Help with a new rig

[Darthvan]

Hey guys,
I just built my first rig from the ground up,and I have some questions, and I hope you guys can give me a hand here.
I got :

Windows Vista Ultimate.
Antec 900 case
E6400 Intel-2.13GHZ clocked to 2.88GHZ(for now) (FSB set @ 1400)
EVGA 680i SLI MOBO
2 GB ram PC2 4200-533mhz (for now)
ATI Readon X1900XTX 512MB-OC'ed

My questions are
1- I'm about to buy a 4Gb ram kit from OCZ,but I was reading something on Frys.com that states that windows 32bit won't support a 4gb ram.Is that true?? and does that apply to Vista too??...........I know my mobo supports up to 8gb's so what gives?
2-In overclocking my CPU to 2.88ghz and using CPU-Z I noticed that the processor's speed haunts between 1999mhz and 2880mhz and at the same time I could see that FSB haunt between 1066 and 1400. Is that normal? or is that because of my ram's 533mhz rating?
3-I have a little annoying problem with my computer going to sleep when left alone for more that 30 minutes. Is there a way where it would stay on all the time?
Thanks in advance.

 

[TheStu]

A 32bit OS only registers 3GB of RAM, that applies to Windows Vista as well. Your mobo could support 800000GB of RAM, and that wouldn't mean a thing.

As far as the RAM wonkiness goes... I don't know what the deal is with that.

You need to go into the power management setup in Windows. That will let you change when it goes to sleep, turns off the monitor, hibernates, all that jazz.

 

[PurdueRy]

#2 is most likely a power management feature similar to AMD's cool n quiet. You can likely disable it in BIOS but it won't hurt performance. It just doesn't waste as much power when it doesn't need to.

 

[Darthvan]

TheStu and PurdueRy, thank you guys so much for your input. just one more question to bug you with
If I change my PC2 4200-533mhz to PC2 6400-800mhz would I feel the difference? and would that enable me to crank the FSB a bit higher for a higher clock speed? thanks again

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Darthvan
TheStu and PurdueRy, thank you guys so much for your input. just one more question to bug you with
If I change my PC2 4200-533mhz to PC2 6400-800mhz would I feel the difference? and would that enable me to crank the FSB a bit higher for a higher clock speed? thanks again

It would only allow you to run your RAM 1:1 with the FSB. This does yield some performance improvement. However, I do not feel it is worth the cost of replacing perfectly good ram.

It probably WILL NOT allow you to get any higher of an OC unless there is an odd brick wall caused by the divider.

 

[Raider1284]

if your serious about overclocking you might want to disable that powersaving feature, at least thats always been my impression. That powersaving feature affects the voltage as well and fsb and can cause instability if the lowered voltage isnt high enough for the processor speed. I guess if it hasnt crashed for you yet though, you might be okay.