Question RAM & GPU Question

[MajorPager]

A while ago I mentioned having a Dell Dimension XPS Gen 4 in my possession and I have a few more questions about it.

I installed 7GB of RAM in it and it won't read above 3, is it because of the 32-bit architecture or the system support type?

And the graphics port is completely dead, it won't even work with an x1 extension. Is there a possibility I could remove the old port and install a new one?

 

[RealBeast]

What is the *full* model number of your machine and the memory module kit that you are using?

 

[MajorPager]

Service tag: GZKJS61 / ESC: 36979348825.

I have 2 512MB NANYA modules and 2 1GB misc modules that came with the system installed now.

I tested 2 2GB ATEC modules and 1 2GB Samsung / 1 1GB Samsung module that would only read 3GB

 

[BFG-9000]

You have to love DDR2 because it was around so briefly that you don't have to worry about high or low density, so you can plug it into just about anything and it is at least recognized.

That said, 925x chipset from 2004 does not support more than 4GB of memory addresses, and is even unable to map hardware to above 4GB so is unable to use the full 4GB--even with a 64-bit CPU and OS (how much gets hardware reserved depends on what hardware is installed). The very first Intel chipset to support 8GB unregistered memory was 955x from 2005 as used in Dell Dimension XPS Gen 5, followed by 975x and then P965 for the then new Core 2.

There is a workaround if you are using Windows XP--the free Gavotte ramdisk is able to access memory above the usual 3.25GB limit so you could put a swapfile up there to use the otherwise inaccessible memory. None of the free ramdisks are initialized quickly enough in Windows 7 to put a swapfile on, but you could use them for other purposes such as a program scratch disk, or for disk cacheing software such as eBoostr which was also able to access memory the OS cannot touch.

I presume you are using a 32-bit PCI slot now given there's no IGP, so you could party like it's 1999 and put in a Voodoo 5 5500, to run glorious 4x supersampling. Rotated-grid still looks better than the ordered-grid downsampling of DSR/VSR, but of course the ancient hardware only allows it in 640x480. But then Pentium 4 is a good match for that.