New Desktop Build

Ok im going too be Running Windows Xp Pro just too start you Off
Ok My Main board will be a MSI
MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
CPU For now Will Be
AMD Athlon II X2 260 Regor 3.2GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX260OCGMBOX
I will upgrade CPU too this later
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
I will be putting this memory in Rip Jaw
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9S-4GBRL

Now The question is will Windows Xp allow me too use all 4 gigs of memory i heard some rumors that Xp 32bit only lets you use either 2.25gigs or 3gigs Be cause the Mother board says 16gigs And the mother board is a OC unlocker.
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Get affordable graphics and computing performance with MSI's 870A-G54 motherboard. Based on AMD 870 and SB850 chipset, this ATX board is designed to support the latest AM3 Phenom II, Athlon II and Sempron 100 Series processors. With MSI’s OC Genie and Unlock CPU Core technology, you can easily dig the most potential of your CPU for optimal performance.
Dominate your applications and games with up to 16GB of DDR3 memory fitting into four 240-pin slots with dual channel support and overclock up to 2000MHz for increased performance. Onboard lossless 24 bit/192kHz HD audio chipset offers top-level audio quality of extra high fidelity. Two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 cards can be mounted for cutting-edge graphic power with the support of ATI CrossFireX.
Six 6Gb/s SATA connectors give you the ability to store massive amounts of data locally with several RAID configurations possible for extra security and high-speed performance. Two USB 3.0 ports and six USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel give you additional options in connecting and expanding your system.

 

You would be better off going with Win7 64-bit because WinXP 32-bit can only recognize about 3GB of RAM.

 

Puppy is right. Windows XP (32-bit edition) will only see 3.25 GB of the memory.

 

Well it may only see 3.25 but will it allow me too use 4 if i turn off the Virtual memory I all so see on some site where if i get a updated BIO it might work with more Ram.

 

With a new and powerful system such as the 1 you'll be running you will be doing yourself a great disservice by not running Win7. Drivers for hardware and hardware itself you have now will not be handled by an old OS like WinXP. WinXP is set to expire shortly.

 

How much do's Windows 7 cost ive used windows Xp sense it came out only tried vista for a week and i hated it.

 

I'm sure you can look this up yourself.

 

Windows 7 64-bit OEM version is 99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

 

No as the RAM limitation is due to CPU hardware so nothing will let you increase that limit. You will like W7 as it fixed a lot of perceived problems with Vista, which I liked. If you can afford it, then spring for a 64-bit W7. BTW, 3.3 or 4 GBs RAM will not make any noticeable difference for you unless you look at benchmarks which are not real world performance anyways.

 

There's some confusion here. The RAM limitation has NOTHING to do with CPU hardware. Hardware has supported 32-bit for years. It is the 32-bit OS that has the problem. 2 ^ 32 = 4G so 4G is the limit as defined by the Laws of Physics and simple math.

The problem comes from mapping the memory addresses. 32-bit operating systems use some of the 4G (typically .4 - .8Gb, though I have seen 1.2 used up too) for hardware address mapping - so 3.6Gb (not 3.25) is the most 32-bit users will see (though 3.25 seems most common). So while the system does indeed see and use 4Gb with 32-bit, you may have only 3.2Gb (more or less) available.

HOWEVER - a couple points.

(1) XP is a 10 year old operating system designed to support DOS era (25 year old) hardware! XP was designed when the Internet was in its infancy, well before badguys put us in this horrible security situation we are in today. Windows 7 was designed for today's hardware and today's security situation.

(2) Only full "Retail" versions of Windows are transferable to new computers. Therefore, if your current copy of XP came another computer (or motherboard) and is an OEM or Upgrade version, then it is illegal to use it on this new computer (even if uninstalled from all other computers). Again, only "retail" licenses are transferable. It is in your EULA - I'm just the messenger.

 

Excuse the interruption

There might be more confusion than we think - take a good read of this.

Ok, normal service can now be resumed

 

Seeing it and using it are two different things. 2 ^ 32 says it all.

Note this is not just a Windows thing. Yes, there are ways to fool the system into using more than 4Gb, but those are tricks - basically swapping in and out large chunks. But if you try to load a 5Gb file, not going to happen.

 

So MS used tricks when they released Server 2008 32-bit to get the Enterprise and Datacenter versions to use up to 64GB of RAM?

 

I look at it this way - though it is probably too simplistic, and therefore not exactly right from an engineering/theoretical standpoint, but a 32-bit system may be able to access 64Gb, but it will not do it all at once. It will swap in and out chunks (of 4G or less) of RAM at a time.