Vista 32bit yet detects 12gb ram

Hey guys, I just bought and built a new i7 rig, with 12GBs of RAM.
I forgot to ask my mate for his x64 bit Vista disk so I installed the x86 version for the time being. When I go to the system page, it shows that its a 32-bit system, but shows the full 12 GB of RAM…I thought 32-bit Vista was only supposed to show 4… :S
Answer #1
*bump*
maybe vista detects 12 but can only USE 4?
Answer #2
with service pack 1, x86 vista will detect all the ram that the system has but will only address the first 3.5gb of it
Answer #3
yeah its actually 3326MB that a 32 bit OS will use, i’m currently running vista 32 bit and that’s the total MB i can use, waiting for win 7 to upgrade to 64 bit. But if i look in there properties it shows 4GB, after SP1 M$ added a feature that show the amount of memory in the PC but that dose not mean it will be used. It was added to reduce confusion.
Answer #4
Ahh okay, thanks for the clarification… He better bring Vista x64 tomorrow!
Answer #5
Get Win7 x64 instead