Question : Problem: Make a Ram Drive?

With a 32-bit OS (XP or Vista), is it possible to make a large chunk of 8GB into a Ram Drive?

I know that about 3.5GB is all that they will use, but is there some way to put the other 4+ to use?

XP-64 has a lack of drivers issue (not sure about Vista-64 yet).
Going with a SSD is a possiblity, but he would rather wait on that until the prices drop.

Thank for the input.   : )

Answer : Problem: Make a Ram Drive?

Yes, I think I did understand. And from what I've read previously those OS's (the 32 bit versions, anyway) also limit individual apps to 2GB of memory usage (which would be what... 31-bits?).
Processors have actually been capable of 36-bit memory addressing at least since the 486 came out... that should be good for 64GB, I think, with extended memory mapping. It's microsoft (and I think a few motherboard manufacturers who apparently design specifically for microsoft) that has imposed the limit you're talking about.

Did you follow any of the links I gave you?

I remember paying $100/meg for RAM in the mid-1980s, so I understand very well that RAM is currently cheap (and getting faster all the time). Unless he's going to change to an OS other than 32-bit windows, there's really no reason to put more than 4GB on the board... in most cases he'll spend more time copying the files to and from the hard drive than he'll save by having work done on them while they're on the RAM drive. The best use I can think of would be for windows' own swap file, but I'm not sure if the RAM drive would already be created before windows accesses the swap file during bootup. Windows would probably still need a piece of it on the hard drive. How large that piece would need to be, I don't know. I'm pretty-sure you can specify more than one drive for the swap file, though.