Anyone using 4 gig memory on ASUS P5B-E?

[vicequad]

I want to up my memory from 2 to 4 gig, but I have a few questions. First, the manual recommends installing 3 gig or less for 32 bit XP. Anyone using 4 gig for XP successfully? I'm on XP Pro SP2 and plan to use the 3 gig switch. Any BIOS setting to change?

Also, is it better to use 2 slots with 2 gig each or all four with 1 gig each? 1 gig sticks are available with cas 4 latency, but 2 gig sticks only have cas 5. Does that matter?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[chookman]

I have 4gb installed in my P5B-deluxe, after changing a BIOS RAM remap feature all 4gb is detected on boot. However, in windows its using 3gb due to the 32bit limitation. I dont know what 3Gb switch you are on about??? PAE switch maybe??? which by the way doesnt work.

Generally i recommend 2x2gb config because you can still upgrade, but considering you already (i assume) have 2x1gb sticks another 2x1gb set would be much cheaper. CAS4 will get you slightly fast bandwidth but it will be indistingushable in normal situations compared to the CAS5

CAS4 2x2gb parts on a quick newegg search
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227278
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227267
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144099
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144098
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220293
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220269

 

[vicequad]

Thanks for the info chookman. Yes, the PAE switch is what I was refering to. Interesting that you say it doesn't work. I've heard almost all positives about it. Maybe it just doesn't work with the P5B family? I thought Windows could use 4 gig and would only allocate up to 2 gig per app, but the PAE would allow 3 gig per app, with 1 gig for Windows.

Thanks for the RAM links. The 2 gig sticks I was looking at only had cas5, but I guess I should have looked harder. I usually stick with Kingston, Corsair or Crucial and am not familiar with the brands you linked. Are they high quality?

I use my PC for pro audio work, which involves a lot of real time processing, so it would probably be worth it for CAS4. I can get a matching pair for my existing 2x1 gig Crucial CAS4 sticks for only $47 after rebate. Pretty amazing, since I paid $300 from Newegg for them 14 months ago! Maybe in a year or so I'll upgrade to Vista64 and buy 4x2 gigs sticks and sell my existing sticks.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145034

 

[chookman]

I had no improvment using the PAE switch and the last article i read on it (wouldnt know where to find it though sorry) even suggested that althought the PAE switch is a legit command in XP it didnt actually enable/disable anything...

OCZ, Patriot and i think the others were Geil are all high quality brand names. I dont think the ones you mentioned currently have CAS4 parts in 2x2 config.

IMO you should get the matching 2x1gb... its cheaper and i dont think youll be going higher than 4gb in the near future... and you might find youll be going to DDR3 before you need more than 4gb

 

[vicequad]

Yes, I think I will go 2x1.

Here's the thread where I've gotten most of the info on the 3gig switch. It's on a hardware forum for pro audo software. Lots of people report success, but I think it has to do with the application.

http://forum.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=78120&highlight=gig+switch+rocks