M1530 has 4GB RAM, but 32-bit Vista. How to upgrade?

Hey whats up!

I've heard the 32-bit Vista can't utilize more than 3GB RAM so I'm wondering whether to go with XP64 (which supposedly had poor driver support + bugs for M1530) or upgrade to VISTA64, which handles lots and lots of memory.

What should I do? I love RAM and want to maximize the performance of my M1530 and in the future upgrade to 6-8GB of it.

Thanks guys.

 

Vista 64-bit, and the max amount of ram the M1530 is 4GBs.

 

6-8? what is the maximum your notebook can handle? i think its only 4.
you'd have to wait until notebooks come out where they can handle that much.
by then you will buy a notebook if you want that much ram.

as far as which one..if you really want 4 go for vista 64 bit.
if not stick with vista 32.
but i'm sure there will be fixes, if there aren't already for whatever issues the 64 bit has.

more ram the better, but that depends on what you really want/need

 

I dual-boot Vista 64 and XP64. Quite frankly, people who say there are still compatiblity issues with 64-bit are people who don't actually use 64-bit... the old issues with XP64 are no longer valid, and Vista 64-bit has never been a problem.

The main problem with XP64 is drivers. I was able to get the correct drivers for the m1330. The m1530 should be similar, but not exactly the same.

I normally boot up in XP64. I say this as an (imo) unbiased user who is no Vista hater. Games just run better.

 

Okay and this is regardless of the OS? So if I purchase VISTA64 and have 8GB of RAM, only 4 will work?

 

yes because the limit of your laptop computer is 4 GB
otherwise it is a crazy amount of ram, something like 150 GB...

 

Has anyone actually ran both 32bit\64bit and can explain how much of a difference 3gb ---> 4gb makes, not sure exactly how it works but unless you have like a bunch of things open at once you won't see the difference (and by a bunch I mean A LOT) I know that I can run F.E.A.R\World of warcraft\Unreal tournament 2004\windows media player\a couple of internet browsers with no issues at all in 32 bit vista.

 

its just that most people dont want to 'waste' that 0.5GB of RAM they bought

technically 64bit is faster, but not all applications are coded in 64bit (or multi-core)... so u wont see like a 100% increase in perforamnce, only like 10-20%

http://64-bit-computers.com/windows-vista-32-bit-vs-64-bit-benchmark.html

 

if you have a 32 bit vista, would you go for 4gb or 3gb of ram?

 

just go vista 64 with 4gb ram ffs =P

 

I have 32 for the moment and I will soon go for 4GB (I have 3GB now)

 

if u live near a Fry's store there is a crucial 4gb ram deal going on...buy for 80$ - 40$ MIR = 40$

mine arrived today =) now i got 4gb ram in a vista ultimate 64x

 

If you aren't planning on upgrading to 64 bit I would just get 3GB probably. I bought a discounted configuration that had 4GB though. I sure as hell wouldn't bother upgrading to 4GB from 3GB on an existing computer where I have no use for the old RAM. Seems like a ridiculous waste of money to me. I still only have 2GB in my desktop with Vista and run Photo Shop CS3, Sony Vegas Pro, encode lots of video, play games, etc. and everything seems to run fine to me.

 

Actually the M1530 can take more than 4gb of ram. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=295500

It can take 6 now, and possibly 8 if they come out with a new bios.

 

The BIOS was -always- capable of accepting 6GB, nothing new really. I think a thread way older than that one stated that before.

 

The chipset was always able to accept more than 4GB, Santa Rosa is 36bit and can address way more than 8GB. As for the BIOS accepting more than 4GB nobody knew for sure until it was tested. There's been quite a few threads discussing but until recently it would have cost over $1000 to test this...

 

Absolutely!

But G.Skill comes to the rescue and makes 8GB only $350. Awesome! And I wonder if NewEgg pricing drops around x-mas. Then 8GB will be even cheaper and you wouldn't have to worry about it later.