Upgrading memory

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@Glenny2123 wrote:

Hi, I have an Alienware Area 51 R5 which shipped with 1x8gb of ram,

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That doesn't sound right. Are you sure it's a R5?

I ask because different Area-51 machines use different DIMMs and configs.

Yeah it’s an R5 as it says on the invoice, I only ordered it with 1x8gb of ram as I was wanting to buy 16gb 2x8gb of Corsair pro rgb to upgrade it to, the ram I have now is in dimm slot 1, do I just use dimm slot 1 and 2 for my new ram?  Not really sure why Alienware don’t state this in the manual. The dimm slots are not colour coded either 

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@Glenny2123 wrote:

Yeah it’s an R5 as it says on the invoice,

I only ordered it with 1x8gb of ram as I was wanting to buy 16gb 2x8gb of Corsair pro rgb to upgrade it to, the ram I have now is in dimm slot 1, do I just use dimm slot 1 and 2 for my new ram?  Not really sure why Alienware don’t state this in the manual. The dimm slots are not colour coded either 

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I'm sorry, but this situation doesn't make any sense to me ... I still don't follow your decision process.

You could have ordered the Area51-R5 with 8gb DIMMs x 2 = 16gb pre-installed, fast/working Dell memory.

It would have been the proper memory, in the proper slots. It would have been a pair of matching DIMMs, so it would be running in Dual-Channel.

The only question I’m asking is which dimm slots do I put 2x8gb memory modules into an Alienware Area 51 R5?

These manuals still don’t tell you which dimm slots to use for upgrading memory, there is no memory configuration matrix so I’m still no further forward. I’m using a intel i7 7800x processor 

The manuals are here:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/alienware-area51-r4/manuals

Because of these details, the Area-51 R4 and R5 use the same manuals and BIOS.

These machines share the same motherboard: HJ5Y7 (Area51-R4/R5)
Area51-R4 = Intel X299 PCH chipset, Intel Skylake-X CPU
Area51-R5 = Intel X299 PCH chipset, Intel Skylake-X CPU

Finally, for someone to help you ... it might be helpful to know exactly which Intel processor model is installed.

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@Glenny2123 wrote:

The only question I’m asking is which dimm slots do I put 2x8gb memory modules into an Alienware Area 51 R5?

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Yes, I know what you want. It's just that, as you found, the manuals are incomplete ... so I'm trying to collect the data the best I can.

But I'm doing it begrudgingly, because this whole situation is quite unnecessary.  :Smile:

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@Glenny2123 wrote:

These manuals still don’t tell you which dimm slots to use for upgrading memory, there is no memory configuration matrix so I’m still no further forward. I’m using a intel i7 7800x processor 

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Right.

The MB pic in the manual also shows the DIMM slots without color-coding (usually denotes a Memory-Bank) ... so my guess would be each grouped pair of slots is a stand-alone Dual-Channel Memory Bank.

I suggest you swap one new DIMM with the existing one. Then, install the other (matching) new DIMM right next to it.

It should report in BIOS and/or ePSA. Also, the final test will be if it shows as operating as "Dual Channel" in CPUID's CPUz.

We got there in the end, thank you 

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@Glenny2123 wrote:

We got there in the end, thank you 

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You are welcome.

That's a nice machine. I like this Intel-based one better also. However, it's so high-end, I think it's a bit rare.