Originally Posted by
JadedTraveler
The maximum memory a laptop (or current desktop) can see and use is just over 3Gb...Before someone jumps in here on a technicality, Windows Vista Ultimate will access almost 4Gb max.
It's not a "technicality," but the maximum amount of memory any 32-bit operating system can address is 4 GB; memory addressing space reduces that to somewhere around 3-3.5GB of usable RAM.
If you have a 64-bit operating system, the amount of memory that can be addressed jumps up to a few terabytes. In my office at work I have a $12000 Dell workstation with 32 GB of RAM installed. It's running Windows XP x64.
The amount that Vista Ultimate can access will depend on whether it's the 32- or 64-bit version as well as the particulars of the motherboard chipset, processor, and memory controller.