And the verbage that has me wondering, "What does this mean to me?" is below. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated before I shell out any cash on more memory! If I am reading it right, it will only utilize 3GB when 4GB is installed?
Due to the South Bridge resource deployment, the system density will only be detected up to 3+ GB (not full 4GB) when each DIMM is installed with an 1GB memory module
The way I read this is, if you place a 1 gig stick in each slot(4 slots correct?), the board will only read 3 of those 4 gigs in total. If that is the case then you would want two 2 gig sticks of memory only using 2 slots? Pay attention to the slot colors and combinations you install the sticks per the documents on the board.
The motherboard supports a max of 4GB. That means any peripheral devices/dedicated Video card memory will be subtracted from that max 4GB ram.
It is the same for me. I have 4GB installed, but since my MoBo can support no more than 4GB (4GB plus 256MB video memory would excees the board's limits), which cannot happen.
So 4Gb minus perpheral device and GPU leaves me with 3325MB (or 3.25GB) of usable/addressable ram. I am still using all 4GB, but that allocated memory for the card, etc, is not overwritable, and therefore not usable by Vista.
To use the full 4GB of RAM a MoBo must support 8GB or more.
For Windows Vista to use all 4 GB of memory on a computer that has 4 GB of memory installed, the computer must meet the following requirements:
The chipset must support at least 8 GB of address space. Chipsets that have this capability include the following:
Intel 975X
Intel P965
Intel 955X on Socket 775
Chipsets that support AMD processors that use socket F, socket 940, socket 939, or socket AM2. These chipsets include any AMD socket and CPU combination in which the memory controller resides in the CPU.
The CPU must support the x64 instruction set. The AMD64 CPU and the Intel EM64T CPU support this instruction set.
The BIOS must support the memory remapping feature. The memory remapping feature allows for the segment of system memory that was previously overwritten by the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) configuration space to be remapped above the 4 GB address line. This feature must be enabled in the BIOS configuration utility on the computer. View your computer product documentation for instructions that explain how to enable this feature. Many consumer-oriented computers may not support the memory remapping feature. No standard terminology is used in documentation or in BIOS configuration utilities for this feature. Therefore, you may have to read the descriptions of the various BIOS configuration settings that are available to determine whether any of the settings enable the memory remapping feature.
An x64 (64-bit) version of Windows Vista must be used.
Either that or just install the 4GB. You will have 3.25GB of usable memory. I do it, its not that big of a deal (although if you are running dual GPU's with at minumum 256MB dedicated each, you will only have 3GB usable.) So just buy a 2GB, and 1GB stick.
there you go then Just get 1x2GB/1x1GB sticks. 3gb will make Vista much more responsive than 2GB. Any thing more is just wasted RAM. (although if it is cheaper to buy 2x2GB I would definitely do it.)
I got my 2x2GB sticks dual channel memory for less than $100 off Newegg.com
rive0108 has a good plan for you if money is tight. However, hardware is very inexpensive these days. Might take a look around and see what you can put together.
