RAM and windows

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paul3200

i am thinking of building my own PC and was wandering what is the most
ammount of RAM any virsion of Windows can read
 
paul3200 said:
i am thinking of building my own PC and was wandering what is the most
ammount of RAM any virsion of Windows can read
Click to expand...

A 64 bit OS is likely to handle whatever desktop motherboard you build.
Even a Core i7 full of RAM (24GB).

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx

For something like 32 bit WinXP, you have 4GB of address space
(since PAE isn't available), minus the space used by the video card
or cards. For example, on some older systems (A8N-SLI Deluxe with
two 512MB video cards), you might see 2.75GB of RAM reported in
Windows, even though 4GB of RAM was physically present.

At the time, memory was expensive enough, that people would be tempted
to buy 2x1GB + 2x512MB and populate 3GB total, so not much of
it would be wasted. But at least in the case of DDR2, the memory
is so cheap now, you just buy 2x2GB and don't worry about it.

The purpose of the matched pair, is to run in dual channel
mode. Buying 2GB + 1GB sticks, while more economical, would
not give as high a bandwidth. While some motherboards can
run a mixed set like that in dual channel mode for part of
the address space, it really isn't that desirable to have
memory that has different performance levels as you move
through the memory space. (Intel calls that capability
"flex memory" in the chipset datasheets. Nvidia may have
been the first to support a mode like that.)

I bought a nice 2x2GB DDR2 kit for about $60, and I'm not going
to guess what the price is now. Memory prices have gone
up 50% in the last few months, but since memory was dirt
cheap then, it is still a bargain.

Paul
 
32 Bit Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 = 4GB max
64 Bit Vista or Windows 7 may be limited by the version
you install:

See:
http://www.start64.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3424&Itemid=128

Pick a motherboard that's relatively new model.
Check the manufacture's driver list, you should see
at least Vista AND Windows 7 beta drivers, this
way you know the vendor is working on drivers for
when Windows 7 is released.

Note: There is a 64Bit version of XP also but not
very popular.
 
unless you have a
specific requirement
or need,

I wouldn't spend too
much money in building
a pc or more power than
you really need.

the reason being is that
your investment doesn't
outlast technology.

in fact, if you build a
pc now, it will be outdated
by October when windows
7 comes out.

so you can buy/spend
for the costs of components
today built for vista "or"

wait when win7 comes out
then buy vista ready components
at a discount.

but to answer your question,
get 2 gigs of ram, unless
you are a high end graphics
designer or nasa engineer.
--

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Answer based on the way the question is phrased.

More than what you can install on any currently available motherboard.
 
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