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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
I am building a new computer with a board that has the capacity to use 8
gigs of memory. I would like to know how much memory WinXP will accept and utilize. Also I would like to know if there is a limitation on harddrive size in terms of gigabytes. For instance will it handle a terabyte or should I stay with 400 or 500 gigs. |
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#2
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
"Docster" wrote in message
... I am building a new computer with a board that has the capacity to use 8 gigs of memory. I would like to know how much memory WinXP will accept and utilize. Also I would like to know if there is a limitation on harddrive size in terms of gigabytes. For instance will it handle a terabyte or should I stay with 400 or 500 gigs. 32-bit or 64-bit WinXP? Service packs installed? What processor is installed on the motherboard? Does your BIOS have any drive size limitations? Memory Limits for Windows Releases (Windows) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...s_window s_xp Physical Address Extension (Windows) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...(v=VS.85).aspx -- Glen Ventura MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009 CompTIA A+ http://dts-l.net/ |
#3
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
Per Docster:
I am building a new computer with a board that has the capacity to use 8 gigs of memory. I would like to know how much memory WinXP will accept and utilize. I'm no expert and have made the mistake of putting 4 gigs into a couple of XP boxes (slow learner that I am...). My take is that 2 gigs is plenty. I think XP can use up to 3, but I've never seen one of my PCs using over two. Also I would like to know if there is a limitation on harddrive size in terms of gigabytes. For instance will it handle a terabyte or should I stay with 400 or 500 gigs. 1 and 2-terabyte drives have worked for me so far. I think that 3-tb drives need something special in the way of controllers. -- PeteCresswell |
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
32 bit winXP
SP3 Intel Processor Socket LGA775 3 gig BX80569Q9650 Intel® CoreT2 Quad Processor "glee" wrote in message ... "Docster" wrote in message ... I am building a new computer with a board that has the capacity to use 8 gigs of memory. I would like to know how much memory WinXP will accept and utilize. Also I would like to know if there is a limitation on harddrive size in terms of gigabytes. For instance will it handle a terabyte or should I stay with 400 or 500 gigs. 32-bit or 64-bit WinXP? Service packs installed? What processor is installed on the motherboard? Does your BIOS have any drive size limitations? Memory Limits for Windows Releases (Windows) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...s_window s_xp Physical Address Extension (Windows) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...(v=VS.85).aspx -- Glen Ventura MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009 CompTIA A+ http://dts-l.net/ |
#5
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
On Fri, 29 Oct 2010 09:08:57 -0400, "Docster"
wrote: I am building a new computer with a board that has the capacity to use 8 gigs of memory. I would like to know how much memory WinXP will accept and utilize. Also I would like to know if there is a limitation on harddrive size in terms of gigabytes. For instance will it handle a terabyte or should I stay with 400 or 500 gigs. Check google. This topics have been discussed repeatedly. -- Remove del for email |
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
My understanding is that XP will max out at 4 gigs, however....
