I'm putting together a dual xeon server. The board can hold up to 8 Gigs of ram, I'm pretty sure XP will only see 3 gigs+, my question is am I correct to assume I would need to install windows server 2000 to get the full ram, the reason I say 2000 is I have a copy of that. Thanks, any advice would be appreciated as I'm new to server building.

usually upgrading hardwares i would updates service packs and/or hotfixes to support current OS. (better and stable)

I always update everything when installing a new system but I don't think that answers my question. I would rather put XP on it but I don't Think I will be able to use all the Memory

I think the ram limitations have to do with it being a 32bit operating system.

If 2000 Server is 64bit, it might be able to adress those extra gigs.

AFAIK Win2k server is NOT 64-bit. Win2k3 is a different story

Thanks for the clarification

medicsix, you posted in the games section; I moved it to the hardware hangout .

For what games you want to use this server? Dual Xeon CPUs is a bit overdone I would say, especially when it’s a dedicated server.

You are correct in that XP 32-bit can only "see/use" up to 4GB of RAM. The system properties will show anywhere from 3.25GB to 3.75GB depending on the number of PCI cards and the amount of RAM on the video card (if it's a dedicated game server I would hope that you're just using some low-end card).

To see/use all 8GB you'd have to use one of the following:

Windows XP Professional x64
Windows 2000 Advanced Server with PAE enabled
Windows 2000 Datacenter Server with PAE enabled
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition with PAE enabled
Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition with PAE enabled
Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition
Windows Server 2003, Datacenter x64 Edition
Windows Server 2003 R2, Enterprise Edition with PAE enabled
Windows Server 2003 R2, Datacenter Edition with PAE enabled
Windows Server 2003 R2, Standard x64 Edition
Windows Server 2003 R2, Enterprise x64 Edition
Windows Server 2003 R2, Datacenter x64 Edition

The Service Pack level doesn't matter (although you should always use the latest and install all hotfixes). See this page for information on Page Address Extensions (PAE). It's basically a band-aid fix for 32-bit operating systems. To effectively use more than 4GB you need to make sure to go with one of the x64 versions.


Not true if you're hosting multiple games at the same time, especially with some of the newer games. As I understand it, Crysis can be pretty intense on the server side. Besides, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I would much rather have more than enough power (extra CPU cycles in reserve) than not have enough to do the task.

Really? I have a friend that has 12 Gigs of ram and with Windows XP Pro 32bit... But i think he did a lot of hacking of some sort, Unsure, But i saw it.. Windows XP 32bit With 12gigs of ram! believe it or not!

(I would send a screen shot, But I don't have one of his system)

He had to have done something. XP Pro 32-bit doesn't natively support more than 4GB RAM.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platf...PAE/PAEmem.mspx

Yeah well, Thats Microsoft Im not lieing at all, Even all the programs that he downloaded to view how much ram he had, said 12 gigs and Windows XP pro.. I dunno.. hes a geek and a pretty good programmer too!

Are you sure he's not running XP x64?


Also, the second quote in my post above isn't correct regarding physical memory...well, it is but that quote specifically talks about page address space (virtual memory) and not physical memory.

No, its 32bit he hates 64bit for some reason, he said its slower than 32bit. but PC Wizard or other types of software said 32bit version.

Most likely he simply converted Windows Server 2003 to look and behavior like Windows XP. Something like: http://win2k3.msfn.org/

Anyhow, if you want real proof it can't be done read up on MSDN or simply ask Microsoft in the public newsgroups. WARNING: You might get cursed at pretty badly. lol

Well, that depends. Windows 2000 did ship an ia64 datacenter version for Itanium (64bit).