Alienware M17X R4 - Is it worth adding RAM?

I'm curious what people think. I'm a big believer that, even for intense gaming, you don't need anything ridiculous like the 32GB RAM that you can get from Dell. I know the R4 has four discrete RAM slots, two of which are easily accessible, allowing you to easily add RAM after market.

I'm wondering if there's any immediate advantage to moving past the stock 8GB? I already have plans to add an after-market SDD before booting it up for the first time, so it would be easy enough to insert some additional RAM, just not sure there's value there.

I didn't want to upgrade it from Dell's end because of cost / lack of reasonable options to keep the 3rd and 4th slots free.

 

Just for gaming there is no reason to upgrade to more than 8GB of RAM

 

All of the R4 configs that I've seen on the Dell / Alienware websites come with 6 and not 8GB. Personally I think 8 is the minimum for a good gaming system but I don't see any reason to go higher than that unless you use the computer for video editing, CAD or something along those lines.

 

8GB is enough, put that money into a better bigger SSD. If money is not a factor why not, add more ram lol its cheap take advantage of the extra ram slots.

 

Just for gaming, there's no reason to have over 4GB

 

From the parts list of my order:
Memory 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (2DIMMS)
[317-9740]

That was stock option.

 

Not only would it be a waste of money to fill all 4 slots just to have them full, wouldn't it also lessen battery life a little, powering 4 RAM modules?

 

Doesn't 12 gb of ram fill all 4 slots?

 

I completely agree it's a waste to fill them "just to get them full", which is why I was asking if people think there's a purpose to filling them.

 

Weird, I've been looking at the R4 the last few days, both through Dell, Alienware and even the Dell EPP websites, and all only show the 6GB as the base config, can upgrade them to 8 for $75 but they start at 6. Maybe it's because I'm in Afghanistan and they're routing me through another country's Dell website or something.

 

If you are just gaming, then no, though I would still say it depends on the games you play. I've personally SC2 eat up to 4.5 GB RAM, due to the HEAVY spawning of the defense map I was playing. If you do VM's, Photoshop, then you will benefit from more RAM.

 

I only went 32gb for vmware.
For work i run multiple vm's and the eat ram for breakfast.
Only a gamer? Stick with 8gb.

 

I have 8gb, and I don't think even half of it has ever been of use. My desktop is still rocking with 4gb of ddr2 800.

 

SlimShady, has the correct response for this topic.

 

Yeah, I didn't really want to do that, but since my system came with 6GB, I had to even the sticks out to get dual channel.

 

Yeah. Dell is bad that way too, with one of their options being a 12 GB 4 DIMM setup.... At least with the 2x4's one can get another pair of 2x4's for 16gb.

 

6g is enough , 16G will be fast but one SSD is faster , if me ,I will get one ssd but not more RAM

 

Right and the 16gb is 4x4 instead of 2x8. So if you do want to upgrade later, you have a pile of 4gb. I guess you could sell them??

 

Given how cheap DDR3 RAM is, soon you'll soon be able to go to the dollar store and pick up 4 GB DDR3 sticks. But in all seriousness, 8 GB sticks are SUPER cheap right now, I believe I saw 16 GB GSkill kit for 80 bucks...so buy your 8 GB sticks/kits while it is UBER cheap now.

 

4 gb laptop ram at the POS displays at the drug store, haha

 

Yeah but it probably is not 1600MHz / DDR3.

 

Faster RAM has got to be the biggest waste of money unless you are overclocking, or gaming on integrated graphics. During normal use, there is no difference, maybe 5% difference MAX during encoding/rendering.

 

I have an R2 and I've upgraded to 16 GB. For my purposes this has been a tremendous help. I run various VMs on it, as well as relational databases
(Oracle, SQL Server) for development purposes. Having 16 GB is a great thing.

But if you don't have requirements for more memory than you don't really need it...

