Dell Studio XPS 1645 laptop RAM upgrade

My DEll studio xps 1645 has the following specifications:
RAM: 4GB Dual-channel 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2 x 2GB)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM ) I7-720QM Processor (1.6GHz, tu 1
rbo up to 2.8GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)

I want to upgrade my RAM to 16GB DDR3. Will it support that much RAM? Also can I add one internal SSD instead of the HD drive?

 

Yes, the i7-720qm will support 16GB of RAM as far as i know, my i7-920xm does despite Intel's website saying it supports up to 8GB. For the SSD, of course you can do the swap, you will have to reinstall windows and your programs or clone the HDD to the SSD though.

EDIT: See my last post, seems like the system slows down to a crawl with 16GB.

 

I wish to purchase this as well.
However, what should I say to the shop when I wanted to get it?
I'm aware there are different types of rams.
Do I just say, I want to get 16gb ddr3 sdram?

 

Seems like i spoke too soon: http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ried-studio-xps-1645-8gbx2-2.html#post8857913. Seems like people are having problems getting 16GB to run on their 1645. I find it strange since it works fine in other laptops with the i7-720qm and one owner reported that it was working fine in windows 8. Seems like 8GB is the way to go if you want to play it safe.

If there is a problem somewhere, it's not the CPU or chipset.

 

Thanks for the reply. But I need to be sure before I buy it. I am not content with 8Gb, but I don't knw if my laptop does or not

 

Unfortunately, it's not something i can test (i don't have a xps 1645), i'd watch the thread i linked to see if a windows 7 clean install does the trick.

 

Previous topics stated that 16GB will not work.

Just curious, what were you planing to do with with 16GB of ram on a laptop anyway?

 

good question... luxury of power . More memory means less page file usage... so my hard disk will have less hard times.

I have decided to buy 8GB. nayway thnks everybody for replying in the thread

 

Unless you are a power user or have special needs, you shouldn't even fill 8GB of RAM.

 

Ya true, I run 2/3 instances of VS2012 simultaneously with SQL Server and other softwares. I don't want to give too much pressure on my poor 7200rpm HD Drive. Will consider an SSD but 500GB SSD is too costly, 120GB is too less

 

If you do not need the optical drive (and have only one HDD bay), you can always get a caddy to replace the optical, this will allow you to run a dual drive configuration, a SSD + HDD.

 

Really? Ah some hope at last, Ya the optical drive is not that much of use except OS installation. Caddy means what? Can you explain me in detail how to do that.

 

A caddy is basically an adapter in the shape of the optical drive that is made to house a HDD instead. Something like this: New SATA 2nd HDD Caddy Module Caddy for Dell XPS 15 L501X L502X 17 L701X L702X | eBay. Since the optical connects using a SATA port, all you need is an adapter that can house the drive and fits in the optical bay. Installing windows can be done using a flash drive instead of a disc and you can also buy an enclosure for the optical you removed to convert it into an external ODD.

A caddy is great if you have no mSATA and want a SSD+HDD configuration in a laptop that doesn't have dual hard drive bays, or you can go with a ridiculous amount of storage on bigger laptops.

 

G Skill 16gb (8gbx2) ddr3 10666 1333mhz not working on a 1645, but if I put only one module in one of the two slots it works ok. With 16gb installed windows boots but extremely slow, processor is always working at 80-90% with no aparent reason, but both the bios and windows recognizes the 16gb ram.

I'll try the memory in win 8 before returning to the store and post the results.

PS: I have a SSD Cruzial M4 128gb in the main hdd compartment and the samsung 500gb 7200 in the dvd bay. SSD + HDD = awesome perfomance

buyed here:
2nd HDD or SSD Caddy for DELL XPS Studio 16 (1640, 1645, 1647) [OBHD-SATA12-SATA-NF] - $43.00 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

with this cable for the dvd thru esata (there's other model with usb3 if you have xpress card usb3)
eSATAp Cable, connect DELL SATA optical drive externally [slimSATA-eSATAp-C06] - $24.95 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

 

Same on win 8

 

For Intel i7-720qm:
Max Memory Size 8 GB
Memory Types DDR3-1066/1333
It means you can run only 8gb

 

Like i said before, others have successfully installed 16GB is some notebooks with first gen core i7 CPUs, those that i know of were 4x4 configurations though, not 2x8.

 

Yes, but why the bios and win 7 recognizes 16gb?

 

Maybe motherboard finds this RAM, but processor can use only 8gb because of his limitation, I am just guessing. Someone said that if you want use more than 8gb you need more physical processors on mother board (Like 2 if he runs 16GB). Maybe there is someone who has this 16gb and had tested them, can tell that. Are the all 16 working or max what is used is 8GB of RAM.

 

Because chipset don't ufficially support 16GB, cpu can't limit memory "detection"

 

Got it, thanks.