Help me understand my computers, and what to update!

[ssampier]

No, I understand. You're a busy professional. You may not have time to muck with Linux. But you'll never know until you try.

As to your direct questions, Windows XP 32 bit usually recognizes around 3.5 GB RAM so that ram is not wasted. I assume 32 bit Vista is the same.

With RAM ideally you want your timings to be the same as well as voltage.

CPU-z is a pretty neat free utility that can tell RAM speed, cpu type, speed, etc. It's too much information, but hey, it's free.

CPUID

Windows 7 Home Premium is around $110 for the boxed upgrade. Moving from Windows XP you must do a clean install (it's what I would recommend anyway).

 

[Thanee]

From what I could dig up, and advice here, more than 2 GB is pointless without Win 7, but should work with Win 7.

It has nothing to do with Win 7.

The important part here is whether it is a 32bit or 64bit OS.

A 32bit OS has an address space of size 2^32 (the 2 being the 'bit', which is either 0 or 1, so 2 states; and since you have 32 of them, there are 2^32 possible combinations you can differentiate with 32 bits), which happens to be exactly 4GB. Hence 4GB is the maximum of memory that can be addressed (and as such utilized). However, since you do not only have your system RAM, but also video RAM and some more stuff that has to go in there, the actual amount of system RAM you can use is limited to something like 3~3.5GB (depending on various factors, like how much dedicated video RAM your gfx card has).

A 64bit OS has 2^64 address space, which is a lot more.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Nellisir]

It has nothing to do with Win 7.

Right. That was my error; I was conflating the fact that, if I move that computer up to Win 7, I'm also going to switch to 64 bit, with RAM relating to bits, not OS. <sigh>

A full-price Win 7 Home Premium + monitor + memory is more than I can justify, though, so, we'll see how it shakes out. My laptop gets Win 7, the desktop gets more memory, the Toshiba gets wiped out and redone with XP. And I'll go from there.

 

[Blue Sky]

Windows 7 Home Premium is around $110 for the boxed upgrade. Moving from Windows XP you must do a clean install (it's what I would recommend anyway).

If you're a student, or know a student, you can get it for $30, until January 3rd.

 

[drothgery]

A 64bit OS has 2^64 address space, which is a lot more.

... though no version of 64-bit Windows actually lets you use more than 2TB, and most cap out at 16-32GB (which is fine; no desktop x64 CPU actually supports a physical address space of more than 48 bits, which is 256 TB, and some only support a 40 bit physical address space, which is 1 TB).

 

[Thanee]

Yep, but there is a lot of room for growth still.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Rackhir]

You can also get the OEM version of windows home premium for about $105 (on newegg) which is about $80 less than the "full" retail version. There's no difference, it's just supposed to be sold to be people who are building a computer, but there's nothing in there that checks this or prevents you from using it on a system you already have.

 

[Thanee]

Isn't the "normal" version 32 and 64 bit, while the OEM / SB versions are only either or?

Bye
Thanee

 

[Rackhir]

Isn't the "normal" version 32 and 64 bit, while the OEM / SB versions are only either or?

Bye
Thanee

Yes the OEM is either or, not both. However at this point in time, unless you have some specific reason for doing so, there is no good reason not to go with the 64 bit version.

The OEM version vs Full Retail, is also tied to the hardware on the first machine you installed it on. Where as the Full retail can be installed on subsequent machines (though only one at a time). I'm not clear on what constitutes "the hardware", but it looks like you'd be locked to that motherboard AFAIK.

 

[Merkuri]

I'm not clear on what constitutes "the hardware", but it looks like you'd be locked to that motherboard AFAIK.

I seem to recall hearing that Windows identifies several different pieces of hardware, and that a certain number of those need to change before it'll declare, "This is a new PC!" So you could change your hard drive and your processor and be fine, but if you then also changed your motherboard you'd be done.

Of course, I don't know if that goes for OEM disks or if I'm just thinking of some other copy protection in regular Windows.

Edit: While I'm thinking of it... how do those OEM disks work anyway? I mean, how does the CD/DVD know whether it's already been installed on another machine?