rcb]

I may be wrong( and I'm sure someone will correct me if I am :lol: ), but I think the problem may be that memory manufacturers report memory capacity in base 10 numbers whereas your PC uses base 2, binary, math. This seems to me to be the same phenomenon as when you buy a 150GB hard drive and your PC reports you have 139 GB capacity. If you have a 4GB memory address space, base 10, that's equivalent to 3.xxGB in base 2.

[Nosfera2]

Thanks for your feedback, I feel so educated now :) I guess for a gamer 4GB would still be ideal with vista, even if windows will report around 3.2GB.

Thanks again :)