Alienware m17x R3 Memory upgrade

Hi, I would like to upgrade the memory on my Alienware m17x R3. My question is, what is the fastest ram that would work? Would 2133mhz memory work? Thanks

 

No, I don't think it would. Your CPU only supports 1333MHz. I don't know for certain, but I think installing higher frequency memory may not post or will be downclocked to 1333. I recommend upgrading to a 2920XM (about $350 on eBay) and then getting some better memory, preferably Corsair or Kingston at 1600MHz. Your system will perform much better.

Actually, if I were in your position, I'd just go ahead and get a GTX 680M, a 2920XM, and new RAM... You'd basically have a new PC.

 

I've got 1600mhz corsair vengeance ram and it runs fine out of the box at the suggested speed. No clue on if the higher frequency will run on with the 2630qm. Just because its not supported doesn't mean it won't work.

 

I'm also running 1600Mhz memory on mine, and it works out of the Box with no setup required. I have 8GB of Kingston Hyper X, and 8GB of Corsair Vengeance. Those two RAMs have slightly different timings (Kingston 9-9-9-27, Corsair 9-9-9-24), but both combine fine and run at the slower Kingston timings of 9-9-9-27. This all happens automatically to run at 1600Mhz and no need to change any BIOS settings.

I'm not sure that faster than 1600Mhz memory will work in a Plug N Play manner, although I do know people with 1866Mhz memory on the R3, but I think they had to re-flash the memory or change BIOS settings - not too sure on this last point though.

(1600Mhz has proven to be the sweet spot for performance, not much real world gains from going faster than 1600Mhz anyway, significant difference between 1333Mhz and 1600Mhz though! As I read on a Sandy Bridge article on Toms Hardware)

 

I'm interested as OP.
The 8GB 1333 to 16 GB 1600 makes a difference?
I thought games won't use over 4 GB since most are 32 bit. And the other 4 GB will be enough for background processes.

They will cost around 150$-200$ correct?

Wouldn't it be better for OP to put money towards a GPU rather than more memory for gaming?

 

That's good to know it runs.

 

16GB 1600 will perform better than the 1333 8GB. You will notice the difference, however I agree with you about the VC being more important for gaming than memory. 8GB should be enough as long as you use it for gaming and not for rendering or something different.