Dell XPS 15 9550 Upgrades

Since the 32 GB RAM option is not available on the Dell site, and there are no firm timelines available. How would you go about upgrading to 32 GB?
While some manufacturer sites do list the 2x16GB DDR4 SODIMM kits, no one seems to have them on sale.
really do want 32 GB of RAM on my laptop... ideas and pointers are much appreciated.

 

There's a kit here
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B011I...odimm+ddr4&dpPl=1&dpID=51S+Bil3u3L&ref=plSrch

As you can see, it's pricey, due to the low availability of those parts.

My guess is that your desire for 32GB of RAM is driven more by an OCD desire to have the maxed-out-best, rather than a true practical need for 32GB. If that is the case, my suggestions is to just get a 16GB configuration today, and upgrade to 32GB in the future when prices drop. On the flip side, if you do truly have a practical need for 32GB of RAM right now, then you will be able to justify spending $450 on that RAM kit.

If it helps, having an SSD tremendously helps situations where you are RAM-starved. Even scenarios such as paging, VMs, and database accesses will be a lot less noticeable with an SSD, since they are so fast. You're going to be bottlenecked by the CPU before you get bottlenecked by a RAM starvation issue.



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Thanks.. but that is DDR3 not DDR4, which kind of defeats the purpose.
I do have a need for the extra RAM, and do have OCD as well. Maybe I should just wait for the Precision's to be released and go with that. Since the graphics don't matter much to me either way. The most graphics intensive thing I probably do is generate some reports, or watch a movie.

I do run VMs on my 9530, using both the on-board and an external SSD and am definitely RAM constrained. The additional RAM on the 9550 is a big part of why I want to upgrade.

 

Makes sense to me.

If you run VMs and don't really play games, then I'd actually say that the XPS 15 may not be the best choice for you;

The only real advantage of the XPS 15 is its portability. But you are paying a premium for that portability, and limiting yourself to weak CPUs. If you're running VMs, it may actually make more sense to buy a more powerful laptop, and sacrifice some portability.

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Actually I am also planning to buy the XPS 15 for running VMs. I wanted to wait for the Precision model, but there is still no release date. The CPU is usually not the bottleneck but the RAM. Here in Europe, the SODIMM DDR 4 16GB RAM modules are already available for approximately 150 EUR.

 

Dnaxx where are you seeing the 16 GB SODIMM's on sale? I am in the yUK so getting them from CE shouldn't be an issue.

 

You'll need to wait for SODIMM. DDR4 desktop has 16GB but I don't see any released yet for mobile.

 

Hope it can take overclocked RAM like the HyperX 2400 and 2666 and run it no worries.

Biggest threat thing I want to upgrade is the SSD.

 

Any idea when the 16GB SO DIMM modules will become available in the market?

 

Probably next year with more DDR4 laptops and implementations. I barely see any DDR4 8GB SODIMMs so it's likely too small of a consumer market right now to push besides some OEM demands. Considering it's almost double the price of DDR3 right now, it might take longer to be available when computer sales overall seem to be sluggish.

 

For instance here (German language): http://www.mylemon.at/artikel/samsung/m471a2k43bb1_cpb/memory-so-d4-2133-16gb.html

 

Danke!
Now I can order the laptop, though am still hoping for availability of the new Precisions. Would love to know the specs and costs of the Xeon models.

 

I like to run a backup, like a "factory backup" before I start using the unit, and if I want to clone to a new drive.

With the PCIe being as it is and also NVMe, is there any particular backup software that I need, or would a 2 year old version of Acronis still work?

 

Acronis will work just fine.

A drive will appear to the system as a drive. Nothing special needs to be done, except perhaps to load the proper storage controller drivers (if you're running an older version of Acronis).

 

Does not work even with the latest version. It cannot see the drive at all. Likely something to do with being PCIe, it not that then NMVe

 

I'll bet it has to do with drivers. PCIe NVMe is probably too new of an I terface to be recognized by the embedded OS in Acronis.

