RE: "budget" laptop?

["Pinkham, Jim" <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com>]

I can't personally speak to the question directly. Fred is correct in
asserting the 4 GB and above require the 64-bit version of Vista. With
this quarter's line of notebooks and desktops, the 64-bit version is
finally headed toward mainstream. Current off-the-shelf desktops are
peaking at 6 GB. 

-----Original Message-----
From: McLauchlan, Kevin [mailto:Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:43 AM
To: Fred Ridder; Pinkham, Jim
Cc: techwr-l List
Subject: RE: "budget" laptop?



Fred Ridder sez:
 
> Jim Pinkham wrote (in part):
> > Just to offer some further perspective on this: The norm in
notebooks
> > this quarter (since about late July/early Aug.) is at least 3 GB of
RAM
> > and 250 GB hard drives -- and quite a few are available at 
> > not-outrageous prices that have 4 GB of RAM and 320 GB hard drives.
> > Ed's spex seem a little on the light side for what's currently on
the
> > market.
> 
> Note that the common versions of Wondows XP and Vista cannot make 
> effective use of the 4th GB of RAM. There are only two circumstances 
> where the extra memory will make any practical difference:
> -if you are running a 64-bit version of Windows (XP 64 or Viata
Ultimate)
> -if you have a video adapter that uses system memory Unless one of 
> those applies to you, the 4th GB of RAM is pointless.

Is there normally any way to force the (usually on-motherboard) video
adapter to use (or even find) the fourth GB of which you speak?  For
that matter, are installable video adapters (with their own memory)
capable of addressing portions of motherboard memory?

Or do you (as Murphy's Law dictates) get to watch the fourth GB go
totally unused, while the video adapter eats up memory it the first
three gigabytes?

Obviously, you couldn't do it from any kind of tool within the operating
system, because it would be the operating system that couldn't find that
last gig.  That would leave a function of the bios editor, if it exists.

I know where my money is, but I'd be more than happy if somebody shows
this particular aspect of my cynicism to be incorrect.

 - Kevin
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