M17x RAM Questions

Kinda says it all right there

 

My m17x r3 should be here on march 8th too. I'm about to crap myself waiting :0

 

As long as you bought the laptop ram, not the 1 feet long desktop ones, it will work.


Welcome to the Alienware Club.

 

I currently have an R3 en route to me right now (should be here on Tuesday, so excited!). It's basically fully loaded with the exception of the wireless card and the RAM (4GB 1333mhz). I don't need anything fancy in terms of wireless connectivity by 4GB of RAM just seems like I would be doing an injustice to the system.

I have about $70 to spend but would like to spend as little as possible.

I will mostly do basic multi-tasking, gaming (League of Legends, BF3, etc.), nothing too heavy.

1333mhz or 1600mhz, which brand, what kind? It all seems overwhelming. Any suggestions would be welcome, thanks!

If this helps...

Specs:
i7 2760qm
GTX 580
4GB 1333MHZ
Crucial C300 64GB+360GB 7200RPM

 

For what it's worth, every review and tech article I've read says that 8GB of 1600 is the sweet spot for performance / price.

 

I've been a huge fan of Crucial for years. Go to their site, let them scan and suggest kits, get the best one within your budget. As a manufacturer, they have fantastic customer service and warranty.

Just me though. Not sure, but you might be able to get Kingston hyperX for your budget, if you prefer. =)

 

Get 2 sticks of 4GB for a total of 12GB, as far as I can tell I don't notice a difference between 1333mhz to 1600mhz. This will do
Crucial

 

Imho, THIS is your best bet

 

Might help agent also, but is there really any difference with the different timing of ram to the average user?

 

No noticeable performance difference to the average user, no. But if you tend to max your RAM for whatever reason, then you may notice.

For me issue is performance + reliability vs. price. Have bought various brands over the last 8 yrs and over the last 6 Crucial has been best in customer experience, accuracy for system and price. Only once have they steered me wrong, over 6 yrs, and they immediately RMA'd the wrong item, paid for shipping the incorrect RAM back to them & replaced the with the correct RAM, with no hassle at all.

In comparison with competitors, the ease with which they handled that was downright refreshing.
Helps that they're a manufacturer.

 

IMO i would save up and max it out to 16bg of 1600 HyperX

 

I upgraded the default 4GB 1333Mhz RAM in my R3 to HyperX 8GB. Pretty expensive in Norway($95), but I mean it's worth it.

 

My new m17xr3 came a few days ago with 2x2GB Nanya 1600MHz running 11-11-11-28 at 1.5V. I figure I will just buy an extra 2x4GB 1600MHz 11-11-11-28 for a combined 12GB total.

With this Samsung memory, its timing is 11-11-11-28 (same as stock) but its has ultra low voltage at 1.35V, whereas my Nanya is 1.5V. So my question is can I mix RAM with the same timings, but different voltage?

I read in somewhere that voltage should be the same, if mixing RAM, but I am new at this and not sure.

Also here are my other choices which are exactly the same as my stock RAM timing and voltage wise

G. Skill 2x4GB 1600MHz 11-11-11-28 at 1.5V for $40.99 shipped

and

Patriot Signature 2x4GB 1600MHz with CAS Latency 11 at 1.5V for $40.99 shipped

So basically $41 for a combined 12GB (8GB RAM + stock 4GB) total sound like a heck of a deal for me versus what Alienware was trying to charge for just an 8GB upgrade ($200).

So which do you guys recommend as the best choice to buy? I'm ready to pull the trigger but not sure which to buy. Any help is appreciated.

 

the voltage should be the same always it is never a good idea to mix ram .

 

Thanks for the quick reply, I think I'm going to get 2x4GB G.Skill 1600MHz 11-11-11-28 at 1.5V for $41 shipped. I will post my findings once I receive the memory!

 

NP that is what we all here for to get help and give help if we can

 

Hi all just kitted my r3 with 16g of corsair Vengeance® ? 8GB High Performance Laptop Memory Upgrade Kit (CMSX8GX3M2A1600C9) - Notebook Memory Upgrades - Memory by Platform

plug and play so far so good

 

Very nice

 

Only because I feel the need to bounce ideas off other geeks like myself...

