Noob memory question

Sorry if this has been brought up a thousand times before, did have a quick browse and found nothing.

Going to take the plunge and order my r3 tomorrow, will be my first alienware machine. Heard everywhere about dell's over-pricing for upgrading memory, especially in the Uk. So with that in mind, i'm going to stick with the basic 2gb and do it myself.

So what memory is best to use in an r3? brand? I've never done this before, so some kind of break down of what to do and what to buy would be great. I want 6gb ram in my machine.

Thanks in advance

 

the R3 takes DDR3 1333Mhz non-ECC (204-pin) SO-DIMM RAM.

 

The memory works best in matched pairs. The 2GB supplied will be 2 x 1GB. The best option would be to replace it with 2 x 2GB (fine for most people) or 2 x 4GB (if you do video editing etc). Memory specs as thegh0sts post.

 

i would love to convert my 8gb samsung ram into 8gb of corsair ram with the vain notion that it'll give me the oc i want!

EDIT: maybe i should try g.skill ram over corsair as g.skill was rated better than corsair by a lot more people.

 

Hi Glenjamin, what made your mind up about going for the R3 in the end? I'm still torn between the two - really can't decide!

 

I just figured it's best to invest in a newer machine. Modding and overclocking isn't for me, im not going to pretend i have any idea what im doing lol. So with that in mind it's best for me to go for an r3. It's gonna be good to go and serve my needs out of the box. Plus in a years time its still likely to sell for £750, based on what some i7 r2's are selling for right now.

 

Actually, I suggest you get the M14X, just a bit pricer and a lot better/stronger. I suggest G.SKILL and thegh0sts posted the memory info. I suggest 4GB or if you're a video editor, get 6GB. 8GB or more is useless unless you plan to keep your computer for a VERY long time. 95% apps don't consume that much memory, unless you render 4 videos at once. 2x2GB or 2X3GB is the best IMO.

 

probably cheaper if i downgraded to 6gb as idle seems to be at 1.7gb, though i do have a reduced page file because i am using an SSD.

EDIT: Would a RAM change make OC'ing more stable?

 

thegh0sts, when I first got my SSD I did some digging around and decided to follow some advice I found on (I think) the OCZ forums. With an SSD, you apparently don't want to have much paging as it increases the wear on the drive, so I have set zero page file and rely on 6GB of RAM to handle it all. In theory, programs will crash if you run out of memory, but I think a lot depends on the application being run, as ones that will eat RAM normally have inbuilt techniques to use disk as well as RAM, rather than relying on the OS' paging behaviour. I'm specifically thinking of Oracle here, but most software engineers of large applications would think about this if their applications are liable to use up all the RAM. Of course, the problem is when you are running lots of smaller programs... but I have yet to see usage over 4GB even when I have absolutely everything going all at once - so I doubt with your 8GB you'd ever run into any problems!

 

This is the RAM im thinking of getting for the M11x R2 - Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBSQ.

Been told that it should work no problem. Granted i wont get the 1333mhz but only 800mhz.