Thinkpads Forum

When I bought my Lenovo X61, I considered a 4 GB RAM upgrade instead of 2 GB RAM, but I was obliged to take Vista Business 64 Bit as a preloaded operating system, they told me that 32 bit versions of windows vista is not capable of managing a 4GB RAM.

- But concerning the 64 bit is it capable of running all applications that run on 32 bit editions ??

- In case not, is there any way I could make a 32 bit vista use all of the 4 GB RAM.

Thanks in Advance.

well some 32bit apps wont run on Vista x64. Most of them will but some wont run and 16bit apps (some XP apps are still 16bit from the older days)

Vista x64 is waay better than XP x64 tho. XP couldn't run anything, Vista x64 runs 32bit apps well enough but runs native 64bit apps even better. If the apps you use are recently as a few years they should be fine.

Vista 32-bit can only address 3GB of RAM, although Vista SP1 will let the 32-bit OS "recognize" the extra 1GB of RAM installed.

Vista x64 is your best option if you want to use your full 4GB. Most programs should work. If they don't, there's always the dual boot option (Vista x64 / Some 32-bit OS) or Virtual Machine environments.

GL

I think I'm going to stay on Vista Business 64

iamdmc wrote:Vista 32-bit can only address 3GB of RAM, although Vista SP1 will let the 32-bit OS "recognize" the extra 1GB of RAM installed.
GL

I've read elsewhere that Vista 32-bit will recognise 3.5 GB, not 3.0 GB; are you sure it's 3.0 GB?

If I install a 2GB DIMM and a 1GB DIMM (both of the same speed and CAS levels), would that adversely affect my X61T's performance in any way (rather than 2 DIMMs of the same size)?

Why bother? The price increase from a 1GB chip to a 2GB chip is marginal. Better to have a matched pair.

zephyr wrote:

iamdmc wrote:Vista 32-bit can only address 3GB of RAM, although Vista SP1 will let the 32-bit OS "recognize" the extra 1GB of RAM installed.
GL

I've read elsewhere that Vista 32-bit will recognise 3.5 GB, not 3.0 GB; are you sure it's 3.0 GB?

If I install a 2GB DIMM and a 1GB DIMM (both of the same speed and CAS levels), would that adversely affect my X61T's performance in any way (rather than 2 DIMMs of the same size)?

since this is the thinkpad forums he was talking about Vista on a Thinkpad i'd assume. In that case then yes, any x86 OS will only show a max of 3GB on the X6x, T6x, Z6x, R6x machines. The BIOS has it locked there if a 32bit OS is installed.

On other machines, laptops and desktops... you can use as much as 3.5GB depending on the amount of devices in the system that would need addressing space. Your 512MB Video card is the one that usually uses the most.

SHoTTa35 wrote: Vista x64 is waay better than XP x64 tho. XP couldn't run anything, Vista x64 runs 32bit apps well enough but runs native 64bit apps even better.

Are you really sure? I was of the impression that XP x64 basically handled 32 bit apps the same way Vista x64 does. Also, I believe that XP x64 is based on the Windows Server 2003 codebase, which also Vista is based on.

noooo definitely not the same. XP 64 basically had no driver support and apps either so if it didn't work out the box then chances are it wouldn't work at all.

Apps on the other hand were give and take, very bad 64bit experience. Vista x64 on the other hand is definitely almost no different than x86 version. From the way you do things to the way it looks and feels. X64 has much better driver support too (for whatever reason) so your usage experience is waaay better.

And Vista in general is based off Windows Server code base, I think 64bit is based off 2008 tho (maybe i'm wrong, don't quote me) while x86 is based off 2003.

SHoTTa35 wrote:

zephyr wrote:
I've read elsewhere that Vista 32-bit will recognise 3.5 GB, not 3.0 GB; are you sure it's 3.0 GB?

If I install a 2GB DIMM and a 1GB DIMM (both of the same speed and CAS levels), would that adversely affect my X61T's performance in any way (rather than 2 DIMMs of the same size)?

since this is the thinkpad forums he was talking about Vista on a Thinkpad i'd assume. In that case then yes, any x86 OS will only show a max of 3GB on the X6x, T6x, Z6x, R6x machines. The BIOS has it locked there if a 32bit OS is installed.

On other machines, laptops and desktops... you can use as much as 3.5GB depending on the amount of devices in the system that would need addressing space. Your 512MB Video card is the one that usually uses the most.

Thanks for the info. Given that I have Vista 32-bit and can only access 3GB of RAM, should I buy 2GB + 1GB DIMMs or 2GB + 2GB DIMMS? Is there any adverse effect of going with the 2GB + 1GB, assuming same DIMM speed and CAS latencies?

no not really. The x61 can still run it in assymetric dual-channel mode so you wont even loose that. The only benefit is that .... when you move to 64bit you'll have 4GB of RAM (for the x61)