Aurora R9, memory upgrade solved

Question

I purchased an Alienware Aurora R9 from Best Buy about a month ago. The system came with two 8 GB cards of Kingston Hyper X 2666 MHz DDR4 memory for a total of 16 GB. Kingston X5H5PW-MIE T19331L236. The system worked fine but, I run some intense simulations and wanted to add more memory to have a total of 32 GB

I spoke with Dell customer service on the phone about upgrading and they advised me to purchase a single 16 GB memory module from Dell. P/N SNPTP9W1C/16G a 2666 MHz card . By the way on the Dell support site it identifies the same card as the proper upgrade card and it is.

I added in the new 16 GB card. BUT WHAT DELL DID NOT TELL ME IS THAT THE CARD I JUST BOUGHT WOULD NOT BE COMPATIBLE WITH THE TWO 8 GB CARDS THAT CAME WITH THE SYSTEM. THANKS A LOT DELL BIOS won't recognize the mix of cards and system will not boot.

This has been an expensive lesson to learn. The lesson is this, if you want to upgrade your memory in an Aurora R9 get ready to remove the memory that came with the system. Because what Dell will sell you as an upgrade won't work unless you do. I purchased a second SNPTP9W1C/16G 2666 MHz card removed the original memory and inserted the the two new cards I bought from Dell that gives me the 32 GB I needed and it set me back $298.00 USD plus shipping and tax.

By the way the customer service team at Kingston is not any better, they never responded to an online submission asking about their FURY DDR 4 memory you can buy from their online store. At this point I figured I would take one more step and purchase a pair of Hyper X Fury DDR 4 8 GB cards from Kingston. HX426C16FB3K2/16 DPMK08B1908 8 GB cards and added them to the original two 8 GB cards that came with the system, would the system boot or the BIOS even recognize them. No!

So here in lies the lesson. If you are buying an Aurora R-9 with the idea that you will be able to add after market memory to the system forget it. Buy the computer fully configured or minimally configured and get ready to buy your expanded memory from Dell and toss out the original memory that came with your brand new Aurora R-9

Yes XMP was set right, etc, CPUz and all diags showed no system problems, boards seated properly etc.

My first PC was an original IBM from 1982 which I bought in 1982. 37 years of working with PCs building them from scratch and making the chips themselves.

Dell your customer service people should have advised me that the board they sold me that they recommended on the phone would not be compatible with what was in the PC to begin with. Oh and I tried to reach them with the case number, service tag, etc when I was having these issues by email and no one responded.

Dell would you like to buy back the non compatible 16 GB of memory that came with the system? Very disappointed in your sales customer service Dell fell free to contact me.

GTS81 · Answer

@SpockF14 :

Dell your customer service people should have advised me that the board they sold me that they recommended on the phone would not be compatible with what was in the PC to begin with. Oh and I tried to reach them with the case number, service tag, etc when I was having these issues by email and no one responded.
Dell would you like to buy back the non compatible 16 GB of memory that came with the system? Very disappointed in your sales customer service Dell fell free to contact me.

I'd recommend you post the same post in the "Customer Care" forum so that one of the customer care agent/ manager can reach out to you. I've seen one or two of them being responsive to customers' post there.

My first PC was an original IBM from 1982 which I bought in 1982. 37 years of working with PCs building them from scratch and making the chips themselves.

Oh wow. So that has to be a PC-XT and many machines in between then and now?

Yes XMP was set right, etc, CPUz and all diags showed no system problems, boards seated properly etc.

As you've made some chips yourself, you'd be well versed with the whole stack from software, to system, to components. As you continue using your R9, you'll start seeing a whole bunch of limitations. For example, you've only mentioned XMP, maybe because of the chaos in debugging the issue. What about SPD timings? That's right! Dell BIOS doesn't allow you to mess around with that! Also, if you have an unlocked CPU, trying to go beyond OC1/ OC2 profiles Dell gives us will be a hot mess. There's no way to set a fixed voltage during Turbo nor is there a way to deterministically control system fans. Welcome and have fun!

r72019 · Answer

Dell Hyper X Fury runs at a different (higher) voltage than Kingston Hyper X Fury.  1.4v vs 1.2, so the Dell RAM is not as good, requires higher voltages to maintain stability.  That's probably why your second attempt to mix Dell RAM with Kingston RAM didn't work.  Kingston makes the RAM special order to spec for Dell, it's not the same as their own ram.

GreenTrumpetX3 · Answer

Any chance you want to sell your original 16gb of ram?  I have not had success upgrading with kingston ram either.  Thanks!

mako64 · Answer

Hi there!

