M18x Memory Discussion Thread

I installed memory under the keyboard. I now have a buldge. Did this happen to everyone? Keys keep touching the screen when the lid is closed. I will prolly need to buy a screen protector so I dont scratcher.

 

Take the keyboard off again inspect for defects if there are none reinstall. Maybe you missed one of the tabs on the bottom of the keyboard I've done that before

 

Yeah - sounds to me like the keyboard isnt seated correctly with all of the tabs located in their relevant sockets. Sometimes, you have to give the keyboard a little firm press down too to make sure it snaps into place before tightening the screws.

Open her up again, make sure its seated correctly and you should be fine if it was ok before.

 

All tabs look good. feels like the cable going to the keyboard is pushing it up cause I installed new memory under it. I tried swapping the stock memory with no heatsink but still the same. I tried messing with the cable but nothing. Still a little buldge. NOt much tho.

 

I'm looking to upgrade my rigs ram, and was wondering if there is any disadvantage to going with 1866? Its only 10 bucks more on newegg atm, and Id like to stick 16gb into my comp.

Iv seen the benchmarks for speeds above 1600 and know that the performance gains are pretty minimal if at all. However a 10 buck difference wont break the bank for me so Id rather go with the higher speed as long as there is no disadvantage.

 

Theres no disadvantage, or real advantage for that matter. It would mostly be spending $10 for no real gain or disadvantage. Between more RAM and faster RAM, more RAM is almost always more beneficial, provided you can make use of more RAM.

 

Hrm would either one overclock better then the other? I'm looking at the kingston hyperx there both the same kit with the exception of the speed. I was planning on 16gb however I see your point about little to no gain, all the benchmarks Iv seen point to the same conclusion.

EDIT: Hrm the latency on the 1600 is also lower that's always a plus.

 

Unless you can clock it like suggested here by John - might get 2133mhz outta those 1866 babies!

 

ive read it helps with FAH

 

It may, but i really doubt that there would be much noticable differance as F@h is mostly CPU bound and not bound on the memory.

 

Some Folding performance numbers (updated after 24 days of testing...)




3000 PPD diff

 

I stand corrected. Possibly. Could also depend on the type of WU's received, but I don't really understand how the memory would affect it that much since it's the CPU that's doing all the calculations. Could also be flags that affected it. Be interesting to test on the M18x though.

 

honestly have no idea, i found out why somewhere then just went straight to what to change. its apparently mhz and timings.

my cpu is throttling though. its going from 3.2Ghz (all 4 cores) to 2.9ghz. its dropping my ppds theoretical max to an actual max of something i dont want .

 

What are your temps? F@h is more strenuous on a CPU then wPrime 1024 and other benchmarks.

 

Hi Everyone,
Just ordered an M18x from ebay. Yea it's a refurb... Crossing fingers it will be like new . I'm new to this thread as I'm retiring my Sager in favor of the Alienware.
So, I have a question I'm hoping you all can answer. I'm looking to upgrade from 16 Gig RAM to 32 GIG because I run lots of Virtual machines. I noticed that when customizing the M18x on Alienware's site you can upgrade to 32 Gigs using 1330. If you select 1600 then you can only go to 16 Gig. Has anyone installed 32 gig of 1600 MHZ RAM in their M18x and have it work?

 

Here is a brand that I think we can all trust Price seems pretty reasonable too.

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10

 

Gee tetsussaiga...That is great price for the Corsair. I might jump on it. Hoping someone answers my question about the 32 Gig upgrade using 1600 soon so I can get in on the promo.
Update...
I chickened out and purchased 2 of the Crucial 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model CT2KIT102464BF1339
At least I know they will work and the reviews are great.
Too bad they are so pricey.

 

My M18x arrived yesterday... Hurray! Loven it
My 32 GB arrived today. Install is easy.

Any one interested in buying the 16 GB ram it came with?
They are 4x4GB dimms.
Feel free to make an offer via a private message.

 

Just a heads up, my Corsair Ram (purchased 2/24) started acting up last night and has now been RMAd. Hopefully it was a one-off and not an ongoing issue

 

Which model did you buy?

