12-16 GB ram in an Alienware M15x?

Hi all, i have an M15x with 8 gb ram bios A05, and it is not quite enough for my virtual machines and all the crap i keep running in the background. Since the motherboard does not officially support more than 8 gb ram, and only has 2 slots, does anyone know what would happen if I put in 8 gb per slot to have a grand total of 16 gb ram?

What I used was:
Corsair 8 GB Module (1x8GB) DDR3 1333MHz PC3 10666 204-Pin Unbuffered C9 Laptop Memory CMSO8GX3M1A1333C9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A year later:

So, final thoughts on this upgrade; it works fine, 16 gigs total (2x8gb). The interesting thing is that the BIOS believes the slots are empty, but then is still detects the additional memory in total. The price on each 8gb stick has been falling quite rapidly, and since last year, the price has fallen from $75 to about $36 per dimm. When I installed the 8gb sticks, everything worked fine, no bios updating needed, no errors anywhere.

(Oh and if you hibernate your computer and then add more ram, you'll still have to restart)

I also tried this upgrade on another laptop (dell vostro 3450) and it worked fine too, and after reading other happy reports on the internet, I conclude that most laptops that support DDR3 ram probably support these 8gb dimms as well.

 

theoretically it should work. but on many consumer models it seems to be hit or miss if they are recognized. I have dual and quad 8's in a number of units, never had an issue with business models but a dv7 went nuts as did an xps 15.

 

Thanks! But since the motherboard for the m15x was probably built before the introduction of 8gb dimms, are they still recognized by the mobo? do the firmware updates address this issue?

 

Are you trying to keep an entire blu-ray resident in memory?

 

nope, just run two virtual machines (windows xp and ubuntu 11.10) i'll save the centos 5.3 one for later

 

it has more to do with the chipset and firmware. Sorry I cant give a definitive answer though
I would guess yes as I have 2 first gen i core units. one runs 32GB ( 4 x 8GB )

 

i guess if it doesnt work, i could just try updating my bios, but there isnt anything i can really do about the chipset.

 

i just bought 2-8gigs and i'll see if it works or not, with the holidays i might receive them nex week....

 

Interested to hear how this turns out, I always thought that there was a max limit of 8gb with no questions, so to hear it might be possible to get more is a nice prospect.

The m15x - the machine that keeps on giving!

 

I have zero doubt that it'll work.

 

Yea, i guess most people dont really try to add more ram than is supported, but then, a computer this expensive should be more upgrade-able....8 gbs of ram is nothing.

 

So...did it work? I always love more RAM.

 

My guess is that it wouldnt work. You got i7 processor with an integrated memory controller. First generation (core i7-xxx) processors does not support 8GB sticks, while second generation (core-i7 2xxx) does. You can check it on intel`s web page.

 

even though intel stated that i7 1st gen wasn't support memory more than 8Gb,

but they give a note that there's certain OEM Processor that come together with Notebook maker that have their own customized spec, which is still plausible that it support 16Gb max memory

this is what intel customer service tech said in email :

 

Other notebooks with G1 i7's have them up and running. A lot of the time, those specs are written when said hardware isn't available.

 

According to http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/M15x/en/compspec/CS_en.pdf the max is 8 GB at 1333 MHz

 

please see sig, specifically 8740w which got its 4 8's back about a year ago wgen they were a small fortune.
my x220 said 8 max but took 16 without a hiccup, many mfgrs wrote all the spec before 8's were widly available and never updated them

 

So...has anyone done this with their M15x yet?

 

Hoping to see some answers

 

OK people, listen all to me now.

1-st gen I7 can work with more than 8GB RAM and intel says that it can work in documents. Why does that link say that maximum is 8GB? I don't care. Intel likes to mislead people sometimes. For example Intel SB processors really work with 1866 RAM while officially stated that they can't.
Go read PDF file aka official technician documents about I7-720QM and other CPUs. You will see that they support up to 32 Gbs of RAM or so.

Link on Crucial RAM feedback of I7-740QM (I guess) user

 

Yep, many C2D boards said max 4GB and that was equally false.

 

We all know that, what we want to know is, who has done this on their M15x?

 

just wait im fixing to confirm by next week i should know.

im sure it will work i did my research before hand, and im sure most users don need 8gigs much less 16gigs

 

And we aren't "most users" . Keep us posted mate.

 

true, I'd love 64 in a portable workstation

 

+1 to that, "most users" will not bother to get an AW

 

It will work. Had someone try it in an M17x R2 since I order my 16GB a few days ago.

