Upgrading RAM on XPS M1730

I have the XPS M1730 with 4GB of RAM on it. I've been told that it is possible to upgrade to 6GB of RAM, like they are now offering with the new XPS M1730's. However whenever I check on RAM upgrade sites, they tell me my maximum is 4GB...

Can anyone confirm if I would indeed be able to upgrade or not? I also noticed that the RAM they offer on the Dell site is faster - 800MHz I believe. Whereas I'm running @ 667MHz.

Do the new XPS M1730s contain a newer motherboard, or would it indeed be possible for me to upgrade to 6GB @ 800Mhz?

If anyone could link me to a site where I can get it I would much appreciate it =-)

Edit: Just to confirm, this is what the Dell site shows their new RAM at:

6144MB 800 MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (1x2GB + 1x4GB)

I hope I can upgrade!

 

I doubt that there is a new motherboard. At most an updated BIOS.

<s>If your CPU's FSB is 800MHz, then the RAM should be able to run at the same speed.</s>

edit: Quicklite is right, the RAM will downclock to 667MHz in your computer.

 

Hi namaiki, thanks a lot for the reply.

my CPU is the X9000, and it does indeed have 800MHz FSB. So basically, if I can find a 4GB and 2GB DDR2 at 800Mhz, it should run okay in my computer?

 

RAM will automatically downclock to 667mhz; this is cos the chipset of M1730 only support 667mhz ram

 

Then why are they offering it at 800MHz on the Dell site?

 

it looks nice

and they probably ordered a bunch of 800mhz ram for other systems... cheaper to buy bulk...

 

Its just marketing depart at work. Santa Rosa chipset support 800 mhz cpu fsb, and 667 mhz memory bus. Any ram over 667 mhz will be downclocked no matter what dell says.

 

Alrighty, shame 'cos that's the worst part of my system =-(

However, do you reckon I could install 6GB without an issue? Even though it says my limit is 4GB?

 

Dell ships 6gb M1730, so I dont see what the problem is.

The chipset limit is 6.8gb I think. As long as you use 64 bit OS, 6gb should be fine.

 

Alright Quicklite, and everyone else, thanks a lot for all your help. Dell told me that I cannot:
A) Get 6GB of RAM
B) Upgrade from my 8800M GTX's to the 9800M GTX's.

Why? My computer isn't compatible apparently, even though I only bought it August last year.

And yeah Quick, using a 64-Bit OS, 4GB of RAM at the minute. Now to find a decent priced 4GB stick =-P

 

No, the limit here is at 8GB. I have 2x4GB DDR2-667 on my chipset and I can get up to 7.9GB on photoshop sometimes. It fully utilizes all 8GB.

@Eambo

Let me tell something about Dell: they'll tell you things that you cannot do, but in fact you can. I asked once, what was the maximum RAM the M1730 can support, and they tell me it was 4GB max - And that was just last month where it was CLEARLY marked there was an 8GB option on their website. Telling me that 4GB was the max is their complete rubbish on their part sorry to point that out.

This also goes to the Inspiron 1720 - where 6GB is the max with their BIOS.

Achieving 6-8GB RAM IS compatible. All M1730s come with PM965/GM965 chipsets and therefore it can support it especially with the latest BIOS A10.

Getting 9800M GTX in SLI is also possible. The question here is why did they remove it from their website. The 9800M GT SLI is the highest it can support at the moment.

Moreover I have recently upgraded the graphics card of my friend's M1730 from a single 8700M GT to dual 9800M GT SLi - and once again, Dell claim it was not compatible, when it clearly was.

 

Hi SomeFormOfhuman, thanks for the response!

I'm scouring the internet atm, my chipset is the PM965 model. All I can see are references to 4GB of RAM max, I can't find anything saying whether 8GB is compatible =-( Do you have the same chipset as me? I'd considering buying 8GB if I knew it would work, but I'd like confirmation from someone with the same chipset who has done it.

I'm not too fussed with the 9800M GTX's, as it wouldn't provide much improvement over my 8800Ms. Maybe one for the future.

 

LOL, I'm using a PM965 chipset as well. In fact, if memory serves me right, all M1730s come with this chipset - it's a standard distribution Overall it doesn't matter really, the BIOS does the job for recognizing the maximum RAM capacity. In fact both chipsets, GM/PM965 can have support up to 8GB, the other older generation chipsets don't. Check it out at the Intel chipset page.

But first, can I ask you a question? Why do you need 8GB? Any specific need for 8GB?