Ok, so my M17x R3 that is coming will have 4 GB of 1600. I purchased 8GB of 1600 on Newegg for when it arrives. However, it occurs to me that I have 8GB of 1333 that is in my M11x R2.

Being that I know there is very little difference in 1333 and 1600, performance-wise; I was curious if you all thought it would be a good idea to add the 8GB from the M11x to the 8GB of 1600 to give me a total of 16GB (albeit at 1333, due to the slowest RAM) or keep all of the RAM at 1600 and just stay with 12GB.

I will be using VM's quite frequently, as well as running server services as necessary. Will also be running games, quite possibly at the same time as a VM or two.

So just to recap, cause I just reread my description and it could be a bit convoluted...

12GB @ 1600 or 16GB at 1333?

 

since there is no difference between 1333 and 1600 (maybe 1% on a bench), i'd take quantity in this situation. so 16 1333

 

Capacity, capacity, capacity. Fast RAM means absolutely nothing nowadays.

 

Thanks guys, I was pretty sure the 16GB would be more of a benefit than 1600 Mhz as opposed to 1333. Will be putting the 4GB that comes in the M17x into the M11x and pulling the 8GB out of that for use in my M17x.

Gotta admit, the idea that I'm going to have a laptop with 16GB of RAM makes me smile.

 

I like...It's my future purchase

 

I just installed my G.Skill 8GB 1600MHz RAM (2x4GB) and added that to my stock 4GB 1600MHz RAM for a total of 12GB, and must say, that I can not see any noticeable difference in performance doing daily tasks, such as playing a FPS game while surfing firefox and listening to itunes all at the same time.

I mean its nice to "know" I have 12GB RAM but not much of a performance increase at all....

That was until I installed a 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS SSD with updated firmware yesterday. All I can say is !!! SSD's are the wave of the future. I did a clean install which took about 10 minutes, versus the standard 30-40 minutes, and that's with SP1 included. Boot time is like 15 seconds with all programs, antivirus, and firewall fully loaded. Installing programs and games takes mere seconds instead of the 1-3 minutes they usually take. Everything is just super fast. Game maps load in 2-3 seconds versus the normal 10-15 seconds. I'm just amazed that it took so long for me to jump on the SSD bandwagon. I should have done it sooner. Now my fiancee is jealous because after I gave her my 750GB HDD for her m14x, she noticed how fast everything is on my m17x with a SSD. Now she wants an SSD to for her Sims 3, since that game takes like 2-3 minutes to load

I can honestly say that a RAM upgrade is good, but an SSD upgrade is out of this world!!! Upgrading to and SSD is probably one of the best purchases I have made in recent years. NO REGRETS.

and PS, I was one of those people that were all giddy and oozing about having more than 4GB RAM, but I can honestly say that if your thinking about a RAM upgrade or an SSD upgrade, go for the SSD upgrade without even thinking. You will definitely notice a huge performance increase in your laptop

 

you've pretty much summed it up lol...get the ram because it makes you feel all warm in your tummy, but its the ssd that will really make the difference

 

I completely agree! I built my (now old) desktop with a Phenom II x4 940 Black edition Proc, 8GB Gskill ram, and a GTX 285 FTW Edition video card, and a Velociraptor 10k RPM HDD, 3 years ago. It was smoking fast and I loved it. Then I began reading about the "new" sata 2 SSD's that were coming out and I looked up some white papers on them (cause I want to understand the tech before I buy it). MTBF ~ 10 years, <1ms access time average and for the first time (at the time) write times were actually fast.

I took the plunge with a 64GB Corsair Extreme edition SSD. While installing, I noticed that large amounts of writing took longer than a regular HDD but only barely. However...