 

2x4GB of 1866 C10 (the 8GB kit)

 

Runnin 2 of these 8gig kits of Kingston KHX1866C11S3P1K2/8G at 2133mhz speed here

 

Ordered an m18x few days ago, went for the old generation of gpu. Completely standard m18 spec, other than opting for the 6990m crossfire setup. Price being an influential factor (Came to just over £1300 with my voucher)

So naturally it has 4gb of ram. As I was not prepared to pay the extortion that Dell seem to think is reasonable for a few sticks of ram.

This is where I was confused, I have the standard 2670QM. According to Intel it supports;

Memory Specifications
Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type) 16 GB
Memory Types DDR3-1066/1333
# of Memory Channels 2

Although Dell allow you to customise the laptop with 1866MHz on their website? My question is will my cpu support it? Notably if you try and add any type of RAM over 16Gb it comes up as incompatible, which leads me to think the 1866 would be compatible or else that would flag as incompatible also?

Looking at getting Kingston Hyper X plug and play, any recommendations where to buy from? Thanks in advance!

 

I'm pretty sure you wont have an issue running 1866mhz ram with your cpu - as you ordered base spec, apart from gpu's, I will assume that you went with Windows 7 Home Premium. The reason why anything above 16gb is incompatible is simply because the Operating System is a limiting factor. If you chose Home premium, you can run a max of 16gb. Only Pro and Ultimate allow you to run the full max of 32gb.

If you are after the HyperX 1866mhz plug'n'play, I got mine from Amazon UK - was a good price at the time - best I could find then. Currently selling for £74.83 Delivered for one 8gb kit. You could always do a bit of googling to see if you can get it cheaper from maybe Kikatek, Scan or the like.....

 

I put two of these in my brand new M18x and am hoping to never have to worry about RAM usage - at least until a couple of years from now when new apps consume it all. I love the fact I have a laptop with as much RAM as many servers we have at work!

 

Hi guys.
Just received my m18x r2.
I opted for the 8gb 1866mhz memory but for some reason in alien autopsy its showing 1333mhz...really dont understand...the brand is kingston and the model no is the same as 1866 according to dells model no.. also cpuz was showing speed of around 666... Did they install the rong memory..is there anyway i can check by scanning my system.. thanks in advance

 

If cpu-z is showing 666 then its 1333mhz ram - time for a call to Dell....wrong memory.

EDIT: just had a thought - if its not HyperX plug and play, you very well may have to go into bios and select an XMP profile to enable the faster ram speed. As far as I know, Dell didnt provide the option to configure with a specific brand of ram so i assume you got your machine from another reseller - maybe HIDevolution or some other vendor that allows you to specify your modules.

 

Hi guys,
I'm running an M18x since a few months and I'm very happy with it
bought it off ebay with following specs :
Alienware m18x Red Nebula
Intel 2920XM Extreme CPU
2xRadeon 6970HD 4GB VRAM in CrossFire
8Gb(2*4Gb) Kingston HyperX 1600Mhz memory which replaced some 4GbDDR3 Hynix 1333MHz original part from Dell
Intel Ultimate WiFi 6300 3x3 (bigfoot 1103 on the way from the US currently )
HD - 2x320Gb 7200rpm in RAID 0

I upgraded the HD config to a single Crucial 128GB SSD and windows 7 64bit on the 2nd day I had it.

I am currently looking at possibly upgrading the memory. I initially wanted to go to 32gb at 1866 (4*8Gb) but I havent seen anyone that is actually running that.
Has anyone actually tested the gain from going from 2 modules to 4 modules and possibly from 8 > 16 > 32Gb ?

Are there some modules at 1866 that run cooler than others ? i'm just worried about the 2 modules that will go under the keyboard and as such have no cooling really.

I use my laptop to multibox and therefore run 4 to 5 games at once each on a seperate core. I therefore wanted to try to have 8Gb per core.

@ steviejones133 - i see you are using a Coolermaster U3 , how much change did that make for you ?

 

The U3 is a great addition for a cooler - dont expect miracles from any cooler though, maye 3-5c drop for me. I see alot of guys simply propping up the rear and getting maybe an equivalent change so it's not like they are gonna drop your temps by 10c+, realistically.

