AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ / OCZ 4GB PC2-6400

Hey fellas,

Just picked up a AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ 3.2ghz, (Black Edition) and OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) 800MHz/PC2-6400 for a very nice price.

Installed it about 20mins ago and everything's great, but I was just wondering why Vista Ultimate only finds 3GB RAM and doesn't know what model my processor is? Is it because I'm only running a x64 OS? (Windows Vista Ulitmate x64 - I think!).

Anyone think they can shed some light on this? I be very grateful for the advice.

Cheers,

Joss

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Shuttle SK22G2 V2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ 3.2GHz
OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) 800MHz/PC2-6400
NVIDIA 7600GT 256mb DDR3

 

You would think that using a 64-bit operating system and a 64-bit micro-processor would ensure that you wouldn't be restricted in your chip memory usage. And yet, you are. The reasons can be complex, but for the most part, it is due to the fact that the I/O part of your motherboard is still mapped into the 32-bit memory space and as such is overlayed into the upper memory area from the 4 gigabyte boundary, downwards. This includes any memory that your video card uses, from control code blocks to the actual 256 MB of your 7600GT. All the (32-bit) drivers that are loaded into the system are also mapped into the high memory space from 4-gig downward with reserved address space. There are solutions to this. For instance, the Intel/AMD processor codes, provide instructions for accessing the ram "hidden" beneath the I/O address space. This is because I/O and ram are accessed with different intructions. However, for speed, Microsoft doesn't allow this operating mode as the default, and instead provides a flat addressing model for client software. Besides that, it can be complex when some programs are "aware" of this mode and others are not. Another solution, may be provided in the future, by the motherboard manufacturers. They could provide a "switch" in the BIOS that could map the board's I/O space into a 64-bit addressing model so that users of 64-bit operating systems could employ it fully. However, for this to be a reality, you would also need 64-bit device drivers, that would then be able to map their individual I/O spaces into a region above 4-gigabytes.

 

Wow! Alot to take in but thanks for taking the time to write it all up. I've noticed that the processor is running quite hot with the fan settings on SMART FAN mode - between 50c to 65c. Is that safe? Is there anything I can do to lower it? I'm using Shuttle's ICE System at the moment.

Thanks again,

Joss

 

Smart Fan does provide for a quieter workspace environment, but 50c to 65c seems to be too near the safe operating boundary. If using a heat pipe system for CPU cooling, you're likely going to see temperature spikes from time to time. This is because the heat pipe has intrinsic lag. To compensate, some manufacturers provide an additional fan on the exterior heatsink, as a way to instantly provide additional differential cooling during emergency spikes. It's annoying when that fan suddenly goes into turbo mode, but at least it keeps your processor cooler.

 

Cheers for the advice Captain. I had a look around and found some Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound on Overclockers UK; since I've got a Shuttle it's going to be hard to mod the case; hopefully some decent thermal gel will solve the heat spikes.

Thanks for the advice!

Joss