I'm curious (although I think I already know the answer to this question)...
Adding 4GB of memory to my computer results in only 3.25GB being reported by Win XP Pro. This is a limitation of...WinXP or my MOBO or my video card (which contains 512MB of memory) or what exactly? The BIOS correctly indicates 4096MB of memory.
A little searching seems to indicate that nothing above 3GB is usable by Win XP. Right? Or is it that my PCI devices and video card are chewing up almost 3/4 of a gig of ram? Or is it simply just a waste of RAM?
Let's say it's a waste of ram for the time being. Will this situation change if I move to Vista? Will the entire 4GB be available?
you need to put the /3gb switch in the boot.ini to use 4gb. if you want, contact me and i'll get you the info. without the switch, windows uses 1gb for the system and 2gb for programs. with the switch, it uses 3gb for programs. even with the switch, windows will only report 3gb.
vista will use all the ram, but vista also hogs more ram for the system, so it's debatable if there will be any real advantage to using vista for 4gb.....
Thanks guys. I found the reference for the boot.ini file switch and have already made the change. Whether it actually means anything to me is a good question. Time will tell I suppose.
Which leads to another series of questions.
So with Vista - what exactly is the advantage to a lot of RAM in terms of DAW work? How much do we really need? Is there a comfort zone that would make sense for the average Joe or is it silly to think in those terms?
if you are using lots of romplers at the same time with huge streaming libraries, you probably can't have enough memory. for everything else, you're already golden.
Nice to hear from you again Crizrox!
I would not use Vista yet, make a little search in the forum about it, and you’ll find many disadvantages not to use it. Anyway, it has been recognized that there are serious problems for professionals using Vista for Pro Audio work. Mind you so.
BTW: your new amount of RAM will work wonders, if your configuration is correct.
*MUSIC* The most Powerful Language in the world! *INDEED*
I have no interest in Vista at the moment. I was just curious.
I don't know why I thought adding 2 more GB of RAM to my system would be simple. It's never simple and even when it is, it isn't.
Thanks!
PS - I don't remember what magazine it was but I read a rather kind and gentle review of Vista and the latest Mac OS. The reviewer had nothing really horrible to say about Vista and even suggested there was enough good stuff in there to warrant a serious look at it. I have Vista Home basic on a relatively new laptop and haven't seen anything really wrong with it. Seems ok to me but I haven't tried running a DAW on it. Not sure what all the hub bub is about.
i'm sure vista will work fine.
the real problems are the bloated visuals which take too many resources, but can be turned off, and DRM and back doors for "officials" to exploit. i have no doubt that the os itself is very functional....
the main thing is, that there's likely no advantage to upgrading at this point, especially since you have a working system. from what i know of your operation, i don't think you'll be able to do any more work....
If you can disable things you are not using on your motherboard you might get more available. thats a really low amount. PCI-E seems to use up the most. and i think SLI/Xfire boards would be the worst off.
Even so RAM is so cheap that upgrading from 2 to around 3 (when you buy 4) seems to still be worth it. i got 4GB of decent OCZ for $108 canadian.
krizrox wrote:
PS - I don't remember what magazine it was but I read a rather kind and gentle review of Vista and the latest Mac OS. The reviewer had nothing really horrible to say about Vista and even suggested there was enough good stuff in there to warrant a serious look at it. I have Vista Home basic on a relatively new laptop and haven't seen anything really wrong with it. Seems ok to me but I haven't tried running a DAW on it. Not sure what all the hub bub is about.
Then you can try to play a DVD thats not from your zone or rip a audio CD and encode it to mp3s for a test.
Next test would be to run a 3D game that uses EAX sound.
And finnlly try to nstall a non M$ Firewall and Antivirus for desert.
If you look in that magazine you will probably find advertisements from both Microsoft and Apple. Magazines never say anything to piss off their advertisers, Think of them more as a brochure which will tell you about some of the good features which are offered by their advertisers products (if they work as advertised)
I had to go look for it. The magazine is Remix (Feb 2008 issue) and the review was pretty in-depth and balanced I thought. The reviewer walked a fine line between criticism and praise. They suggested Vista Business might be best for DAW work since it had less bloat than the other versions.
