How much memory in W7

I have 6gigs of ddr2 installed, but properties window says only 3.25 useable? does not W7 allow for more memory?

I have another machine with an Athlon 64 bit processor. Problem is there are only 2 memory slots. Are there still available the old slot multipliers available? I can install the W7 64bit software on it. I have very large files on PS3..500-700Gigs and it hangs up on my dual core 32 bit machine.

I haven't seen a slot multiplier in years. Certainly nothing for DDR, DDR2 or DDR3 that I have ever seen.

s0c9 said:

If you are running the 32-bit version, yes, you are limited to 4GB total. This is not a Windows limit, but a limit of the 32-bit hardware [memory addressing] on which it runs.

To use more than 4GB you will need to have Win7 64-bit running on 64-bit hardware.

This was taken form a post on the overclocking forum
Memory: Ultimate RAM guide - EXTREME Overclocking Forums

Well this is because 32bit operating systems (most common type of os) only have enough memory address space for 4gb. This doesn't mean its all going to your RAM though. This also includes graphics RAM, networking peripherals, pci cards, and the like. You will only be able to see 3.2~3.5gb of RAM on a 32bit operating system. High end computer users might be using a 64bit operating system which natively supports addressing for much larger amounts of RAM. The current maximums for windows operating systems are as follows:

• Windows XP Home: 4GB
• Windows XP Professional: 4GB
• Windows XP 64-bit: 128GB
• Windows Vista Home Basic: 4GB
• Windows Vista Home Basic 64-bit: 8GB
• Windows Vista Home Premium: 4GB
• Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit: 16GB
• Windows Vista Ultimate: 4GB
• Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit: 128GB+
• Windows Vista 32-bit: 4GB
• Windows Vista 64-bit: 128GB+

Don't forget to add Windows Server 2003 64 bit editions - these made really good FAST workstations BTW if you can source a copy of the OS -- still available on Technet BTW. These could address memory way over 4GB -- not sure what the maximum was but it was certainly somewhere between 64GB and 128 GB. The only drawback was drivers if you had sophisticated hardware - but they it WOW (Windows on Windows). You could install and get working some 32 bit drivers after a bit of poodlefakery.

Cheers
jimbo

It looks like I should just get an updated machine with 64 bit W7 already on it and 6-8 gigs installed. I see several quad core machines like that for around $650 at newegg.

might your easiest solution !

Would help immensely.

jimbo45 said:

Don't forget to add Windows Server 2003 64 bit editions - these made really good FAST workstations ...

Nah. They make slower workstations because they're optimised for background tasks as befits a server. It is possible to reconfigure some aspects of that optimisation but not all. If you want a really fast client OS - use a client OS.

jimbo45 said:

The only drawback was drivers if you had sophisticated hardware - but they it WOW (Windows on Windows). You could install and get working some 32 bit drivers after a bit of poodlefakery.

Nah x2. 32-bit kernel-mode drivers cannot be used on 64-bit Windows, and vice versa. WoW has nothing to do with it - it's for user-mode code only. The number of times that a 32-bit kernel-mode driver has been "poodlefaked" into running on 64-bit Windows: 0.

You know I love your work Jimbo, but I'm also a Class-A (for "annoying") pedant