New Ram

[koolly]

Hi,
I just bought 4g of OCZ DDR2-800 OCZ2VU8002GK ram for my Dell XPS 710, and for some reason it slow my core and only says i have 3g installed.
Heres cpz info before, clock speeed 2394 clock multiplier x9
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Number of CPUs 2
CPU #1
APIC ID 0
Name Intel Pentium M
Code name Merom
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
Family/Model/Stepping 6F6
Extended Family/Model 0/0
Package mPGA-479M
Technology 65nm
Instructions Sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, EM64T
Features NX, VT
Clock Speed 2394.0 MHz
Clock multiplier x9.0
Front Side Bus Frequency 266.0 MHz
Bus Speed 1064.0 MHz
Stock frequency 600 MHz

And heres after with the 4 gigs of the new ram,Clock Speed 1596.0 MHz, Clock multiplier x6.0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Number of CPUs 2
CPU #1
APIC ID 0
Name Intel Pentium M
Code name Merom
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
Family/Model/Stepping 6F6
Extended Family/Model 0/0
Package mPGA-479M
Technology 65nm
Instructions Sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, EM64T
Features NX, VT
Clock Speed 1596.0 MHz
Clock multiplier x6.0
Front Side Bus Frequency 266.0 MHz
Bus Speed 1064.0 MHz
Stock frequency 600 MHz
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just wonder what i did wrong, thanks

[Thrax]

You're using plain old Windows XP, which can only use 2.8 to 3.5GB of RAM, depending on your motherboard.

[primesuspect]

You are probably using a 32bit operating system (XP or Vista 32bit, I'll assume). In order to use more than 3gb of ram you need a 64bit OS. About the slower clock and multipliers, I have no idea. I'll let someone else field that one.

[RyderOCZ]

The CPU has Intel's speedstep, which lowers the voltage and clock speed of the CPU when it is idle, to keep things cool, quiet, and improve battery life.

The first time you ran the program, the CPU was still under enough load to run at full speed. The second time, it was not and is shown to be at the speedstep setting when idle, nothing to worry about and is definitely not caused by the ram :)

[koolly]

thanks for the info, runnnig vista btw, that why i thought i go with more ram.

[primesuspect]

You can definitely use 4gb of ram, but you need the 64bit version.

[muddocktor]

You can actually install 4 gb ram, but with 32 bit Vista your OS will only "see" 2.8-3.5 gb like Thrax posted. That is a limit of all 32 bit Windows OS's and 32 bit Windows (including Vista) is what Dell ships their machines with, for now at least. Like Prime said, you would need to upgrade to a 64 bit version of Vista for the OS to be able to utilize all your ram.

[Thrax]

And when you upgrade to 64 bit, your performance will go to hell in a handcart, post haste. :\

[the_technocrat]

so...long story short, for the $/performance, stick with 2GB on a speed-tweaked 32-bit WinXP install for now. :-\

[Zuntar]

I'm sure there is a good reason for the memory ceiling in xp and vista 32 bit OS's....anyone know why?

I honestly thought vista supported larger ram sizes.:shakehead

[Thrax]

It's a limitation of 32 bit architecture, not the OS.

The OS (Any 32bit OS) can only address 2^32 bits (4,294,967,295) of memory-mapped I/O (MMIO, henceforth). Damn near anything on your computer has an MMIO address; the BIOS, the buses, your VRAM (Which supersedes your DRAM addressing). The computer reserves blocks of MMIO addresses for VRAM, then buses/bridges/BIOS, then DRAM. Your RAM gets all the addressing space left, which is usually 2.5-3.12GB.

And that's that.

[Zuntar]

:respect:

muchas gracias!

[TheLostSwede]

I agree on the Vista 64 part. It is a slot slower than 32 bit cause of the 32 to 64 and 64 to 32 bit conversions. Doesn't matter if you put in 32GB of ram in there. Stick with 32 bit and 2 or 3GB of ram. Give it a nice overclock and you'll have a fast pc for a long time.