My understanding is that XP will report 3.5 gigs max even though, it will still make use of the entire 4 gigs. "(PeteCresswell)" wrote in message ... Per Docster: I am building a new computer with a board that has the capacity to use 8 gigs of memory. I would like to know how much memory WinXP will accept and utilize. I'm no expert and have made the mistake of putting 4 gigs into a couple of XP boxes (slow learner that I am...). My take is that 2 gigs is plenty. I think XP can use up to 3, but I've never seen one of my PCs using over two. Also I would like to know if there is a limitation on harddrive size in terms of gigabytes. For instance will it handle a terabyte or should I stay with 400 or 500 gigs. 1 and 2-terabyte drives have worked for me so far. I think that 3-tb drives need something special in the way of controllers. -- PeteCresswell |
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
"Docster" wrote:
32 bit winXP SP3 Intel Processor Socket LGA775 3 gig BX80569Q9650 Intel® CoreT2 Quad Processor 32-bit XP won't see more than 4GB, no matter how much you put in. And it won't see that much because some of its 4GB address space has to be used to access video RAM, BIOS, etc. See http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/RAM.html If you use 64-bit XP - or 64-bit Vista or 64-bit Win7 - you can use all of your RAM. There's no limitation on hard drive size. -- Tim Slattery http://members.cox.net/slatteryt |
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
Per Tim Slattery:
There's no limitation on hard drive size. Even 3 tb? I thought there was something with the controllers that wouldn't handle over 2... something about "UEFI"? -- PeteCresswell |
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
On 10/29/2010 2:18 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Tim Slattery: There's no limitation on hard drive size. Even 3 tb? I thought there was something with the controllers that wouldn't handle over 2... something about "UEFI"? There is an limit of 2TB on MBR Basic Disks, this is a partition table limit. The MBR partition table can address 4,294,967,295 sectors so effectively with disks being arranged in 512 byte sectors MBR disks are limited to a maximum size of 2TB. To overcome this limit you must use GPT disks which Windows XP 32-bit can't use, so effectively you are limited to 2TB disks on Windows XP 32-bits. John |
#10
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
John wrote on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:04:32 -0300:
On 10/29/2010 2:18 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote: Per Tim Slattery: There's no limitation on hard drive size. Even 3 tb? I thought there was something with the controllers that wouldn't handle over 2... something about "UEFI"? There is an limit of 2TB on MBR Basic Disks, this is a partition table limit. The MBR partition table can address 4,294,967,295 sectors so effectively with disks being arranged in 512 byte sectors MBR disks are limited to a maximum size of 2TB. To overcome this limit you must use GPT disks which Windows XP 32-bit can't use, so effectively you are limited to 2TB disks on Windows XP 32-bits. There's nothing stopping you from having several 2TB discs is there? -- James Silverton Potomac, Maryland Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not |
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
On 10/29/2010 4:29 PM, James Silverton wrote:
John wrote on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:04:32 -0300: On 10/29/2010 2:18 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote: Per Tim Slattery: There's no limitation on hard drive size. Even 3 tb? I thought there was something with the controllers that wouldn't handle over 2... something about "UEFI"? There is an limit of 2TB on MBR Basic Disks, this is a partition table limit. The MBR partition table can address 4,294,967,295 sectors so effectively with disks being arranged in 512 byte sectors MBR disks are limited to a maximum size of 2TB. To overcome this limit you must use GPT disks which Windows XP 32-bit can't use, so effectively you are limited to 2TB disks on Windows XP 32-bits. There's nothing stopping you from having several 2TB discs is there? No, not at all, and if you want to use dynamic disks or RAID array you can span them to form volumes larger than 2TB. John |
#12
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
Docster wrote:
I am building a new computer with a board that has the capacity to use 8 gigs of memory. I would like to know how much memory WinXP will accept and utilize. Also I would like to know if there is a limitation on harddrive size in terms of gigabytes. For instance will it handle a terabyte or should I stay with 400 or 500 gigs. Possible limitations are 1) OS - WinXP SP3 x32 limits address space to 4GB on purpose. Proper usage of PAE, would have made larger address spaces possible. 2) Chipset - anything recent is fine. 3) Effects of the video card. Address space used to address memory chips on the video card, subtracts from space available for addressing system memory. Some examples on a WinXP x32 system (some rough, rounded off numbers): 1) Install 4GB. Install FX5200 128MB video card (small memory). Get to use 3.5GB of the memory that is installed. 