Windows Vista + 4 gigs of Ram

[dragonash]

well, im formatting to vista and i have both the 32 bit and 64 versions.

Can the 32bit use all 4 gigs of ram? Or do i need the 64bit version?

[Bald_Yew]

32 bit will not use all 4 gigs - in the real world, but if you don't plan on getting any more RAM on that system, 32bit will be fine.

IMHO, there is no reason not to go 64 though.....drivers are mature, and if you have open RAM slots on your Mobo, DDR2(if you are using DDR2)'s dirt cheap price will make a 64bit install worth it to upgrade your RAM. I mean 4 gigs can be had at rock bottom prices.

[Dr. Death]

If at all possible go to 64 bit. BUT make sure that all your hardware has 64 bit drivers first.

A 32 bit OS will only address a little under 3 GB of RAM. The rest of its theoretical 4 GB of address space is used by system devices.

[dragonash]

my comp is dated, so i dont even have DDR2!
TBH, I was holding out for a new comp unless i REALLY needed it. But it looks like I will buy some DDR 400 (PC3200) from newegg (4 gigs) for $120 or so. That should hold me out.

Right now using the 2 gigs I currently have, Vista 64 is running fine. I'm wondering if I should cancel the order

[Dr. Death]

Well, you need a 64 bit computer to use a 64 bit OS. I assumed you had that already...

[dragonash]

yup :)

but i would have found that out the hard way regardless ;p

[Ninjahedge]

Um......

DA, I just recently ot some Corsair 6400 DDR 800 (4-4-4-12) for $44 for 2G (the same memory I bought 2.5 years ago for $270!!!! Oh, the final cost was $14 $20 rebate and a $10 thank you from NewEgg for finding a problem with their listings of SDHC....). My machine now has 4G (I had to reseat the memory though, I was getting errors and spontaneous crashes, a well as boot-up hangups).

L4d starts up in a FLASH! (faster than TF2!).

I would like to 64 it too, but is there any real advantage yet? Most proggies are still written for 32, so they won't see any real boost to performance...

What is the story on Windows 7?

[dragonash]

Win 7 is still in beta and will expire in August for us beta testers. Nothing too stellar about it. What they really did was "un-dumbed" the dumbed up things they did for Vista.

And I guess 64 would just be for gaming so you can throw as much memory in it as possible.

I had a fire in my building and my apartment was caught up in it. (smoke dmg, but the firefighters did most, if not all of the damage). So this is just a temp upgrade until my insurance kicks in and I get myself a nice replacement gaming laptop....and if i have enough left over, a new desktop :)

[shifty]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946765

"All 32-bit versions of Windows Vista can access up to 4 GB of RAM."

[dragonash]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946765

"All 32-bit versions of Windows Vista can access up to 4 GB of RAM."

I KNEW I heard that somewhere.

Doesnt matter. 64bit is more secure anyway :)


64-bit versions of Windows Vista require that all device drivers be digitally signed by the developer.

gee... i wonder if that will bite me in the ass later.

[Bald_Yew]

Pretty good breakdown here:

http://www.maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=71236

Edit: with 4GB RAM installed, Vista x86 SP1 will show all four gigs in System Properties; however, Task Manager (as well as most system-monitor utilities) will continue to show only that RAM that's actually addressable by the system. So, if the BIOS and System Properties show 4GB, but Task Manager only reports, say, 2.8GB, that's normal.
(updated 5 July 2008)





http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946765

"All 32-bit versions of Windows Vista can access up to 4 GB of RAM."

[shifty]

gee... i wonder if that will bite me in the ass later.

it will. ask my neighbor.

[dragonash]

it will. ask my neighbor.


i wonder if there is a work around

[Ninjahedge]

Dual Boot?

[Wes]

Talking about Dual boot, I have Win7 installed on my XP machine. The default is ALWAYS Win7 and I have no way to change it to XP or to remove the dual boot or to remove Win 7...

I just want my simple XP back.

[dragonash]

assuming you no longer have win7 installed, i think you need to do a repair install of xp and that will give you back your default boot loader.

actually, i think the recovery console can just do a fixboot or fixmbr. That might be easier if it works

[shifty]

pretty sure i looked this up last time and found that there was no easy answer. but all those posts are gone :D ;)

[dragonash]

the more i think about it, i believe *I* did a fixboot/fixmbr and it got rid of the win7 bootloader

[shifty]

and then you couldn't boot into Vista because you killed the bootloader?

[dragonash]

I had vista on a separate SATA HD.
So when I had it installed, it took over the XP bootloader.
I got rid of the vista HD, but the bootloader remained.
So I had to do that.

From what wes described, it sounded like he doesnt even want to deal with Win7 since he spoke about removing the win7 option. So I assumed win7 was gone. Dunno if thats the case though.

[Cerwin_Vega]

Talking about Dual boot, I have Win7 installed on my XP machine. The default is ALWAYS Win7 and I have no way to change it to XP or to remove the dual boot or to remove Win 7...

I just want my simple XP back.

I posted this in on the forums before they crashed as well. VistaBootPro (http://www.vistabootpro.org/). Yes it says Vista but works with Win7 as well.

[Wes]

Ah, didn't see it last time. Will try it out later.

win7 is still there. I don't even know how to remove it. lol

[shifty]

win7 is still there. I don't even know how to remove it. lol

format C:\ ;)

[garm]

format C:\ ;)

:D :eek: