Adding RAM to an Intel motherboard - what's the max?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Trent SC
  • Start date Start date
T

Trent SC

Guest
I've got an Intel D865PERL motherboard with an Intel P4 2.8 processor and
1Gb or RAM (a pair of GB). I'm looking to upgrade the memory and have
looked at the useful crucial.com site, which advises that 32-bit versions of
Windows will only recognise, and more importantly use, between 3 and 3.5GB.

Is this true? In which case, there seems little point in putting 4GB on my
Windows XP Pro machine...

Thanks in advance.
 
Re: Adding RAM to an Intel motherboard - what's the max?

Trent SC wrote:
> I've got an Intel D865PERL motherboard with an Intel P4 2.8
> processor and 1Gb or RAM (a pair of GB). I'm looking to upgrade
> the memory and have looked at the useful crucial.com site, which
> advises that 32-bit versions of Windows will only recognise, and
> more importantly use, between 3 and 3.5GB.
> Is this true? In which case, there seems little point in putting
> 4GB on my Windows XP Pro machine...


What are you utilizing the computer for?
The reason I ask is that there is probably little point in your putting more
RAM in it from the "what you actually would use" standpoint anyway...

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
 
Re: Adding RAM to an Intel motherboard - what's the max?

Unless you use memory intensive software ( Virtual PC, Graphics editing )
you're unlikely to need that much physical RAM. To keep a balanced
hardware setup, I'd save my money and invest in a newer Motherboard/
CPU & RAM sometime later. And yes 32-Bit Operating Systems have
a hard limit on how much RAM space they can address.

"Trent SC" <invalid@bogoff.invalid> wrote in message
news:eUEeRswbIHA.5988@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> I've got an Intel D865PERL motherboard with an Intel P4 2.8 processor and
> 1Gb or RAM (a pair of GB). I'm looking to upgrade the memory and have
> looked at the useful crucial.com site, which advises that 32-bit versions
> of
> Windows will only recognise, and more importantly use, between 3 and
> 3.5GB.
>
> Is this true? In which case, there seems little point in putting 4GB on
> my
> Windows XP Pro machine...
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>
>
 
Re: Adding RAM to an Intel motherboard - what's the max?

Trent SC wrote:
> I've got an Intel D865PERL motherboard with an Intel P4 2.8 processor
> and 1Gb or RAM (a pair of GB). I'm looking to upgrade the memory and
> have looked at the useful crucial.com site, which advises that 32-bit
> versions of Windows will only recognise, and more importantly use,
> between 3 and 3.5GB.
> Is this true? In which case, there seems little point in putting 4GB
> on my Windows XP Pro machine...
>
> Thanks in advance.

Yes, it's true that XP cannot use the entire 4GB.

There is advantage in putting 4GB of RAM in your machine - you can't raise
your RAM to 3.5GB.
 
Re: Adding RAM to an Intel motherboard - what's the max?

"Trent SC" <invalid@bogoff.invalid> wrote:

>I've got an Intel D865PERL motherboard with an Intel P4 2.8 processor and
>1Gb or RAM (a pair of GB). I'm looking to upgrade the memory and have
>looked at the useful crucial.com site, which advises that 32-bit versions of
>Windows will only recognise, and more importantly use, between 3 and 3.5GB.
>
>Is this true?

It's true. See http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html for a
discussion.

> In which case, there seems little point in putting 4GB on my
>Windows XP Pro machine...

It's not clear from your description just how much RAM you currently
have ("1GB", "a pair of GB"???). If you currently have 2GB or more
it's not very likely that adding more would do you any good unless
you're using some VERY RAM-hungry apps (image or video editing, for
one).

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(Shell/User)
Slattery_T@bls.gov
http://members.cox.net/slatteryt
 
Re: Adding RAM to an Intel motherboard - what's the max?


"Trent SC" <invalid@bogoff.invalid> wrote in message
news:eUEeRswbIHA.5988@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> I've got an Intel D865PERL motherboard with an Intel P4 2.8 processor and
> 1Gb or RAM (a pair of GB). I'm looking to upgrade the memory and have
> looked at the useful crucial.com site, which advises that 32-bit versions
> of
> Windows will only recognise, and more importantly use, between 3 and
> 3.5GB.
>
> Is this true? In which case, there seems little point in putting 4GB on
> my
> Windows XP Pro machine...
>

1 Gb of RAM should be more than enough for most applications. The only
reason to add more than this is if you are doing something that really needs
it, such as editing high definition video. Otherwise stick with 1Gb - you
are unlikely to notice the change.
 
