poopipe Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 (edited) right...I've got a PC that dual boots XP32 (day to day crap and games) and XP64 (serious work stuff)I want 4gb of memory so I can keep up with creating current gen game models and textures - 2gb isn't enoughI believe the following is true....XP32 can't address more than 3.2gb of ramXP64 can I've got 4 holes for dual channel memory (nforce 4 SLI chipset) - the obvious thing is to whack a 1gb stick in each hole. It has to be arranged in pairs or dual channel turns off and machine runs like shit (whcih is unacceptable)It'll all be fine on xp64 - the dual channel business will work and ill be happy as a pig in shit. the question is.. on xp32 will the dual channel memory still work as dual channel memory if the OS can't address one of the sticks of Ram? perhaps it's a bios thingy so OS isn't even relevant, I don't know.. ta Edited January 29, 2008 by poopipe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haz Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 No, it'll turn it off, at least if you put in a 1 gig stick, you could try putting in a pair of 512s, then you'd be fully matched. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopipe Posted January 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 No, it'll turn it off, at least if you put in a 1 gig stick, you could try putting in a pair of 512s, then you'd be fully matched.so 4 x 1gb sticks will go wrong? and 2 x 2gb sticks will also go wrong?but 2x1gb and 2x512mb will be alright?tits Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haz Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 I think so, you should definately ask someone else aswell, because I had this roblem aswell, and just went to 2Gb, because I wasn't certain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 Krisboats knows his ram, he'll probably spot this later on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revolver Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 i found a link i dunno if it helps, but you'll probs know more about the problem after reading itLink Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopipe Posted January 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 i found a link i dunno if it helps, but you'll probs know more about the problem after reading itLinkit helps in the sense that I'm now extra confident that all my hardware is up to the job - My concern is that I might make the machine slower by adding extra memory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si-man Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 (edited) I have an nForce 4 board, with the dual channel. I went for 2 x 1gb sticks on top of the 2 x 512mb sticks i already had. Runs fine. I can always upgrade the 512's if i ever need to. didnt go for the 4 2gb sticks as i had heard about the XP 64bit thing.What processor you got? Edited January 24, 2008 by Si-man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocks370 Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 The memory will still run as dual channel when you run XP - 32 bit. As long as the BIOS detects it as dual channel it will run.You could run just DOS and as long as u have matched sticks of RAM in a dual channel board it will be dual channel... even if the operating system cant use all the free space.hope this helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopipe Posted January 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 The memory will still run as dual channel when you run XP - 32 bit. As long as the BIOS detects it as dual channel it will run.You could run just DOS and as long as u have matched sticks of RAM in a dual channel board it will be dual channel... even if the operating system cant use all the free space.hope this helpsthat 's exactly the answer I was hoping for - are you positive (barring any weird-ass, unexpected behaviour)? si-man : its a single core socket939 3200. I might get a dual core chip as well if I can find one on the cheap but I'm limited in terms of speed on socket 939 and this is really only a stop-gap til I get a complete new monster machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si-man Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 I have the gigabyte GA- K8A- Sli board i think it is, socket 939. I have the AMD X2 4400, not bad, can get them really cheap now.If you are sticking to the board you have, try this ram if its compatible... Corsair ram Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopipe Posted January 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 I have the gigabyte GA- K8A- Sli board i think it is, socket 939. I have the AMD X2 4400, not bad, can get them really cheap now.If you are sticking to the board you have, try this ram if its compatible... Corsair ramI'm on the GA K8NXP SLI so we've got pretty much the same stuff. Don't think i want to spend the extra £100 for 4gb of the spanky ram to be honest - I've been using corsair value stuff for years with no problems so I'll probalby just stick to it.l Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocks370 Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 Im sure mate.If you wish to test, boot to the 32bit XP and run this: CPU-ZIn the memory tab it will tell you if its running dual channel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopipe Posted January 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2008 Im sure mate.If you wish to test, boot to the 32bit XP and run this: CPU-ZIn the memory tab it will tell you if its running dual channeli believe you - it'd be a bit academic by that point anyway after all this I managed to cock up my order and have ended up with 2 gb of ram and a cpu that wont fit in my motherboard. ah well, you lives and learns Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si-man Posted January 25, 2008 Report Share Posted January 25, 2008 Haha trust you. What you ordered then? Just get a new mobo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopipe Posted January 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2008 Haha trust you. What you ordered then? Just get a new mobo I got the socket AM2 version by accident :$ I thought about a new mobo but to get one with similar spec to my current one is 150 quid and since the next machine is going to be an 8 core intel it's not worth forking out the money. Ebuyer let you send stuff back if you make a cock up so i'll just have it replaced with the socket 939 version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopipe Posted January 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 Rather than start a new thread.....right, I got my replacement CPU, didn't twig they only had OEM versions and I'm now left without a heatsink and fan (pause for laughter)Am I going to be able to use the (standard) heatsink and fan off my single core AMD 64 3200 (2.ghz) on a dual core AMD 64 4000 (2.4ghz) without risk of it catching fire or should I pop down the local computer shop and buy new ones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted January 29, 2008 Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 I'd take it as an oppurtunity to replace the heatsink and fan... If hard pushed I would run the old ones, but only for a short term solution. It wont catch fire or anything (!) as the Dual Cores don't run much hotter than the singles, but would you want to risk damaging it in the long term for the sake of a new fan and heatsink?J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spikenipple Posted January 29, 2008 Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 It'll be fine, it'll just run a few degrees hotter than it did before. Stock heatsinks are notoriously crap but if you didn't have any heat problems with the previous processor it won't be a problem now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Token Posted January 29, 2008 Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 Both the 3200 and the 4000 give out a Thermal Design Power of 89W. So in theory there shouldn't be any temperature difference when you put the heatsink on the 4000 because it's dealing with the same heat output as your 3200. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krisboats Posted January 29, 2008 Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 The only thing to note is whether the old cooler is actually socket AM2 compatible. If the old processor was a 939 theres a chance it won't fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny Posted January 29, 2008 Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 I don't see why it would drop out of dual channel mode as that's a hardware level feature rather than software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopipe Posted January 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 I don't see why it would drop out of dual channel mode as that's a hardware level feature rather than software.i was concerned because if you run 3 1 gb sticks the dual channel doesn't happen and xp32 would only acknowledge the presence of 3 .It's all a bit academic anyway cos I decided to be tight and just get the 2 gb - that's all working bar the fact that the socket 939 athlon 64s throw a strop if youhave more than 2 ram modules with chips both sides (or something) and underclock the memory to 333mhz . I've bumped it all back up to 400 and its fine so meh. this'll make you laugh though. The socket 939 4000+ isnt dual core at all so I've upgraded from a single core 2ghz chip to a single core 2.4ghz chip. I'm obviously some sort of spacker for not realising that two identically numbered chips on different sockets would be completely different.on the plus side, it does have double the L2 cache which is a help and it has made a noticeable difference in terms of playing bf2142 - as far as proper work goes, it remains to be seen. Oh well - it was cheap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Token Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 Why not just overclock it a little bit? I imagine you'd get it to 4400 speed very comfortably. You might not feel so raped in terms of spending that money for a small gain then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopipe Posted January 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 (edited) Why not just overclock it a little bit? I imagine you'd get it to 4400 speed very comfortably. You might not feel so raped in terms of spending that money for a small gain then. I probably will - I mean I've got a spare if it blows up haven't i? I'll see how the memory sits during some proper work first i think - don't want to court disaster Edited January 30, 2008 by poopipe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.