Hehe, yeah sorry bout that Jr.
My point simply was that just like any OS, if you try and use outdated hardware with a newer OS, you may/will potentialy have issues that in most cases cannot be fixed withought building a box from the ground up.
Also, I wasn't trying to sound "elitist" by pointing out my 64bit Vista Rig, but it may have come-off like that, sorry
In that thread, and others in the past, people were wondering what a post-house rig was like and how little it really cost and more importantly a rig that ran Vista 64bit Ultimate flawlessly.
But regarding your specific issue, gster answered you correctly.
A 32-bit OS can only address "up to" a maximum of 4 gigs of ram, but that is ONLY after the OS, certain software, and any peripherals take their share of the ram available.
So the long and short of it it is, a 32-bit OS will never "see" the total 4 gigs as all of it will never be available to the OS.
XP 32-bit can be "fooled" into seeing up to 3 gigs with the "boot .ini" adjustment, but it may cause issues in some cases, but not always, as my older XP box used the "3 gig boot .ini adjustment" without issues.
Originally posted by Jr.Who
I know that, but what I'm saying is if I get the 4 GB can I just use my current version (the 32-bit processor with 32-bit XP) and be OK? Or should I get 32-bit Vista? I've heard there's some differences, but I'm not sure.
Yes there are.
The quick answer if you just wanna add 2 more gigs to your current Xp box is yes. It should be no problem.
Most 32 bit software on a 32 bit OS will only "see" up to 2 gigs of ram, if it is available, so thats what gster was saying.
On the topic of Vista 32bit, yes, Vista by default is more resource-needy, (just like Mac Tiger, etc.) because those newer OS's expect the user is using newer, more powerfull, and updated hardware to run it.
However in Vista, ALL of those things can be shut off, in essence, returning it to the XP core.
(turn off things like the Aero UI, control Prefetch with a thumb drive, etc...)
Bit the point is if one wants to upgrade to Vista, I would suggest going 64bit, NOT 32bit.
That way you can get a mobo that supports more memory, updated procs, etc to take advantage of it, rather than be a slave to it
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