Memory upgrade to 8GB

Hi Guys,

Scan.co.uk: Corsair Memory 8GB DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-10600 (1333) Dual Channel Laptop - CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9

I have looked at this for a while now and was wondering if anyone has tried the upgrade yet?

I am running on the default 4GB slower memory(default).

Any feedback would be good.

 

Just did a 8GB upgrade (2 x Kingston KVR1066D3S7/4G)

Works like a charm, 0.3 higher score in de WEI

 

If I am interpreting "slower" correctly, I wanted to point out that the m11x won't run memory above 800 MHz (well, overclocking raises it a bit), but don't expect 1333 MHz speed. I believe this is a chipset limitation.

Overall, I would say that it depends. If money is no object, great. Otherwise, I would think about what kinds of programs you use, aka whether you frequently use a large majority of your current 4 gb. I think that 4 gb is enough for most users, but not all.

 

The fastest memory will run in the M11x is 800MHz. So even the default 1066MHz RAM doesn't get used at it's max speed. By going with 1333MHz 8GB RAM, the only thing you will be getting is 4GB more of RAM and no speed increase. I own 8GB 1333MHz RAM and use it in my M17x R2, but when I was waiting for my M17x R1 to be refunded, and waiting to order my M17x R2, I used my 8GB 1333MHz kit in the M11x. If you open CPU-Z and look at the memory tab, you will see that it's operating at 800MHz. You would see no benefit from 1066MHz RAM vs 1333MHz RAM. This is based on the M11x R1 since that is what I have, so I can't speak for the M11x R2. You never really specified.

 

I've used up to 2 GB of memory just in Google Chrome before (I have a habit of leaving web pages up for easy future reference). With 4GB in my machine, I'm currently using 52% of it and I've only got Chrome, Trillian, X-Fire and Steam running (but no games). I used to run 8GB in my desktop machine, so I can definitely tell a difference in my M11x R2. I'm upgrading to 8GB soon as I get the extra cash.

 

It's great! I just picked up the same exact RAM 2 days ago and so far, it's been great. Overall system usage in my meter dropped from 40% to ~25%. Source games no longer lag online like before, when lots of people are in the server. Lowest frames increased from 20 to ~50 fps. I love this Corsair kit!

 

Thinking about this upgrade also.

How is Corsair RAM better than other manufacturers? Is there any difference, given that the speed will run at the defined 800mhz, any other reason to pay more for Corsair?

 

Traditionally, the name-brand RAM (Crucial, Corsair, Kingston, etc) had better reliability than no-name or hosue-brand RAM, especially for desktop users that planned on overclocking. That is where the reputation comes from.

In a situation like the M11x where clock speeds and overclockign stability is not a factor, the only difference between RAM brands is going to be warranty.

As for the 8GB... 99% of people out there will notice absolutely zero difference in performance in any regard going from 4GB to 8GB. Your system needs to actually exceed 4GB of RAM usage for an 8GB upgrade to show any positive impact. And just about everyone out there will not even use a full 4GB of RAM on their M11x, let alone take advantage of 8GB.

The only people who benefit from an 8GB kit are people who run very memory intensive photo / video editing applications, or people who run virtual machines. So unless you are in that small group of people, you should not expect any performance improvement over 4GB of RAM. Save the money and spend it on something where you WILL notice a difference, like an SSD.

 

My RAM is running at 850 Mhz because I'm overclocked. Getting faster RAM will typically run lower timings when underclocked as well (lower timings equates to better performance).

 

RAM over 4GB = meh. Get SSD if you care about speed improvement. Especially since, as DR650SE said, 800 MHz is the cap on m11x.

The only time I really need more than 4GB RAM is when I am doing image processing analysis in Java-based ImageJ - basically working with ~1000 hi-res images, subtracting the background noise, doing particle tracking, etc etc. But hey I guess surfing with Google Chrome uses more resources...

 

Thanks for the feedback, ill stick with my house brand 4gb! So gaming wont require more than 4gb ram?

 

I don't know of any. Last games I played (on m17x) were WoW Cataclysm beta, Fallout New Vegas, Bad Company 2 and Assassin's creed 2... and they all worked great.

Correct me if I am wrong, but to me upgrades above 4 GB only really make sense if you have some specific application that requires it - I am thinking 3D modelling or such.

 

Game developers have to make games that their average customer would be able to run reasonably well on an average system. Since you're not going to be running everything maxed on the m11x anyway and the average system doesn't have 8 gb ram, I think we have some time to go until you need 8 gb for gaming. I would be surprised if you found a game where ram limits you more than cpu or gpu.

 

Thank you everyone for the response.

 

Multitasking. I do a lot of it, even while playing games, and that's why I feel my machine is sluggish with only 4GB. If I do a fresh restart before playing games, and start the game right after my system boots without running anything else in the background, I don't notice the difference much while in game.

