Ask HN: Review my hack: using all available memory (4GB+) on a 32-bit OS

3 points by edgeztv 15 years ago | 6 comments

I feel that this discovery is too important not to have a discussion here. (I submitted my blog post yesterday during peak NH hours - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2412122 - but it fell through the cracks, so I'm reposting).

Summary: You can take advantage of more than 4GB of physical RAM on a 32-bit OS (WinXP in my case) by putting your paging (swap) file on a RAMdisk.

I feel that this is important for the world to know because the move to 64-bit systems has been largely influenced by the memory limit imposed by 32-bits.

edgeztv 15 years ago |

The full article: http://nighthacking.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-use-more-tha...

Any comments?

andrewcooke 15 years ago | |

nice idea. i'm typing this on an x60 with 2GB. this would be even easier on linux, i guess. on the other hand, i added an ssd recently and the effect is similar (since the sawp file is on the ssd).

edgeztv 15 years ago | | |

Thanks. I also thought about installing an SSD. Many people seem to be afraid to use an SSD for memory swapping however, because they believe it will shorten the lifespan of the SSD (especially on Windows XP, due to its overly-aggressive swapping logic).

cperciva 15 years ago |

Alternatively, you can use PAE.

edgeztv 15 years ago | |

Yes, that might work on some operating systems, but not on Windows XP (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg487503.as...)