Motherboard vs. CPU RAM address ability

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Author: Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss
Date:  
To: Main PLUG discussion list
CC: techlists
Subject: Motherboard vs. CPU RAM address ability
Hi,

As you may recall I had a issue with my wife's computer needing more
RAM. It is a Dell that shipped with Win 10 Pro and 4GB of RAM. Was very
very slow. The CPU would address 64GB of RAM however the motherboard
would only handle 32GB of RAM. This is a Dell box.

Today I am dealing with the same issue as with my wife's computer - RAM
wise.

I have a 7 year old HP laptop that runs Win 10 Pro and has 8GB of RAM.
I need more RAM because I want to run Windows, video editing software, a
browser with 2 or 3 tabs open, VirtualBox, a LAMP stack VM on
VirtualBox, and Visual Studio Code all at once. Seems like a lot for
8GB of RAM.

I am not a hardware guy so I am very careful what I do.

I opened the laptop to identify what type of RAM it had installed.
Thankfully they put in one 8GB stick leaving a second RAM slot.

In my research I discovered the CPU would address 32GB of RAM. HP told
me the motherboard would only handle 16GB of RAM. So today I ordered an
8GB stick of RAM. Hopefully I can limp along with this configuration
until Windows 10 end of life and at that point or maybe sooner I can run
Linux exclusively except for my wife who works in a place that runs
Window so she needs windows.

I see a pattern here. At least for me I have run into this problem
twice in less than a year.

I think they do this so one does not buy a cheaper computer and upgrade
is as they go. I think they want one to buy a more expensive product if
one needs more RAM, etc.

I ran into a different problem years ago. I had bought several cheap
Dell desktop computers and later wanted to add a couple more monitors.
The CPU could handle 3 monitors, however the motherboard could only
handle 1 monitor. I had to buy an add-on video card.

Just thought I would share my experience.

Any thoughts are much appreciated.

Keith
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