 

If you multitask, or use larger programs, get the 8gig. There are far too many processess in the background these days unless you are a real clean OS freak and have a dedicated windows just for games. I also feel that the system is snapier with the extra RAM. Loading times, and long processing times, are reduced by 20% to 50% (best case) depending on the programs I use.

On the other hand, if you are tighter with your system, 4gig can be enough. Tom's hardware ( link)shows that programs are not hitting the 4gig ceiling. It all depends on how you are using your system.

 

Maybe look at SSD instead of 8GB memory for now. That way any paging due to lack of memory in the short term is going to be blindingly fast

 

Just to chime in here on the use of faster RAM. Typically, when underclocking faster RAM, you can use far more aggressive timings. You won't get a huge increase in performance, but 3-5% is not uncommon when compared to same-clocked RAM with normal timings (which begs the question of whether the price premium is worth it - it's not in my opinion). I haven't checked the m11x BIOS to see if you can manually set the timings or modify RAM voltages.

I agree with the general consensus here though, that 8GB is overkill. Put the cash towards an SSD instead if you really feel the performance of your machine isn't meeting expectations.

 

Yep, talk about multitasking speedup with SSD.

 

I just got my M11x yesterday and I immediately swapped the SATA for my Adamo's Samsung SSD. Immediate difference! Anything over 4gg in this laptop is just overkill, I only run 4gb in my M15x as well, it's rare when you need any more than that

 

In all fairness, there are many reasons why multitasking is slow.

Reason 1 - Hard Drive is maxed out on IOPS

One very common reason why multitasking is slow is when you throw a lot of things at it. A mechanical hard drive is so busy handling one set of I/O requests, that it can't keep up with the rest. This measurement is called IOPS (I/O's per second).

You will see a mechanical hard drive choke when you do something as simple as install a program in the background, and browse the web while you're waiting for that install. Your browsing experience will be slow, simply because your hard drive is already maxed out on its IOPS with the software install.

If this is the cause of slowdown in multitasking, then yes, an SSD will absolutely help. A fast mechanical hard drive can handle about 500-600 IOPS. By comparison, a fast SSD can handle 35,000 - 40,000 IOPS, an increase of almost two full orders of magnitude. Everyone who talks about SSD's focuses on sequential transfer rates, beacuse those are the big numbers. But when it comes down to it, it is IOPS that really makes a drive "feel" faster. Here is a video I love to show about this:
YouTube - Why I love my SSD - Windows 7 boot + loading 27 applications in about 1 minute.

Reason 2 - Paging out to disk because of high memory use

If your computer runs out of physical RAM, it will start using a swap file located on the hard drive to free up physical memory for other processes.

If this is the cause of multitasking slowdown, then getting an SSD will not really help. Yes, it will be faster than a mechanical hard drive, but it will be nowhere nearly as fast as physical RAM. Dual-channel DDR2 physical RAM has transfer rates around 3500MB/s. The fastest SSD can pump out around 250MB/s in ideal situations (sequential transfer rates), but will more likely be push out double-digit transfer rate (~25MB/s) for something like a swap file. This means that RAM is two orders of magnitude faster than fast SSD's.

My rule is to always make sure that your computer never runs out of actual physical RAM. If you are experiencing slowdown in multitasking due to this, then I would recommend you get more RAM.

 

I love that video! My point was - I found 4GB enough even wit alt+tabbing from WoW, to Firefox, Skype, Word and doing some simple things in MATLAB. So, as I said at some point before - if you really need more than 4 GB RAM, you will know it without asking. (Because you will be using an app that requires more knowledge about your system.)

Furthermore, what I like about SSD vs HD, is even when windows are "done" loading (quotation marks because you know how even when its supposedly done it can still feel slow in the beginning), you can just go ahead and start loading apps and it goes so fast. While the regular HD will continue loading stuff even after the desktop is shown with all the icons and the mouse cursor won't indicate any loading.

 

Is it still the case that most games are programmed for 32-bit systems and therefore cannot exceed the 2GB address limit without modifications?

 

Oh snap, didn't think about that, and the it's 4GB max on Vista and 7... so there's a reason why any more than 4 will be nonexistent for a while.

 

Do you have a source for that? I've been trying to find some useful info but haven't really come up with any reliable articles so far...

Everything I've found about Win 7 32-bit says the per-application RAM limit is still 2GB. If that's true and developers are programming with the 32-bit OS in mind, very few gamers would benefit from >4GB RAM. The only use I can think of is running multiple instances of the same game (which people do mostly with MMOs).

 

Yes, I would have to agree with that.

That is IOPS at work.

SSD's are not about transfer rates or boot times or application load times. Any mechanical drivecor SSD an load a single application quickly. Where an SSD really shines is its ability to multitask, due to its astronomically high IOPS.

Yes, that is correct. Very rarely will you find a game that natively supports 64 bit. And even if you do, there is rarely any benefit. The only real benefit of 64 bit anything is that 64 bit OS'es can see over 4GB of RAM. Other than that, there really aren't any practical benefits to most users.