Pentium 4

[BloodDrunk]

I have this old PC I'm upgrading for my sibling. It has Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz and I managed to install 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate on it. I has 3GB of RAM currently.
I wanna ask, is the RAM limit determined by motherboard or windows type (32/64 bit)?
Can I load more that 4 GB on it?

And when I upgrade its processor, will it be compatible with those windows?

 

[Cihparg]

Motherboard.
I'd go with a safe bet of 8gib RAM, you wouldn't have managed to install a x64 OS on it if it didn't support it.

Just make sure the CPU & RAM you're getting are compatible with the current motherboard.

 

[BloodDrunk]

That sounds great
Too bad that motherboard has only 2 RAM slots.

 

[Cihparg]

That doesn't limit the amount of RAM in any way.
There are RAM sticks up to 16GiB (in powers of two), so you can have up to 32GiB with two slots assuming the motherboard supports the models.

 

[BloodDrunk]

Yeah, I am aware of that, but they cost way more like that.
Better something than nothing

 

[Dr Super Good]

Memory is limited in two places.
1. The operating system.
2. The motherboard.

Operating systems like windows can apply licence restrictions on memory. For example Windows7 32 bit will only allow up to 4 GB of allocated address space. One might think the reason is hardware related but actually the limit is entirely software related and in place to prevent poorly written drivers (not extended address aware) from breaking.

Motherboards can also apply restrictions since they are ultimately at least partly responsible for mapping memory addresses to hardware. Many old motherboards intended for 32 bit Windows operating system might not be able to handle large amounts of memory. Additionally newer large memory sticks might not be supported as the board was not designed to have to deal with such large sticks.

In the case of operating systems you can get around it either by changing operating system type (eg Linux does not suffer from the licencing restrictions Windows does so can have 32 bit builds allocating >4 GB of memory) or using a 64 bit operating system which are licenced to address more memory (since 64 bit drivers will be aware of the larger address space).

In the case of motherboards a BIOS update can help. Some times manufacturers release improved BIOS for their board which support newer hardware that did not exist when the board was manufactured.

 

[BloodDrunk]

Memory is limited in two places.
1. The operating system.
2. The motherboard.

Operating systems like windows can apply licence restrictions on memory. For example Windows7 32 bit will only allow up to 4 GB of allocated address space. One might think the reason is hardware related but actually the limit is entirely software related and in place to prevent poorly written drivers (not extended address aware) from breaking.

Motherboards can also apply restrictions since they are ultimately at least partly responsible for mapping memory addresses to hardware. Many old motherboards intended for 32 bit Windows operating system might not be able to handle large amounts of memory. Additionally newer large memory sticks might not be supported as the board was not designed to have to deal with such large sticks.

In the case of operating systems you can get around it either by changing operating system type (eg Linux does not suffer from the licencing restrictions Windows does so can have 32 bit builds allocating >4 GB of memory) or using a 64 bit operating system which are licenced to address more memory (since 64 bit drivers will be aware of the larger address space).

In the case of motherboards a BIOS update can help. Some times manufacturers release improved BIOS for their board which support newer hardware that did not exist when the board was manufactured.

Oukey, how would I go for BIOS update?

 

[GhostWolf]

Oukey, how would I go for BIOS update?

Go the the motherboard's manufacturer's site and look for it (or if you want to waste less time, just search for "<mother board model> drivers").
They will usually also give tools that allow you to run the update from within the operating system. Otherwise, you will need to put it in a DOK and run the update from the BIOS.

If you want actual concrete information, you should post the model, as well as the make year of the CPU, or model, or whatever, since Pentium 4 can mean a lot of things.

 

[BloodDrunk]

Ok I went to see about the update, and saw that my motherboard's BIOS's last update was 8/9/2010, but only update for BIOS's I found on internet are 2009's and earlier..

 

[Dr Super Good]

Ok I went to see about the update, and saw that my motherboard's BIOS's last update was 8/9/2010, but only update for BIOS's I found on internet are 2009's and earlier..

Always search the manufacturer site, all other sites will generally have old/obsolete versions. If the motherboard is no longer supported (and legacy support was removed for some reason) then you are out of luck.

By the sounds of it your BIOS might already be the most recent version.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

how much memory you can get depends on the type of memory. ddr 1 supports only up to a gigabyte while ddr 2 goes up to 4 gigabytes maximum. windows 7 ultimate supports all the memory you have room for but, if you have 2 slots you can only fit 8 gigabytes on it. the pentium 4 was likely released before ddr 3. i suggest posting what type of memory slots you have as then it is easier to help.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Pentium 4 is almost always going to be with DDR1 due to the technologies and standards of the time. The reason DDR1 memory stops at 1 GB is because that is where DDR2 specification starts. Same goes with DDR3 starting around where DDR2 ended. They are memory standards and as such have certain limits for compatibility. Even still motherboards might be incompatible with standard compliant memory that is newer than its BIOS or very old.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

considering the fact that the topic starter said that it have 3 gigabytes but only 2 slots it is likely to be ddr 2.

 

[BloodDrunk]

Yeah, I use 2 sticks of DDR2 memory (1GB+2GB).
I just wanna know if I substitute this 1GB RAM with another stick of 2GB, will my windows use all the available memory?

And later if I manage to get 4GB's on both, will it actually use all 8GB's?
I don't wanna spend money on something that isn't usable.

 

[Dr Super Good]

If the motherboard says it supports such memory, then yes Windows will see it all. We cannot guess what your motherboard supports however as you have not told us what make/model it is.