[chai-ta]

So I have a friend that went out and bought an Alienware PC and has a fun problem.

He spec'd:
2 NVidia graphics cards w/ SLI
4GB RAM
some other stuff I can list if it is needed - the type of stuff that can almost run Crysis...


From Alienware he only got the 32bit Windows XP/Vista option and quickly found that the OS only list 2GB RAM available. He did the upgrade to 64bit Vista SP1 and found that it reported 4GB, but from online sites noted that this didn't mean it actually works.

After a few weeks of back and forth w/ Alienware, he's found that basically Alienware knows that 4GB doesn't work in his system (regardless of what windows tells him) and that it isn't their fault. So far they have only offered to buy back 2GB of RAM.

From research he's found out that he needs a new motherboard/BIOS (his current BIOS is up to date) to actually utilize the full 4GB of memory. Specifically the BIOS needs to support "memory remapping".

Question for the forum is which motherboard/BIOS will work for him?

I'm not versed in the dark arts of motherboards these days....

btw - DON'T BUY A PC FROM ALIENWARE, I think everyone here already knows this - but still worth mentioning.