How much RAM is BEST for Alienware M17-R3

Hi,

Title says it all. So how much DDR3 1333 MHz ram is BEST to handle anything that comes it's way. I will be using this laptop for high-end gaming (crysis, call of duty black ops, and similar) and I will also use this for mutlitasking & working on heavy professional softwares in IT field. (I will be running my work pc environment inside a VM player running on my alienware).

Hence, I ordered M17-R3 last week with below config. Since I have 8Gig coming from Dell already and I have another 4Gig A-DATA 1333 DDR3 lying around I would put that in as well to make it 12 Gig (in all other laptops i have, i can't use that as they all have 32bit OS with 4gig already)

Do you think I should make it 16Gig in alienware? Does it make sense ? Will anything ever use that much amount of RAM? Should i disable Pagefile?How? etc. Btw, I already plan to get 2x 120Gb OCZ Vertex 3 SATA III 6Gb/s SSD with 550MB/s 500MB/s read / write specs without having RAID on them. So SSD 1 will be main OS drive with all softwares installed in it and SSD2 will have all games & media files in it together with VM images for my work.

My alienware is suppose to arrive 1st week of June (Dell EU is slow :/). Looking for your advice.

Specs ordered
Base
Alienware M17x Stealth Black
Memory
8.192 MB 1.333 MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2 x 4.096]
Keyboard
Internal US/International Qwerty Keyboard
Video Card
2 GB GDDR5 AMD® Radeon™ HD 6970M met PowerXpress
Hard Drive
320 GB (7.200 rpm) Seriële ATA-harde schijf
Microsoft Operating System
Legitieme Windows® 7 Ultimate 64 BIT – Engels
Optical Devices
Dvd+/-rw-station (dvd/cd lezen en schrijven)
Speakers
No speakers required
Wireless Networking
Intel Wireless LAN 6300 3x3 (802.11a/b/g/n) Card - EUR
Cables
Euro 2M 250V Power Cord
Shipping Documents
Western European Documentation
Gedis Bundle Reference
N05W7V01
Standard Warranty
1 year Next Business Day Hardware Support included with your PC
Enhanced Service Packs
1 jaar Next Business Day Hardware Support inbegrepen bij uw pc
Bluetooth
Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth Card - EUR
Order Information
Alienware M17x R3 Order - Netherlands
Primary Battery
9-cel lithium-ion hoofdbatterij
Carrying Cases
No Carrying Case
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 2720QM (2.20Ghz, 6MB, 4C)
Dell System Media Kit
Alienware Resource DVD
Gaming Essentials
Client en Portal™-game van Steam® – in de fabriek geïnstalleerd
Camera
Integrated 3.0 Mega Pixel HD Camera
Avatar
Alienware Logo
AutoMatic Updates
AutoMatic updates - On
Wallpapers
Alienware Glow Wallpaper
TimeZone
(GMT + 00.00) Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London
AlienFx Colour
Mars Red
Accidental Damage Support
1 jaar Accidental Damage-support
Call Dell Experts
One free Dell Expert call to help with your PC queries within 60 days of purchase
LCD
17,3-inch WideFHD (1.920 x 1.080) witte led lcd-beeldscherm
Hidden NamePlate Engraving
Generic Name Plate Engraving
Power Supply
240W AC Adaptor

 

Not sure about how much is necessary but I just saw 16gb of hyperx 1600mhz kingston ram sell for like $160 in the marketplace here on NBR. Since you have the 2720 it supports 1600mhz ram.

 

also, if you have another 4gb stick (4x4gb) it'll perform better since you'll be running dual dual channel

dont pay the obscene prices that dell wants for their ram though. Just buy another stick online and put it in yourself...

 

depends on your usage. for everyday and gaming 4gb is more then enough.

 

Yeah pretty much, 4GB is more than enough for gaming.

I'm coming from a triple channel 6Gb desktop never really saw a difference at all.

 

3 gb is about the threshold amount of ram needed with Windows 7 to run about any game out today without worry of running out of memory. I'[ve tested this with my desktop comptuer (3 gb of ram) playing Crysis 2; minimized, I have over 500 mb of memory still available. That is also with itunes and fraps running in the background.

4 gb would be very ample.

Future-proofing wise, 4gb will probably last about 2 years before it will be insufficient to run new games entirely on RAM. If I were buying your laptop, I would probably get 6 gb to allow room to grow.

 

I already have 8 gig coming in from Dell.... I will put in the 4 gig i have at home so it will be 12gig the first day it arrives.

