New Sony S15 SVS151290X Memory Upgrade Questions

I am thinking of buying the Sony S Series 15 SVS151290X laptop. I have the following questions regarding memory upgrades:

1. The maximum customizable RAM on their website is:
12GB (4GB fixed onboard + 8GB removable) DDR3-1333MHz [ $90.00 ]
What does fixed onboard memory mean? Is this something I can upgrade later (I assume no?)

2. What is the maximum RAM capacity on the Sony S15? 16GB, 32GB or 20GB (16GB removable + 4 GB fixed)?

I am looking to purchase the laptop in the next couple of days. Thanks!

 

Fixed says, that it is on the motherboard. You have one slot to add a DDR-Ram.

 

Thanks. If there is only slot for the DDR Ram then maximum capacity is limited to 12GB? This seems low compared to anything else offered by Sony. What are the benefits of on board fixed memory?

 

Anybody know what voltage of the memory card is in the Vaio S15? There's 4GB 1333MHz DDR L-SDRAM planted in the S15. Apparently the "L" means low voltage and if I want to upgrade it, I would like to know.

Edit: Never mind, I found it on Wikipedia. It's 1.35V.

 

It MIGHT allow them to make it slimmer (umm...hurray?) but there is no real benefit. Still better than something like the Macbook Air that's completely sealed/non-upgradeable, but it limits you to 12GB total, or 8GB total in dual channel mode.

 

Thanks for this post/answer. After seeing an S15 at my local Sony Centre store I was very impressed with the weight, features/specs overall but this built in RAM is a deal breaker for me (would want to upgrade to 16Gb dual channel and 1600Mhz memory). Back to square one looking for a suitable high end laptop...

 

You still get dual channel with 12 GB, but only for the first 8GB... And it has a small performance disadvantage, but a lot better than single channel still.

 

12 GB is quite a bit of RAM. Unless you do a lot of virtualization, you almost certainly won't use the full 12 GB.