The first time I loaded windows 7 after it finished installing, I swear to you guys I almost fell out of my seat. Windows loaded in 5 seconds. I didn't believe my eyes so I got another geek friend of mine who was over hanging out to use his stopwatch. It took my ASUS MB longer to run through post than it did to load windows.

Even though my desktop died (RAM slot failure on MB due to running overclocked RAM for 3 years) I am going to move the SSD over to my M17x when it arrives. Hell, the battery saving alone is worth it.

I'm not saying that my 16GB of RAM is useless for my needs (VM's and server apps while gaming) but if you have 4GB of RAM and upgrade to 8, the first thing you can do it get rid of your swap file. That will make a marked improvement, though not at boot.

If you have 8GB of RAM, moving to 16 for any reason other than legit needs or bragging rights (a valid reason ) isn't necessary and performance gain will likely not be measurable. The SSD on the other hand...is truly night and day.

 

I think my ram really going .. berserk now !
lolz idk why I can boot up with this kind of frequency … (auto shutdown few times)
about 15 to 20*C degree increased just for staying idle ! (4x*C to 6x*C)
It happened when I mixed both of my ram together.. see pic for mores ss

CPU-Z Validator 3.1

 

Err...umm...wow...

Yea, I think that is a bug with CPU-Z. To get your RAM to overclock by 15% is one thing...but 8Ghz? With clocks like that, it should be showing you the future and telling you what you want to run before you even know.

Its not calling you Dave in a soft male voice is it?

 

my freq is jumping all over the place lolz,
I had to open up a website with ton of advertising to get 31x multi to valid it.
anyway i switched back to the old ram .. don't wanna risk destroy my system lolz

 

CPU-Z is reporting your bus speed has doubled? How is that possible? xD

 

I just noticed you are running Windows 8. That is likely the cause. Though I would definitely preserve that screenshot just to mess with people.

also noticed that CPU-Z has it listed as "Rejected by CPU-Z 1.60" seems that its on to you. haha

 

I got 1 validated when it running idle
with 286.84 bclk

 

My mem is as described in my sig below. Works well; had one defective stick but I inadvertantly bought 2 sets of 4 x 4GB so it has turned out as a blessing in disguise; when the replacement comes and is verified to work well, I'll sell the second set. Was purchased from Komputerbay on ebay.

 

It's a Win 8/CPU-Z bus speed bug. Mine does the same thing under Win 8 Preview.

 

Alright, time for some RAM upgrading on my girlfriends R3.
Shooting for 8gig's, right now theres 4gig's in there, I assume its 2x 2gig sticks from factory, haven't looked in there yet though.
Anyway, what would be best to get to 8gigs? One 4gb stick or two 2gb sticks? I believe theres 4 RAM slots in the R3, so keeping the two factory sticks and throwing in one or two more should work just fine, correct?
Heres the two options:

2 sticks:
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Laptop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBSQ

1 stick:
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model F3-10666CL9S-4GBSQ

Which would be the best option?

Thanks guys

 

always go for max ram

 

2x4GB is the best choice because you'll be running them in dual channel. You don't need more than 8GB unless you know why you'll be needing more..

Most likely it's 2 sticks of 2GB. Are you comfortable with taking your laptop apart and removing the keyboard?
It's hassle :/

Personally I chose 2x4GB, which will run at 1T. 4 sticks will run at 2T, tiny bit slower.

 

It doesn't actually matter a whole lot. Applications don't even saturate single channel bandwidth at the moment.

 

Well don't really see the point in spending the money for the 2x4gb sticks when theres already 2x2gb sticks in the bottom slots, I figure just leave them in there and put one or two more sticks in the under keyboard slots, my question is which would be the better option if I want to leave the two that're in and add 4 more gigs of RAM? one 4gb stick in the under-keyboard equaling 2x2gb sticks and 1x4gb stick total or two 2gb sticks in keyboard slots, equaling 4x2gb sticks total?

