RAM question

Is it OK to have 2 slots out of four filled with an 8GB stick in each and leave the other 2 slots empty for a total of 16 GB? Or, is it better to get 4x 4GB and have all slots filled?

Thanks in advance.

 

2x8GB is ideal thus leaving room to expand later.

You shouldnt expect any issues from running only 2x SODIMMs, they are designed to operate either / or.

 

@TheReciever Thank you!. If I may also ask, can I put a single 8GB in one of the other slots for 24GB or do both remaining slots need to be filled? Thanks again, in advance.

 

You can if you want, however you will lose the dual channel function until the last (4th slot) is also populated. It would run in a kind of mix mode iirc similar to running mixed ram. I would just wait until you have that last SODIMM, though if your populated slots are the easily accessible ones it couldnt hurt to move them to the slots directly underneath the keyboard to avoid that hassle later on. I suspect you may have that chance since I have seen a number of threads from inquiring about your laptop.

I wouldnt pursue that course of action, the CPU is aided by the RAMs capability. While 4th gen is far from useless its becoming dated as time continues along.

So technically no, you dont need to have the 4th slot populated, but it would be less than ideal scenario. If its just something to plug in until the last DIMM shows up in the mail then I suppose that wouldnt be a deal breaker or anything.

 

Thank you kindly, sir.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

I know this is many years old but I see a post from @Mr. Fox from 2015 saying:

"I just (today) got the problem with the Alienware 18 not running at 2133 solved. See post here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ark-thread-part-3.730723/page-91#post-9932336"

I've installed 32GB Kingston HyperX 2133 DDR3L in and AW18 (not M18x) and would like to run at 2133. But when I look at the post I don't see any reference to doing this.

I'd like to confirm it is actually possible to run at 2133 before I spend the money on Taiphoon Burner.

Thanks in advance for your expertise!

 

In the 3 laptops I've used 2133Mhz DDR3L ram none of them had any issue running XMP (Alienware 17 R1, T440p, P750ZM)

Some people have issues but its murky at best to mess with DDR3L ram

 

Thank you @TheReciever! System info (Win 10) is seeing the RAM as 2133 but HwInfo is saying 1064.7 MHz.

Is there a BIOS setting I'm missing? @Mr. Fox has mentioned Taiphoon Burner is how he got it to run at 2133 but I'm still not 100% sure he meant the AW18 or the M18x r2.

 

That was with the Alienware 18 and Clevo P570WM. It worked at 2133 out of the box (plug and play) on the M18xR2.

 

Its DDR, Double Data Rate. So you have actual speed and effective.

Windows is reporting as 2133Mhz because thats how the market wants to read it as. HWINFO is also correct in stating 1064.7 but that is literal, account for effective and that comes out to 2133Mhz +/- busclock

You're good to go as is, no RAM changes need to be made currently

 

Good catch. I didn't recognize the question that was asked.

 

@Mr. Fox Thank you very much for the reply. There is a post from you in 2015 saying the AW18 needs a tweak to the tCKmin value to. Does that still apply to the AW18 (I'm have A13 bios).

"It will run 2133, but you need to use Thaiphoon Burner and tweak the tCKmin value to bump the RAM clocks up to 1068.38MHz and then it will run at 2133. User mw86 at Tech|Inferno was able to manage 2400MHz from his Kingston Impact memory using this technique. By default, 1866 is the max."

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/max-ram-speed-for-alienware-18.771859/page-2

 

Hi bro. I don't know about the BIOS or what the RAM does now. I got rid of the AW18 in 2015. I was able to run 2400 using the same tweak that mw86 did. That also worked in the AW18 and Clevo P570WM. Sorry I cannot be more helpful, but I've forgotten a lot. 2015 was a long time ago and something could be different with A13.

 

Much appreciate it. We die-hards miss you. I will check mw86's posts.

Congrats on your new gear. It's very impressive and much less hassle to manage, I'm sure!