As for ram, I havent seen any 1866 8gb sticks that are realistically priced. I saw one from Samsung some time back that was 1866 but was something stupid like £500 for 8gb.

The modules under the KB shouldnt overheat, even though there is no direct cooling, I dont think they actually get very hot like gpu's or cpu's do, so you should be fine. My HyperX have some nice little heatspreaders on them - not sure how much they help but they look nice LOL.

 

yeah prices are still high if indeed parts are actually available.

what reference are your Hyper X 1866's ?

 

These were the ones I bought (x2 kits): Kingston HyperX DDR3 1866MHz CL11 Non ECC SODIMM Memory Module (Kit of 2): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Kingston's spec sheet: http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/KHX1866C11S3P1K2_8G.pdf

 

Gents,

Where can I buy the following?

I've written to Kingston also:

Kingston Technology HyperX 2133MHz SO-DIMMs Achieve Intel XMP Certification | Kingston Technology

Memory Press Release 2012

Kingston Technology HyperX 2133MHz SO-DIMMs Achieve Intel XMP Certification

Industry’s First, Fastest SO-DIMM Product to be Validated by Intel

Sunbury-on-Thames -- June 16, 2011 - Kingston Technology Europe Ltd, an affiliate of Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced that its 2133MHz HyperX® 4GB SO-DIMM memory kits (Kingston® part#: KHX2133C9S3K2/4GX) have achieved Intel® XMP certification. The notebook memory modules are the first and fastest to be validated.

Kingston tested the 2133MHz kit using CL9-11-9-27 timings at 1.5 volts on the ASRock HD65-MXM motherboard using Intel’s latest second-generation Core™ i7-2920XM processor. Intel’s results are posted here.

The 2133MHz HyperX 4GB SO-DIMM memory kits push the current frequency boundaries of notebooks. As future notebooks are built to handle higher speeds, Kingston SO-DIMMs will be ready. Kingston HyperX memory is backed by a lifetime warranty and free 24/7 technical support. For more detailed information, visit Kingston Technology Company - Where To Go To Find Memory.

Also referenced by Intel:

Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Processor Memory Supplier List

Thanks,

ErikO

 

hey steviejones133,
I note your ram in your laptop, 4 x 4gb. Spoke to Alienware support as I am having difficulty installing 4 x 4gb - it will accept 8gb in either location but not combined to run 16gb. Alienware support says M18x does not support that configuration. I have the dell 1600 sticks. Any ideas?
I haven't updated any software and I am in the last week of 1 year warranty!
Any help or advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Carl.

 

Hi Carl and welcome to NBR Forums. I'm sure you will find loads of useful tips and advice from fellow members here....

As for running 16gb in the 18x, there is no reason why it won't work. We have four Sodimm slots which can each take up to 8gb modules giving a potential total of 32gb. Note that to take advantage of using 32gb you need to be running Win7 Pro or Ultimate - HP only allows support up to 16gb.

With that said, your configuration of 4x4gb should not cause you ANY problems whatsoever - I don't know who it was at Dell who told you that this was not supported but it's fairly basic knowledge and that person is extremely misinformed about the 18x and it's capacity for memory.

You should be just fine with 2x4gb in the slots under the keyboard and another 2x4gb in the "easy access" slots just under the base panel. Speed of 1600mhz is also supported so that won't be an issue.

Hope this helps - any other questions, do not hesitate to reach out to anyone on NBR...we are like one big family here and you are the latest addition

 

Mine also won't run with 4 x 1866MHz sticks seated.

Indeed, even with two sticks it won't work.

If I use one @ 1333 and one of the 1866MHz sticks, it works, forcing the speed to 1333MHz for all sodimms. Reading the SPD, and only 1866 & 2133 are programmed in the SPD. Nothing is programmmed in the Xtreme Profiles...

What fun.

Guess I'll have to program them myself.

Also, it seems two sticks of the four don't work at all...

 

So here's a question for you folks. I removed a 4Gb and 2GB stick from the slots under the back panel and replaced them with 2ea 4GB sticks for a total of 8mb installed memory. If I then install the 6GB that I originally had under the keyboard for a total of 14GB, running at 1600Mhz, am I going to actually lose performance due to the dual channel nature and not having a matched set under the keyboard?

