The 8GB RAM Laptop Era Begins

re: The 8GB RAM Laptop Era Begins

Keith Combs — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 08:59:28 GMT

I stopped second guessing OEMs long ago. In many respects, laptops are like cell phones. Expecting to upgrade them with something different than the orginal specs is folly.

re: The 8GB RAM Laptop Era Begins

bigbillyt — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:48:07 GMT

In case this helps anyone: I had a Precision M4300 and was able to get my hands on 2 of the Kingston 4gb DIMMS. I had the laptop loaded with x64 Win 2008 Server Datacenter, which ran nicely with no real driver issues, just had to load the chipset, video and WLAN drivers for Vista x64. The laptop could see either of the 4gb DIMMS in either slot, and it could see and use one 4gb with one of the 2gb that it came with originally for a total of 6gb fine. However, with both 4gb modules it would hang on the initial Dell boot screen. I tried several different BIOS revisions, different BIOS settings and even tried removing as much hardware as possible (I took out the media bay drive and and the WLAN card) still no luck. I then had a chance to try the same 2 DIMMs on a brand new D830, same results. Interestingly, Kingston shows the D830 as supported with 8gb. Even stranger, I talked to an engineer at Kingston who said simply that he heard the same behavior reported elsewhere. I then opened a case with Dell and spoke with several different levels of tech suppport. The strangest thing yet, they said that at least the m4300 had been tested with 8gb and that, unofficially, it should work. Another Dell tech said that the motherboards on the D830 and the m4300 were exactly the same and that it should work on either.

My guess is that they are purposely limiting this in the BIOS at least until the E series latitudes ship with Montevina chipset, which definitley supports 8gb, sometime in the late July, early August time frame. So why ship the M6300 with 8gb support now? Easy, there is no Latitude model with a 17" screen. I also wonder if they had to cut a deal with Intel to allow that with the Santa Rosa chipset since Intel says they don't support over 4gb on that platform.

re: The 8GB RAM Laptop Era Begins

Thakur — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:23:53 GMT

Sure we need 8 Gig laptops for VMs ! I have 4 gigs and T61 with Dual Hard Drives, and Xen server, and it still dosnt quite cut it.

Bring on 8 Gig laptops with dual drives so we can get some VMs running and move around the globe for Demos and carry just one system !

ps: To they guy with 4gb of "memory" on his phone. You shouldnt be reading such blogs. and if you do, Dont post a reply.

@Kris

James — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:44:27 GMT

Is 4Gigs on your Phone must be storage capacity not memory...

re: The 8GB RAM Laptop Era Begins

Martin — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:33:46 GMT

They give no insight beyond the published specs :-(

re: The 8GB RAM Laptop Era Begins

Keith Combs — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:01:18 GMT

I'd call Dell and see what they say.

re: The 8GB RAM Laptop Era Begins

Martin — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:29:14 GMT

Hi Keith,

Unfortunately I don't want to risk £1500 on it. I'd rather know for sure, so I have to wait.

Thanks

Martin

re: The 8GB RAM Laptop Era Begins

Keith Combs — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 23:03:01 GMT

Martin,

Probably right now. Most of the Santa Rosa based laptops will go to 8GB. You just don't see it in the published specs.

re: The 8GB RAM Laptop Era Begins

Martin — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:55:49 GMT

When will the Precision M4300 take 8Gb RAM? I'm hoping the new Centrino 2 chipset (delayed) will help.

re: The 8GB RAM Laptop Era Begins

Keith Combs — Sat, 24 May 2008 22:59:17 GMT

Just what we need, virtual machine demos from our phones... grin