will 4gb run at 3.2gb without any errors on xp32

[Guest]

k so one of my ram sticks failed, rather than replace from corsair i am going to return to dabs.com and buy some new ram today

theres an offer on 4gb corsair dominator pc8500 @ overclockers where i will also receive a free fan, i know that windows xp 32bit, or any 32bit OS for that matter only uses a maximum of 3.2 gb ram and will default 4gb to that... so my question is will this setup still run better than 2gb? the deal is on 2x2gb sticks, theres no possibility of me running 1gb and 2x512mb... if it will run well then if when i decide to upgrade to a 64bit OS this will be much better than only having the 2

i would appreciate an answer back asap as i want to get driving, overclockers is about an hour away! cheers

 

[honolululu]

It will run perfectly. 2 x 2GB is the way to go.

EDIT: This is not an endorsement of any brand of RAM except Mushkin!

Whatever you buy though, I'm sure it will run great and 2 X 2GB is the current consensus choice.

 

[Guest]

wow that was quick. you sir are a star! thankyou very much, thats generally what i have read at most sites but there was no real concrete answer - i'll take that as a backup for what i read ^^ BRB DRIVING!!

 

[honolululu]

Will check back for an update.

Hope it works out.

 

[bobbknight]

Yea I run 2 sticks of Gskill 2GB ram and it runs just fine.
Corsair is good ram, what I have is still chugging along. Unlike the Mushkin I had to RMA because one of the pairs went bad. I have been using Gskill for 4 years now and have not had a problem with over 8 different sticks. It's less costly than Mushkin too, that is until Mushkin went down in market share and lowered prices.

 

[Scotteq]

Yah - It'll run fine. The OS will simply use however much it has the address space for after system stuff has been handled.

 

[knotknut]

Correct me if this theory is wrong.

DDR Ram reads one side and then the other or only 1/2 at a time. A 1GB stick reads 512-512 back and forth.
2x1GB in dual channel reads one side of each stick at the same time. 1GB-1GB back and forth.
2x2GB reads one half of each module at a time. 2GB-2GB.
At any given time no more than 2GB of RAM is being used when 2x2GB modules are installed in dual channel.

 

[Guest]

well guys the 4gb ram is in my pc and working, it displays 3.25gb ram, whether its actually using more than 2 is a different story though then

so far i have had no crashes in games, looks to me like these people with hd4870's and crashes may be linked towards memory also, as so far it has fixed all my problems

thanks for the feedback, when i get round to it i shall obtain xp 64 and give it a go