Solved! Will 8gb ram interfere with winxp

Bob B

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Apr 27, 2010
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Hello,
Currently running WinXP 32-bit on a Dell E6500 with 4 GB RAM. I know WinXP won't recognize more than 4GB, but I intend to upgrade to Win 7 in the near future. Question: Can I upgrade the RAM to 8gb now, e?ven though I'm running WinXP?
 
Solution
First, your motherboard must support 8gb of ram or more.
Secondly, you must install on your machine a 64 bit operating system to recognize all 8 gb of ram.
Any 32 bit windows will only recognize 3,25 gb of ram. Do the math required and you will see.
Windows Vista and 7 on 64 bit can recognize 128 gb of ram. Search the internet a bit for more info and you will see that i am right.

amnotanoobie

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Aug 27, 2006
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Check first if your motherboard supports 8GB of ram. Some motherboards physically limit the memory to 4GB or less. If you install 8GB and your motherboard is hardware limited to 4GB, when you get to Win7, the other 4GB would appear as "Hardware Reserved" and be unusable.

There would be no problems with WinXP with massive amounts of ram, it would just happen that it can't "see" the ram past 3.3~4GB.
 

V1ctor89

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Apr 17, 2010
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First, your motherboard must support 8gb of ram or more.
Secondly, you must install on your machine a 64 bit operating system to recognize all 8 gb of ram.
Any 32 bit windows will only recognize 3,25 gb of ram. Do the math required and you will see.
Windows Vista and 7 on 64 bit can recognize 128 gb of ram. Search the internet a bit for more info and you will see that i am right.
 
Solution
I'd keep the Dell as is and use the RAM funds toward my next build. In 25 years, I have yet to see an OS Upgrade pay dividents. I should mention that never owned a box With Win9x, ME or Vista :)

If you had Vista, I'd say go ahead but I'd venture to say that your machine with 8 GB and Win7 will be no faster than XP with 4.