XPS 17 RAM upgrade policy

Question

Dear Community,

I'm an Italian customer and I'm very surprised by the fact that I cannot buy a XPS 17 new laptop with 32 Gb of RAM from scratch. I don't know why Dell started selling this computer with this policy in several countries, but it is rather strange for creative-dedicated machine.

Moreover, and this is the most strange thing, local Dell told me that XPS 17 with 16 Gb cannot be upgraded by the customer: only 32 Gb version are capable to receive an upgrade. Is it true?

Regards and thanks for an answer

Andrea

Mary G · Answer

What exact model XPS 17? There are many of those.

AndreaIA · Answer

Hi @Mary G,

I refer to the new XPS 17 (9700), which, in Italy, DELL sells with a maximum RAM amount of 16 Gb, with no possibilities to upgrade it. Moreover they say that the configuration with 126 Gb could not be upgraded by the user.

Regards

Andrea

Arrioeus · Answer

Hi, you’ll need RAM with the following specs: Type: 260-Pin DDR4 SO-DIMMSpeed: DDR4 2933 (PC4 23400)Voltage: 1.2V

cruzer77 · Answer

The Dell Rep I talk to today also told me I would void the warranty if I upgraded myself. Is this a new policy for the XPS 17 (9700)?

Here in Switzerland we can also only get the 16GB configurations, they do not sell a 32GB or 64GB config.

gmzcodes · Answer

@cruzer77 They told me the same here in Spain, but they didn't say that it's not upgradable as @AndreaIA was saying, only that I would void the warranty.

They offered me two alternatives:

Get a Dell Precision instead, which can be configured, just like the XPS in the US, but is obviously way more expensive and has some differences, like the NVIDIA Quadro graphic cards.
Buy an XPS, send it back to Dell so that their support technicians do the upgrade and then send it back to me. Obviously, the parts would be more expensive than they would if I buy them directly and I would have to pay for shipping 3 times.

Either way, not happening for me.

After doing some research, I'm pretty sure here in Spain they can't void the warranty for replacing socketed RAMs or SSDs, as those are considered CRU (Custoner Replaceable Unit). They can, however, require you to put back the original components if you need to send them back your XPS for some reason.

I asked a representative about this around a month ago but got no answer.

Here's another thread about this in Spanish: https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/Maxed-out-XPS-17/m-p/7637420#M595

Let's see if we can get an official confirmation about the XPS 17 being customer upgradable without voiding the warranty...

cruzer77 · Answer

A short follow up to my post. The Dell rep. sold me the 4x 16GB RAM for our 2 new XPS17s and told me they would send a technician for free to install them. Later he called a said, because of Corona they are limiting visits by their technicians and I would have to install the RAM myself after all. In the event of a warranty issue I would have to have the original RAM at hand to install.

In the meantime we have upgraded both machines and we are very happy with both of the devices. No issues so far. I also noticed that 32GB versions can now be ordered.

XPS

XPS 17 RAM upgrade policy

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