4GB ****!

billbillw

Ok, sorry, I'm just a little giddy at the idea of having 4 billion bytes of Random Access Memory storage in my PC!

For all you whiper-snappers, it might not seem like that big a deal, but for us old farts (in our 30s), who grew up with TI's and Commodore 64s (that's 64Kbytes of memory), 1 Megabyte was a lofty ideal that took many years to realize! Our first windows PC had 16MB IIRC. When I finally built my own PC circa 2000, I splurged for a 128MB stick to put in my 600MHZ Athlon machine.
For the last 4 years of so, I've been living with 1GB without too many complaints.

But now, since October, I pretty much totally rebuilt my system with a new motherboard that uses DDR2.

Holy $hi+, that stuff is getting cheap! Back in late Oct, I bought a 2GB matched pair for $76-$30 rebate. This wasn't generic stuff, it was Corsair XMS2 PC6400 (800MHz). Then over the weekend, I got an email from Newegg with a promo code. Another 2GB of the same exact stuff for $61-$30 rebate. Who could resist? So all told (after rebates), that's 4GB for only $77, which is probably less than I paid for that 128MB stick years ago!

Bring on the video editing! (I've got about 40GB of raw AVI to work through, mostly of my son's milestones in the last year.)

Face

Is the x64 version needed to recognize 4 gigs of ram? I'm still stuck at 2.96.

billbillw

Lasareath wrote: »

Congrats Bill, How long have you been running that x64 edition?

I loaded it for a client and all they have is problems.

Been using it for just over a year. No real problems. Very stable actually. Just have to get used to the idea of some minor incompatibilities. I had to give up Norton Antivirus (oh darn, better off instead). I also had to find drivers for my Epson scanner. I went with VueScan, and it turns out it is 10x better than the old Epson software was anyway.

Today, Thats why I use Firefox mostly or the 32 bit version of Windows Explorer. The 64bit browser is great, but there is no 64 bit compatible version of Adobe Flash plugin. For the longest time, there wasn't a compatible Java plugin either.

Vista has really helped push things forward in the 64bit compatibility dept.
I'll probably u[grade to the 64bit version of Vista in another year or so. I'll probably need every bit of that 4GB to make it run smoothly.

billbillw

Face wrote: »

Is the x64 version needed to recognize 4 gigs of ram? I'm still stuck at 2.96.

Yes, any 64bit operating system actually. Could be a 64bit Linux or Vista as well.
32bit doesn't have enough memory registers to address 4GB.

Someone in my IT department actually told me you can get 3.5GB with a 32bit system if you put in 3-1GB sticks and another 512MB stick.

BaggedLancer

Windows Xp Pro 32 bit will only utilize 3.25 gig
Windows Xp Pro 64 bit can utilize up to 8.00 gig

BaggedLancer

billbillw wrote: »

Yes, any 64bit operating system actually. Could be a 64bit Linux or Vista as well.
32bit doesn't have enough memory registers to address 4GB.

Someone in my IT department actually told me you can get 3.5GB with a 32bit system if you put in 3-1GB sticks and another 512MB stick.

3.25 is definately the cap. You can use 4 gig sticks, but it's only going to show 3.25

billbillw

BaggedLancer wrote: »

Windows Xp Pro 32 bit will only utilize 3.00 gig
Windows Xp Pro 64 bit can utilize up to 8.00 gig

Actually,
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/apr05/04-25Winx64LaunchPR.mspx

Its 128GB of Physical RAM and 16TB of virtual memory!

Realistically, most home PCs will be limited by their motherboards. With 4 slots, right now, we are pretty much limited to 8GB. If you get a server board, different story.

billbillw

BaggedLancer wrote: »

3.25 is definately the cap. You can use 4 gig sticks, but it's only going to show 3.25

Honestly, your probably not going to notice any difference between 3GB and 4GB unless your doing heavy CAD, Video, or Graphic rendering and even then, probably not that much.

BaggedLancer

Depends on the memory, I have yet to see a home user DDR board support more than 4 gigs, and yes you can run 64 bit windows xp on DDR memory.

Home user DDR2 boards I think cap at 8 gig? Allows for up to 4 sticks of 2 gig.

I wasn't aware 64 bit windows xp could do 128 gig, that's intense. Definately need a server board, I can't even imagine the cost of memory/board to do that.

