Acer Predator 17 Ram Upgrade

Hello,

I am planning to upgrade my Acer Predator 17's ram. It has only 8GB pre-installed. I was thinking that I will buy a 16GB stick and replace the 8GB with it. I know that I have to perform a complete disassembly in order for me to get to the other two ram slots located between the keyboard and the motherboard.

My question is, do I have to remove the heatsinks and reapply the paste or is there a way to do it without having to remove the heatsinks

 

Why replace the 8GB, why not just add the 16GB stick and have 24GB?

I did find this, but I don't know if this is your particular Predator model. You weren't specific. http://www.myfixguide.com/manual/acer-predator-17-g9-791-disassembly/

 

IIRC ram doesn't run dual channel when the dimms are mismatched in capacity

 

It doesn't run pure dual channel but another form of it which is slightly slower..Can't remember what its called.. But whichever way, faster than single channel..

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

 

1.5 channel

 

Purpose of replacing the 8GB is that, I need to be able to activate dual channel later on. The guide has the same laptop but the problem is they are not very specific about the question in hand but thanks for the input

 

I would recommend you buy a dual channel (matched) kit 'now' instead of planning for adding another 16GB module later on.

But, if you do only want to add the 16GB now, I agree with Mobius 1 about using 24GB until you do have the funds/time to put in another 16GB module.

A single 16GB module will not be faster than a single 8GB module - and... it may even be slower than 2x 4GB modules (if that is what is in your system today).

As mentioned; running 8GB + 16GB SoDimms will be using a hybrid dual channel mode where the 8GB Sodimm plus the first 8GB of the 16GB SoDimm will be in dual channel and the remaining 8GB will be in single channel mode. Still faster overall, but when you push your system past 16GB RAM total usage - you will feel it when the remaining single channel 8GB RAM is accessed (a perceptible lag, for me).

Again; save a little longer today and buy matching SoDimms. Otherwise, use all the RAM you'll have at your disposal until you can buy the matching 16GB module (and that will hopefully be 'soon').

 

Thanks for all the information and I really appreciate it. I have only one 8GB stick inside the laptop and I also could afford to buy two matching 16GB sticks for the purpose of dual channel.

However I still got to figure out whether I have to remove the heatsinks or not, at the end of the day because I cannot access the first and second ram slots located between the keyboard and the motherboard.

Or I can simply install one 16GB stick along with the 8GB without the dual channel which will enable hybrid dual channel as you have described but this is only if I cannot get to the first dimms without having to remove all the heatsinks.

I am looking for someone who knows about the disassembly of this particular laptop

 

I would be surprised but not totally shocked if the heatsinks needed to be removed simply to get to the RAM.

With your budget secure; I would order a kit of 2x16GB SoDimms and proceed to take it apart. If you see that the disassembly is getting rather destructive, rather than facilitating access to the notebook's internals as intended... you can decide then if you will continue or not. I'm guessing though it won't be needed (re: heatsinks).

I'm also guessing that any of the other regulars will tell you to go ahead and repaste it anyway, while you have the chance.

Either way, for your situation, I wouldn't install a single 16GB SoDimm (with or without the original RAM in there).

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the info and I will buy pair of matched 16GB sticks and do it myself. Acer community has suggested that Crucial is the brand that i should most probably go with

 

FWIW the hybrid/1.5 channel mode is called asynchronous dual channel - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram-scaling-notebook,1920-3.html