Upgrading RAM question

My current PC is an HP Pavillion Media Center m8330f. It currently has 3GB of RAM and can have up to 8GB from what I have found. I'm running Vista Home Premium 32 bit, and I have no plans to update my OS.

My question is this, is there a limit to the OS as far as how much RAM I could have? If I go up to 8GB of RAM (4 slots x 2GB sticks) will my computer and software be able to take advantage of all of the memory?

Vista Home premium is limited to 4 Ghz of RAM in its 32 bit version... on its 64 bit version is limited to 16Ghz

I guess there is a confusion here, do not confuse the limit of you motherboard which I guess is the 32 Ghz that you mentioned and the limit of the OS. Inother words your hardware can take up to 32 but you OS up to 4 or 16 depending on the version.

HTH

Oops, I should have said 32 bit instead of GB. I fixed it.

From what you are saying, and what I read somewhere else, anything more than 4GB of RAM in my machine is going to be a waste. Thanks.

Vista 32 bits can only recognise about 3GB of RAM. How much exactly seems to depend how the memory is shared with peripherals like the video card. Do Run taskmgr and select the Performance tab to see exactly how much you've got. My desktop says 3325MB and my Laptop says 3065MB yet they are both 4GB machines.

I have set up my laptop with a dual boot - the original Vista 32 bits with 3GB for my personal stuff and a bare minimum Vista 64 system (without the fancy video card) with the full 4GB for testing virtual images.

There is no point in putting 8GB on a system if you're going to run a 32 bit operating system.

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Originally Posted by mjs1973

Oops, I should have said 32 bit instead of GB. I fixed it.

From what you are saying, and what I read somewhere else, anything more than 4GB of RAM in my machine is going to be a waste. Thanks.

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Ah! yes correct sorry for the misunderstood. Yes on a 32 bit 4ghz is the limit. And if you add one more 1gzh to the 3 you currently have is going to help but nothing you will actually notice.:thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Franglais

Vista 32 bits can only recognise about 3GB of RAM. How much exactly seems to depend how the memory is shared with peripherals like the video card. Do Run taskmgr and select the Performance tab to see exactly how much you've got. My desktop says 3325MB and my Laptop says 3065MB yet they are both 4GB machines.

I have set up my laptop with a dual boot - the original Vista 32 bits with 3GB for my personal stuff and a bare minimum Vista 64 system (without the fancy video card) with the full 4GB for testing virtual images.

There is no point in putting 8GB on a system if you're going to run a 32 bit operating system.

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You made me doubt for a second...but nop sorry to disagree with you here. The limit for Vista Home Premium is 4 ghz.
Yes usually users see less than 4, here is why:
"the platform can theoretically support the full 4GB, but your hardware is going to allocate some of the address space (not the physical RAM) to the PCI bus, the video adapter memory address space, and other resources. 32-bit OSs need to use part of the full 4GB address space to address these resources, subtracting from the maximum memory you have available to the OS and applications"

Some users after updating Vista will see the correct Physical RAM instead of the "practical" amount.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr..._windows_vista

I should have said "use about 3GB" rather than "recognise about 3GB". Vista 32 certainly sees 4GB in the System option in the Control Panel, but it doesn't use it all.

The link you posted is very interesting. It's the first time I've seen a clear explanation of what's going on.

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Originally Posted by Franglais

I should have said "use about 3GB" rather than "recognise about 3GB". Vista 32 certainly sees 4GB in the System option in the Control Panel, but it doesn't use it all.

The link you posted is very interesting. It's the first time I've seen a clear explanation of what's going on.

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Glad you find it useful :thumbsup:

The other thing I did not mention is that software (almost sure) has also its limits and varies from application to application.