Thank you for the information. Just like you said, the system has compatibility problems with the Samsung EVO drives and we don't recommend using those. That being said, we don't have brands that we can recommend.

What we can tell you is that your unit supports the following:

FORM FACTOR:

One M.2 2242/2260/2280 solid-state drive

INTERFACE TYPE

SATA AHCI 6 Gbps
PCIe NVMe up to 32 Gbps

mako64 · Answer

So, Dell tech also told me that Samsung 2.5' Sata Evo Solid State Drives are not compatible with the R9. I purchased the Samsung 860 Evo SSD with my unit and with other items on the order. My main issue is why isn't the most popular SSD not compatible? My unit is still in the box. Does anybody know why... Is anybody using the Samsung 860 evo Solid State Drive.

mako64 · Answer

We are sorry for any inconvenience,

Technically speaking, you can use a 2.5" SSD into the SATA port. Unfortunately, we can't fully guaranty that it will work, since we haven't tested our units with that configuration.

At this time, we would recommend you checking with your local support for further help.

? Local Support... I got the 3 year Warranty, and again I have not unboxed yet. I just got it like 5 days ago.

What Solid State 2.5" Drives are ya'll using. in the service manual the is a picture of a seagate SSD. Would that brand work. I'm kinda glad I got the M2 2TB single drive and the best 32 GB of Ram. All my Computers have been Dells and I have not had any problems with them. I upgraded my older XP8300 with a Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB with no probs...which is what I'm on right now and its it smoking fast !

GTS81 · Answer

Answers have been posted in the thread that you started. Why come clobber stuff up here? The original post was about RAM, not storage.

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/Aurora-R9-and-Samsung-EVO-solid-State-Drives/m-p/7523549#M23729

r72019 · Answer

in I have not unboxed yet. I just got it like 5 days ago.

Couldn't help commenting that it seems premature to say the drive doesn't work with the R9, considering you haven't opened the box the PC came in yet.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

Aurora R9 validated OEM memory and SSD XMP memory sticks =N205T 16GB XMP Fury HyperX, DDR4, 3200MHz, 2GX64, Unbuffered, Dual Rank, 1.25v, Non-ECC, 288 pin, Kingston XN205T-MIERMWRN 16GB XMP Fury HyperX, DDR4, 2933MHz, 2Gx64, Unbuffered, Dual Rank, 1.35v, Non-ECC, 288 pin, Kingston XRMWRN-HYA/XRMWRN-MIERGM6C 16GB XMP Fury HyperX, DDR4, 2666MHz, 2Gx64, Unbuffered, Dual Rank, 1.25v, Non-ECC, 288 pin, Kingston XRGM6C-MIB/XRGM6C-MIEJ69DF 8GB XMP Fury HyperX, DDR4, 2933MHz, 1Gx64, Unbuffered, Single Rank, 1.35v, Non-ECC, 288 pin, Kingston XJ69DF-HYA/XJ69DF-MIE5H5PW 8GB XMP Fury HyperX, DDR4, 2666MHz, 1Gx64, Unbuffered, Dual Rank, 1.25v, Non-ECC, 288 pin, Kingston X5H5PW-MIB/X5H5PW-MIE Non-XMP memory sticksTP9W1 16GB, DDR4, 2666MHz, 1Gx72, Unbuffered, Dual Rank, 1.25v, Non-ECC, 288 pinAdata AO2P26KCST2-BZJSHCHynix HMA82GU6CJR8N-VK, HMA82GU6DJR8N-VK, HMA82GU6JJR8N-VKKingston KTP9W1-HYJ, KTP9W1-MID, KTP9W1-MIEMicron MTA16ATF2G64AZ-2G6E1, MTA16ATF2G64AZ-2G6H1, MTA16ATF2G64AZ-2G6J1Samsung M378A2K43CB1-CTD, M378A2K43DB1-CTD Y7N41 8GB, DDR4, 2666MHZ, 1Gx64, Unbuffered, Single Rank, 1.25v, Non-ECC, 288 pinAdata AO2P26KC8T1-BXGSHCHynix HMA81GU6CJR8N-VK, HMA81GU6DJR8N-VK, HMA81GU6JJR8N-VKKingston KY7N41-HYJ, KY7N41-MID, KY7N41-MIEMicron MTA8ATF1G64AZ-2G6E1, MTA8ATF1G64AZ-2G6H1, MTA8ATF1G64AZ-2G6J1Samsung M378A1K43CB2-CTD, M378A1K43DB2-CTD   MHG36 2TB, Samsung PM981A, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.38mm53J86 2TB, Toshiba XG6, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.23mmMGHFP 2TB, Toshiba XG5, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.23mm T8TY0 1TB, Hynix PC601, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.15mmMXTT3 1TB, Hynix PC611, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.15mmVHM0P 1TB, Intel HH2, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 1.5mm189WF 1TB, Micron 2200S, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.3mmF7DVX 1TB, Samsung PM981A, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.38mm3N94F 1TB, Toshiba XG6, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.23mmN5VYR 1TB, Western Digital SN730, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.38mm V4RWG 512GB, Hynix PC601, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.15mm5DHY4 512GB, Hynix PC611, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.15mm170G8 512GB, Intel HH2, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 1.5mmK64PG 512GB, Liteon CAZ, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.3mmY5Y15 512GB, Micron 2200S, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.3mm3R5RC 512GB, Samsung PM981A, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.38mmKP8C4 512GB, Toshiba XG6, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.23mm5F7NT 512GB, Western Digital SN730, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.38mm 988CH 256GB, Hynix PC601, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.15mm0W5XP 256GB, Hynix PC611, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.15mmDNPK1 256GB, Intel HH2, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 1.5mmC4H8W 256GB, Liteon CAZ, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.3mmWGFH4 256GB, Micron 2200S, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.3mmNJ9VC 256GB, Samsung PM981A, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.38mm3VFCP 256GB, Toshiba XG6, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.23mmH22WD 256GB, Western Digital SN730, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.38mm VGN9P 128GB, Hynix BC501, PCIe-32, M.2, 22mm/30mm/2.38mmT0VY9 128GB, Hynix BC501A, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.38mm6HG72 128GB, Hynix SC311, SATA3, M.2, 22mm/80mm/2.38mm, Non EncryptedR3CDK 128GB, Liteon, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.3mm5PH9H 128GB, Samsung PM871B, SATA3, M.2, 22mm/80mm/2.38mm80HKM 128GB, Samsung PM881, SATA3, M.2, Height 2.38mmCNYM8 128GB, Samsung PM991, PCIe-34, M.2, Height 2.3mm9946M 128GB, Toshiba BG4, PCIe-34, M.2P0XH3 128GB, Western Digital SN520, PCIe-32, M.2, 22mm/30mm/2.38mm