If I were to buy 2x4gb sticks like you said, wouldn't it be smarter to just put them in the two under-board slots for a total of 12gigs? Though I don't see a need for 12gigs so I figured its cheaper the way I intended lol

And yeah I don't mind taking the keyboard and control panel apart, just took my R2 apart a few days ago to clean the heatsink free of the dust bunnies ;P

 

wouldn't make anything slower .. ??
will the 2 gigs ram (being on different place) conflict with the 4 gigs timing ?

 

No. The faster set will just downclock to the lower set's speed.

 

Yup. ^

Seems like 2x2GB is best choice for the upgrade, cheap and effective and you are comfortable with opening up.

 

If your like me and use your girlfriends laptop as well as your own to play your games (like when were traveling we usually bring only 1 laptop, you will think long term and just spend the extra $15-$20 and go for the 2x4GB RAM sticks for a total of 12GB RAM. But if price is your concern I would opt to buy the single 4GB RAM stick with the option to add another in the future.

Just make sure the RAM sticks your buying has the same timings as the one's that are already in her m17x by using CPU-Z, that way you can just drop them in and not worry about BSOD or what not as some people report when adding RAM.

 

what would be and where can i get a state of the art 16gb ram kit for my computer. money is not an issue, i currently have 8gb and i want to get a
4X4GB kit but i dont what i should i get or where i can get it thats compatible.

 

If money is of no issue, why not get 4x8GB for 32GB RAM? Check out the Corsair Vengence, or Hyper X kits.

 

lol @DR650...you're so hardcore bro!

jthesmooth, first off, do you want to throw away your current 8 gigs of ram? Why don't you just plug in an additional 2x4 and have 16gigs?

You will see zero performance gain from the more expensive kits.

 

well i would have to throw it away anyway when i got my system i looked inside they gave me a 4X2gb config

i was looking at the corsair vengeance 4x4gb quad channel at 1866mhz would this be compatible in my m17xr3?

 

4x2gb? wow, that sucks.

The most cost effective way is to do what i did...get 2x4gigs of ram for a total of 12gigs. Then at some point in the future, if you really need more, you can get the additional 2x4gigs. If you are going to do this, ANY decent name ram will do. I bought 2x4gig ddr1333 Gskills for $40 shipped back in the day. The standard now is ddr3-1600, so get those

If you really want to replace everything with 4x4gigs, you can do with the same by going with decent Name brand

OR

if you like heatspreaders on the ram and are willing to pay a little more, i'd go with Kingston HyperX plug and play. I've heard mixed reviews of the Corsair kits...so avoid those for now.

Regardless of what you get, performance wise, most people don't need 16gigs of ram, most people don't even max out 8gigs...and there is virtually no difference in performance between the various ram types. Its quantity that matters more

 

I know you said Cost isn't of any matter but heres some options for you:

1333mhz speed:


Option A: Buy two sets of 4gb sticks:
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBSQ
Cost: $ 80


Option B: (Expensive for 1333mhz, but since you said price doesnt matter I'll give you the option anyway)
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model F3-1600C11D-16GSQ
Cost: $ 140

Option C: (12gigs)
I personally feel anything over 8 is overkill unless you know you have use for it, so feel free to consider the 12gig option. Which would be to simply buy this and have a 2x2gig + 2x4gig setup:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231295
Cost: $ 40

1600mhz speed:

Option A:
I doubt any of the sticks in your computer now is 1600mhz so you simply need 4x4gig or 2x8gig sticks of it. So option A is buy two of these:
Newegg.com - Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model KHX1600C9S3K2/8GX
Cost: $ 140

Option B:
It would be two 8gb sticks but I can't find them on newegg. Sorry :[


Option C: (12gigs)
Buy 2x4gb and 2x2gb for a total of 12gig:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104159
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104230
Cost: $ 110

1866mhz speed:

Option A: (HyperX)
Buy two of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104259
Cost: $ 160

Option B: (Vengeance)
Buy two of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233243&Tpk=corsair 204-pin 1866
Cost: $ 180

Hope that helps!

 

I bought 4x4gb of the Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz about 2 monhts ago and have not had any issues with them so far.

Newegg.ca - CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model CMSX8GX3M2A1600C9