Dave, I think we're talking about the same thing. XP will "see" up to 4G of ram but there are 2G, 3G, and 4G limits. I just prefer to stay at 2G and recommend it to people because it causes way fewer headaches later on. If you ever have apps (usually games) that try and use more than 2G you'll know it because it'll crash/bluescreen/freeze for no reason even though you have tons of free memory left. Another reason to stay at 2G is that most apps won't try and allocate more than 2G anyways because developers know of the memory allocation problems. Also I don't think Dell gives you 4 mem slots in the Inspiron making 3G impossible (could be wrong though and adding 2x512mb sticks will give you 3G).

As for the system memory speed, it can be run at different speeds but not in a Dell system out of the box. All Intel Core 2 chips are multiplier locked (except for the Extreme, which we'll leave out of this discussion) and chip speed is multiplied off of the memory bus.

Example: Intel Core 2 E4300 has a 9x multiplier and the processor is clocked at 1.8Ghz. That leaves you with a memory bus speed of 1800/9 = 200mhz. By installing 667mhz (actually 333mhz) or 800mhz (actually 400mhz) you get the same result, memory running at 200mhz, well below the actual ratings of the memory. Since the multiplier is locked the only way to increse the memory speed is to also increase the processor clock speed, by overclocking the memory bus. Which I'm not sure Dell gives you the ability to do in the BIOS.

Eric

posted by 130.76.9...

• Silly to buy a new PC with XP instead of Vista?, Alex, Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:53:02
  • An interesting site?!, xhawksaab, Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:25:37
  • Re: Silly to buy a new PC with XP instead of Vista?, JasonS, Fri, 8 Feb 2008 09:05:05
  • Same Crap Different Icons, ursaw, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 23:02:26
  • not silly at all, but...., Eric, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 10:42:09
    • Re: Not completely true, AeroDave, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 13:27:02
      • Re: Not completely true, Eric, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 15:31:59 <-- Viewing This Message
        • Re: Not completely true, AeroDave, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 20:22:29
          • Re: Not completely true, Eric, Wed, 6 Feb 2008 09:10:26
            • Re: Agreed, AeroDave, Wed, 6 Feb 2008 11:27:32
  • Vista doesn't bug me..., cfishgo, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 10:27:16
    • The thing with Vista most people don't understand, AdamB , Tue, 5 Feb 2008 13:31:20
      • Re: Just remember..., AeroDave, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 13:39:25
        • Nope, that's XP, AdamB , Tue, 5 Feb 2008 15:26:31
          • Re: I did not know that, AeroDave, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 19:38:05
            • Re: I did not know that, AdamB , Wed, 6 Feb 2008 03:19:21
  • I just bought a Dell XPS 1530 with Vista, NateinAA, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 08:29:18
    • I just bought an M1530 too..., bazil burns, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 15:41:53
  • I'm thinking of building a Hackintosh, BrianG, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 07:42:52
  • their new slogan for vista should be..., KenManiac , Tue, 5 Feb 2008 07:02:12
  • Ok, here you go....my prior XP rants...., TKC, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 06:39:27
  • Vista's a pig..., Eric Law, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 05:56:00
  • man vista chews up 700 mb of ramm just to run, vvack0matic , Mon, 4 Feb 2008 20:49:11
  • Go with XP Professional......, Herb Hirsch , Mon, 4 Feb 2008 20:28:44
  • admittedly I don't know PC's, but I see many folks, Mike in Anchorage, Mon, 4 Feb 2008 20:05:01
    • Re: I had a choice, I got XP, Sparky, Wed, 6 Feb 2008 02:24:12
    • Re: admittedly I don't know PC's, but I see many folks, Ron, Mon, 4 Feb 2008 20:25:09
      • Hardware issues..., Eric Law, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 06:01:13

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