PC hardware forum: MAX PC RAM ON VISTA 32BIT ??????

it will, to an extent. You won't get 4 gigs though. The system resources are why. PCI memory addressing will take up a portion of what the 4 gigs will use leaving much ram with only around 3.4 or less, depending in actual use. So in theory, yah, in actuality, no.

Vista starter is only like, 1 gig I believe but don't quote me, the rest on 32 bit should support it.

Paul

I've got 4 MB of RAM on my Vista 32-bit Home Premium setup (a friend had 2 MB left over after a rebuild of his machine, so I figured there's nothing to lose by adding them to the 2 MB that came with the HP Pavilion m8100y). The system recognizes 3.25 MB of that 4 MB, so that means 0.75 MB is not being used for anything that I can tell. If it weren't free, I wouldn't have added the last MB. Does the extra 1.25 MB make a difference? YES!! I run MS Flight Simulator X on this machine, which is well-documented memory hog. The extra RAM allows me to turn up many of the reality settings, which make the simulation much more realistic. I don't know what else the extra RAM can do, but it helps this game a great deal.

Yeah, sorry. I meant to use GB instead of MB. And I forgot to add that I wouldn't recommend that last GB unless you can get it free, or at least REALLY cheap! Getting only 1/4 of what you pay for isn't much of a deal. I haven't removed the 4th RAM memory unit, but I'd bet there wouldn't be a noticeable difference between 3 GB and 4 GB.

There were some useful tips at CNET on how to make your machine run faster (try the 'search forums' search feature for detailed info). In a nutshell, your computer 'slowliness' is not necessarily connected with its physical RAM size. The first thing I check (or recommend to check) when I receive a distress call about 'slow machine' is the system's contamination with unnecessary data and the size of Windows' swap-file (aka 'virtual memory size'). The former is done, for example, in Windows Explorer via clicking on your system logical disk (the one where OS is installed) with the right-button of your mouse, selecting the 'Properties' item in the list then 'Disk Cleanup' then 'More Options'. It's up to you to decide what options you'd like to use cleaning your drive but personally I don't go beyond the deletion of 'System Restore' old files and those selectable at the 'Disk Cleanup' tab. As for the swap-file size, you might want to attend to other CNET members' advice but I have it set to 1.5GB. The result? Well, it's always there! The only thing my 'ol'-good-PIII-1.4GHz/0.5GB' gives me a hard time is processing FullHD streaming video files. All other tasks like inet, DVD playback, office apps, DVD burning, TV etc. run smoothly. Of course, you can always spend some premium 'to add muscle on the machine' but why don't you try to use in full the muscle it already has? Efficiency is not necessarily attained with additional money spendings. Try 'system-fine-tuning' first - only if that doesn't help - go for 'muscle build-up'.

Vista will work with 4gb installed cause i dont think they do my memory in dual channel mode on the 512mb version or will i not notice much difference form 2gb.

Cheers chris

Exactly! 32-bit OSes like WinXP and Vista 32 are capable of allocating maximum of 2GB of RAM to an application. If you need more than 2GB of RAM per app, the best solution would probably be 64-bit OS like Vista 64. BTW, this thread's posts confirm previous observations of 32-bit-OS-'in-practice'-total-RAM-limit of somewhat 3.5GB.

Obviously one app can't use all of your memory. 3 GB would definitely be beneficial because Windows and background processes can use a gigabyte while letting your big app use its full 2 GB.