You may need to update the BIOS in order for the motherboard to address
all 8 GB of physical RAM and properly convey that information to Windows
during the boot process. I would be sure with that much RAM to use a
64-bit operating system, which has a word size large enough to address
more that 2-4 GB of RAM. Small bit of explanation. A "word size" in
computer terms is how much data in bits the computer processes in a
single linear operation. Picture it as a bank of light switches, each
switch representing one bit. Flipping the switches on or off is one
linear operation. The length of the switch bank is the word size. This
is fundamentally what your computer does hundreds of millions of times
every second. The longer the "word" the more math the CPU can do at one
time, and the more it can remember, like where in RAM to find a piece of
data it needs. That having been said, I would recommend sticking with
Windows 7 64-bit and look into BIOS upgrades to better support the
amount of RAM you have. There may also be a patch (already) to the
Windows 7 OS or an improved device driver that can improve the mesh
between the operating system and the physical parts of the computer.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [PCBUILD] Memory not available?
From: Dean Kukral <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, November 04, 2009 5:43 pm
To: [log in to unmask]
I am in the process of building a new computer based on an Intel i7 870,
an MSI P55-GD80 1156 motherboard, and four two-gig sticks
of Corsair memory.
When I booted the computer into the BIOS, it says on the first page at
the top that I have 4GB of memory, even though I should have
8GB. In the bios, it "sees" all four sticks of memory. It seems to read
the memory properly per the SPD.
Then, I loaded Windows 7 64-bit software and looked into the System
settings and it said that I had 8GB of memory, but it also said
that I had "4GB reserved" by the motherboard (or bios or something). It
was only using 4GB.
I have never used more than 4GB of memory before, sticking with the 32
bit operating systems, so I don't know if this "reserved"
thing is typical or not.
At any rate, I don't know how to unreserve it. There doesn't seem to be
any setting for the memory. I saw on a YouTube video on
this mb that their overclocking button did not work well with more than
4GB of memory. (And TurboBoost is also activated.) But, I
have not tried to overclock it yet.
If anyone has any idea of what is going on here, I would appreciate your
input. I know that this is pretty new stuff, so, perhaps,
nobody on the list has had any experience with this hardware.
(The NewEgg rating for this mb was 100% five stars, BUT they all were
using only 4GB of memory! I chose the 8GB because I saw a
YouTube video of a review that used 8GB of this same type of memory, so
I assumed that it would work.)
I won't bother to continue with the 64 bit versions of W7 if I can't get
to use more than 4GB of memory - I'll just load the 32 bit
version instead.
Thanks,
Dean Kukral
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