KHX8500S3ULK2/4G alienware memory upgrades

has anyone tryed this memory KHX8500S3ULK2/4G kingston hyperX 5 5 5 5 15 how does it work , does the m17 auto boot these timings or did you need to use software
thanks

if anyone has found faster / lower latency memory for the m17 or m17 x let me know and post the information here

i ordered my m17 with only two GB so i need to change this out to 4gb when it arrives

 

Yes The M17 will boot with auto timing 5-5-5-15, but test each stick with Memtest before,the % of default stick on that model is very high .

 

as long as that is the NON xmp set you are good to go. I believe Mandrake has the same set and is loving it (and setting world record benchmark scores )

I have the DDR3-1333 version of the same ram in my M17x and love it as well. Strong brand for sure - they are pushing the enevelope for ram where other manufacturers have been lazy

 

exactly 777 or 888 is week they should be shipping with 666 for the price we are all paying ....... thanks

 

7-7-7 @ DDR3-1333 for $100 flat isn't bad at all....thats what I paid from newegg

The 9-9-9 kits start around $75 for DDR3-1333, so that aint too bad....

They have all come down nicely in price from launch haha

 

This is what I got by the way, easily what I would recommend to ALL M17x owners

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104158

 

To be fair, unless you're pushing RAM FSB higher than rated, and need extra slacking room, timings make bugger all difference in realworld usage these days; it used to be a case of running tighter timings, 1:1 with the CPU was actually quite a bit better for the CPU, but that hasn't really been the case since the AMD XP+ days, P4, Phenom, Conroe and I7 (I cant remember how it worked with AMD64, later on they prefered higher bandwidth tho) all benefit more from higher bandwidth

 

your wrong memory speed and a fast SDD drive are the best upgrades for the m17 ..... overclocking a laptop is not a good idea

 

Actually the overclocking is fine as long as nothing overheats. And tighter timings always help

(especially 3dmark06 haha)

 

The only reason why overclocking isn't a good idea is due to the extra heat which the majority of laptops can't handle. The M17's cooling system is good enough to allow for a little overclocking headroom. The M17x's awesome cooling allows for a LOT of overclocking.

 

...........is overclocking with the bios possable with the m17? ...............

i just ordered one the other day have no experance with laptops.......

but i do know overclocking with software is something i would not do

i have been reading about asus bios can be used with the M17 and gives you some overclock features ... ideas anyone?

 

Overclocking in the M17 BIOS, as far as I know, is only possible with extreme processors (via multiplier overclocking) and only on a non-Alienware BIOS. (If they find out about you using a non-AW BIOS then they will say your warranty is instantly voided.)

 

N
Not quite sure who you are responding to there, I was talking about timings not bandwidth, even then unless overclocking via FSB RAM higher than 1066 is kinda pointless. CPU, 1920x1200 screen, 4850s and SSD raid are the best things for an M17. Overclocking as mentioned is only bad for heat and power reasons, and can be completely fine. Timings make such a small difference just go for the best value 1066 dd3 SODIMMs you can find, you are better off spending the cash on other components . Even with 3dmark06 the difference with tight timing RAM is minimal, and not worth the premium, the days of tight timings and synced memory speeds are long gone. Due to dividers Im pretty sure the M17 doesnt take advantage of 1333 RAM or I would have opted for some. ONLY reason I regret not buying 1333 is that the Clevo M980nu prefers it (will actually run the RAM at 1333 for the small benefit IIRC), and I may be forced to switch if AW TS (Eur) incompetance doesnt cease.

 

ddr3 with 1066 8 8 8 timing is slower than ddr2 800 4 4 4 in about all apps. look it up on the net ...

 

If you look closely you will find the difference is typically less than 1-2%. Besides even cheap branded 7-7-7 is easily available. Real world difference is not particularly noticeable between DDR3, we arent talking about DDR2 so not sure where that came from. Applications that are memory intensive also tend to favour bandwidth. Either way in terms of the the M17 the point still stands. You are also aware that with some machines lowering bandwidth hurts more than the slightly lowered timings that result?

 

if you think 5 5 5 ddr3 is not a big upgrade from the stock 8 8 8 then you are unaware that the m17 comes with is first generation ddr3 introduction from over 2 years ago its old as Trex and no one wanted it..i have been building desktops systems for about ten years
you would be a fool to buy even 7 7 7 replacement memory if for 30 dollars more you could get kingston ddr3 5 5 5

so what if kingston offered ddr3 4 4 4 you would not think much positive about that also?

 

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2989&p=7

Take a quick look; I too have been building machines for about ten years, and in realworld terms, the timings do not make a great deal of difference, the difference is often not worth the extra cost; especially when the price differential is higher as new memory speeds are released; and the additional cost can be put towards extra HDD or a faster CPU; or in some cases more memory. Every little helps; however the difference those timings make is pretty insignificant.

Im not particularly bothered about what generation memory is included with the machine either; as thats not what we're talking about.

As that review shows, moving between DDR2 1066 at 4-4-3 vs 6-6-6 netted a whole 2 fps difference in Farcry with the P35 platform, minimal at most and not noticeable outside of benching or fps-watching. Moving from 9-9-9 DDR3 to 7-7-7 netted even less, also, notice that the DDR2 even with tighter timings is actually slower.

Edit: missed your point on the Kingston, if it was similarly priced; then yeah I'd consider it, even for the marginal improvements, however if the price difference was huge (as it often can be with exceptional kits) then I'd rather buy more RAM with the cash Im likely to save, unless the chips had proven massive overclockability, which might renew my interest.

