64 bit m/b?

[worthnew]

I'm a relative newbie, so please excuse the ignorance.

So now we have relatively cheap 64 bits chips, AMD Athlon 64 and Intel 600 series P4. Is there any relatively cheap m/b and chipsets combo that supports more than 32 bits memory? Ie, if I want to have say 8 Gigabyte in my system, is there anything available besides dedicated server machines?

 

[endyen]

No, there are no desktop boards that have the slots to support more than 4 gigs of ram. That is not the point. When we talk about supporting more than 4 gigs of memory, we also allow for pagefile.
Even if you are only using 2.5 gigs of addressable ram, 64 bit can really help. You have to remember that windows takes the first 2 gigs for itself. Then it will use up to 512, to hold a copy of your video memory.
Also remember that windows likes to leave space between what memory is used. This may make it difficult to find a spot for say a large image etc.

 

[Prof133]

2GB unbuffered dimms needed to allow for higher memory on the typical desktop. If 2GB unbuffered dimms not available, would have to go for motherboard/CPU that supports registered dimms (e.g. opteron).

 

[Crashman]

The memory limitation for 64-bit CPU's is a matter of the density of the chips and the number of slots available. Running 4 modules with an A64, for example, garuntees that your RAM will be underclocked to DDR333. 2MB modules may start appearing on the market, but timing issues could relegate these to both slower speeds and force the need for ECC.

So the limits of the memory controller are not caused by the 32-bit limit, but instead memory technology. Of course you can get server boards with server chipsets that support additional slots/modules at slower speeds.

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