Maximum Memory

[codeseven]

Is it possible to exceed my system specs maximum memory rating.I have a stock Gateway Performance 933,933MHz,Intel "Fedora"motherboard using an Intel 82815 "Solano"chip.I used Gateway's Support site for info on my mobo which show's "Three memory slots supporting a combined maximum of 512MB of SDRAM),I currently have 512MB installed but recently installed the RAM hog Windows XP(got rid of ME) and wanted to make sure I still had enough RAM left over to run programs and games smoothly.I understand with XP the more RAM the better. Thanks

 

[Phantasm66]

Ok I am just guessing here since its near bed time, but I would imagine that its a max of 512MB for each DIMM slot on your board, meaning a max of 1.5 GB (assuming 3 slots).... Are you sure its combined maximum and not max per slot???? (again I have not checked because its beddy-bye time for me soon...)

Operating system have certain max limits as well, but with XP professional I believe its 4 GB so I think you are safe on the OS front, its just the hardware we must now consider.

You must be doing something fairly trippy though if you need over 512 MB of RAM, unless you are doing some serious number crunching, graphics work, database work, etc.

The domain controller at my work has like 512MB and its contending with entertaining like 2000 odd users so I think that over that amount is, at this moment in time for the industry, a little excessive.... (Again unless you are doing certain graphical work, etc.... )

Otherwise, I am inclined to think that any slowness you are experiencing is the result of misconfigurations / lack of tweaking on both hardware and software levels in your PC. I have 512 MB of RAM in my server, and although I would like to upgrade soon to 1 GB, more or less just to show off to people, its not something high on my agenda right now.

512 MB should be fine for XP so maybe there's something else going on here....

Its doubtful you will get any joy with more RAM installed in your machine than your mobo can handle.... It may POST and then again it might not.... Maybe post with just the max RAM it can address.... There might be a BIOS update to fix that but that's doubtful.

My main observations would be:

1)Why the hell do you want more than 512 MB anyway? (I will be perfectly receptive to a good answer....)

and

2)No, more than your motherboard manual states will almost certainly not work.

 

[Didou]

The system prolly won't even post or in the best case scenario it will post & only detect the first 512mb.

The 512mb you have right now, is it with one 512mb chip or 2 256b chips ?

 

[Didou]

Phant, the 815 supported a max of 512mb for all DIMM slots together so he's limited to 2x 128 + 1x 256 or something in that area. I'm not sure the SLOTS support 512mb modules.

 

[Phantasm66]

Like I said, I can't be assed checking. You may well be right. Its a little strange for a system of that date to have such a low max memory spec though.....

 

[Didou]

Maybe it was another scheme to try to convince people that RDRAM ( with the I820 chipset ) was the better solution of both. Intel never wanted to admit that the I815 with PC133 SDRam performed better then the I820 & PC800 RDRAM.

 

[codeseven]

Thanks for the replies guys,yes, thats a COMBINED total of 512MB RAM,128/128/256. As cheap as RAM is nowadays I thought I would throw in the extra to max out all three slot's,it just being "lowly" SDRAM(wont recognize DDR from what I've read) as I'm slowly upgrading my puter,I ordered an MSI G4 Ti4600 card and 431watt Enermax to power it,the mobo(using DDR) and chip will come later.Thanks for the info!

 

[Phantasm66]

Good thinking on the mobo upgrade, it sounds like you have something fairly cheap and nasty there. I have not checked, but I really do not like the sound of a board that only takes 512MB and yet uses a 933MHz CPU. Methinks you should bin that mobo first.