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  LiveWire / Technical Forums / Hardware Tech Support / Viewing Topic

Important question about RAM
Replies: 15Last Post May 21, 2008 11:10am by Stormblazer
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( Juggalotus )


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Ok I am building a PC and I was going to add 8 gigs of RAM to it. Well my dad told me that XP can only utilize 2 gigs of the ram. It can use all 8 but not at the same time. Is this true?

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9:09 pm on May 12, 2008 | Joined: May 2004 | Days Active: 1,161
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I don't believe so.. I think it's  4gb's, or 8 for Windows XP 32bit, and 16gb for 64bit.

(It also depends on your motherboard, and CPU).

Post edited at 9:11 pm on May 12, 2008 by Azumi

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Yes i believe so, at a certain point 2 much RAM can hurt i think O.o....puts a drain on the powersupply.  

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9:11 pm on May 12, 2008 | Joined: Jan. 2008 | Days Active: 540
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Pretty much, 8 gigs is overkill on any system unless you're doing an insane amount of video processing.  Don't waste your money.

9:11 pm on May 12, 2008 | Joined: Feb. 2006 | Days Active: 699
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matto

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nah it can use all 8 fine. just depends on the mobo

however, you're never going to need that much, and it's a complete waste of $$$ in my opinion

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SO two gig should be ebough then?

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Quote: from Tuski at 9:11 pm on May 12, 2008

Pretty much, 8 gigs is overkill on any system unless you're doing an insane amount of video processing.  Don't waste your money.

Exactly.

That, or extreme multi-tasking, media creation (DVD's, etc), or making it a fileserver..

Though, do invest in 4gb, as Windows Vista does better utilize your RAM.

Instead of another 120$ for an additional 4gb's, try a better processor for video editing, or SLI/CrossFire for gaming.

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Quote: from luvinmychica at 9:14 pm on May 12, 2008

SO two gig should be ebough then?

Try 4, so you're more prepared for future software. Unless you're just doing simple gaming/stuff, then 2 is fine.

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Buying 8GB of RAM is a waste of money, especially if you are using a 32-bit Operating System. As the maximum number of addresses which can be addressed in a 32 bit Operating System is about 4GB. And you will never be able to get all of that 4Gigs, as when the computer is turned on, the hard ware, such as graphics cards, audio cards and HDD etc, will get their say in how much RAM they want, so in the end you may only have 3 to 3.5 Gigs of effective RAM.

Read more here

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4 GB of RAM is overkill for a 32-bit OS. Windows can only address up to 3GB. 64-bit OSs can access up to 4GB and more.

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Quote: from matto at 4:12 pm on May 13, 2008

nah it can use all 8 fine. just depends on the mobo

however, you're never going to need that much, and it's a complete waste of $$$ in my opinion


Fail. 32bit OS can't use it.

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XP 32Bit is capped i believe at around 3gb. Go for 4gb if you are going to get 64bit and are going to use memory intense applications or are going to game on it, otherwise you won't need it.

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matto

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my fault :P

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Get 4gb at the max.

32bit OSs can only see about 3.25gb, but x64 systems can see the full amount.

Unless you have a really good reason for getting 8gb, or even 4gb, you should just stick in the realm of the x32 systems, and use 2gb, possibly 3gb.

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Quote: from luvinmychica at 6:09 pm on May 12, 2008

Ok I am building a PC and I was going to add 8 gigs of RAM to it. Well my dad told me that XP can only utilize 2 gigs of the ram. It can use all 8 but not at the same time. Is this true?

Unless it was changed, XP only uses around 700 megs. Not even a gig.

8 is over kill unless you plan on running a large dedicated server.

Even 4 is more then the average user will need in the next couple years unless you're running Crysis on full specs.

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