Can you find any drive controller drivers to load into Acronis?

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You need to create a winPE media and load the driver, doesn't look like Acronis has them working yet.

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So who does backup software with NVMe rather than AHCI?

 

Just go into your BIOS and select the most conservative settings like IDE (not AHCI or RAID) and legacy BIOS - then likely every backup software will work just fine, maybe a bit slow.

 

anyone knows if xps15 support ddr4 2400?

 

The XPS 15 runs its memory at DDR4 2133Mhz speeds.

You can put DDR4 2400MHz modules into the XPS 15, and they will work fine. But they will operate at the lower 2133Mhz speed. There isn't a way to "force" the memory to run faster than 2133Mhz using the standard BIOS features.

Even if you could force the memory to run at the faster 2400Mhz speeds, it wouldn't matter. You will not get any real-world performance benefits from increasing memory clock speeds. We have seen and validated that time and time again for the past 15 years on the desktop side. Increasing memory clock speed does not yield any real-world performance benefits.

 

Slightly off topic, but a quick word of caution since people are talking about upgrading to 32GB RAM on this laptop specifically to run VMs. I bought this laptop as a development machine and can confirm that this issue exists, making Hyper-V in Win10 Pro currently unusable.
http://www.windowscentral.com/screen-flicker-surface-book-hyper-v

The article is about the new Surface Book, but the problem is actually that the Intel display drivers for all laptops with the new Skylake chips are problematic in Windows 10, and if you enable Hyper-V the flickering is very bad. I'm hoping new drivers are released soon.
If you disable the Intel graphics completely in the device manager, forcing it to use the Nvidia chip, the problem goes away.

 

Yes. It may down clock to 2133 but it will work.

 

Here is my maxed out Dell XPS 15 9550 configuration:

$1899 from Microsoft Store, then upgraded the SSD and Memory to max currently available.

Processor: i7-6700HQ
Display: 4K UHD LED InfinityEdge touchscreen (3840 x 2160)
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 960M
SSD: Samsung 950 Pro 512GB ($329 from Newegg)
Memory: 32GB [G-Skill Ripjaws F4-2666C18D-32GRS ($229 from Newegg)]
-- Note regarding the memory: G-Skill support told me that higher frequency memory (i.e. 2400 cl16, 2666 cl18, 2800 cl18 etc.) will work all the same but if it's clocked higher than the system base speed (i.e. 2133 cl15) it will simply down clock itself to be compatible (and CAS latency will go down as well).
.
.

 

I enabled Hyper-V on my laptop but I haven't set up any virtual machines yet. I haven't seen any screen flickering or anything.

 

Macrium Reflect v6 Home Edition works perfectly. I had been a long time Acronis TI user and switched to Macrium after getting my XPS 15. Wish I would have made the switch sooner. Macrium is so much better, feature/function/particularly performance!

 

I think these are compatible: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232150

Does anyone know how to make the backlit keyboard stay on and not dim when you don't touch it for a few seconds? Finding it extremely frustrating. Also got the FHD / SSD / bigger battery option and am getting terrible battery life even with all power options set to maximum savings. Would you guess that makes it defective? Is it possible they put in the smaller battery by mistake? Is there a way to check that in the OS?

 

hi,

can you help, there is a 32gb RAM version of the XPS 15 here :

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&ref=PD_OC&s=dhs

I want to know can I upgrade the 16gb version to 32gb RAM at a later date or is the machine stuck with 16?

 

Yes, you can put 32GB in there in the future (2x 16GB sticks of RAM).

If you buy a 16GB configuration, it will come with both slots populated with 2x 8GB SODIMMs. So you will need to remove those, and do something with them (e.g. sell them, give them away, put in another system, shove them in a drawer, etc).

I would also consider why you would want 32GB of ram at all. It actually takes a lot of effort to make full use of 16GB of RAM, let alone 32GB. You'd need to be doing something very intentional like running large databases or VMs. Even the "traditional" use case of having a large RAM drive as a scratch disk for photo / video editing becomes almost unnecessary, with a fast NVMe SSD.

But if all you're doing is running desktop applications, games, and having 100 chrome tabs open at once, you're not going to fill the original 16GB that comes with your laptop. If that sounds like you, then the only reason to spend the $300 on 32GB of RAM is if you think it's worth the money just to have the personal satisfaction of owning a maxed-out laptop.


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There are use cases for needed 32 GB, I've been there before, but I agree that taking the approach to upgrade later unless you're sure you'll need 32 GB is the right one. Plus, a general rule of thumb for computationally intensive application is ~4 GB RAM per physical CPU core. If you are eating through more RAM, it's very likely that your application is multithreaded and having a system with both more RAM and more cores would pay out in the end.

 

Can anyone help with me with swapping out the 2.5 HDD with a 2.5 SSD? Thanks, also in the future is I plan to go with a speedier Samsung nvme ssd can anyone help with that? Have M.2 Boot and a 512GB ssd for storage? Any response would be appreciated. THanks.

 

Why did you just post the same thing in 4 threads? What help do you need? Download the service manual. It's as simple as taking off the back panel and physically swapping the hard drive after removing a couple of screws.

 

I was going crazy. I was playing around with Bios, not really sure what I was doing, and the thing stop booting. I am receiving a replacement soon. I just want to know how to swap out the 1TB HDD. I know how to open up the system and it is not as easy as you say since I have to do something in bios, and boot config first. I found the answer on this thread thanks: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/xps15-9550-4945-32gb-cache-ssd-upgrade.787418/

 

Sup Ya'll Dell loving mofos. Ya'll recommend just picking up a singe 16GB stick or do I have to have two sticks at all times for optimal performance or whatever. LmK!

 

Thats a good question, do both slots need to be populated with same memory modules? If thats the case anyone can advice as to the existing average cost to upgrade 2x4gb to 2x8gb? Thanks

 

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The theory:

Best practices say to upgrade RAM in matching pairs (same make, model, capacity, speed, specifications). This is for two reasons:

1) Compatibility. You reduce the chance of incompatibility between your computer and the new RAM; and the old RAM + new RAM.

2) Speed. Nowadays, RAM is either dual-channel or quad-channel. That means you want to upgrade them in (matching) pairs to take advantage of dual-channel.

------------------------------------------------------------
The reality:

In reality, it doesn't really matter if you upgrade single sticks, or whether they match or not.

1) Compatibility. High-quality RAM has become so mainstream that the chance of getting incompatible RAM is pretty low. And even if you do, online return policies have gotten so good (e.g. Amazon) that returning an incompatible stick of RAM becomes trivial.

2) Speed. Yes, the speed of dual-channel is nice. But RAM speed has zero impact on real-world performance. As in literally, 0% - 1% difference when measuring real-world scenarios (running applications, games, etc).

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My advice?

Upgrade in matching pairs if you're able. If you're buying an even number like 16GB or 32GB all at once, then get then matching kit (2x8GB or 2x16GB) from a name-brand memory manufacturer.

But if you have some overwhelming reason why you can't upgrade matching pairs immediately, then worry about it too much.



And to answer your last question, new DDR4 16GB kit (2x8GB) runs about $65-$70 USD on Amazon. You can probably sell your old 8GB (2x4GB) kit on eBay for a little less than half of that. Expect to pocket around $20 after transaction fees.

 

Thanks for the great reply and all the info. Historically in the desktop world I think I always had motherboards that required matched pairs.

The cost of the 16GB kit is super low comparing to the price difference in the Dell provided models. Thats for sure the way I will go. Any idea as to the cost of the 32GB kit? Wile normally one does not need that much, I might consider it if the price is manageable and might come in handy when running lots of concurrent apps while doing development work with eclipse IDE, multiple servers and VMs.

Thanks

 

If you want to look up RAM prices, just do a search on Amazon for "ddr4 sodimm 32GB". Stick with name-brand manufacturers. Current price is around $190-$200 for a 32GB kit.

