Alienware 18 RAM Recommendations and Overclock assistance

Hi everyone,

Was hoping to get a bit of advice with regards to a RAM upgrade, currently running 4x4GB 1600MHz of whatever Dell ships with the system. (they looked unimpressive as they had no heat spreaders found on Corsair/G-Skill etc)

DRAM Frequency 800MHz
FSB : DRAM 1:6
CL 11
tRCD 11
tRP 11
tRAS 28
tRFC 208
CR 2T

The BIOS had several options going well past 2133MHz (not sure what the 4930MX's max bandwidth is), and since my primary purpose for the upgrade is to overclock (for gaming purposes), my question is should I be looking at bandwidth or latency? Also does the old school rule that it's easier to OC 2 sticks rather than 4 still apply and should I go with 2x8GB instead?

Suggestions on RAM? Some DDR3L that I came across and wasn't sure if they're compatible and more importantly whether there is a benefit to upgrading as I'm currently under the impression that my current RAM can not be OCed?

G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR3L 2133MHz 8GB Kit F3-2133C11D-8GRSL

Corsair Vengeance Pro CMY16GX3M2A1866C9 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3

Kingston 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz HyperX Impact SODIMM HX316LS9IBK2/16

As I had been having some heat issues and just finished a repaste of the 4930MX and 770Ms using Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut. My CPU temps are down from 100C to a manageable 85C under load so quite happy with that. My system originally came OCed to 4.3GHz but I tried implementing Mr. Fox's settings and ran into a few issues. It was my fault as I knew the original thread by Mr. Fox had settings different to mine in the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, I figured I'd try his recommendations out anyway and changed the BIOS. I think everything reset itself so I'm now running on a Level 1 OC (43x,42x,40x,40x). Everytime I try to change the memory from 100MHz to 100.3MHz I get a reboot. My guess is that it's the RAM? If so as previously requested, please advise whether any of the above I found online would suit and also if a lower bandwidth option with tighter timings would be a better option for gaming. Many thanks in advance.

System Specs as follows
W511093AU-Alienware 18
Alienware 18 BTX Base Mod
Overclocked 4th Gen Intel(R)Core(TM)i7-4930MX Processor (8MB Cache, up to 4.3GHz w/
Turbo Boost)
18.4 inch (467.36mm) WLED FHD (1920 X 1080) TrueLife Display
Palmrest with Non Variable Pressure Technology
Anodized Aluminum
Internal High-Definition Performance Audio
16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
512GB mSATA SSD Boot + 750GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s
Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVDRW, CD-RW)
330W A/C Adapter
8-cell Lithium Ion (86 wHr) Battery
Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M with 3GB GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI Enabled

 

Why do you need to overclock the ram? If your system is shutting down when you change the memory speed, that means its high possibility the ram is causing the issue.

If you ask me, I won't recommend to overclock ram on a laptop form factor PC/Workstation.

 

Hi Jasper, thanks for your reply.

At first I only wanted to overclock it to match Mr. Fox's settings in his extensive thread on OCing the Alienware 18, he had set his to 100.3MHz so that's why.

I see people OCing their 4930MX's with all 4 cores in the +4.3GHz range and I thought maybe I would need "better" ram (like the ones I posted above) as they are running lower multipliers and higher memory speeds?

 

Hmm, good question, but currently I don't see a need to overclock a RAM even if you decide to have fun and overclock your i7 to 4.5.

It could be a possibility that the ram stick you are using MAY not be the same as Mr. Fox's

 

To be honest the last time I did serious OCing was in the P4 days when it was preferable to run 1:1 FSB to memory (DDR1) ratio due to less memory bandwidth compared to the memory available today. If I understand your reasoning correctly, you don't see any need to OC the ram since today's DDR3/DDR4 has a much higher bandwidth? If that's the case would I see any benefit (for Gaming) from 1600/1833MHz memory running low timings?

 

Depends. Some games will take advantage of faster speed ram. Although many people seem to say 1600Mhz is enough for an average Gamer or even minor 24/7 server work.

Unless if you are like an enthusiast Gamer, there can be a difference in FPS for games I believe, but a really small amount (probably an extra 1-3 FPS?)