Is it possible to put to much ram into Alienware 11mx ?

Hello friends,

I just bought a Alienware 11mx recently, and it came with 4gb 800mhz. And i bought seperatly 8GB 1333mhz RAM. Is it safe for me to replace the RAM that the machine had from the factory ??

ty :] ( sry for a noob question )

 

Oh , sry mr moderator... i should have posted this on the STICKY : Problem/Technical Question thread for New Owners



my bad

 

It is safe as long as you don't damage anything whilst the machine is open. Just remove the bottom plate and the ram should be accessible.
Good luck.

 

Thank you sir

 

By the way, your m11x actually came with 4gb 1333 memory.

 

Heck in cpuz it only says its running at 471 mhz. or some thing like that.

 

It takes 5 minutes; easy upgrade that will pay off if you do a lot of multitasking with memory intensive apps or games that love memory (many will cache over time).

 

thanks for the info m8

 

CPU-Z reports the bus clock (which is the correct speed). When people say the RAM is running at 800Mhz, what they actually mean is 800 MT/s (the actual frequency of the bus is 400mhz - and the frequency of the memory itself is 100mhz but nevermind). So in the m11x, the memory bus clock is 400mhz at stock speeds (800 MT/s), and can reach a maximum of around 500mhz (1000 MT/s) with a CPU overclock of 166mhz.

So, if cpuz is reporting that your memory bus clock is 471, from that you can calculate the data rate (471 x 2 = 942 MT/s). From that you can also calculate your OC (471/400 x 133 = 156.6), so around 156-157mhz. Is that right?

 

Did not know that, and it was 156 i believe.

 

The only problem is that 98% of the people out there will never use anywhere close to 8GB of RAM.

In fact, I would say that 4GB of RAM should be the target amount for most people. And most people wouldn't even use 4GB of RAM on their Alienware M11x (the max use of a typical user will be around 3GB - 3.5GB, even in heavy multitasking and gaming).

The only people who will use more than 4GB of RAM on an M11x are people running databases or virtual machines on their laptops. Unless you are one of those people, an 8GB RAM upgrade is a waste of money, and will yield absolutely no performance gains. You're much better off putting that money towards something that WILL show practical performance benefits, like an SSD.

 

I find this to be such a humorous point; for less than $100 USD one can get 8 GB of RAM now, this is NOT much money when you consider the systems these days. I agree for MOST people, ie non enthusiasts/professionals, 4 Gig is plenty, but then we are talking about Alienware which is a hardcore brand, or used to be, for enthusiasts who like performance... hell get 8 GB just to say you have it

 

$100 may not be a lot of money, but it's still $100 that I'd rather keep in my pocket or spend elsewhere.

The fact is that the vast majority of people who own a laptop will never ever get any benefit whatsoever between 4GB RAM and 8GB RAM. You might as well take $100 out of your wallet and light it on fire.

Yes, Alienware is a "hardcore" brand for "enthusiasts" who like performance. But Alienware caters to gamers. The people who use 8GB of RAM run applications like databases and virtual machines - they are not gamers. In fact, you won't find any games that use more than 2GB of RAM, because every game out there is 32-bit. Add the RAM usage overhead that you get from Windows and a few background apps, and you're talking about 3.0GB - 3.5GB of RAM used by gamers... even the "hardcore enthusiast" gamer that buys Alienware machines.

That $100, no matter how insignificant it may be to your wallet, would be much better spent on other things like a new mouse, new headphones, a new SSD, etc.

 

Come now, Kent. You were doing such a fabulous job illustrating the point until this silliness.

 

I'm not saying that gamers and database / VM users are mutually exclusive. Absolutely not. There are plenty of people out there who run databases / VMs for work, and play games on the side.

What I AM saying is that the needs of a "hardcore" gamer are different than a "hardcore" database / VM user. It would be wrong to confuse the needs of those two groups of people, just because they are both "hardcore" and "enthusiasts".

In my post, I claim that the only people who can really use over 4GB of RAM are database / VM users. There are several other posts by several other forum users in other threads that agree with this viewpoint. How many real-world scenarios can you name that break this rule?

When would a typical user or hardcore-enthusiast gamer realistically (ridiculous scenarios of running 10,000,000 Chrome tabs or keeping 26 games minimized at all times is not realistic) expect to use more than 4GB of RAM, if they are not also a database / VM user? When would spending $100 on 8GB of RAM actually yield better benefits than spending that same $100 towards a better mouse, better headphones, or an SSD?

 

Again, I didn't disagree with you, most people DON'T need 8 GB of memory and I agree with the reasons you give which is what I said earlier. What gets me is how fascist this point is with some people.... but there is nothing wrong with 8GB of memory these days, the OP poster was asking if he might want to, and there are reasons to do so. You prefer to buy a mouse and headphones; me, I'd rather buy the RAM and the mouse and the headphones. What I sense here is a problem with accepting other people's tastes and priorities when it comes to outfitting their systems, and that is not what this forum is about.

Since this is such a strong point of opinion on NBR maybe we ought to get the "4GB RAM ONLY" thread stickied up to quell discussion since the elites have made up their mind it seems and no dissension is allowed.

 

I'm one of those people who agree 100% and have done so here. That one statement just seemed oddly out of place in your argument.

I'm also one of those 2% that does use the M11x in such a way that I need 8GB.

 

I've got stock pc3-10700 kingston memory in mine. I run VMs, and I have run games while maintaining active VMs. That being said, the VMs were mostly idle. That did not exhaust my phsyical memory enough to make the game unplayable.

I do intend to upgrade to 8gb of memory in the future, but I will probably try an auxiliary pcie SSD first.