TWINX2048-3500LLPRO - Vista Upgrade question

[cerveau]

Hi,

 

I currently have 2 GB of Ram in the form of TWINX2048-3500LLPRO

 

My Motherboard is an ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe, in the manual it says

it supports 4 GB of Ram.

 

I was thinking of getting another 2gb ie a matched pair of TWINX2048-3500LLPRO

 

Then I saw this thread.....

http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57514&highlight=TWINX2048-3500LLPRO

 

Would I get the same problem, even using vista?

 

I also have another question regarding the install of these sticks

My motherboard has 4 color coded Ram slots

2 blue and 2 black

 

How should my current Ram be installed ?

 

They are both currently in the same colored slots.

 

Does the fact that my CPU is a P4 hyperThreading cpu make a difference

ie 2 channels ?

 

I really dont understand the techyness behind it, but should they be installed

in different colored slots to allow both threads to maximize the Ram?

or have I got it completely wrong ?

 

Also how would this work if I had 4 Gb

 

Should each matched pair be installed in the same colored slot or not?

 

Of course getting hold of another pair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO is a whole

another story, the only place seems to be on auction sites with rip-off prices.

 

Thank you for your time.

[Wired]

That thread only mentions the BIOS, not OS, so based upon that information the same issue would occur.

 

32-bit OSes have that problem, as well; 64-bit OSes do not.

[cerveau]

Thank you very much for your reply.

 

So what you are saying is that I should stick with the 2 GB I already have,

and theres no chance that I would see a performance increase with 4 GB?

 

 

 

What about the 2nd part of my post, regarding the install of my current 2 GB

 

Should they be installed in different colored slots or kept as they are

ie both in the same colored slot?

 

Thanks again

[RAM GUY]

Please check the manual for the correct slots to use. And this chipset is a 32-Bit chipset so you would never be able to see the full 4 Gig with this chipset.

[cerveau]

Please check the manual for the correct slots to use. And this chipset is a 32-Bit chipset so you would never be able to see the full 4 Gig with this chipset.

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

The manual says this:

 

"These sockets support up to 4GB system memory using 184-pin unbuffered ECC

or non-ECC PC3200/PC2700/PC2100 DDR DIMMS and allow up to 6.4 GB/S data

transfer rate"

 

"When all four sockets are populated with 1GB DIMMS (total 4GB),

the system may detect only 3+GB (a little less than 4 GB) due to

ICH5R resource allocation"

 

I realised that it doesnt anything about supporting PC3500, which is what Im

using. Maybe BIOS updates have included support for PC3500, and the Corsair

Configurator recommended this ram.

 

Regarding installation it says :

 

"For dual channel configuration, you may:

install identical DIMMS in all four sockets

or

Install identical DIMM pair in DIMM_A1 and DIMM_B1 (Blue sockets)

and identical DIMM pair in DIMM_A2 and DIMM_B2 (Black Sockets)"

 

 

Why does the manual say that 4 GB is possible?

 

If the only down-side is that it wouldn't see the full 4GB, without affecting performance

I could live with that.

 

 

I guess its all down to the word "Supporting", they say it will work but

dont say it will be a performance boost (or even stable)

 

So I still cant use 4 GB ? well it would be 3+ GB

 

Thanks

[RAM GUY]

There were some applications where even three Gig would be worth it, but yes its a bit misleading. But its just the limitation of the chipset. And adding more memory will never increase performance from a hardware perspective. The difference is with more memory the system can user more active Ram than the swap file on the HDD.