Proof below
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...r2-single-gpu-crossfirex-339.html#post8199879

 

cool, good to know. there u go "Most User" see it works... lol

 

now the only difference is :

-Most of notebook that work with more than 8GB ram (12-16Gb) r notebook with 4 slot of RAM, so normally the configuration is 4x4

-Now with M15x (which only have 2 RAM slot), we need to use 8GB stick for 16GB configuration

-It's been proofed that even 1st gen i7 can support more than 8GB RAM, but the real problem is, will it detect single 8GB stick properly?

 

It does in the M17x R2 which only has two ram slots Chief useful two 8gb sticks.

 

Ok, so i just switched out one of my 4gb sticks with a 8 gb stick. So it works fine, 12 gigs total. The interesting thing is that the BIOS believes the slot is empty, but then still detects the aditional memory.
Slot0: 0mb
Slot1: 4096mb
total: 12288mb
So i guess in a few more years, i'll switch the other 4g stick out with another 8 gb one when its cheaper. easy way to prolong the life of this laptop.

 

i received my kit today, shipping was faster than i expected. So everything looks good here a pic for guy that like to see prove M15x 16gigs

 

I think I will be doing this soon! It's $160, and it will prolong the life of my computer by alot, thanks guys for proving this!

 

What are you guys doing that you need 12-16GB of RAM to prolong life of laptop??? In fact, even 3.3 GB with OS x86 is enough for Solitare... I mean Crysis/Crysis 2 with 15 tabs of Firefox

 

If you don't need them now, better wait, the 2 x4Gb kits were the same not even a year ago.

 

Hey guys I found this on ebay, and I'm wondering if they will work or not!
I really want to snatch them up right away, so please help me with this one. They are 1.35v not 1.5v so I am not sure if they will work or not.
Crucial 16GB Laptop Memory (4x4GB), DDR3 1333 | eBay

PLEASE HELP

edit: forget this, this is 4x4gb ram not 2x8gb.... what a scam, well anyways sorry!

16GB 2X 8GB DDR3 PC3-10600 SODIMM PC10600 1333MHz LAPTOP MEMORY RAM 16 GB (8GBx2 | eBay

Ok so I found one that I think will actually work! Sorry for the last messup, but I am still wondering if this will work too!

Thanks!

 

you should really write your thoughts in a calm way.

I don't suggest you to buy no-name ram

 

Ya I just enjoy writing with enthusiasm, sorry I should have checked before I posted. Just so you know I am only a kid.

 

I'm not sure why you called the first link a scam. The title itself states 4x4gb = 16gb lol.

 

I know, I just didn't look enough, and the picture was of two ram dimms not four. At least I couldn't see four of them.

 

Anything with the word "Adobe" in front of it.

 

it is not prolonging. If you buy new laptop with same amount of RAM it will have same issues.

Prolonging life means that adding RAM will eliminate leak of power because of weak CPU, GPU, Chipset or else. If it all except RAM is alright then it is called Usual Upgrade.

 

i for one upgraded for Autocad civil 3d(runs snappier in my opinion), i dont run a million tabs and alot of other stuff in the background like my older brother, who im sure runs his 4gigs at cap. Never really thought about it extending the life of the system, mainly because im paired with a xm cpu(oc'ed) and a 6990m gpu, this is going to shorten the life of my machine for sure.

 

Great news guys! I doubt we ever need so much ram, but still M15x keeps on impressing. Its future proof

 

Running lots of VMs at the same time.

I blame you for making me spend more money

 

Oh allow me to begin my apology by saying... Your Welcome

 

I just found 8GB DDR3-1333 (PC3-10666) CL9 SO-DIMM Laptop Memory Module
for 69.99 each. I suppose two of those bad boys would be exactly what the doctor ordered....

 

When most people use this term, they mean they're extending the time-frame before they'll be forced to upgrade completely. There isn't really anything you can do about power leaks, that's a design fault.

I hope they're not Komputerbay.

 

Check my latest thread! Ifound Geil for 54.99$ on Newegg!!!!

@I meant power like «horse power» not electricity term.

 

actually they are Corsair and it is an advertised special being run right now. I plan on picking up two next week.

Also my dvd drive failed in my mx15 and instead of replacing it, I think I am going to put an ssd in the bay. The same place has OCZ 120GB Agility 3 drive for 129.99. Might be the best 270.00 bucks I could spend right now.....