Juntauk · Answer

I am using the 860 evo SSD quite happily on my R9 as an extra drive. No problems at all.

JDendi · Answer

I’ll sell you mine, just bought my R9 three days ago. Looking to upgrade my RAM so don’t really need this one

jackanda · Answer

just bought one stick of 8gb ram from hyperx amazon same speed everything as the one that came in my r9 and it says i have 16gb in the system info page. it seems it worked why are people saying it doesnt? @JDendi

Saugier · Answer

Thank you sir for all this information.

Being foreign, I'd like to ask a question to be sure I understood this thread : I would like to increase the 32 GB of my Aurora R9 to 64 GB.

Concerning the RAM compatibility table you posted, does it means I can buy any of this RAM and add it to the RAM that came with my Aurora R9 (which is "370-ADWK : 32Go de mémoire DDR4 XMP bicanale HyperX™ FURY à 2933MHz", reference: RMWRN | DIMM,16GB,2933,2R,8,DR4,NU,XMP | 2 ?

Or do I have to remove the RAM that came with the Aurora R9, and buy 64 GB according to the table ?

Thank you,

r72019 · Answer

@Saugier All the RAM noted in the table above are Dell part numbers, you can contact Dell directly to buy the extra 32gb to add to your system.  The retail hyperx fury sold by kingston on amazon, etc., is not the same as any of the above listed RAM because the Dell parts are custom spec'ed for Dell.  If you get third party RAM best practice is to get a matched 64gb set to avoid compatibility issues

Saugier · Answer

@r72019

Hello,

Concerning the upgrade from 32 GB to 64 GB, I ordered 2 x 16 GB as indicated in the above post (the RMWRN @2933 MHz, my Aurora R9 had already been delivered with 2 x 16 GB RMWRN @2933 Mhz). I also asked in the chat and they pointed me to this upgrade (2 x 16 GB RMWRN) after having looked at my Aurora R9 configuration.

I received and added the DELL RAM, but now I have the following problem:

All the RAM (64 GB) is available
BUT, when I look at the memory performance in the task manager, it indicates 2800 MHz instead of 2933 MHz.

This is confirmed by benchmark results, for instance the Python AI Benchmark now gives a 27035 global score instead of 28560 before, which means when I do not need the additional memory the system will be slower !

Any idea how I can get my memory to work at its optimal speed as expected ?

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Aurora R9, memory upgrade solved

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