Precision M4600 Owners Lounge

Yes that ram is compatible. I will say though that 1600MHZ ram did make a slight difference in my system from 1333mhz. So unless you need more then 16GB I would aim for that speed IMHO.

 

Yes, it will be compatible. However, cheapish memory uses subpar components and when it comes to reliability, tend to underperform in heavy workload. If you look at the comments, some experienced crashes, incompatibilities, and various problems with this memory. Personally I'd rather go with a known brand, but do as you please.

There is indeed a slight difference between the two speeds, it's about a 0.1 point increase in memory performance of the Windows Experience Index, although it's hard to notice under most workloads.

If you are crunching huge datasets, simulating a dozen VMs, running a virtualized Oracle server, compiling big c++ programs or anything that begs for RAM, go for the 32GB/1300mhz.
Or you can sacrifice half of the memory for a slight performance increase.

The bottleneck clearly isn't the RAM frequency on a machine, but rather its size because it limits the number of slow HDD IOs.
As you also chose the SSD (which gives the biggest perf boost), I would personally go for the 32GB/1300, it's more futureproof and you probably won't notice the speed gain.

In the end it all comes down to what you will use the machine for.

 

Thanks Sphinx, Theora. I have used GSKILL memory in the past and I had no issues. I will order 32GB and take a chance again with GEIL. There might me some difference with 1600 MHz and 1300 MHz RAM. But I prefer muscle than speed. I will be using it for heavy duty data mining and big data manipulations. I think this gig should be plenty sufficient and hope it lasts 4-5 yrs

 

Hi,
i ordered 4x Corsair Vengeance SO-DIMM 8GB. I'll post if it is working in the m4600. It is also 1600MHz Memory.

 

I use gskill and geil all the time. I still have a geil system running from 2005 and sever gskill systems from 2006 and on running stable and as they did the day I installed the RAM.

Like I stated above gkill has been nothign but good to me over the years and I am currently running 4 sodimms of gkill currently and the machine runs like a champ.

Let me know how it works out and take a screen shot if at all possible. I was going for this ram but worried about the "auto clocking" feature it had.

 

Not that i want to rehash this too much but thought it would be worth noting that Runcore has confirmed that the mSATA port is only 3 gbs

So, anyone considering an MSATA SSD, not really worth the extra cost going for a 6Gbs drive.

 

Hello,
just to testify about a recent motherboard problem that occured on my M4600. My config:
- mSata SSD, win 7
- 500 Gb , ubuntu 10.04 (grub)
- quadro 2000M
- non ips screen
- bios A08 (needed for msata ssd)

After 6 month of operation, the laptop started exhibiting problems with startup. After pressing the power button, it started the boot process, then it either:
- stopped on its own after 6 seconds
- stopped after 3 seconds, restarted, and remained "on" with a black screen, and sometimes fans at max speed
- started normally...only 2 times in 5 days of troubleshooting (which allowed me to do a full backup, *safe*)

After calling the tech support, the guy told me to disassemble my laptop (yes!):
- remove HDD, SSD
- remove wifi card
- remove all RAM
- remove battery

then plug on AC power and try to start. The startup failed each time, with a reproductible behavior on pressing the power on button:
- black screen for 3-5 seconds
- fans rotating faster and faster
- anto power off
- 3 lights: disk access, constant light, and {battery+wifi} flashing slowly, as a sign for debugging

Hopefully I had business support, they changed my motherboard + graphic card for free, and everything went back to normal again. They say this problem is common, and almost always, changing the motherboard corrected the issue, but sometimes they had to change the graphic card too, so for me they changed both without thinking.

Just to tell about this, so you would know!

 

Hi all - I have received my 32GB RAM and couldnt wait to install it over the weekend. Does it void my laptop warranty if I install the third party RAM? Please let me know. Thanks for help as always.

 

@murthyvs : No it won't break the warranty. RAM is user serviceable, you can go ahead safely

@hireegy : This is scary! That means Dell acknowledges they ship their highest-end laptop with a faulty motherboard, and it's just "common" for it to brick the laptop...Like it's no big deal! Thank God for the 3 years warranty, but what if you expected the laptop to last 5 years ?

 

Thanks Theora!

Just installed 32GB RAM. Its up and running. Will run few of my big programs and see how it works. The lowest subset score bumped up to 6.9 (Vs 5.5 with initial 2GB RAM). Graphics card has the lowest score. I am fine with it.

One last thing on my upgrade list is BD Burner. It currently has HL Data Storage DVD-ROM - Model: DU30N. Any recommendations on good BD Burners?