Aurora R12, retail ram upgrade?

Thank you! I was looking at Crucial ram and may try them!

Happy to help out!

OK. I got some Crucial Ballistic chips and installed them and now my system has 32GB of ram. The good news is the system booted fine after the install with no errors, and it seems to be running fine also. However, in the BIOS, I now only have an option for XMP1, where with the original chip, I had 1 or 2. The Alienware Command center shows the Corsairs running at 3200 more or less. The Kingston that was originally in it, showed it was running at just over 3400. Should this be a concern? I installed the two chips in the 2nd and 4th ram slots that were colored white. The original chip was in the first white slot. I am not sure if it matters which two slots are used, as long as they are the same color. My system is prompting me to do a BIOS update (I am on 1.1.6). I think the latest version is 1.1.12. I used to update all my systems to the latest verion of the BIOS, but I am not sure that is wise in this case. Any advice? I appreciate ll the help so far! 

After looking again at the chip that came with my system, it is actually a DDR4 3400 chip, not a 3200. My PC hardware skills are rusty, so I am going to guess the ram I purchased, while working fine, is not XMP 2 compatible. Apparently, the Kingston chip that came with my system is very hard to find. Will DDR 3600 ram work in the R12?

I purchased some Crucial Ballistic chips and installed them and now my system has 32GB of ram. The good news is the system booted fine after the install with no errors, and it seems to be running fine also. However, in the BIOS, I now only have an option for XMP1, where with the original chip, I had 1 or 2. The Alienware Command center shows the Crucials running at 3200 more or less. The Kingston that was originally in it, showed it was running at just over 3400, but after looking at it again, it is a 3400 chip. So it looks like the new chips are doing as they should. I installed the two chips in the 2nd and 4th ram slots that were colored white. The original chip was in the first white slot. I am not sure if it matters which two slots are used, as long as they are the same color. My system is prompting me to do a BIOS update (I am on 1.1.6). I think the latest version is 1.1.12. I used to update all my systems to the latest verion of the BIOS, but I am not sure that is wise in this case. My hardware skills are not what they used to be, but I am guessing the ram I bought is not XMP 2 compatible since I now have no option in the BIOS to choose that. I looked for getting a single chip just like the one that was in there originally, but nobody has them in stock. I can get some Kingston chips like the original but are DD4 3600. Will these work?

Not sure what your memory configuration is since you did not mention it, but 3,600 is not supported on the R12.

Also, these systems are picky when it comes to aftermarket ram, so mixing Crucial with the original OEM might cause issues.

Also, 4 x 8 GB is not a validated configuration. Memory support listed here: R12 memory support 

I would not be mixing the Crucial with the original OEM. I was planning on trying the Kingston 3600's in place of the Crucial since they are close to the same chip that was in it, just rated a bit faster. The original would not be installed at all. After Googling this, I found a few people that did it and had no issues. I will find out tomorrow eve and report back here! Would have been a lot easier if I could have found just one chip like the OEM, but I have had no luck. As a matter of fact, the speed rating of that chip, which is apparently 3466, does not seem to be too common. 

Also, I looked on Kingston's web page, and 3400 speed chips like the OEM that was in my Aurora, are not even listed. They go from 3200 to 3600.

Kingston aftermarket and kingston oem memory-kits are not the same even if they look the same. Only guaranteed to work memory in these dell-systems is the oem kingston ONLY available from Dell.

Thank you for the replies. This has been a learning experience and a lot of fun at the same time! I received the Kingston Fury 3600 chips yesterday, installed them, and the system booted right up with no errors. The BIOS shows XMP 1 and 2, and setting it to 1 sets the ram at 3466, just like the original chip. I ran it all last evening, putting the system through a few "tests" by playing a few games and it ran smooth as silk. I left it on all night and had no issues this morning. I have not had a chance to run any benchmark tests, but Windows 11 and the AW Command Center shows the chips running at 3466 mhz. It has been many years since I purchased a name brand prebuilt system. I used to build my own and upgrade them every 2 years or so, but I do not have the time to do that these days, or the will. My original plan was to get a system board, processor, and ram and upgrade my old Dell XPS 730x gaming rig, but was not sure if everything would work. I know a lot of these systems are proprietary to some degree and after taking that into consideration, decided to just get a prebuilt system (minus the GPU!). I have also learned a bit about XMP and ram. Apparently that is something that is built into the ram chip and why the Crucials I purchased only showed 1 XMP profile in the BIOS. While I realize Dell does not "support" other ram other than what they have tested, this system is like others I have owned where you do NOT have to get the manufacturers ram. Also, even though this system does not support 3600 ram, it does set the ram to the highest speed it can and the ram is backward compatible.  I have also already put two different types of non-Dell ram in this system, and so far at least, it is running great. I will test it and stress it more as the week goes on and post any feedback here. Does anybody have a suggestion for a good freeware ram benchmark utility??

Thanks! I will keep my eyes peeled for that! I have no plans to upgrade the BIOS. If it is not broken, do not try to fix it!  ;p)