Memory

[darwhi]

Hi, I'm just about to purchase the 17.3" OCTANE VI laptop.

Quick question, I noticed under DDR4 2400MHz RAM you can order X4 16GB for 64GB of RAM, but under DDR4 2666MHz RAM you can only choose 2 X16GB for 32GB.
Is that the max for DDR4 2666MHz? I'm just concerned for future upgradability as I run various Virtual Machines.

(someone told me to get 2666MHz RAM for the Intel® Core™ i7-9700K processor, or does it really matter?)

Thanks in advance.

 

[Oussebon]

It doesn't usually matter a huge amount for most uses. There can be a lot of benefit versus the modest price increase for some uses e.g. certain games (no idea about VMs I'm afraid)

I doubt it's that the laptop can't support 4 sticks of 2666MHz RAM. It's more likely that PCS just haven't got a supply / a regular enough supply of 2666MHz 4 x 16gb stick kits to be able to offer that as an option. My guess, and it's only a guess, is that it's more a business decision not to offer it than a technical impossibility.

The 9700k does support 2666MHz DDR4 https://ark.intel.com/products/186604/Intel-Core-i7-9700K-Processor-12M-Cache-up-to-4-90-GHz-

 

[darwhi]

Thanks 'Oussebon' for the quick reply and the link.

 

[Tony1044]

Honestly you will see far more benefit from being able to assign a decent amount of vRAM to your guest VM's than you would see from lower amounts of vRAM and a slightly higher clock frequency.

What are you planning to use for the Hypervisor? If it's Hyper-V, I tend to use a set amount of RAM when I am first setting up a guest OS (e.g. 4GB or 8GB for say Windows Server 2016) then allow dynamically allocated RAM to take over to minimise the amount taken.

I seem to recall you can do something similar in VMware Workstation but it's been a while since I ran it to check.

 

[bvqbao]

Response from PCS:

"Unfortunately, the Octane VI only supports up to 16GB at the 3000MHz frequency and up to 32GB at 2666MHz. It's the limitation on the boards in the laptops I'm afraid."

 

[Oussebon]

Interesting. I know Ryzen had some limitations where the number of sticks affected RAM frequency, but didn't realise RAM qty would affect the frequency for laptop motherboards. Especially when lower tier (I believe) desktop chipsets support 64gb RAM at 2666MHz. Still I guess PCS have their reasons.

 

[Oussebon]

Especially when there is another retailer that appears to be selling the chassis with upto 128gb 2666MHz RAM?!

And a further retailer selling it with 64gb 2666MHz (as 2x32gb).

I assume there are reasons.. I just don't immediately see what they are, though I'm no expert.

 

[bvqbao]

Basically, it's a mainboard problem. Here are more clarifications from PCS:

"With all of our laptops they go through an extensive R&D phase, whereby we test different ram combinations in terms of channels and speed of the memory.

If they are not listed on the configurator then its likely the R&D found difficulty with the motherboard accepting certain combinations of ram/speed. With DDR4 2666hz we found issues where 64GB was being read correctly at that speed but is fine at lower speed ram. I.e. 2400 or 2133".

Hopefully, PCS will get new mainboards for future Octane.

 

[Oussebon]

The Octane just has the 1 motherboard, the chassis and motherboard are made by Clevo. The motherboard and chassis are the same (notwithstanding some models of Clevo will have different 'factory options').

It's more likely that either PCS's RAM kits didn't play nice with that particular motherboard and/or that they have more stringent standards or different tests for stability than some other vendors who are happy to sell the same motherboard with faster RAM.