Bottom line though was that they didn't think Vista was compelling enough to switch from XP (yet). It's a resource hog. Slightly overpriced. blah blah blah.
btw Stardust - it's funny you mention the firewall and anitvirus problem. I have been trying to uninstall Norton from my laptop and replace it with something else. Every time I try, it seems to disable my wireless adapter. This particular laptop is really nothing special (in fact, someone gave it to us out of sheer frustration when they couldn't get it working either). It works ok in the factory default setup but as soon as I try to change anything, that's when the problems start. I guess that's the price you pay for cheap laptops (it's an Acer).
norton probably has a "networking protocol" in the properties of that network card. uninstall the entire network card. remove norton. reinstall the network card without norton. install a free and non invasive antivirus such as AVIRA PE.classic.
without symantec #@$%@#$@ the computer will probably seem much faster.
norton is really tough to eliminate. you need to use regedit and search for "norton" and "symantec" and delete lots of registry entries manually. it's worth pointing out that the founder of this wonderful company and product was the guy who wrote the original virus and then published it, and then formed a company to track all the variants and remove them from everybody's system. norton IS the virus.
the /3gb switch works on all xp sp2 versions. regardless if you use it or not, 4gb is the maximum xp can use, but the switch allows the memory to be used more efficiently. without the switch, xp uses 2gb for the system, which is a complete waste. xp won't report more than 3gb correctly, but afaik, it WILL use all 4gb, assuming the applications are capable of using large amounts of memory...
garyb wrote:
the /3gb switch works on all xp sp2 versions. regardless if you use it or not, 4gb is the maximum xp can use, but the switch allows the memory to be used more efficiently. without the switch, xp uses 2gb for the system, which is a complete waste. xp won't report more than 3gb correctly, but afaik, it WILL use all 4gb, assuming the applications are capable of using large amounts of memory...
I have used the 3GB PAE Switch for months now, and even apps that don't support it seem to take advantage of it.
I decided to try this on a new hardware upgrade that would prepare me for 64bit OS's if I decided to make that move. A simple addition of 2 extra 2 GB sticks in the spare 2 x DIMM's seemed like a reasonable upgrade.
Turns out that GaryB's advice was incredibly accurate.
Gigastudio 4 using XP Home takes advantage of the 3GB Switch, but GS4 will use all 8GB's of RAM under XP64 or Vista.
Soniccore's new hardware will replace the old cards and the old OS.
It was the best upgrade I ever had done for me.
I am prepared to go different directions, but of course have chosen the long haul w/ GS4 and XITE-1.
A simple addition of 4 GB's more of DDRII 800, and an E8500 is all I need to do.
I know of no other DAW builder who can offer better advice than our very own GaryB. Several times I have dreams of all of new hardware available, water-cooling, and other useless high tech hype, and at the end of the day, GaryB's designs and hands on experience building w/ Scope DSP cards is always the best solution.
BTW, my next door neighbor just had a Dell w/ the E8500 and a super dooper SLI video combo delivered and he hasn't slept a wink !
I have no idea what he is bragging about w/ the FPS he is getting in certain games, but watching the benchmarks of quads versus fast dual cores, it seems that the expensive Q9750 has no edge on the new Wolfdale E8500 and twice the heat.
Just another example of GaryB's accurate insights on a CPU that has just been released.
BTW, the 8500's are a perfect match for the P35 chipset and DDRII. If the need arises, the BIOS can alter the SPD on the RAM for a free OC of the memory subsystem, and CL3 / CL4 speeds w/ the P35 appear to be a reality after months of geeks @ xtremesystems.org have proven.
I imagine his XITE-1 install for me up in Tahoe will be the talk of the town this summer. ( hopefully by the 4th of July )
Due to a tragic accident I have changed to a motherboard with only 1 PCI-e 16 graphics card slot and now windows shows 3.5GB PAE got automatically enabled.
its a gigabyte P35-Ds3R. it seems pretty solid so far.
