AW17 Memory Slots?

So my AW17 R1 was shipped with 16gb RAM (2x8gb). I had the back of the computer off and was checking out how my future SSD upgrade was going to go and noticed that the RAM is installed in slots 3 and 4. From everything I have read the machines are normally shipped with the RAM in slot 1 and 2.

This was a purchase described as new, but from the dell outlet store at quite a good discount. I don't know that it was a customer return. I did notice that the battery back has some light scratches on it and the aluminum frame has a couple of spots that are not anodized black. Looks like some small rub marks or thermal compound possibly. You can see one mark just above the Battery Connector lettering near the ram slot and another which almost looks masked to the right.



Any reason to worry about slots 1 and 2? I don't really think I need any more RAM. But am wondering if I should disassemble the machine further and move the memory to those slots to test them at some point? Or is it a non issue and leave well enough alone?

 

Are you sure those aren't 4's? Just thinking maybe you actually have all 4 slots filled with 4's.

 

Yes, positive they are two 8's.

 

If I remember correctly they did start to put the ram on the more difficult side to get at but that was pretty late in the production run of the R1's, If yours was produced before that switch it is possible for it to be on the quick access side as that was where they were installing it at the beginning. It is also possible the person that put your computer together was lazy and just stuck it wherever

I know for a fact mine was brand new and it has the same "rub" marks per say on the inside so I wouldn't worry to much about those.

If your paranoid about the other two slots you could move them but if you don't think your going to use them anyway then I wouldn't be to worried about it. If your comfortable tearing into your machine that's fine and it isn't a big deal , but if your not that handy with computers this could be rather daunting as you need to remove a lot of screws and pop the palmrest/keyboard off.

 

Thanks for the insight. My personality makes me attempt to find a fault with everything. I had some unfounded reservations purchasing from the outlet to begin with and am likely being over critical.

I have been more than pleased with the computer performance and the support I have recieved here and from dell.

Im comfortable disassembling the computer and have reviewed the manual procedures. Likely at some point I will move the ram just to do it. But I cant see a reason why I would need more at this point.

Thanks for your comments. It eases my mind that the rub marks are on new machines as well.

 

If will also make you glad to know that I have never been able to utilize more then 40% of my memory and I also have 16gb but I don't multitask a TON of stuff either.

 

You're only seeing half the slots, the other slots are on the inside underneath the keyboard. My AW17 came with 4 x 4gb sticks so unless you have checked in the BIOS / UEFI it's most likely 4 x 4gb.

 

You could also use a software like HWInfo to verify that.

 

See post 3

 

which doesn't say that you have verified it...just you being adamant.

 

Thank for your input. I guess I thought that verified was implied when I stated I was positive. The memory is marked Samsung 8gb. There are two pieces for a total of 16. The Bios reports locations 0,1 as not detected and 2,3 as 8gb each.

 

There really isn't a reason to move the RAM as it will run in dual channel mode in either pair of slots. If you wanted to add two more sticks you could add them under the keyboard or move the ones that are currently installed to under the keyboard, it doesn't matter. PCs nowadays don't care which pair of slots (or sometimes even which slot) you run the memory in, you can even run mixed capacities and get dual channel on only part of a stick.

 

there's a table of possible ram configs for alienware laptops.