Re: Adding RAM to an Intel motherboard - what's the max?

>>I've got an Intel D865PERL motherboard with an Intel P4 2.8 processor and
>>1Gb or RAM (a pair of GB). I'm looking to upgrade the memory and have
>>looked at the useful crucial.com site, which advises that 32-bit versions
>>of
>>Windows will only recognise, and more importantly use, between 3 and
>>3.5GB.
>>
>>Is this true?
>
> It's true. See http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html for a
> discussion.
>
>> In which case, there seems little point in putting 4GB on my
>>Windows XP Pro machine...
>
> It's not clear from your description just how much RAM you currently
> have ("1GB", "a pair of GB"???). If you currently have 2GB or more
> it's not very likely that adding more would do you any good unless
> you're using some VERY RAM-hungry apps (image or video editing, for
> one).

Thanks to all for the helpful input, and apologies for the confusion. To
clarify, I have a pair of 512MB sticks at the moment - 1GB in total - and
I've noticed a significant slow-down on my machine since upgrading some
applications: Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Photoshop all open and run
significantly more slowly than their earlier incarnations.

I also notice significantly more HDD access while I'm waiting for these to
open, so my thinking is that I'll leave the two 512s in there, and bung in a
couple of 1GB sticks, taking the total to three. Does that seem to make
sense?
 
Re: Adding RAM to an Intel motherboard - what's the max?


> I also notice significantly more HDD access while I'm
> waiting for these to
> open, so my thinking is that I'll leave the two 512s in
> there, and bung in a couple of 1GB sticks, taking the
> total to three. Does that seem to make sense?
sticks = memory module?
bung = install?

Just curious.
 
Re: Adding RAM to an Intel motherboard - what's the max?

>> I also notice significantly more HDD access while I'm waiting for these
>> to
>> open, so my thinking is that I'll leave the two 512s in there, and bung
>> in a couple of 1GB sticks, taking the total to three. Does that seem to
>> make sense?
> sticks = memory module?
> bung = install?
>
> Just curious.

Yup.
 
Re: Adding RAM to an Intel motherboard - what's the max?

you can research your
genuine motherboard at
the genuine intel website.

also, you can email their
sales rep to inquire what
applications require max
memory engineered into
the mobo and buy the
amount you require.

however, many, if not all
off-the-shelf software are made
for the average user and
computer.

it is not to say that software
could not be designed/coded
to use maximum memory. but
this software wouldn't be sold at
walmarts, amazon, etc...


--

db ·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·..><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>¸.
><)))º>·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>


..


"Trent SC" <invalid@bogoff.invalid> wrote in message
news:eUEeRswbIHA.5988@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> I've got an Intel D865PERL motherboard with an Intel P4 2.8 processor and
> 1Gb or RAM (a pair of GB). I'm looking to upgrade the memory and have
> looked at the useful crucial.com site, which advises that 32-bit versions of
> Windows will only recognise, and more importantly use, between 3 and 3.5GB.
>
> Is this true? In which case, there seems little point in putting 4GB on my
> Windows XP Pro machine...
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>
>
 
Re: Adding RAM to an Intel motherboard - what's the max?

"Trent SC" <invalid@bogoff.invalid> wrote:

>Thanks to all for the helpful input, and apologies for the confusion. To
>clarify, I have a pair of 512MB sticks at the moment - 1GB in total - and
>I've noticed a significant slow-down on my machine since upgrading some
>applications: Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Photoshop all open and run
>significantly more slowly than their earlier incarnations.

>I also notice significantly more HDD access while I'm waiting for these to
>open, so my thinking is that I'll leave the two 512s in there, and bung in a
>couple of 1GB sticks, taking the total to three. Does that seem to make
>sense?