What will be the effect if I buy another 4 gig and make it 16 gig in above cofig ? Any better or useless ? Like I mentioned, my usage is high end games and lots of multi tasking with heavy industrial softwares. I currently run all those softwares in a laptop with 4 gig of ram and it is slow. 12 gig should be more than enough from my point of view. But, just to know as alienware can have up to 16 gig and i saw some ppl here using 16gig.... what makes a solid reason to have a 16 gig ?

 

16gb for gaming purposes is absolutely excessive. There isn't a game out there today that would take up even 1/4 of that.

Now, CAD programs and some other data processing software can easily use up a lot of RAM. So if you're using the laptop for those reasons, I would up it to 12 or 16gb. Of course, I wouldn't buy it through Dell as it will be overpriced... get it through Newegg or Tigerdirect or one of those companies.

 

What heavy industrial software is this?

I do music production/mastering/editing and 6GB is overkill for mine and FL + ableton eat up a lot of RAM.


If your buying 16GB for pure "awesomeness" then go ahead waste your money.

 

Firstly:

You say you are using IT related software and yet, you can not disable pagefile, etc.? This confuses me...

Secondly:

There is NO POINT in getting 2x Vertex 3's, only Port 1 (not port 0) has 6gbit, RELIABLY.

The first port's 6gbit seems to switch itself off and on.

Thirdly:

Personally, I do NOT recommend mixing and matching RAM...this is my EXPERT recommendation, others will say other things, I am telling you not to do it.

I have 16GB in my machine and it runs like a champ. Depending on what software you end up needing to actually use.

 

16gb all the way. newegg it for around 140.

 

As much as you want and can afford really.

If I could I would shell out for 32gbs of ram LOL!
However 8gb or 16gb will be sufficient and a very nice amount.
If and when prices drop; 32gb here we come!

Cheers.

 

^^ What he said. It's plenty for everything I do, personally.

 

I tend to use softwares like AutoCAD / ProE / photoshop / 3-4 parallel instances of Informatica Suite together with few Oracle tools and BI tools like Cognos / Microstrategy / Business Objects... these running together with other "less heavier" software programs I need for day to day work & pleasure. What I have seen so far that I am limited to parallel execution of these thing with 4gig of ram I have in my work laptop. It would be nice to do the same on my Alienware inside a VM Image though....

No, I am not a person from "awesomeness" school of thought rather someone who'd first think about it technically & see the benefit and then go for it if it made sense. Isn't that the purpose I created this post as well ?

 

Actually I do know (somewhere rusty in my memories) that it needs to be done via system properties - > advanced - > performance settings etc. I admit I was being lazy to open that dialog box and see it for myself, rather, I just chose to ask again

However, I'd be very much interested in your findings around port 1 / port 0 for SSD. I never came across this concern elsewhere that I researched a bit. What do you mean by port 1 / 0. HDD bay 1 and 2 ? Since i have not yet received my laptop, so let me ask, is it mentioned on the HDD bay which one is 1 and 0 etc ? How do I know which one to plug my SSD into ? (based on your experience)

I imagine I can use benchmark tools to check both my SSDs if they are having read / write upto 550 MB/s 500MB/s as stated in specs of Vertex 3 ? To verify your concern and act accordingly. Will the benchmark show ? or is it too "occasional"

 

Hey there buddy,

In that case I would recommend at least 8gb of RAM and if you can afford it 16gb would be awesome for all the stuff you mentioned above.

Have FUN!

Cheers.

 

Thanks pal. I'll do the following....

since I have 4 gig lying around in my house already. I'll plug that in as soon as my alienware arrives, making it 12 Gig. I'll use that for my work ( inside a VM image) for atleast a week or two. If i see ANY sign of slowness given optimal settings / max settings on VM ware... i'll upgrade my RAM to 16.

 

Cool Le0Heart,

12gb Sounds good as well. Since you already have the ram lying around and ready then no need for 16gb unless you really want too. It should be enough for your work and usage.
Enjoy.

Cheers.

 

Thanks. Btw, how do you set your signature ? I tried but i can't find any option in User CP to set my signature :/

 

No worries!

To set the signature I think you need to have at least 10 meaningful posts. So a couple more should release the option for you.

Usually you just need to go to the top left and click on User CP. Then on the left column side there will be the option edit signature.
That is where you can put in a custom signature.

Nice Pic btw!

Cheers.

 

Thanks, like you sad... it appeared as I crossed the 10 mark

 

Quick question: What's the best ram to buy if I wanna expand on my current 4gb stock ram? I don't want to just toss these, cuz it seems too wasteful or too troublesome to try to sell.

