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    M17X R4 - RAM Upgrade.

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by brunotacca, Jun 27, 2013.

  1. brunotacca

    brunotacca Notebook Guru

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    Hi,

    I have an Alienware M17X R4 with 8 GB RAM (dell stock)...
    I'm thinking to buy 4GB more, is this memory recommended?
    - Corsair 4Gb CL9 1600 Mhz (CMSX4GX3M1A1600C9)

    Will I profite of its CL9 and 1600Mhz when paired with the others 8GB Dell Stock's RAM?

    and, What about the 4GB upgrade? Is this viable? I mean, I will feel it? or just for hard tasks like giant Image/Video processing?

    Thank you in advance.
     
    brunotacca, Jun 27, 2013
    #1
  2. DDDenniZZZ

    DDDenniZZZ Notebook Deity

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    Your dell sticks will most likely be Hynix 1600Mhz CL11 RAM. So if you plan to keep them in there and mix with a CL9 speed RAM, it will downclock to the slowest modules (hynix CL11). The CL number doesnt make a huge difference from what I've seen day to day. I'd rather have more ram than less but slightly faster ram.
     
    DDDenniZZZ, Jun 27, 2013
    #2
  3. sjgore

    sjgore Notebook Geek

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    It's generally considered not a good idea to mix & match different speeds and sizes of memory stick.

    Just replace your 8GB with something like:
    " Corsair CMXS16GX3M2A1600C10 16GB Vengeance Performance So-Dimm 1600MHz CL10 DDR3 Memory Kit".
     
    sjgore, Jun 27, 2013
    #3
  4. SlickDude80

    SlickDude80 Notebook Prophet

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    bruno, you won't notice a thing going from 8 to 12.

    just a few things to note...if you are going to go to 12, you'll need to buy 2x2 gig sticks. The install is a little more tricky because the additional 2 ram slots are under your keyboard which means you'll have to remove your keyboard to get at the slots.

    An easier way would be to do as sjGore suggests in the above post which is to just get 2 x 8 gig sticks. The 2 ram slots currently occupied with 8 gigs are easy to get to (i.e., you just have to remove the back plastic cover...it's the other 2 ram slots that require more work to get at)

    But, unless you're really running Virtual machines or something that really requires ram, going from even 8 to 16 gig will not yield many benefits for the average computer user
     
    SlickDude80, Jun 27, 2013
    #4