new pc with windows xp and 4gb of ram. will i encounter problems?

Narn

Narn

Narn

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20 Oct 2008
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hi folks i'm new here and just ordered a new pc. at this moment i can still change my order depending on what advice i get.

i ordered a new pc with 4gb of ram with 2x2gb sticks of ddr2 ram. i'm aware that win xp can only manage up to 4gb of ram. but what i've just realised is that the video card will take away some of that memory. i ordered an ati radeon 4870 512mb version of the card.

so if i understand this correctly win xp will only recognize about 3.00-3.5gb of memory? will the ram still be running in ddr2 mode? would i encounter decreased performance? should i instead change my order to 2gb ram?

thanks a lot guys, i'm a real n00b
 
Can you buy a single stick of 2 gb and then add another 2gb stick at a later date (when you have updated to vista)?

People do seem to report XP slows with a full 4gb installed, although my girlfriends PC sped up with 4gb installed.
 
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is the way i see it essentially correct? in that if i'm getting win xp its better to get 4gb ram if only 3gb will be useable rather than getting 2gb of ram?
 
well mainly i'm worried my old games wont work. i'm also worried my expensive sidewinder steering wheel wont work as well.
 
Whats XP 64 like? I've heard some not-so-great things about it.
I'll be building a new DAW/gaming PC nearer xmas time, but seeing as I use Cubase SX 3.0 I need to be able to use XP as it has lots of compatibility issues with vista.
I would just buy Cubase 4 but it costs an arm.
 
out of interest how much ram do you think will windows say i have? with a 512mb video as opposed to a 1gb card i hope it doesnt say less than 3gb...
 
Natima said:
Whats XP 64 like? I've heard some not-so-great things about it.
I'll be building a new DAW/gaming PC nearer xmas time, but seeing as I use Cubase SX 3.0 I need to be able to use XP as it has lots of compatibility issues with vista.
I would just buy Cubase 4 but it costs an arm.
Click to expand...

XP64's behaving itself very nicely here. Only one thing that I've had problems with, and that was a driver for an Easy-IDE connector from some dodgy company in the far east. Other than that, every game I've got (new and old) has had no problems whatsoever, all drivers work fine.
 
Indeed, if your going to get Xp64 bit, look for available drivers first.

Only issue then is you won't have DX10 obviously.
 
You are essentially correct Narns. You shouldn't see a problem. You won't know how much RAM you'll see until you have all your components installed etc. Will probbaly be 3.25Gig.

If you really want to move to Vista because you like causing yourself pain then go for Vista 64. It's still got better support than XP64 which had LOADS of shotfalls with respect to lack of drivers.

Personally I'd stay here in the dark ages and stick with XP Pro and your 3.25Gigs of Ram (ish).
 
thanks for your advice.

i feel better knowing 100% that my old games will work in xp. with the uncertainty of not knowing if my old games will work in vista i'm sticking with the safe option. and of course i can always upgrade to vista in the future.
 
Narn@: Getting best from both worlds: If you have a second hard drive installed in your system and have its first partition spare, you could install vista on that, then you`ll still be able to use XP on your main drive, if you know much about dual/multi booting operating systems.
 
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