 

Hi,
Very strange, I am currently running successfully 16gb with the same rams as steviesjones133 this means : Kingston HyperX DDR3 1866MHz CL11 ref KHX1866C11S3P1K2/8G

so I have 2 under the keyboard and 2 under the PC. All running fine and fully recognized.
I'm using windows 7 pro 64bit

 

thanks for the tip. put the chips back in today- bluescreened after 5 minutes but has been ok-ish (taskbar has occasional flickers) since reboot. been running 8gb for months as I had enough agro with my first machine and I was putting it off! thought I would post the correspondance from dell:

"The price for 2x4gb SODDR3 1600 for your M18X is 115.34 GBP including VAT and shipping. Doing backup for my colleague you spoke with yesterday". I replied with:
"Thanks for getting back to me. Are the part numbers Manufacturer Part : SNPFYHV1C/4G | Dell Part : A5542986? If not, can you let me have the part numbers?" then..
"Hi, Your part number is correct".

After I phoned them last week regarding the bluescreen, this is the help they gave:

"I have reviewed the email you have sent to us. In this email your questions was if you have a correct part number. Answer was yes, as you wanted order only 2x4GB RAM modules. As mentioned on our phone call when you want to use 16 GB RAM in your M18x notebook you have to use 2x8GB combination not 4x4GB. Unfortunately we can not provide refund for those RAM sticks as my coleague advised only if the part number is correct, not that combination 4x4GB will work. Thank you for understanding".

That's why I've been putting it off- they're no help at all just trying to avoid liability. I notice that they're not listed as compatible on the dell website, just for the R2. Maybe i should persue a refund based on the fact they sold me ram that they don't support for the M18x?

 

update... pulled the extra 8gb- kept crashing. Be contacting dell today...

 

hi,
It might be that you need to play arround with the timings or the voltages. Have you tried to lower the speeds a bit to see if it is more stable ?
could be they are using lower grade uncertified rams and they might have stability issues as a results.
vincent

 

thanks for the help Vincent. I don't really want to play around with the timings yet, quite new to gaming laptops. probably gonna try the corsair ram- seem to have good timings and are cheaper than the kingston too.

 

I got my m18x r2 with 8gb factory 1600mhz. I then added 16gb (2x8gb) corsair 1600. Now my windows index memory score went from 7.8 to 7.7.

Memory speed is now also being read at 1333.

Im also thinking up upgrading all my memory to 1866mhz.. Whats the maximum can I put? Best memory you can recommend.. add link pls.

I found this at newegg.... will it work?
Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Memory, Laptop Memory, 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM, DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000)

 

UPDATE: Under no circumstances doe the Corsair Vengeance 1866MHz actually run at that speed. I breifly got one module to boot at that speed, but I got BSOD within 2 mins of booting.

So paid for Thaiphoon burner, followed the instructions, and programmed the SPD and XMP profile.

They still did not work.

Inserted the Kingston, set to 1333MHz (default), and booted again with one of the 1866 sticks, and programmed a second one. Still no joy. Entered the bios, set manually to 1600MHz, and 1.55v, and got it to start with 2 x 4GB Corsair sticks, 1600MHz@CAS8. Which is actually better than the CAS9 I'd been running at, using the Kinsgston, but no joy with the other two Corsair sticks, I reckon they are DOA.

Anybody got any interesting SPD dumps for me to upload on the two working Corsair sticks I have?

 

I think today is the big day I order my M18X R2. Using the suggestions that people had made from this site, I'm ordering it with the stock RAM and SSD being that I can upgrade that myself. For my choice of a SSD, it came down to the SAMSUNG 830 Series. Now is there a difference between the SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW and the SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256N/AM. Im looking at them from newegg. The RAM that I'm thinking of getting is the Kingston HyperX 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 Laptop Memory HyperX Plug n Play Model KHX16S9P1K2/16. I'm not quite sure what the whole plug n play is, meaning whether its good or bad. If anyone could chime in and give there opinion about these choices, or offer other options that would be greatly appreciated.

