Upgrading RAM and SSD on new Aero 15

Hello all,

First time poster here looking for some guidance on what do to with my new laptop.

There's alot of language used here that I don't quite understand, over clocking, latency, mux, BIOS, JEDEC something or other. So I'll try to explain what I'm trying to do in hopes that someone can help me in layman's terms so I'll understand lol.

I've ordered the Aero 15 KD with the 3060 and I7-11800H processor. It comes with 16gb of RAM and a measly 512 gb SSD. Im starting out in learning photography, so I will be using the laptop primarily for photo editing, and daily use of browsing the web and such. Programs will include ON1 RAW, lightroom, photoshop, etc. I chose this one for the beautiful OLED screen and color accuracy.. Im not a PC gamer, and mostly stick to console gaming, but I may end up putting minecraft on it or something. So I don't need the thing to run super hot or blazing fast, but I also don't like to click something and have to wait and wait for it to work, like I do on my current laptop.

I obviously need to upgrade the storage, and from what I understand, there are two slots, one PCIe m.2 gen 4 and the other gen 3. So I had planned to purchase a 2tb samsung 970 evo plus for the gen 3 slot, and a 980 Pro 1tb for the gen 4 slot. Does this sound ok? I will need to somehow clone the drive that is in the laptop to the new 1tb 980 and get it to boot up, and I haven't a clue how to do that. Also, rather than putting my main storage SSD on the gen 3, is there a way to switch the boot drive to the gen 3 slot, and then use the gen 4 slot as my storage drive?

Secondly, RAM. I will be working with 33 megapixel large size RAW files, sometimes layering multiple photos, effects, filters, etc. 16 may be up to the task, but I would like to have some wiggle room. Im going to go ahead and throw 64gb in it, but I'm confused in what hz, CL, voltage, etc I need. Some older posts mention the processor won't run over 2400hz so buying 3200hz ram chips would be wasteful, however, the review on notebookcheck of the new XD model, same gen processor as my new KD, show 3200hz ram. I cant figure out the voltage though. I noticed some say I need 1.2 and mention that the computer won't run 1.35v, and there is a mention of timing being 16 or 22 or 17 and XMP and all that. This is where I get confused. I don't know what all this means and honestly just want to make it as easy as possible.

So will the new i7 gen 11 run the 3200 RAM chip or no? Basically, i just need to know what RAM will be plug and play with my new system to bring me to 64gb of RAM. At this time I'm not interested in making huge changes to the programming to allow this or that, as I feel i wouldn't use it that way and im afraid I'll break something on my $1500 investment.

90D

 

Anybody got any ideas?

90D

 

Regarding the SSDs, what you are looking to do is certainly viable. The slots are backwards compatible so what you can do is purchase your new boot drive, install it in the second slot, and use the free software available from Samsung's website to clone it. Then replace the 512 GB drive and slot the 2 TB one where the 1 TB was.

For the memory, I don't believe the Aero 15 supports XMP profiles (at least not without a modified BIOS), which allows laptops to automatically run at the speeds specified by the RAM modules. What comes stock in the laptop is probably DDR4-3200 CL22. You could get RAM with lower CL values, but the laptop would likely downclock it to a slower speed so you're not really getting what you paid for. I would go with something like this G.Skill set, which should be compatible at its rated speed and is not outrageously priced.

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 64GB (2 x 32GB) 260-Pin DDR4 SO-DIMM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Laptop Memory Model F4-3200C22D-64GRS - Newegg.com

 

Thank you for the feedback and suggestion. I will look into that ripjaws RAM. I had been previously looking at Samsung and Crucial 3200hz 64gb kits, with a CL 22 which matches the factory RAM in my computer. This may be a cheaper way to see if it works!

90D