More Parts Trickle In: Kingston RAM

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/kingston-4GB-RAM.JPG

Last week it was the super fast Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs (http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/index.php?topic_id=11879) (and a motherboard), and this week it's 4 GB of DDR2 PC4200 RAM from Kingston - 2 x 2 GB sticks. I'm still waiting for a few more parts to come in, but I'm getting closer to having everything I need for my project. Ah, how it warms the geek heart to hold 4 GB of RAM. :D

[EscapePod]

Jason, are you building a 64 bit PC?

[Jason Dunn]

Jason, are you building a 64 bit PC?

Not...precisely. I'm building a PC, but I'll likely be putting Vista 32 bit on there. 64 bit is still a minefield of hassles and driver pain.

[EscapePod]

I recently built the Vista 32 unit that I'm writing on, and wanted to go to 4GB RAM, but ASUS strongly recommended against using 4GB, unless it has the 64 bit processor. Their website advised to stay under 3GB. I'm not certain why (the language of the expanation was a little difficult to understand). It may have had something to do with memory usage when using SLI (I've got two nVidia 7900 GS video cards).

It will be interesting to see if everything is fine on your setup. If so, I may pop for two more Corsair 800 sticks.

[Jason Dunn]

I recently built the Vista 32 unit that I'm writing on, and wanted to go to 4GB RAM, but ASUS strongly recommended against using 4GB, unless it has the 64 bit processor.

I've been doing a lot of reading on this topic, and it's amazing how much conflicting information there is out there.

Vista 32 bit DOES support 4 GB of RAM - that's the limit.

Many motherboards do NOT support 4 GB of RAM - but if you can find one that does, you'll see all 4 GB of RAM in Vista.

I'm basically crossing my fingers and hoping that what I was told is accurate.

[EscapePod]

I am hoping it works great for you.

My MOBO is an ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe (long enuf name?). It supports up to 8GB, but of course, you need to run the processor (Intel E6600) in 64 bit mode and choose Vista 64. The board supports both 32 and 64 (odd name for a board the does 64). Its been heck finding Vista drivers for the various board components. ASUS's site had nothing at all for Vista -- they came out with all their Vista certified boards a week after I bought this one. Ended up going to the individual component brand sites for the Vista drivers -- nVidia and Silicone Image SATA drivers, nVidia for the SLI drivers for a pair of 7900 GS cards (Beta), Realtek for the 850 sound chip, nVidia and Marvel for the dual gigabit on-board NICs. It actually was fun and interesting, and Vista has been working great (as did my RC1 on an old AMD Athlon 1900+ with 512 MB RAM. (No Aero).

Right now, I'm debating putting in the Creative Labs X-Fi sound card. I know it will sound better than the Realtek, but the Vista drivers just came out and are missing nearly all the applets. I do have a Haupauge two tuner High Def over the air/Analog Cable tuner that came with all the Vista drivers -- really works great -- I'm pulling in 29 digital & hidef stations in the Orlando/Daytona area.

Please keep us posted on how your system turns out.