2) Install 4GB. Install 7900GT 512MB video card. Get to use 3.2GB of the memory that is installed. 3) Install 4GB. Install (2) 512MB video cards in SLI or Crossfire. Get to use 2.75GB of the memory that is installed. Using a 64 bit OS, should make most all of it available, even if you installed 8GB. Windows 7 x64, Ubuntu 10.10 x64, would allow you to use all 8GB if installed. (WinXP x64 isn't worth buying, so don't bother.) The best compromise configuration is 2x2GB. That allows dual channel operation for the memory. You'll lose a little, or a lot of that memory, depending on your video card configuration. But fiddling around with 2x1GB + 2x512MB configuration, is not the best compromise. Yes, you may shave $25 off the price of the memory, but that config lacks the best expansion options later. Better to lose $25 worth of accessible memory, in order that a future addition of 2x2GB will be simpler. 4GB sized sticks are occasionally available, but using just one in single channel mode, wouldn't be the best choice. Depending on how far back you go, there was one Intel chipset, that made room to install 8GB, but the front side bus connection between processor and chipset was 32 bit, which meant the user could only access 4GB of the memory. When I say "anything recent is fine", don't go looking for some crusty old 915 chipset motherboard to build your rig. ******* For hard drive, anything up to 2TB in size, is seamless in usage. Avoid Western Digital "Advanced Format" drives with 4KB sectors, since you're going with WinXP. I'm not sure if WD is still selling drives with Advanced Format after their initial launch. The industry will soon be changing to nothing but 4KB sector drives, so sooner or later, we'll be stuck with them. (Existing drives use 512 byte sectors.) Check a photo of the WD disk product label, and see if the words "Advanced Format" are printed on the label in the picture. Some users had issues with those, including sluggish performance. OSes other than WinXP, might be fine, so they're "the future" so to speak. The more modern the OS, the better the odds they properly support 4KB sectors. http://www.anandtech.com/show/2888 As for the recently introduced 3TB drives, I wouldn't touch those with a barge pole. Allow six months, for the early adopters to report their failure rates, before buying. That may also give time for a decent web article to come along, with tips on using them. The Newegg.com customer reviews for hard drives, will give you some idea how crappy the drives are. Poor shipping materials are part of the reason for so many failures, and one of the reasons I buy hard drives locally. By using my local supplier, they come out of a proper bulk shipping container, rather than flopping around in some oversized UPS box with a few Styrofoam peanuts for company :-) The drives may have a high G force rating, but that still isn't a reason to allow them to flop around in the box. Paul |
#13
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
Per John John - MVP:
There's nothing stopping you from having several 2TB discs is there? No, not at all, and if you want to use dynamic disks or RAID array you can span them to form volumes larger than 2TB. I'm running Windows Home Server on my 24-7 box and have a mish-mash of 1, 2, and 1.5 TB drives with their space pooled together into about 12 gigs of contiguous space. I'm not wild about WSH, but as a pooling device for drives it seems a lot less technically-challenging than, say RAID for somebody at my level of incompetence. -- PeteCresswell |
#14
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
"Paul" wrote in message
... snip The Newegg.com customer reviews for hard drives, will give you some idea how crappy the drives are. Poor shipping materials are part of the reason for so many failures, and one of the reasons I buy hard drives locally. By using my local supplier, they come out of a proper bulk shipping container, rather than flopping around in some oversized UPS box with a few Styrofoam peanuts for company :-) The drives may have a high G force rating, but that still isn't a reason to allow them to flop around in the box. I've bought almost all my hard drives online for the past 10 years and have never seen one shipped "flopping around in some oversized UPS box with a few Styrofoam peanuts for company." Every one has come packaged so that the drive cannot move at all inside the box, and also well cushioned. Most were bought from NewEgg and ZipZoomFly. I did get one or two from Buy.com, and even it was packaged well. YMMV. -- Glen Ventura MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009 CompTIA A+ http://dts-l.net/ |
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WinXP harddrive and memory capacity
Per glee:
I've bought almost all my hard drives online for the past 10 years and have never seen one shipped "flopping around in some oversized UPS box with a few Styrofoam peanuts for company." Every one has come packaged so that the drive cannot move at all inside the box, and also well cushioned. Most were bought from NewEgg and ZipZoomFly. I did get one or two from Buy.com, and even it was packaged well. +1 -- PeteCresswell |
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