And I'd say that upgrading from 16GB --> 32GB is way overkill, unless you have very specific needs where you're running very large VMs or databases frequently, and frequently exceeding 16GB of RAM usage.

If you don't fall into that description, then you don't really need 32GB of RAM. Even if you occasionally exceed 16GB of RAM usage, your SSD will be so fast that you won't incur any noticeable slowdown by using the swapfile located on an SSD.

If you have the money to spend, and/or simply want to max out your laptop to have "the best," then by all means do it. There isn't any reason NOT to get 32GB of RAM. I just wanted to make you aware of the situations when you'd actually get practical benefit from that 32GB.

 

you can get the 32GB Crucial RAM for $119. I have it on mine and it runs flawlessly. It is overkill for the average joe, but I am running multiple VMs and using over 20 GB at the moment.

http://www.amazon.com/CRUCIAL-TECHNOLOGY-32GB-16GBx2-CT2K16G4SFD8213/dp/B015YPB8ME/

 

This has most likely been discussed before but for 100 something the 32GB sound insanely tempting. For the average Joe it would be strongly advised against the 32GB kit right? 16 is fine, okay? Right?!?!?!?!?!?

 

Comparing $65-70 to $119 that's a great deal for sure. Agree on the overkill for average joe but then even 16gb is. In case of some development scenarios where you have multiple VMs / docker containers, database server, memory intensive IDE's and lots of apps loaded, 16gm becomes much smaller then one would think. Then there are two more factors to consider, future proofing and resale attractiveness. For extra ~$50 I think its something I would personally overthink much

 

Now the bigger question for me is 13" or 15" versions Coming from the world of light and thin Sony Z Series / Samsung Series 9 notebooks, the 15" is a bit much in terms of size and weight but that huge screen is sooooo tempting )) (coming from a desktop whore )

 

Coming from someone that has both the 9350 and 9550 (both are 4K versions), I can say that the 9550 screen is much brighter and more vibrant. Don't get me wrong, the 9350 is beautiful, but I wish it were a little brighter. Occasionally I find myself wanting to turn the brightness up, only to realize it is already at maximum.

 

Thats good to know. With these glossy screens one needs as much brightness as possible to be able to use the computer outside or in brighter rooms. I will have to get one of these anti-glare screen protectors to make it usable. How do you like the extra realestate with the 15" model over the 13" one?

 

That's a hard question. My 9350 is an i7 that fits in my Everki Urbanite bag (the best bag in the world!), whereas my i5 9550 is too big for my Everki, so it's in secondary bag and doesn't go everywhere with me. The 9350 is super light and it really comes down which I have with me at the time.

When I use the 9550, the screen is standout and I wish my Everki was bigger and I would just use the 9550 all the time!

 

With the 1.2.0 bios 2400MHz are fully supported.
See: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...9550-on-the-cheap.791494/page-2#post-10260395

 

My Precision 5510 (XPS 9550 equivalent) with i7-6820 runs 2x16gb modules at their native 2666 speed (at CAS 18 latency) seen both in BIOS and within Windows. The integrated intel gpu also reports the memory speed at 1333. I used G.SKILL Ripjaws Series model F4-2666C18D-32GRS.

 

I'm guessing different BIOS than the 9550. Plus, it's exciting that it's running at 2666, but CAS 18 vs CAS 13...pretty much a wash.

 

I used to think the same way, but apparantly the CAS latency is just part of the equation and the true latency stays pretty much the same, meaning that the higher speed ram will indeed perform faster. See here.

 

Well, if I remember correctly, the CAS latency is how many clock cycles it takes for RAM to process an instruction/request. Higher clock speeds mean that clock cycles are shorter, so at higher CAS, it might be faster. See: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/understanding-ram-timings/

That's because it is the actual memory speed, it's reported as 2666 because it is double data rate memory, but the clock is actually 1333 MHz, CPUz will report that as the speed as well.