Actually this is incorrect.

I have the vostro 3560 and have 10GB of so-dimm ram running (2gb + 8gb) so I believe the max ram possible is actually 8Gb per bank x2 = 16Gb total.

I'm running a Vostro 3560 with 16GB of RAM.  Works just fine.  You will, however, need to adjust your partition sizes for the mSATA drive.  Intel Rapid Start will need a partition that is equal to or larger than your system memory.  I reserved 20GB in my partition.  The how-to can be found here:  download.intel.com/.../rapid_start_technology_user_guide.pdf

I'm running a Vostro 3560 with 16GB of RAM.  Works just fine.  You will, however, need to adjust your partition sizes for the mSATA drive.  Intel Rapid Start will need a partition that is equal to or larger than your system memory.  I reserved 20GB in my partition.  The how-to can be found here:  download.intel.com/.../rapid_start_technology_user_guide.pdf

Please, can you tell me what type/brand/model of memories are you using in your Vostro 3560?

Dimm1: 2GB Hyundai DDR3 800mhz

Dimm2: 8GB Team-Elite-1333 (667mhz)

total 10GB

I'm running the Corsair Vengeance 16GB kit.  The SKU on it is CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10.

Also, in regards to my quoted post with the link to the guide for readjusting the partition size for Intel Rapid Start when you upgrade your RAM to 16GB.  If you're setting up Intel Rapid Start if you're running Windows 8, there's a different guide for that if you're running UEFI and it's linked below.  I highly recommend running Windows 8 in UEFI instead of BIOS mode, as the boot-times are amazing.  The previous guide I posted was for BIOS/Windows 7.  I'm currently running Windows 7 in UEFI (you have to enable legacy mode for install and boot) but I have also ran Windows 8 UEFI with the fast boot option, but couldn't stand Windows 8 and had other issues.  Anyways, the guide is below:

http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/rapid_start_technology_user_guide_for_uefi1.pdf

The manual states 8GB because if you upgrade the RAM and you have Intel Rapid Start enabled, it'll fudge that feature up.  The way Rapid Start works is they create a partition on the SSD that is equal to or slightly larger than the system RAM.  If you upgrade your RAM past the 8GB that is designated on this partition, then that feature will no longer work until you re-size the partition accordingly, or disable the feature in the BIOS.  The mSATA SSD that comes with the higher end 3560's is only 32GB, which means half would be used for Intel Rapid Start, leaving only 16GB of SSD space left for caching in Intel Rapid Storage...  So I think they state this to make it easier on end users.  However, I am running 16GB and have been for quite some time, and I can assure you it works correctly.  If you need any help, don't hesitate to ask!

I'm hoping for a confirmation of this. The manual says the limit for the 3560 is 8GB (which is what I have now, with 64bit Windows 7). I'd like to upgrade to 16 if possible, I'm hitting memory limits now (for data analysis with large files). Why would the manual say the limit is lower than it actually is?

Thanks!

I've upgraded to 16GB successfully. I do use Linux and mounted root partition on SSD and home partition on HDD.

Thanks! Now to demonstrate that I don't know about much about my computer: do I have an mSATA drive? Does it matter in terms of using 16GB RAM? My current system is:

Windows 7 (64 bit)

931GB ATA WDC WD10JPVT-75A SCSI Disk Device (SATA)

Intel Core i7 3632QM @ 2.20GHz

8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz