RAM Limits on PC's and Servers

[Guest_imported]

I need to use a PC with a huge amount of RAM (Over a gig). I have looked into buying one and I realised that only servers are set up to handle this. Is this because servers handle RAM differently, or just because they use highr spec motherboards?

 

[Scotsdude]

as long as you use either Win2000 or XP, RAM isn't a problem, as long as you've got a decent motherboard that can support it. Win 9x/ME can only support up to 384Mb, then starts playing up.

Not sure about NT, but then you're better with either 2000 or XP anyway.

What are you gonna be doing that needs so much RAM?

Scotsdude

 

[Jakespeare]

Scotsdude is right: In today's world, it is NOT about your mainboards, All the new mainboards support from 1.5 to 3 Gigs of RAM; It is all about the operating system.

Just as an experiment, and used Windows 98 SE for a test. I was building myself a New computer, I knew when I built this computer I wanted to run 1 GIG of RAM (not that I need it, it just sounds so much cooler than 768, which I had in my last machine).
It is a Pentium 4 - with the i850 chipset, so it is RAMBUS RAM. With Windows 98 SE, the computer ran, but was slow unbelievable flaky, I had to reboot (warm reboot manually with the reboot button on case) from 5 to 10 (sometimes more) times a DAY. Windows 98 SE was just helpless with that much RAM.
I set up another HD, and installed XP Pro, which I have used and liked since last July, and it runs perfect.
1 GB. My excuse is, to run a game server online. However, nothing else I could possibly think of would utilize that much RAM.

I am also curious to know what Mike *THINKS* he needs 1+ Gigabyte of RAM for. (I think this is another case of, "my brother in-law who works with someone, said, that Bubba who *used* to build computers said, etc.).


LAST: If I'm going to use that much RAM, in ANY computer that I build, it would only be the best mainboard, or a premium brand, such as Intel, Asus, or Supermicro. If you can't afford the extra $50 - $80 for a premium top quality mainboard, you probably are buying the RAM for the wrong reason.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

You can purchase PC motherboards that will handle this amount of RAM, for example, I recently bought an Abit KG7-RAID, which will take up to 3.5Gb.

It depends on the manufacturer and model.

Off-the shelf PCs rarely come with such a large amount of RAM, but I was under the impression that most modern motherboards could cope with at least 1Gb (but would require upgrade).

Servers are, to all intents and purposes, glorified desktops. They handle RAM no differently to desktops, but more often than not will use ECC RAM, for reliability. Xeon and pentium pro processors, on the other hand, will use RAM in a more efficient fashion than their counterparts, and have motherboards designed to allow this.

I hope this helps CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk