XPS m1330- Dell rips us off on memory

From what I've read in this forum, many of you have ordered 1 gig of memory with ur m1330 to save money like I did. I thought I would just buy 1 gig really cheap somewhere so that I would have 2 gig but I just found out that the 1 gig taht the m1330 comes with is 2 dimm and I'm really mad. Didn't any of you guys know about this because it doesn't say anywhere. I called dell and they agreed with me but said that they could'nt do anything about it.

 

On the site it says that the RAM would be running dual-channel. This then means 2 RAM modules, which then means... both slots are being taken up.

But like you said, they should at least say in parenthesis, "2 so-dimms" so that people with not that much knowledge of notebooks would know (although they probably wouldn't care).

 

well then why do they say how many dimms the other systems have like on the xps 1210? What you said may be true but they should make it less confusing.

 

Yeah, I updated my post right as you said that. I do agree, that should make it less confusing, but they still do have a representation that they will be taking up both slots.

 

... and this is how DDR2 works (otherwise it would be impossible for it to work)!

 

Not true...

 

What? DDR2 has nothing to do with running in dual channel mode.

 

Josh is right..The 2 has nothing to do with dual channel.. what are you guys on about?

 

well, u can buy 2 gigs of ram for your laptop off of new egg for about 75$

2 gigs of ram

see, not too bad

 

Two sticks are required for the "Dual" part in DDR2 to work!!! One stick will still work ... but at 1/2 the performance (or something like that). Hence DDR2 sticks are usually installed in pairs.

 

That's a rip-off. This is what you should be looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...Subcategory=381&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

EDIT:

Not true. DDR stands for Double Data Rate. It doesn't matter how many stick(s) you have, all that means is that the frequency of the RAM is doubled on that particular stick. DDR2 is just capable of higher frequencies than DDR1 (and DDR3 is capable of even higher frequencies, but the latency starts to increase as you increase frequency too high on any of the DDR types).

Dual channel is when you run two sticks of RAM (same size, speed, etc.) together for a small boost in performance...Maybe 15% or so. I'm not clear on what makes dual channel work, so you can look that up if you want. And don't quote me on that "15%", either.

 

Well, they are selling you 1 GB, why would they want to give you a more expensive 1 stick when they can give you 2 for much cheaper. This is Dell we are talking about. Unless they say its 1 dimm the assumption should be that its two.

I guess it could be confusing for someone who doesn't know. But when you are planning on upgrading memory, you should know. :S?

 

The cost between 2 dimms and 1 dimm is near next to nothing. It's actualy a strategy to get you to spend more money on upgrade cause they know if you want 2 gigs, u'll end up having to spend more money upgrading it yourself then with just useing the 2 gig upgrade.

 

Assuming the dual channel theory doesn't work.

 

err... 10%... meh. Still 10% though....

http://www.crucial.com/kb/answer.asp?qid=3751

 

I just downgraded the memory in my m1330 this morning from 2GB to 1GB because it cost an extra $150 for the 2GB and the sales rep told me that it would be cheaper to buy the extra gig myself and get it installed because it would be alot cheaper. He also told me that there are 4 slots for memory in the m1330, hence being able to have up to 4GB of memory

 

Ok, for once the sales rep was telling the truth about the ram being bought cheaper aftermarket. It is definitely cheaper by upgrading RAM through aftermarket rather than purchasing through the OEM for a premium price.

But the latter just killed his credentials. The m1330 only comes with 2 DIMMN slots. In fact, most notebooks ( if not all ) only provide 2 DIMMN slows for memory installation.

It's possible to upgrade to 4gb, but only through 2 x 2gb DDR2 RAMs.
But then again, there's also the Vista 32bit system problem with recognizing the full 4gb RAM ( it shows up as 3.75gb, I think ).
Maybe, there's a misinterpretation on his part ?

 

Yeah, I can assure you the m1330 does not have 4 slots for RAM. Only 2.

 

What are you talking about? "DDR" stands for "Double Data Rate", which refers to the double data rate speed the DDR memory had over the older SDR (Single Data Rate) modules had.

EDIT: Oops, I figured that question was answered already.

Lol, I find it funny that even Dell sales reps acknowledge that their memory is insanely overpriced.

 

;-p........

 

u can get 2 gig sticks of ddr2 667 ram for about 130 off newegg

 

Simply put; in Dual channel memory configuration there are two memory access channels (paths) that will double the theoretical bandwidth. For this to work you need two RAM modules, in which case both modules can be written/read simultaneously = doubles the bandwidth. However memory bandwidth is not the only determining factor of RAM performance (there are other things like latency, chipset architecture etc.), therefore Dual channel will not double the RAM performance.

Coming back to your original complaint, Yes I agree DELL should be more descriptive, I don’t know why they don’t list 1DIMM/ 2DIMM like they used to in that past. However if you click on the help me choose icon, or if you look at the small print in the order page, it says

For some one wanting to upgrade RAM you should know what that means, or at least should have posted in this forum before ordering.

 

I suppose the ideal would be if they offered these options:
1. No memory (for people who want to buy it from a third party)
2. 1GB as 2x 512MB (for people who want 1GB and the fastest performance it will support)
3. 1GB as 1x 1GB (for people who want to upgrade later but can't afford it now and are willing to take a performance hit until then)

However, Option 1 has some problems. Frustrating to many users when they open their new lappy and can't test it straight away. Also when they insert their own ram and if there is any problem do they blame Dell or the RAM? Could lead to extra workload to Dell. If there is some memory to start with then it is more likely any 3rd party memory problem will be correctly attributed to the memory.

Option 3. Has some problems too. Users would need to buy an identical 1GB memory card to be sure they would get dual channel (how to get it). As Dell probably offer HP terms they could perhaps just get the extra up front and pay later.

So overall I don't think we can blame Dell for going with Option 2.