Cheers,
Mario

 

AHA! I'm on the verge of Alienware M17x R4 but a key requirement is VMware Workstation 8 running 64-bit VMs. I haven't been able to find an 'official' answer. You doing ok with it? Any issues? Woudl appreciate your comments / feedback before I plunk down the $. The key factor is the Alienware is the ability to scale up to that 32GB.

Cheers - JEFF

 

You don't have to buy an Alienware just to get a machine that can do 32 GB RAM. ThinkPad W520, Precision M6600, Elitebook 8760W all support 32 GB.

 

works just fine.
another snaffu is you need windows 7 ultimate to get the 32GB recognized.
home premium stops at 16gb, will say 32GB installed usable 16GB.

as we speak i run a sql 2012 server, sharepoint 2010, windows 2008 server and a windows 8 client in seperate VM in workstation 8.0.3

 

Why buy them now? They can only keep getting cheaper...Right?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

 

Cheers. I believe Win7 Pro and above are all good to 192GB.
Tsunade_Hime: yes I know, but I need *some* sort of excuse to get the M17x! Besides, I also want to edit HD video and play games too.

 

jpreou,

my VMs run off of Oracle VirtualBox and they run really smooth. Keep in mind I am using Win 7 64 bit Ultimate. I haven't had any problems with them. I also used VMWare for a while and had also no problems. I switched to Virtual Box because Oracle uses it alot to test their products and also the price

You need to watch out that if you are using the Intel VX (turned on through the BIOS) you can only run a single VM program at a time. I just mention that because I also use Windows Virtual PC mode to run an old instance of SQL Server 2000...But do stay away from MSFT Virtual PC because it runs only 32 Bit OSs.

Mario

 

Yes in fact the only really bothersome thing for me at the moment is that my R2 is extremely heavy. The ThinkPad W Series packs just about the same punch in terms of performance and are easily 1 - 2 Kg lighter.

Now I don't mean to start here a discussion about laptops because I am extremely happy with my R2 but I don't really need the graphics nor
the high quality display from the R2. It's simply a luxury with a drawback.

Mayrio

 

Nope I am in brasil and see 6gb too

 

I think it's because there are multiple "stock" configurations offered, and I selected one with an 8GB default value.

 

I understand that 6 gb is enough Ram but is the dual channel 8 gb faster? Or is it still the same regardless. Also if I buy just 1 4 gb stick can i just replace the 2 gb stick for a dual channel 8 gb ram or is it under the keyboard and all that messing around with the computer which I don't want to do...

 

Would guess the ram is installed under the KB... that's where I would put the harder to reach RAM if I was building a computer with 4 slots and the stock option was 2... since consumers would not want to have to remove the kb to access the 3rd and 4th slots if upgrading.

 

My R4 with 6gb ram was installed under the battery ( on the bottom ) not under the keyboard, which I was happy about, because it made it very simple to install a 16gb (2x8) kit. You could easily just swap out the 2gb stick and put in a matching 4gb stick for dual channel goodness.

 

Does the matching 4gb stick you are talking about need to match the other one in terms of brand or just need another 4gb stick DDR3 at 1600 mhz?

 

Weird. The converse is - if already had a 2x4 kit, you would not want to have to take apart the laptop to get to the free RAM slots.

 

I haven't had any problems with 6GB with all the games I've tested. But I don't really like running different size sticks and they being from different manufacturers is even more bothersome. I like things to be symmetric and consistent so I might just buy a 2x4GB kit soon.

This one looks to be one of the best you can buy right now:

Newegg.com - ADATA XPG Gaming Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model AXDS1600GC4G9-2

Lowest timings of the 1600 RAM available AND low voltage. It's listed as 1.35v but it's actually 1.28v according to several of the reviews.

The most important thing to match is the voltage and then the timings. The speed doesn't matter much as you'll run on the slowest stick's speed with the faster stick downclocking itself if necessary. Brand is inconsequential.