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abit ic7g
windows xp pro
is it possible to use 4g of ram?

here is what google had to say:

Abit IC7-G

Processor
- Supports Intel Pentium 4 Socket 478 processors with 800/533MHz FSB only
(400MHz FSB not supported)
- Supports Intel Hyper-Threading Technology

Chipset
- Intel 875P / ICH5 RAID
- Supports Intel CSA Gigabit LAN
- Supports Dual Channel DDR 400 with ECC function
- Supports Performance Acceleration Technology (PAT) function
- Supports Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI)

Memory
- Four 184-pin DIMM sockets
- Supports 4 DIMM Single/Dual Channel DDR 400 memory (Max. 4GB).
- Supports configurable ECC function

AGP
- Accelerated Graphics Port connector supports AGP PRO 8X/4X (0.8V/1.5V)

Serial ATA and Serial ATA RAID
- 2 channel Serial ATA 150MB/s data transfer rate with RAID function (0) via South Bridge
- 2 channel Serial ATA 150MB/s data transfer rate with RAID function (0/1) via Silicon Image PCI Chip

Audio
- 6-Channel AC 97 CODEC on board
- Professional digital audio interface supports 24-bit S/P DIF optical In/Out
- 2 SPDIF Connectors On Backplate

Media XP (Optional)
- Supports card reader function for Memory Stick, Secure Digital and Type I/II CompactFlash
- Supports Wireless Remote Control and S/PDIF Out / Mic In / Headphone Out / USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394

Gigabit LAN
- On board Intel CSA (Communication Streaming Architecture) Gigabit LAN

IEEE 1394
- 3 channels (one on backplate)
- Supports IEEE 1394a at 100/200/400 Mb/s transfer rate

USB 2.0
- Supports 8 USB2.0 ports (4 on backplate)

System BIOS
- SoftMenu Technology to set CPU parameters
- CPU, Memory, and AGP voltage adjustable
- Adjustable FSB/DDR ratio. Fixed AGP/PCI frequencies
- Supports Plug-and-Play (PNP)
- Supports Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI)
- Supports Desktop Management Interface (DMI)
- Write-Protect Anti-Virus function by AWARD BIOS

Internal I/O Connectors
- 1 x AGP PRO, 5 x PCI slots, 1 x IrDA
- 1 x Floppy Port supports up to 2.88MB
- 2 x Ultra DMA 33/66/100 Connectors (via ICH5)
- 4 x Serial ATA 150 Connectors (via ICH5 and Silicon Image Cntrl)
- 2 x USB 2.0 headers, 2 x IEEE 1394a header
- 1 x CD-IN, 1 x AUX-IN

thanks antar but my question is a little more farther than that.
what i am asking is if the system realy works with 4gb of ram.
to be more specific, i already work with 2gigs. is there a reason to get 4 gigs?
are the programs using it?
do windows realy use them or just report them?
thanks

On 2005-10-04 10:31, ARCADIOS wrote:
thanks antar but my question is a little more farther than that.
what i am asking is if the system realy works with 4gb of ram.
to be more specific, i already work with 2gigs. is there a reason to get 4 gigs?
are the programs using it?
do windows realy use them or just report them?
thanks

Maybe this should have been your original post.

What I understood from your first post is if your mainboard can use 4 gig of RAM.

i guess you are right.
but what about the ram?

On 2005-10-04 11:01, ARCADIOS wrote:

but what about the ram?

Good question. I only have 1/2 what you got so I can't comment on how XP uses 4 gig of ram. Maybe this one is for the expert.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: antar on 2005-10-04 11:26 ]</font>

Windows can indeed use 4GB RAM. This is a theoretical maximum though: It can use up to 2GB for kernel tasks, and 2GB for applications. It cannot possibly load a 3GB sample bank into RAM.

I know of this 'tool' that lets programs run as from kernel, and although it's most common use isn't resolving some of the memory limit problem, it could be used for that. Unfortunately that tool is not for your everyday user... If you're dying to try it out anyway, feel free to leave me a pm.

have got any experience with ramdisks?
can i use ram instead of hd for applications?
can i work with a project having sequnser recording for ex. using ramdisk?

Ramdisks deliver harddisks on memory sticks/PCI cards. They do not provide extra memory. They can free memory indirectly: If you put enough of it to fit a sequencer project, you could set sequencer's buffering to minimum possible, thus saving some memory depending on the amount of tracks. If you're using Acid or Ableton, and you load all clips into memory, you can put them on the Ramdisk and leave them disk based.

Ramdisk will never make extra memory for Windows to use - it makes very fast harddisk space. Ramdisk, if not used with expansion cards hosting memory, will even turn some of your existing RAM into harddisk space. It can be used in the same way as I described above, providing you have too much of RAM - which is obviously opposite of your case.

memory sticks/pci cards?
do you recommend those for audio?
are you talking about scsi?

I don't recommend the use of these cards, they just offer a way to have fast access for some programs which would use RAM otherwise, thus making it possible to save on actual memory that Windows can use. See http://www.go-l.com/desktops/machl38/features/ for examples. I don't know anyone actually using such a setup.

Another way, which is much more common, would be to get a second machine, connect both with ADAT and midi and spread the load. This allows for a second OS (that can use more memory?) and different applications and options.

Both ways will cost some money, but if your productions require such power, there's the options.

oi,

Here's, on NT4 systems, how to enlarge the 2GB user space to 3GB: in boot.ini, add the switch "/3GB".

On a 4GB RAM system, this will reserve 3GB for user space, and 1GB for kernel. Without the switch each can adress maximum 2GB.

Hope this helps,

at0m.

Just noticed, Tom's Hardware has a couple of reviews on some recent plain-memory ramdisk cards. Interesting stuff.

I guess the bottom line is, if your hard disk is working fine in your current application, it is probably not worth it. But if you have some sort of requirement for a 4GB fast drive... that is there now.