Systems

I ran Windows XP x64 since it came out as my most complex box at home which includes doing just about everything from gamming to video capture and processing. Box with the latest hardware at the time like 2 x western digital 10K RPM rapters in raid 0 and a GF7800GTX. Worked flawlessly for me.

I just bought a new Dell for my production workstation at work. This will be my first true Vista test mule because its 64x (I've already run X32 Vista since it came out).

It will be a:

Dell Precision

2 x quad core Xeon 2.6ghz proc (8 cores)
4 gigs of ram that I'll update when I can to 8 gig. It’s DDR2 800 ECC
2 x 76 gig Western Digital Raptor 10K RPM drives at raid 0
Nvidia Quatro 4600 FX running 2 x 20" LCD monitors


I think this one is a craps shoot on my network. I think AD will plug in fine (although we did just have a autoupdate problem with out 4 x64 Windows 2003 servers) but some of the more advanced things we run like printer mapping and such might have problems and need to be fixed.

If I can get it ironed out fast, I might just roll out Vista X64 come Aprilish.

billbillw

Lasareath wrote: »

Bill, The problem I have is that this particullar client's PC does not run 32bit IE7. It will only run a 64bit version.

I'm trying to figure it out now. It's driving the client crazy

That's odd. I never had a problem like that. Installed from original OEM disk, let all the updates run completly, then upgraded to IE7, never with an issue. My start menu shows them right next to each other one just says IE, the other has (32bit) next to it.

You might need to reinstall.

PolkWannabie

billbillw wrote: »

... but for us old farts (in our 30s) ...

LOL ... Us really really old farts who are or were in the biz can remember times when there were no PC's, only main frames and an additional 50k stack of core memory cost $50k and was a luxury. Programs were for the most part written and segmented when necessary to run in 20k. This was of course prior to video displays as well.

Some applications in Windows x32 can take adcantage of memory beyond 4GB ... SQL for example ...

disneyjoe7

4G Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

You know I'm so old my first PC had 64k ram and when I installed my first HD it had drum roooooooooooooollll 300mb Wow I thought I could never fill 300mb up. That 300mb was a full height 5 1/4" drive, I still in awe about my new corsair 2g jump drive. I have trouble believing 2g in that little thing when I had 1/7 of that in memory size and something about 60x it's size.

But I remember a computer more or less at work (more of a machine actually) that run on 64k of ram and had a floppy drive a real floppy drive 8" that held 300k of data. Understood how floppy got it's name when you see a 8" floppy at work, the 5 1/4" floppy don't flop half as much as the older 8" version did.

billbillw

Lasareath wrote: »

Yeah, it's very strange. I found one other person on experts-exchange with the same issue and he didn't wait for people to figure it out, he just reformatted the machine.

Do you have two Program files folders?, One with a "(x86)" at the end?

Thanks,

Sal

Yes, that is normal. Most apps end up in the x86, but some of the stuff that can run native 64 bit will be in the other one.

polktiger

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

4G Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

You know I'm so old my first PC had 64k ram and when I installed my first HD it had drum roooooooooooooollll 300mb Wow I thought I could never fill 300mb up. That 300mb was a full height 5 1/4" drive, I still in awe about my new corsair 2g jump drive. I have trouble believing 2g in that little thing when I had 1/7 of that in memory size and something about 60x it's size.

300MB hard drive??!!! My first computer was the Commodore 64. (Remember the IBM PC Jr? Had wireless keyboard! - never had one just cool to think wireless keyboards go back that far) I forgot the brand, but we had one that we used a cassette recorder as a storage device. We moved up to a 10 hmz PC clone with a 20mb hard drive! (Still have a couple of those big suckers for nostalgia.)

I saw the invoice I saved for my college computer - 50hmz Motorola processor, 8mb RAM, Sound Blaster audio card, no CD drive - couldn't afford it) I think the HD was 200MB) Price $2000. But running DOS - that thing would fly! I bought MS office (student version $179 came on 42 3.5" floppy disks! Took about 6 beers to load that program!)

Jstas

4GB? Is that all?

BAH!

That's how much memory my Blackberry has!

Lightweight!

treitz3

Good gawd, you reminded me of my very first computer before the Atari 400. Remember the Timex? You could program pong and that was about it.

Systems

polktiger wrote: »

300MB hard drive??!!! My first computer was the Commodore 64. (Remember the IBM PC Jr? Had wireless keyboard! - never had one just cool to think wireless keyboards go back that far) I forgot the brand, but we had one that we used a cassette recorder as a storage device. We moved up to a 10 hmz PC clone with a 20mb hard drive! (Still have a couple of those big suckers for nostalgia.)

