If you have 4G in a fully populated mobo, little point in upgrading to 64bit
unless your going to replace at least half your RAM.

64bit Vista might actually "waste" a bit more than 32bit Vista - on a 4G
machine.



"Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
news:cce494llh3mqqtlvfai1efkn4a0i3l59i6@4ax.com...[color=blue]
> On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:55:00 -0700, §????
> <§ty??@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>[color=green]
>>
>>
>> "Vostman" wrote:
>>[color=darkred]
>> >
>> > Hi all
>> >
>> > Recently I had a problem with my RAID and had to wipe every thing now I
>> > have everything installed, but I have 4 sticks of Ram (4x1 sticks) but
>> > my computer details display that I only have 2gig. I heard there is a
>> > check box I need to tick to use maximum memory but to be honest I
>> > haven't a clue where to start looking as I lack knowledge in this kind
>> > of thing.
>> >
>> > Any help is welcome.
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> >
>> > Vost
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Vostman
>> >[/color]
>>
>> YOU MUST run 64bit Operation system If you doubt me then please call
>> microsoft they will explain 32bit can only support 3 GB of ram[/color]
>
>
>
> Sorry, this is not correct, on two counts:
>
> 1. He is only seeing 2GB (not 3) out of the 4GB he has. I'm not sure
> what his problem is, but with as little as 2GB accessible, it's highly
> unlikely that it's the issue you're alluding to.
>
> 2. It is *not* correct that "32bit can only support 3 GB of ram." The
> actually number varies, depending on the configuration of your
> computer. All 32-bit client versions of Windows (not just Vista) have
> a 4GB address space. That's the theoretical upper limit beyond which
> you can not go.
>
> But you can't use the entire 4GB of address space. Even though you
> have a 4GB address space, you can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM.
> That's because some of that space is used by hardware and is not
> available to the operating system and applications. The amount you can
> use varies, depending on what hardware you have installed, but can
> range from as little as 2GB (it's extremely rare that it's that
> little) to as much as 3.5GB. It's usually around 3.1GB.
>
> Note that the hardware is using the address *space*, not the actual
> RAM itself. The rest of the RAM goes unused because there is no
> address space to map it too.
>
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup[/color]