 

If you have 2 x 2Gb then get 2 x 2Gb more to make it 8Gb and keeping the dual channel benefit.

if you have 1 x 4Gb then get 1 more stick to make it 8Gb and benefiting from dual channel from now on.

In both cases, get the new rams which are from the same brand and same speed (specs etc). If you, however, can not get same brand then get atleast the same specs (speed & C rating).

 

I would say 32TB would be best but unfortunately the limit is 32GB so that will have to do for now. Basically all the RAM the machine can take for that matter.

 

I'd reccomend getting 2x 4GB and sticking them into the back of the laptop,

The other 2 slots look a bit tricky to get to tbh.

 

Yeh another 2x 4gb sticks should be nice and suffice.
That way you can keep your current 2x 2gb sticks in use still.

Cheers.

 

I might be able to offer some insight. I bought my Alienware mostly for the possibility of 32GB of ram. I have 16GB installed now. It is working for me. My machine mustly runs VMWare and I have between 1 and 4 VM's running at any given moment. I have used as much as 15GB of ram once. I run at least one instance of SQL Server. I too, run Oracle (Hyperion mostly) products all the time. Switching between VM's is as fast as switching tabs in Chrome. Since each client requires a different configuration of the software I have found VM's to be the only way to deal with more than one client at a time. I may be the only person with an Alienware who has played Solitar on the machine. (It is fast...)

 

This is a wrong assumption. You are assuming that dell will install 2x 4gb sticks instead of 4x2 gb sticks. Also I agree with LVNeptune always better to have the same brand RAM. 16 GB would serve you well though for all the Software you have listed and all the parallels.

 

I have to run multiple VMs for my work as well. Would you be willing to share your experience in how to optimally configure a VM machine for best performance on our alienwares ? given that we have enormous space and 16Gig ram and I plan to run at max 3 VMs in parallel (2 windows + 1 unix)

 

It wasn't an assumption. It is mentioned on my order confirmation page that it will be 2x4gb sticks. I stated earlier in this thread a list of softwares i run.. mostly couple of VMs (2 minimum, maximum is 3) and softwares like OBIEE, Informatica Client tools (atleast 3 instances), teradata or Oracle client tools (atleast 3 instances), photoshop and other "not so heavy" softwares at the same time. This is typically my work screen in business hours. All of this would be running in either of the 2 VMs which are minimum to run on my new alienware. The third one (unix based) would be server having many services being run there like oracle instance, teradata instance, informatica server, or business objects servers.

 

So I should just get 2x2gb more 1333mhz Samsung ram?

 

Hey there Dookie,

If you have another 2 slots free go for 2X 4gb sticks.


Cheers.

 

If you have 1333mhz Samsung currently in your system, then YES!

 

As for configuring VM's, each gets what they need.
A VM running XP with iTunes and digital camera downloads gets 1 processor and .5GB of Ram. A VM running Server 2008, SQL Server and Oracle DRM gets 4GB and 4 processors. This will be updated as required. When loading data from SQL Server to a data target in the same VM I have to allocate lots of ram or paging happens. I watch cache settings in the applications I run to make sure the VM has the required resources. This is sort of a black art. I have been known to have Task Manager running in each VM just to be sure I've stayed out of paging territory. I can't offer any help with your unix VM as I have not had to venture into that territory. I heard sea monsters live there...
Have fun. It is awsome to switch between VM's at the speed of light!

 

Thanks fellaz. Prolly won't buy, but this is good knowledge

 

^^^This. Windows 2003 perf in the UI really suffers with < 1GB in a VM (this is running on Hyper-V). It's usable, but aggravatingly slow if you have any sort of IT apps running. For SQL Server, I find 2 GB is the bare minimum, and the apps using those SQL instances sit idle most of the time. If you were actually doing work and need snappy perf, then 4GB is much much better.

Windows 2008R2/Win7, doesn't appear to need anymore RAM than 2003, and UI perf is usually better.

Also, Hyper-V gets upset if you try to run more VMs that are assigned more ram than you have installed (upset as in: refuses to run them). I don't know if VMWare behaves this way also. It's been a few years since I last used it.

If you are buying the computer for gaming and as your personal work computer to do work involving VMs, 16GB is a good place to start.

It seems your need for VMs only ever grows. At least mine does.

 

I totally agree with you on "every growing need of VMs if you are into VMs" !!!. I started off with 2 now I have 4 VMs after shifting from normal "workstation" process to "Virtualization" way of working... At the end, I chose to install HyperX 1600Mhz 16gb of ram and my m17xR3 runs really smooth considering all my VMs are on Vertex3 SSD