I saw the invoice I saved for my college computer - 50hmz Motorola processor, 8mb RAM, Sound Blaster audio card, no CD drive - couldn't afford it) I think the HD was 200MB) Price $2000. But running DOS - that thing would fly! I bought MS office (student version $179 came on 42 3.5" floppy disks! Took about 6 beers to load that program!)

Ya, same here, C64 with the new hot what was it 300 baud modem for blazing bbs surfin!

ben62670

I n the 70's my friends dad was the head Liberian at UCONN. They had one of the first home PCs, and it was 2k. It took a 1/2 hour to load a program(tape) that you were an O, and if you touched an X you died. Yeah!!!

Old school puters I have used
TI-99
Apple IIc
Coleco Adam (one of my favorites)
TRS80's
Com 64
Com 128
IBM 33 of 66mhz ($5000)

Jstas

I didn't know this was going to turn into a pissing contest on who is older/nerdier/whatever!

I had a C64. But my professional experience is way more "diversified" to say the least. I started working on DEC Alphas which ran VAX/VMS. You wanna talk about arcane! That was the development systems. For the business side, most of the apps and such were run on the WANG terminals (I can hear the jokes now!). We actually had a punch card reader to run the original programs for the control systems that were designed when the program first started. Thankfully, someone wrote a program for VAX that took the punch card reader output as input and recompiled the program for archival purposes.

Memory specs and processor specs though? Don't remember. All I know is that at one point, most of the engineering documentation was in stacks of paper about 3 feet tall which lined hallways that were 1/4 to 1/2 a mile long. Finding anything was an all-day task. When they started putting it all into systems, the hardware needed to run the development environment was piled into a room about 300 feet long by 160 feet wide and had row upon row of refrigerator sized machines with reel-to-reel tape decks and RS232 switchboards. Yeah, the place literally hummed.

Systems

ben62670 wrote: »

I n the 70's my friends dad was the head Liberian at UCONN. They had one of the first home PCs, and it was 2k. It took a 1/2 hour to load a program(tape) that you were an O, and if you touched an X you died. Yeah!!!

Old school puters I have used
TI-99
Apple IIc
Coleco Adam (one of my favorites)
TRS80's
Com 64
Com 128
IBM 33 of 66mhz ($5000)

You never tried an Amiga?

billbillw

I guess we have separated the whipper-snappers, the old farts, and the CRUSTY OLD FARTS with this thread!

nms

intel 80386 33 MHz ****... yeah!

Got it at a church yard sale... the first computer I ever owned. Came with DOS on it, I eventually threw windows 3.1 on... man, what a learning experience.

Oh, and I'm a young whippersnapper with an old ****'s computer!

Sami

Jstas wrote: »

I started working on DEC Alphas which ran VAX/VMS.

I still long for some of the features that OS had. Built in light weight "version manager" was very cool. I think the new Vista is going to have that feature and of course it's being marketed by MS as a completely new feature that MS invented...

disneyjoe7

Well my first computer was an Atari 400, I do remember the Timex. That first PC style computer was a 8088 Microprocessor with a blazing 4.77mhz clock with a 8.00mhz Turbo mode. And yes my first modem was a Zoom 300 baud for $120.00 that 300mb HD was $300.00 via mail order.

Strong Bad

While we're all confessing to our first home computer...

My first one was an Apple Mac III. Was a slim line model with a 25mhz Motorola processor, 4mb RAM and a 50mb HD. Had to buy an external NEC Multispin 8x CD ROM drive as there was no room internally for one. I remember cruising on AOL with my 14.4 US Robotics modem with everything being displayed on my MASSIVE 14" 256 color Apple monitor.

My how times have changed.


John

PolkWannabie

Here's the first I ever used and wrote programs for ...

http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PP1620.html

BaggedLancer

Apple IIe for me

Face

BaggedLancer wrote: »

Apple IIe for me

We had Apple II's in school. I remember it being a big thing when we received a couple of IIe's!

BaggedLancer

Face wrote: »

We had Apple II's in school. I remember it being a big thing when we received a couple of IIe's!

Yep, they were the bees knees at the time. We got ours for free for opening a huge CD at a bank.

ben62670

Silverti wrote: »

You never tried an Amiga?

It was my little brothers.