 

Basically just to futureproof my laptop as best I can. I spent a hell of a lot of money on it initially, so I like to try and keep it as up-to-date as I can. =-)

 

I'm not sure if it's worth going up to 6gb of ram for most people. Unless you are going to quad box world of warcraft or something, it's pretty hard to use up more than 4gb of ram without trying to deliberately crash yourself. But hey, if you use photoshop and have like 125 layers for one picture, I guess the 6 gigs of ram will help. Otherwise, if your ram usage doesn't go very high, you may as well save the money.

 

I second this.

 

Hi Zerg, thanks for the reply!

Honestly, I doubt I'll use up 6/8GB much. However I do tend to have a lot of windows open, and recently when beta testing Windows 7 and testing their updates for them, I ended up maxing my 4GB of RAM. I ended up getting a BSoD multiple times for it. So I just want to have a buffer zone, as a 'just incase' area. It can't hurt to have more - better to have too much than too little!

 

You can upgrade to 9800m GTX sli in theory.

Though the problem is the sli GPUs module in M1730 is especially designed, thus you'd have to get directly from dell.

Sadly the supply has dried, and dell never sold 9800m GTX sli as upgrade. There was a link a while ago, of a 9800m GTX sli module for $ 1499 on ebay. All for about 10% gain in performance? still want it? and it will only get more expensive...

As for RAM upgrade, this can be a very costly investment. A 4GB single stick of DDR2 RAM is very expensive atm. If you really want to make a difference in general performance, then get a small SSD for now, that makes real difference. When time comes, you can get bigger SSD and RAM.

 

Quicklite: Where exactly do SSD's go? In the normal HDD bay, or elsewhere? I've never really looked into them...

Also would it be possible to run an SSD with a normal HDD? Or is that impossible?


Thanks again for all the replies everyone =-)

 

SSD's uses your existing HDD bays!
Yes! It's has the same functionality as a standard HDD, just the performance and type is the difference.
You can use mix or match SSD/HDD's, or go Dual SSD drives Raid 0/1 (Costly and best setup)

Or SSD master = O.S. etc
and HDD slave for storage or other programs!

There are just 2 max drives you can use and any combo is fine, just not SSD/HDD in Raid setup! Due to the different drive config.

 

Alien, you pointed out exactly what I would want. SSD for gaming/OS, and a backup HDD for files etc. that don't require quick access. Awesome, thank you!

 

They act as normal hard drive; however they have no moving parts. Thus the access time is very low, as result, in real world applications, such as app loading, and booting time will reduces drastically with SSD. There are more info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive#Comparison_with_hard_disk_drives

They come in either MLC (multi-level cell), and SLC (single-level cell); MLC are cheaper usually, but are slower and less reliable than the latter; with decent controller, both ought to be noticably faster than traditional HDD.

However, the known problem with SSD is, the performance drop once the drive is filled up.

There is a thread made especially for this topic, have a look:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=208242


In short, there are three types of SSD that offer great performance/$, each with different controller:


Intel X25m-MLC with insanely read speed (250mb), and relatively fast write (70mb). These use Intel's own controller.

Its known to be very reliable, and very fast in windows due to optimisations, but they come relatively high cost. The lowest I saw was $315 for 80gb.

If you have money to burn, however, the ultimate SSD is probably X25E. They are SLC, and are optimised for workstation load especially, and has tripple the write performance of X25m. If X25M is premium, then X25E certainly comes at hefty premium. 32gb version has samilar price as the 80gb MLC counterpart.



OCZ vertex is a good value alternative: they are MLC storage, and generally considered very well rounded drive; with read that almost rival intels, and much similar write performance as X25E.

These drives are using 'barefoot' controller, which is consistantly improving with new firmware. However, the problem with these barefoot based SSD is that, once used, they express much greater performance drop, than the intel, and the samsung SSD.

The lowest price of a 120gb SSD is $315, 30gb, and 60gb are also available, but with halve the cache, hence slightly lower performance. There is 250gb version, but probably too expensive.so its a bit cheaper than the Intel.



Finally there is the Samsung PB22-J 256GB based SSD, they are very fast drives, reliable. 256gb costs about $700. May seem expensive, but they are cheaper per gb than any other decent performing drives.



What I think you should do, if on a budget, is to get a 30GB vertex for apps and games, while keeping a HDD for storage.

 

I personally bought a 128gb gskill falcon. Supposedly it uses the same controller as the ocz vertex, as opposed to the jmicron controller found on the cheaper/older ssds that causes stuttering. Don't quote me on it, I'm just recapping what I found through some googling. And honestly, I don't even understand what I wrote, is a jmicron and controllers? -___-