PC Memory Question

[GARich]

Here's one for you hardware wizards...

I have just upgraded my memory from 2gb to 4gb by putting a pair of 1gb Crucial DDR2 modules. I already had 2x1gb Corsair DDR2 modules. Before, when checking the System Info (under XP) it showed 2gb memory. With the 4gb installed it only reports 3.12gb installed.

Could this be because I have mixed modules, the limitiations of XP, or some other suitably obscure problem?

Cheers,

Richard

[Steve A]

Thats about right for xp. It doesn't usually recognise more than 3 gig ;-)

[GARich]

Thanks Steve

[ak49er]

So, does Win Xp use the full 4 even though it only recognizes 3.12?

[Peter Dowson]

So, does Win Xp use the full 4 even though it only recognizes 3.12?

No. Only a 64 bit operating system can use more than around 3Gb.

Pete

[GARich]

Interestingly (rather annoyingly) the computer is now slower. I can only put it down to mixing Crucial with Corsair memory. Anyone have any experience of this before? I have tried installing in both combinations:
Corsair/Crucial + Corsair/Crucial, and Corsair/Corsair + Crucial/Crucial :?

[Polmer]

If I recall,

Dual channel memory is the fastest and most efficient way to have your memory configured. When you have more than 2 RAM slots occupied, dual channel mode is canceled. So, adding the extra 1 GB ( functionally) may have actually slowed your system down.


~Polmer

[thomasstuart]

Hi Polmer. I am Thomas.
I have Intel 915 GBWB mother board and there are 4 Memory block slot on it right now I install 512 Mbit x2 RAM slot.
According to you what I should do to increase speed of my computer system?

[Polmer]

Hello Thomas,

If you want to add more memory ( I would in your case) I would ditch the 512 memory sticks and by 2 good sticks of 1GB memory. This way you would double your memory and still operate in dual channel mode.

~Polmer