Hello all, I been a lurker around this site for years but I just signed up with these forums, and this is my first post.
I was reading the preview article on Intel's new X38 chipset when I stumbled across the following:
At present my primary system is running Vista x64 Ultimate Edition (courtesy of Microsoft - as a reward for my participation in their beta program). When I was setting this system up I was able to get a decent deal on 2 x 2GB DIMMs, so I decided to go with the 64-bit version of Vista. I have 2 DVDs with both the 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Vista. But since the 32-bit version appeared not to even recognize the additional 2GB of memory, I've done nothing with it. (My secondary system will retain it's copy of MCE 2005 - doesn't make sense to upgrade it's hardware, or OS, as that setup works wonderfully as is...)
My question centers around making sure 32-bit Vista won't simply let half of my memory just Idle. Are there any settings I need to change? Any special configuration steps I should take? If any of you are running 32-bit Vista please give me your advice and input. About the only thing worse than letting half of this system's current memory idle, would be to replace it with a 2GB pair and no use it at all! Yet, I'm not satisfied with the performance of Vista x64 in some of the games I play (In particular I'm in Tabula Rasa's Beta and find I get superior performance with technically inferior hardware that is my secondary system).
I was reading the preview article on Intel's new X38 chipset when I stumbled across the following:
We selected the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 as our processor of choice since it represents one of the better price to performance values in the midrange processor market, and it is also the CPU we will focus on in future reviews. We are utilizing Microsoft Vista Home Premium 32-bit as our operating system along with a 4GB memory configuration. Even though Vista 32-bit cannot take advantage of the entire 4GB of memory address space (3.326GB), we found the additional 1.278GB of memory available provided improved performance during multitasking events and gaming. We would not recommend anything less than 2GB with Vista Home Premium.
At present my primary system is running Vista x64 Ultimate Edition (courtesy of Microsoft - as a reward for my participation in their beta program). When I was setting this system up I was able to get a decent deal on 2 x 2GB DIMMs, so I decided to go with the 64-bit version of Vista. I have 2 DVDs with both the 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Vista. But since the 32-bit version appeared not to even recognize the additional 2GB of memory, I've done nothing with it. (My secondary system will retain it's copy of MCE 2005 - doesn't make sense to upgrade it's hardware, or OS, as that setup works wonderfully as is...)
My question centers around making sure 32-bit Vista won't simply let half of my memory just Idle. Are there any settings I need to change? Any special configuration steps I should take? If any of you are running 32-bit Vista please give me your advice and input. About the only thing worse than letting half of this system's current memory idle, would be to replace it with a 2GB pair and no use it at all! Yet, I'm not satisfied with the performance of Vista x64 in some of the games I play (In particular I'm in Tabula Rasa's Beta and find I get superior performance with technically inferior hardware that is my secondary system).