Studio XPS 1640 memory upgrade

I just wanted to see what's the fastest memory I can put into my sxps1640. I have 4gb of pc3-8500 in it right now, it came with it from dell. I want to speed things up and wanted to know what I can put in it. Should I stick with pc3-8500 or can I use something else? I'm going to go to 8gb so want to know what everyone else has.

 

The PM45 chipset in the 1640 is limited to PC3-8500, just like the on-package memory controller in the 1647s. Anything faster would be wasted. Only the 1645 can use PC3-10600.

 

Can the 1645 take 2x 8GB sticks? PC3-10600 or PC3-8500?

 

Are 8GB laptop DDR3 sticks even out on the market yet? I know Samsung announced that they were developing one that would be out by the end of the year, but I haven't seen any for sale yet.

To answer your question though, no they can't. The memory controller in the quad i7's is limited to 8GB. See Intel® Core? i7-720QM Processor (6M Cache, 1.60 GHz) with SPEC Code(s) SLBLY Maybe the Sandy Bridge chips will allow it.

 

In some pricewatch guides I saw some 8gb modules listed in the SODIMM categories but I didn't continue checking whether they weren't desktop/server sticks that had been placed in the wrong categories.

Thanks for that info though regarding the 8GB max, won't continue looking further in that case ;-)

 

That's odd? You would think that:

1647 > 1645 > 1640

If the 1645 can do it, it should seem that the 1647 should be able to as well. Kind of confusing?

 

Just because the number 1647 is higher, doesn't mean that it's better. The 1645 is the one that uses the higher-end i7 quads, which have better memory controllers (plus the quad-i7 has the memory controller on the CPU die, the dual core i7/5/3 has the memory controller on the integrated GPU die). The real way to look at it is (from a memory controller aspect, as I'd like to avoid dual vs quad flame war):

quad i7 > dual i7/5/3 > PM45 chipset in 1640 (before the memory controller was integrated into the CPU with i-core series)