P-172X FX ram question

So I'm looking to either get the BestBuy Gateway and stick a T8300 in it or haggle on the phone for a P-172X FX. My question is why does the 172X FX come with 4GB ram? It's my understanding that Vista 32 won't recognize any more than 3, so it seems like a complete waste. Am I missing something?

 

reguarding 4gb of ram, the os will not, but the hardware will like the video.

 

Yeah, its called "marketing." You'll still get about 3GB no matter what. flynanaz: you can NOT ever use the rest of the RAM...no hardware can without a 64bit OS.

 

Makes me so sad that you can't customize their stuff. :/ At least I can use it as a point when I talk the rep into lowering the price.

 

Umm, you could just get the 172S and use the $600 you just saved on a processor.

 

At that price range I think I'll be better off getting the 6831 since a 10% off coupon should be coming sometime soon.

 

BestBuy never has 10% coupons for laptops.

 

Ok, video card DO use some ram, not the os.

 

no of many sources;

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/671784

 

The video card uses the addressing space, not the RAM. Unless you're talking about TurboCache and HyperMemory, in which case the graphics cards do start sucking up the RAM, but either way, you start with 3.2-3.5 GB of RAM and TurboCache/Hypermemory start subtracting from that number, not from 4 GB.

 

Ok, I agree, I was half awake last night. Ram is so cheap now why not have extra.

 

Here is a good explanation;

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html

 

can linux use all 4 gig of ram?

 

Yes linux will use them

 

say, how come some systems show 3.2 gigs while others show 3.0 gigs ram?? i have been trying to understand this....

 

I think it all depends on your hardware setup. My gaming rig has two video cards with 640mb X 2 = 1280 when I was running vista 64bit my ram showed like 2.6gb instead of 4gb,