Clevo M570u memory questions...

I'm thinking of buying the M570u (T7400, 7950GTX) but I would really prefer to have 3GB when working in vista but I've heard conflicting reports about whether this is possible. The Clevo specifications say the OS can see and address a maximum 3GB, one person has told me 2.8GB is the maximum and the official specifications seem to say 2GB. What is the actual maximum amount the OS can see?

As a side note, will there be a Santa Rosa based notebook (by any manufacturer, but Clevo in particular) with the 7950GTX available to order in the UK by mid August?

 

I'm not sure if I understood you right. You want more than 2GB on vista and you are asking if that is possible? Or do you mean using XP and Vista? Because on vista you can use up to 4GB with the 64bit version.
And you should look at the M570ru if you aren't already (santa rosa notebook)
Although im not sure if you can get it in the UK with a 7950...
http://www.rockdirect.com/ only offers 8700 with it right now

 

I've read that Napa chipsets only support up to 2GB of memory, but I'd prefer to upgrade to 3GB. I know that Vista-32 can theoretically address 4GB, but there is also a limitation of the Napa chipset.

Rock Direct is where I'm looking right now as well. I'd rather not get the 8700 since it is so much weaker than the 7950.

 

Okay,but using 3GB will disable dual channel so why not use 4GB?
If you get a santa rosa laptop with a vista 64bit there won't be a problem.
I hope thats the answer to your question.
I guess rock might get the 7950 when the 8700 turns out to be a bad replacement...

 

Because 2GB modules are very rare in the UK and cost significantly more than twice the price of a 1GB module. Dual channel only offers a 2-3% performance increase for Santa Rosa and I don't think it would offer much of an increase at all with a Napa chipset since the bandwidth of the memory is equal to the bus speed of the CPU (667MHz).

Furthermore, Napa chipsets definitely do not support 4GB of memory in Vista-32 because of both chipset and OS limitations. I just want to know whether Vista or XP can see and utilize the full 3GB on a Napa chipset if I upgrade to 3GB.

There are no Santa Rosa laptops in the UK that I've seen with a 7950 and Vista-64 has far too many compatibility issues to make me even contemplate using it at the moment.

Here's to hoping. Unfortunately, I only have until mid-August before I buy my laptop because I need it for university. I just need to know whether any OS can fully address 3GB on a Napa chipset.

 

Now I get what you want!
This might help you:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=129865

As far as I know you can use vista or an XP pro version (there was a post in the forum about xp pro 64bit which you can download for 120 days trial) on napa to use 3GB

 

I'm a little confused myself now. The link you provided me with gives details about Vista-32 limitations on memory, which I know about. However, I think I also read somewhere that the Napa motherboard (mobile P945 I think?) itself has a maximum memory it can address - namely 2GB. So even if you had Vista-64 and installed 4GB, the OS would only see 2. Is this true?

Hmmmm, so you're saying an installation of Vista-32 on a Napa platform will allow you to see the full 3GB of memory? Which basically means what I read about Napa motherboards supporting 2GB of addressable memory is false. Are you sure about this?

 

Well i thought 3gb where possible, still i could be wrong.
I only found this posts regarding the matter, I hope that helps.
http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-231186.html
http://forums.macnn.com/58/imac-emac-and-mac-mini/334856/3gb-2-1-core-duo-imac/

 

Thanks a lot, those were really useful. It seems to me that the Napa chipset is 32-bit meaning there is a limit of 4GB addressable memory (even in 64 bit OS's), so I should theoretically be able to see the full 3GB without any problems on the M570u. Can anyone who knows for sure or actually has 3GB+ memory in their M570u confirm this?