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mikemilk

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mikemilk

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October 1st, 2019 11:00

Aurora R8, memory questions

Hello.

So I purchased and just received my new Aurora R8 today. I had it built with an HDD, not an SSD. My plan was to use the HDD for secondary storage and I already have an SSD I was going to install in it. Just trying to save a few bucks. This is the memory I had installed, "Memory32GB: 16GB M.2 PCIe Intel Optane Memory + 16GB HyperX™ FURY DDR4 XMP at 2666MHz".

So my questions / problem is did I make a mistake by ordering optane memory?

Not being an expert I missunderstood exactly what optane memory was. Unfortunately after the fact I am now starting to understand, if I am correct about this, that it is mainly used with an HDD and will not produce much benefit for an SSD. Also, I'm reading that I may need to disable the optane memory if I do put a primary SSD in.

Did I waste my money? Could I have made a wiser choice with the memory?

Thanks

  • mikemilk

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    Posted October 1st, 2019 12:00

    I figured as much. Thank you for the feedback. I will attempt to go through Dell first but ultimately I see myself getting impatient and just buying the 32GB elsewhere. Do you have any recommendations. I have always seemed to have had luck with Kingston.

    You are right though, the wording was a bit confusing and mixing the optane together with where you select actual memory didn't help. The two should have been separate entities.

  • GTS81

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    Posted October 1st, 2019 12:00

    Do you have any recommendations. I have always seemed to have had luck with Kingston.

    I use 2x8GB Crucial Ballistix 3200MHz in my R8 You'd need to be careful with choosing them Kingston based on voltages. @r72019 I think may know more?

    IMG_6189.jpg

    You may want to get your SSD/ Optane-HDD business sorted out first. What's your plan? Do you want to do a fresh install of Win10 on your SSD? Or do you want to make a Macrium mirror image of the HDD onto the SSD?

  • GTS81

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    Posted October 1st, 2019 12:00

    @mikemilk: Correct, the Optane module is supposed to boost up the speed of your HDD and it is not DRAM/ regular memory. Your Windows 10 system will only see the "16GB HyperX™ FURY DDR4 XMP at 2666MHz" as available memory. You may confirm this by loading up task manager and looking at the memory capacity which should be 16GB and not 32GB.

    Is your plan to have 32GB available memory? If yes, you would have to talk to Dell and convince them there's been an honest to truest misunderstanding here, hoping they will ship you a matching 16GB HyperX Fury XMP 2666MHz module for a nominal price of an upgrade as though you paid for it during time of purchase (and not the exorbitant jacked up price they charge for post-purchase upgrades).

    I'd say you might not have much luck with the above given the community's collective experience here. The nuclear option is to return the entire system to Dell, making them acknowledge that they will give you a full refund as it was their confusing terminology that led to this mistake, and then repurchase, hopefully at the same price. Good luck!

  • GTS81

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    Posted October 1st, 2019 15:00

    You can try downloading Dell's OS recovery tool from here:

    https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/drivers/osiso/recoverytool/wt64a

    It gives you options to:

    1. A full restore of the factory image of your R8, including all the drivers and additional baggage shipped.

    2. Just plain Win10 installation

    You will need a USB stick drive for this. All of the drivers you need should be part of #1. If you decided on #2, you can go to Dell's support page and download them again. I'd recommend doing all these changes before you load too many personal files onto your current HDD+Optane setup. Of course, that precludes your interaction with Dell and how satisfied you are with them. 

  • mikemilk

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    Posted October 1st, 2019 15:00

    I plan to call Dell tomorrow. I will update then.

    As far as Windows 10 to my SSD my first thought was to clone then format the original HDD. It's been years since I bought a computer. Last time I bought a computer they still came with the install disc. I'm guessing now in order to do a fresh install of Windows from the HDD I would need to download the installation files onto a USB or something of that nature? So I don't know if in this case it will make any difference but I just don't want to lose any drivers or any important files that may be pre-installed on the original HDD. What do you recommend?

  • mikemilk

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    Posted October 1st, 2019 18:00

    That's a handy link. Things really have changed since my last computer purchase. I haven't even plugged this new one in yet. Gonna wait until I talk to Dell. After I get the ram straightened out I will move right into installing Win10 on my SSD. I think I will go the OS only route and install/update drivers as needed.

  • GTS81

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    Posted October 1st, 2019 19:00

    I remember the days of installing Win95 using 5 pcs of 1.44" floppies. Followed by 30 disks of MS office. 

  • JoeSkieez

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    Posted October 4th, 2019 03:00

    Can you add an intel optane Memory to a 9th Gen Intel Core i7 9700 ?? I'm planning on getting an Aurora R8 1660 ti, 32gb: 16gb intel optane Memory + 16gb hyperX fury , liquid cooling,  with 2tb sata hdd. And I also seen that dell requirement for the optane are 7th or 8th gen  (and dell with factory installed by default when intel optane is purchased)?

    Screenshot_20191004-034533_Chrome.jpg

  • JoeSkieez

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    Posted October 4th, 2019 04:00

    When you received you're Aurora R8 did you have the Intel optane Memory built in and shipped to you or you added once you received it?

  • mikemilk

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    Posted October 4th, 2019 06:00

    Yes, mine came pre-installed but I ordered it that way. I don't think you would have the option to add it if the setup you chose could not support it. So I believe you will be okay.