 

Going through Newegg to purchase your memory and the SSD is the way to go. I did that on my system and saved myself nearly $500.

I went with this for the memory: Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10

I already had an SSD to install.

 

Best to keep RAM and SSD as two separate topics so a thread can be more community-friendly.

Here is a thread for memory discussion. It is the main one. There are a couple more threads that might be of interest that got too many posts to fast to make merging them a good idea.

If you encounter any problems with using 1866 RAM on the M18x, please see this thread... http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/667511-16gb-1866mhz-ram-not-working-r2.html

If you purchased Corsair Vengeance RAM not knowing of the issues it has, see this thread... http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/670047-problems-corsair-ram.html

 

Thank you for clearing that up for me. I'm pretty much set on the SSD ( going with the Samsung because I've read good things about them.) For the RAM now, the ones that I listed say they are plug and play, is that something good or bad, reason why I'm asking because I didn't see that with any other RAM?

 

Samsung PM830 is an excellent choice. It is an excellent SSD. Kingston PnP 1866 might be a safer bet than the Corsair Vengeance. I've not been too impressed with some of the compatibility issues noted by others in the community.

I ordered 16GB of this last weekend and it is supposed to be delivered today. Will report any issues.

Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1866 HyperX Plug n Play Laptop Memory Model KHX1866C11S3P1K2/8G - $64.99

NewEgg's price is good, but their free shipping via UPS Mail Innovations sure sucks. I live on the same side of the country as NewEgg and order was placed 9/9. Delivery on 9/14 is pretty darned slow. I used to always get everything within 48 hours from NewEgg when they still used the FedEx Saver shipping. Had I known it was going to take them this long I would have spent an extra $5 or $6 for faster shipping.

 

OK, guys, this looks like a good place to get some help in my effort not to be stupid...

I've been told that it can be smart to buy low end memory and SSD's and swap them yourself to save money when buying a new system, the common thread seeming to be that Dell charges too much for these upgrades.

Just looked at the memory - getting 32G of RAM in my new M18x will cost me a $300 upcharge from Dell. Buying 32G of RAM from Newegg will run between 180 and 300 - running a savings of 120, to basicly the same price. (and, in my mind, the extra cost is worth having it come from Dell already set the way I want it...)

Similarly, grabbing a triple raid setup with 256G drives will be abuot a $750 upgrade from Dell. Or I can get 256G SSD (samsung 830) for $250 each....

512's are the same story - $500 or so on Newegg, same price essentially for just paying for the upgrade.

The one advantage I can see in going this route is buying the computer with an open SSD bay and then adding another drive later - it costs the same, and I can spread the cost out a little more and minimize the shock that buying a full-fledged gaming system tends to have on your wallet.

...but financially, except for this, there doesn't seem to be a difference. So, what am I missing?

 

Well, if money is not an issue and you prefer things done for you, buy from Dell - that way, whatever you buy is under the one roof of your Dell warranty, which is great. Alternatively, it's not hard to change the ram yourself and save money - Dell do not do anything "special" regarding the memory, they just install it so technically, you save $120 right away. Regards to SSD's, again they are an easy user upgrade - I wouldnt advise a 3 ssd raid though, simply because that will bring the whole array down to sata II speeds instead of, say, a 2 drive raid on the two sata III ports.

If you are looking to get it all from Dell, I imagine a very healthy discount could be had as your machine looks like it's gonna be fully loaded. Check out the Alienware Sales Thread here on NBR and get a rep to give you a quote on your beast - hopefully it would make buying from Dell that much cheaper and may very well make the thoughts of aftermarket upgrades less attractive - dependant on the level of discount Dell offer you on your configuration.

Also, you cant configure "without" a drive of some variety. If you were looking into aftermarket upgrades, I would just stick with base level to save cash.

Best to explore all avenues before parting with any cash! - here's the thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/669327-alienware-sales-assistance-thread-redux.html - if you can achieve a discount in the realm of, say 15 - 20%, it certainly makes the prospect of buying the upgrades from Dell a lot more attractive as it *could* make your Dell ram about $240 and the 500gb drives about $400.....certainly closer to aftermarket pricing.