upgrade t61 to 4gb ram and 256 graphic card

Hi,

I want to upgrade my t61 with 4gb ram and 256 graphic card. And i have a few question.

I heard that t61 windows xp only support 3gb, so if i put in 4gb do i get the power of 4gb, or only 3gb ?

My laptop has integrated graphic card, is it ok to put a dedicate card in?

Finally, where can i get a graphic card for t61 and that whats the name of the card ?

 

1.) Thats true, windows Xp 32 bit will only utilize around 3GB of memory. This is not only a problem with XP but any 32 bit OS. You would need a 64 bit OS to use all 4GB of memory.

2.) I am pretty sure you cannot put a dedicated card in your machine. The T61s with integrated graphics and discrete GPUs have different motherboards. In fact, even the motherboards with the discrete GPUs have the GPUs soldiered to the motherboard, so you can't really replace that one for another discrete card.

 

thank you Fire-snake.

 

The Intel card is good as doesn't have the failures of the nVidia cards. If you really want you can swap the board with one that has a nVidia card. I think you're better off if you want a dedicated card selling yours and picking up a T400.

 

No, no, no Firesnake,

A 32 bit OS WILL do the full 4GB of memory. The exec is not shown as far as it's memory contention is cocerned. A 4 GB, machine will run fine with a 32 bit system. 32bits IS 4GB.
-Renee

 

32bit translates to 4GB of virtual address space, not memory. Some portion of this virtual address space is reserved to other components of the system (like graphic card, chipset, etc...). The rest of the virtual address space is given to RAM. So even if you have 4GB of RAM, because the virtual address space is limited, the amount of usable RAM you is limited to around 3.3GB or so.

 

The Intel graphics is good because you get much better battery life than the nvidia option. The performance of the nvidia option is so-so at best.

For all intents and purposes, only a 64-bit OS will let you use more than 4GB of memory. There are some special cases on server OS that allow you to use 4GB on a 32-bit OS, but that is not for regular consumers.

 

Clarification on the 32-bits thing.

A 32-bit Windows OS can only address up to 3GB for applications (if the 3GB commandline switch is set). that said, it can address the 4GB of RAM. The remaining GB is used for kernel-mode drivers.

A lot of 32-bit programs are designed to only address up to 2GB of RAM. Not a real issue, since many machines run multiple apps that when run simultaneously can take up that 3GB. Along with this, Windows is set by default (this includes 2000, XP, and 2003) to allocate 2GB of RAM to applications, and 2GB to kernel-mode processes. You can change this via command-line switch so that Windows will allocate 3GB to apps (user-mode processes) and 1GB to kernel-mode, but it can cause compatibility issues.

Technet link to Windows 3GB command-line switch

MSDN blog on the 3GB switch (This explains it far better than I can)

 

"A 32-bit Windows OS can only address up to 3GB for applications"

No. no and no. 32 bits will adress all bytes in a 4 gb OS. Period. I was an OS engineer on the VAX the first commercially viable 32 bit machine. It is a basic fact that every byte is addressible by 32 bits IN A 4 GIGABYTE SYSTEM. OS's dont usually show the exec size. 32 bits works to exactly 4 gigabytes of address space. Says pacmandelight:

'For all intents and purposes, only a 64-bit OS will let you use more than 4GB of memory."

There's a reasons for that. 32 bits has a byte addressable limit which is 4 gigabytes because thats the limit as far as byte addressibility goes.

-Renee

 

However, I'm not talking about VAX.

Microsoft actually has Windows (2000, XP, and server variants) set by default to only allow 2GB as addressable for user-mode processes, and 2GB for kernel mode processes. Windows can address all of your 4GB, I agree. However, my key words were " for applications" (which is defined as user-mode processes). The remainder is allocated to kernel-mode processes --unless you use the 3GB command-line switch, which causes Windows to allocate 3GB for user-mode, and 1GB for kernel-mode.

All of the bytes in 4GB are indeed addressable Renee, I agree with you there. My focus was on how Microsoft sets that addressing up.

 

Oh,,,, some people have been reading it and writing it as it's only 3.-something or other for the whole shooting shabang.

We're in the postion now where we have to plan this. I dont ever want it to be said that 32 bits won't byte addess 4 gigabytes in it's entirety. Some people just don't understand that it will. The difference is application space I agree.

By the way, the Vax was divided up into P0,P1, S0 and no S1 space. I assume that meant that S1 just wasn't used and each user could achieve 1 gb. For the vax it looked to the user as if the user had the entire space during her or his quantum. The user could achieve a maximum of 1 gb of user space or p0 space. There is much more to an exec than just drivers.

See ya later.
Renee

P.S. The police did not show up with the notebook today.