A couple general questions

[WeedCali]

I've got a couple questions that have been lingering around my head for a while so i though I'd ask.

Question 1
Someone told me that a 32bit OS wont recognize more than 4Gb of RAM. Is this true or does it only apply to 32bit versions of Xp?

Question 2
What is the difference between 32bit and 64bit OS? is there any really important/noticeable graphical differences? my guess is that a 64bit OS can stretch to a larger screen?

Question 3
When im looking at a mobos specs, it states that Dual Channel RAM can only have one DIMM per channel. are the channels the different color slots?

Question 4
The processor im looking at for my christmas build (which i also used on my moms build) is the AMD Sempron 140 2.7Ghz. Newegg has a combo deal with a gigabyte mobo which allows you to unlock the second core. does anyone know the actual name of this function? a reviewer said that the 785g chipset allows it to do that. so would that mean that any mobo with the 785g chipset would be able to do this?

+rep for anyone who can give me useful information.

Thanks

 

[berry120]

Someone told me that a 32bit OS wont recognize more than 4Gb of RAM. Is this true or does it only apply to 32bit versions of Xp?

It's true, and applies to anything 32bit based. The practical limit is less than this - chances are you won't see much more than 3.5GB, if that. (It's all about 32 bit not having enough address space - lots of information online about it if you google around.)

What is the difference between 32bit and 64bit OS? is there any really important/noticeable graphical differences? my guess is that a 64bit OS can stretch to a larger screen?

Stretching to a larger screen? Nonsense I'm afraid! The workings are all under the hood, and a lot of the time you may not notice the difference. But for demanding applications it can really be a bonus - applications that run into the 4GB memory limit are usually the ones that'll see most of an improvement, but for day to day use it's unlikely you'll notice the difference.

When im looking at a mobos specs, it states that Dual Channel RAM can only have one DIMM per channel. are the channels the different color slots?

Sorry, it might be me being sleepy but I'm not entirely sure what you're asking here, could you rephrase?

The processor im looking at for my christmas build (which i also used on my moms build) is the AMD Sempron 140 2.7Ghz. Newegg has a combo deal with a gigabyte mobo which allows you to unlock the second core. does anyone know the actual name of this function? a reviewer said that the 785g chipset allows it to do that. so would that mean that any mobo with the 785g chipset would be able to do this?

Not 100% sure about the chipset question so better leave that to someone who knows for definite, but it's worth being careful over relying on unlocking cores in general - it's entirely down to chance whether you'll be able to and AMD makes no guarantees.

Hope that helped!

 

[WeedCali]

I'll give you an example. when looking at the memory specs for an ASUS M4A78 Plus, it states: "Due to AMD CPU limitation, DDR2 1066 is supported by AM2+/AM3 CPU for one DIMM per channel only."

Now on this mobo, there are four memory slots which are 2 black and 2 yellow. do the different colors indicate separate channels?

 

[tom-knox]

If the processor manufacturers are running one core from that chip instead of two.... There's probably a reason.

And, it might just be that it's 3am but, yea you're explanation of channels fits there yea. That's right