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    Help upgrading my M17x (ver2)

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by wrau1, Dec 17, 2012.

  1. wrau1

    wrau1 Newbie

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    A recently bought a extremely lightly used m17x from a friend (who was deployed a week after he originally bought it then sold it to me right when he returned a few weeks ago) and it's in great condition. I want this to be my rig for at least a few years so I was wondering what you all would suggest that I upgrade. I was told to max the ram out at 8 and also get a SSD drive. Anything else I should up right away? Thank you for your time.
     
    wrau1, Dec 17, 2012
    #1
  2. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    The M17x R2 official maximum RAM is 8 GB, but it will support 16 GB, just has no BIOS support so it will show up as 0 MB in the DIMMs. As for the SSD drive, I shy away from OCZ. I would stick with Samsung or Crucial.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Dec 17, 2012
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  3. wrau1

    wrau1 Newbie

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    Thanks for the reply!

    So I can put 16 gb into the computer? Nice. What size SSD would you suggest? Thank you for your time, I really appreciate it.

    eta - after reading a little bit, people are suggesting that putting 16gb is a waste of the bios doesn't support it? Is that true?
     
    wrau1, Dec 17, 2012
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  4. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    I mean depends on your budget...I mean 512 GB is nice, I paid 380 for my Samsung 840 series 512 GB SSD.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Dec 17, 2012
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  5. wrau1

    wrau1 Newbie

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    I think I might just stick with the 256 GB.

    What about the ram question, will it matter if I put 16 GB in if the BIOS only supports up to 8 GB? Thank you for your time.
     
    wrau1, Dec 17, 2012
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  6. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    The BIOS doesn't recognize 16 GB but Windows will, it will show up as 0 MB DIMMs in BIOS.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Dec 17, 2012
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  7. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

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    Yea 16GB will work. Only up to 1333MHz, andthing faster will be downclocked to 1333MHz.
     
    DR650SE, Dec 18, 2012
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  8. wrau1

    wrau1 Newbie

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    Bah, I keep reading conflicting things about if 16gb will work if the max on the motherboard is 8gb. Some so no and that it's a waste but you guys say yeah. I just want to clear up confusion before I spend the money. Is there anything you guys can link me to to confirm that 16gb will work and how it will since it says max of 8gb? I'm sorry if I'm being too much trouble, I just want to make sure I'm not out a few $100 if I buy the ram and I cant use it.
     
    wrau1, Dec 18, 2012
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  9. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    There are many R2 owners here on, including myself who can verify this. Why would we lie about this? Heck even Alienware reps have said 16 GB is supported, just not officially.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Dec 18, 2012
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  10. wrau1

    wrau1 Newbie

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    Oh no, I wouldn't accuse you of lying I just wanted to clarify. Thanks again for the info and the help. If it will support 16gb, that's what I'll roll with. Can I ask you why do you use 16gb? Is it just because that's what it will go up to or do you actually take advantage of that much ram?
     
    wrau1, Dec 18, 2012
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  11. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    I constantly have alot of FireFox tabs open, at least 10-15, and that alone is 3-4 GB of RAM usage. Dota 2/SC2/TF2 will easy eat up 1-2 GB, plus all the background stuff I run. 8 GB isn't enough, and heck 16 GB was so cheap.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Dec 19, 2012
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  12. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

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    I had an R2 with 16GB RAM. It worked. I used it for toying around with VMware, and like Tsunade_Hime, I always have multiple browsers open with ton's of tabs per browser and run a lot of programs. 16GB came in handy, and was pretty cheap.

    The reason the bios will show 0mb is because there is no microcode in the bios to identify 8GB RAM sticks. At the time the M17x R2 was released, there were no 8GB RAM sticks being made/sold. 4GB was the largest available dimm size.
     
    DR650SE, Dec 19, 2012
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  13. Hyperwiz

    Hyperwiz Newbie

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    Hyperwiz, Dec 19, 2012
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