Makes sense to me. The disk access is very likely to be the paging
file being read from and written to. Adding RAM should cut that
considerably. Photoshop can be RAM-hungry, I'm not sure about the
others you mention.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(Shell/User)
Slattery_T@bls.gov
http://members.cox.net/slatteryt
 
Re: Adding RAM to an Intel motherboard - what's the max?

It varies from 2.5 to 3.5 across my machines. It is due to the BIOS
reserving space for memory-mapped IO for devices like video cards. Windows
could use all 4GB if the BIOS didn't hide some. What is reported on system
properties is the amount of ram available to user programs, not necessarily
Windows itself.

"Trent SC" <invalid@bogoff.invalid> wrote in message
news:%23cPkjrybIHA.1168@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>>I've got an Intel D865PERL motherboard with an Intel P4 2.8 processor and
>>>1Gb or RAM (a pair of GB). I'm looking to upgrade the memory and have
>>>looked at the useful crucial.com site, which advises that 32-bit versions
>>>of
>>>Windows will only recognise, and more importantly use, between 3 and
>>>3.5GB.
>>>
>>>Is this true?
>>
>> It's true. See http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html for a
>> discussion.
>>
>>> In which case, there seems little point in putting 4GB on my
>>>Windows XP Pro machine...
>>
>> It's not clear from your description just how much RAM you currently
>> have ("1GB", "a pair of GB"???). If you currently have 2GB or more
>> it's not very likely that adding more would do you any good unless
>> you're using some VERY RAM-hungry apps (image or video editing, for
>> one).
>
> Thanks to all for the helpful input, and apologies for the confusion. To
> clarify, I have a pair of 512MB sticks at the moment - 1GB in total - and
> I've noticed a significant slow-down on my machine since upgrading some
> applications: Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Photoshop all open and run
> significantly more slowly than their earlier incarnations.
>
> I also notice significantly more HDD access while I'm waiting for these to
> open, so my thinking is that I'll leave the two 512s in there, and bung in
> a couple of 1GB sticks, taking the total to three. Does that seem to make
> sense?
>
 
Re: Adding RAM to an Intel motherboard - what's the max?


> "Trent SC" <invalid@bogoff.invalid> wrote:
>>Thanks to all for the helpful input, and apologies for the >>confusion.
>>To clarify, I have a pair of 512MB sticks at the >>moment - 1GB in total -
>>and I've noticed a significant slow->>down on my machine since upgrading
>>some applications: >>Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Photoshop all open and run
>>significantly more slowly than their earlier incarnations.
>
>>I also notice significantly more HDD access while I'm waiting >>for these
>>to open, so my thinking is that I'll leave the two 512s >>in there, and
>>bung in a couple of 1GB sticks, taking the total to >>three. Does that
>>seem to make sense?


"Tim Slattery" <Slattery_T@bls.gov> wrote in message
news:qlu8r31m15trun45bi169k8bcr98io5g5v@4ax.com...
> Makes sense to me. The disk access is very likely to be the
> paging file being read from and written to. Adding RAM should > cut that
> considerably. Photoshop can be RAM-hungry, I'm not
> sure about the
> others you mention.
> --
> Tim Slattery
> MS MVP(Shell/User)
> Slattery_T@bls.gov
> http://members.cox.net/slatteryt


Trent:
While I personally haven't worked extensively with the programs you
mentioned, I can tell you that we're aware of many users who do, and without
exception (as I recall) every one of them have commented favorably on the
speed improvement they've experienced after increasing their RAM from 512 MB
or 1 GB to 2 GB. Given the relatively low cost of RAM these days I think you
would be wise to similarly upgrade your system.
Anna
 

Similar threads

C
Best Gaming Computers in 2021: Get the right equipment
Replies
0
Views
87
Chris Hachey
C
M
The rugged, spill-proof Chromebook everyone loves is somehow only $199 today
Replies
0
Views
115
Maren Estrada
M
C
An early Prime Day deal on Amazon devices is one you won’t want to miss
Replies
0
Views
111
Chris Hachey
C
M
Prime Day 2019 deals: A complete list of all the best Prime Day deals
Replies
0
Views
327
Maren Estrada
M
M
The ultimate roundup of Prime Day 2019’s best deals
Replies
0
Views
141
Maren Estrada
M
Back
Top