 

hi i see you know a lot of computers and ram can you explain what is xmp and how that works on memory and also a memory with 5-5-5 timings is better than a memory with 9-9-9 timings

 

The term XMP doesnt ring a bell to me; however the difference between memory with 5-5-5 and 9-9-9 is response time (rated in nanosecond multiples), if the 5-5-5 stuff costs the same as the 9-9-9 then go for it; it will be marginally faster, and with slackened timings is likely to overclock faster

That said if the price difference is great, then dont worry about it

 

so memory with xmp profiles don't affect the performance if you not using them, and my ram is 9-9-9 but the ram with lower timings is about 30 more expensive that difference worth the money spend?

 

Ahah, just taken a quick look at this XMP thing. In the scheme of things dont worry about it; its a similar scheme to one that Nvidia motherboards sometimes use. Basically a set of RAM will have 'default' timings at certain speeds, your SPD timings, where it should be stable on pretty much any mobo. Now some RAM sets are tested with certain platforms and found to be stable at faster speeds or lower timings than normal, so these get given additional ratings, or extended ratings dependant on your point of view. XMP is one such set, if your mobo is capable of reading and using these; then it can default to the higher performance profile

 

XMP is taking over the place of epp memory command... keep looking at the net from ddr3' s first year of intro you will find the higher latency was a big performance bottleneck that slows down the graphical user interface GUI.. overall system PEP and feeling of speed of every component .. i will say it again big improvment

 

Nope, wont affect you if you're not using them, they're just additional supported speed ratings. I wont make the choice on timings for you; they will be marginally faster though with lower timings; just work out whether that small percentage is worth it for you (or potentially higher overclocking performance with slack timings); or if you'd rather put the cash somewhere else like HDDs

 

kingston even trying to design XMP into their notebook ram is retarded.....there is not a single notebook in the world (that i know of) that can utilize XMP settings....they would be MUCH better served just setting those timings and speeds as an spd so they can actually be used

Kits are getting advertised at the XMP speeds but no one can realize them since the laptops are only reading the SPD settings, thus the kingston 1066 5-5-5 kit runs at 1066 7-7-7 and get rough reviews (earned in my opinion)

On the other hand though, they are finally offering some kits that are NON XMP and have good timings, like the one i posted and the one the OP is looking at. The kingston models that do NOT end in x are non xmp and therefore can be recommended if found for a good price

 

I've heard similar from people who've gone for higher bandwidth, and have played around with similar stuff before now (hell one of my old DDR kits used 5-2-2 timings), hell an AMD system I used recently was actually far nicer to use (using DDR2) at the higher bandwidth than at the lower timings, again same increase in pep you mention.
At the end of the day, both tighter timings and higher bandwidth are beneficial, the system in question will vary what is more useful. As it stands though right now, I've seen more evidence to suggest that a good combination of both bandwidth and timings results in better performance, and that right now, latency is not as important as the price premium suggests, where you can get lower latency RAM yeah its nice, but not a massive performance difference like you'd suggest.

Again, http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ddr3-1333-speed-latency-shootout,1754-23.html

Latencies do bring some performance benefits; Im honestly not trying to say they don't, but in general the difference is more noticeable by benchmarkers, and by companies selling grossly price inflated low latency kits. Higher bandwidth on the other hand can often bring benchmarkable performance improvements; responsiveness of a system is massively individual and varies from machine-to-machine and chipset to chipset.

Im going on this from experience as well as benchmarking, and honestly I still find it hard to justify the price premium for low latency kits unless the system in question notably performs better without it, the vast majority of the time however; the low latency kits are more expensive, and the cash there can be spend on upgrading or improving other components, resulting in much more noticeable performance improvements (in laptops going from a same capacity 5400 to a 7200rpm driver) for example.
If I was looking for performance improvements, low latency RAM kits are one of the last things I will typically look at.

At the end of the day, bandwidth can be overrated; but so too can latencies.

 

KHX8500S3ULK2/4g not xmp ... this is the one you want .i an ordering same in a few weeks

 

the fsb is fixed and cant be changed per say for the m17 and most laptops.. laptop memory for that reason should be cutting new ground for low latency ...or higher FSB my desktop has ddr3 2000fsb running at 6 6 6 6 19 its ocz flex II laptops really need help with memory and memory fsb .. is all i am saying

 

my M17x can change its fsb

 

Thats fair enough I can live with that haha shame miniaturisation doesnt work that way. Id rather they make SSD cheaper first personally, even bigger performance possibilities, if RAM and storage ran at CPU cache speeds we'd be absolutely laughing, same as if storage ran at RAM speeds (bar RAM disks!) . Never going to happen though.

Think the Clevo can change RAM speed manually too, hence my mentioned regret earlier on buying 1066, Id rather run 1333 than 1066 for that little extra oomph (especially with superfetch mmm).

 

thats just the problem there no other upgrades other than a ssd and low latency ram

 

performance improvments you cant do that low latency ram does not work remember

 

the MCP79 chipset used in the Clevo m980nu and AW M17x can use 1333 ram natively where the pm45 of the M17 cannot (it uses DDR3-800 or DDR3-1066 natively)

 

Yes I am, I already listed a list of other things that make the machine more usable, try reading; faster, cheaper SSDs and better RAM would improve every other machine out there bar none, as would a better CPU or GPUs for gamers, stop acting like Im thick, unlike you I have already at least backed up my standpoint on timings with evidence.
And in the case of the Clevo, unlike the M17, it can use 1333 RAM.

 

Run its course. Closed.