new computer, what do you think?

[MrGiggles]

Re: new computer, what do you think?

Thought linux could handle over 4gb's as a 32bit operating system. I'm pretty sure that it can, but its recommended to use 64 bit if you are going to.

I also see those apple tower computers with 8gb's of ram or something, and I don't think they are 64 bit.

Nope. Because of the way 32 bit processing works, it can't utilize more than 4GB of RAM and even then it usually ends up being like 3.2GB. It doesn't matter what OS you use.

64 bit OS's let you use up to some-really-high-number-i-don't-know GB of RAM.

[Izzy]

Re: new computer, what do you think?

You should find some evidence for that before making that claim.
Everywhere I read, Linux is capable of getting around the 4gb limit on 32 bit.

And the limit of ram on a mac doesn't even seem to be part of the operating system. Just what kind of cpu.

http://guides.macrumors.com/Understanding_Intel_Mac_RAM

btw 64 bit windows can handle up to 128gb's of ram.

[Red_Comet]

Re: new computer, what do you think?

looking through msdn I stumbled upon this page http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778(VS.85).aspx

says for paged and non-paged (physical ram) both types can support 128GB on a 64-bit OS, so basically we'll be tapped out on limitation of ram in roughly 7 to 8 years when we have mobo's supporting ram capacity of >128GB (ironically about the same time it took for xp to be trumped by vista/w7 )

edit: F you izzy ninja'ing my fun fact (but not as fun as what I just said)

edit edit: jesus the 64 bit server os can support 2TB worth of ram..... that's a whole lotta access calls to utilize

triple edit ftw: seems like 64-bit linux's can support a ton more from this little blurp I found on wikipedia

"64-bit Linux allows up to 128 TB (140,737,488,355,328 bytes) of address space for individual processes, and can address approximately 64 TB (70,368,744,177,664 bytes) of physical memory, subject to processor and system limitations."
link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#Linux