Adding RAM to G75VW BBK5

[Loren]

I would like to add more RAM to my Best Buy G75. I wanted to add 4 new RAM modules, but have read on the forum that getting at the stock RAM will void the warranty as it is located under the keyboard. If I were to leave the stock RAM alone and add two 8 GB RAM modules with the same specs (1600 DDR3...) would it work? i.e. does it mess things up to have two 4 GB modules under the keyboard and two 8 GB modules in the easy to get to locations?

I have read that the reason 16 GB is the max is due to the version of Windows--that you have to run Windows 7 ultimate for the machine to use more than 16 GB. If that is true what amount of RAM can Windows 7 ultimate utilize? 24GB? 32GB??

If I were to replace the stock RAM and have four 8 GB modules could I successfully use a higher MHz than 1600 (1866)?

Also, if I made a "RAM disc" would the computer be able to access the info significantly faster than it would from a solid state hard drive? I am replacing the primary HD with a 256 GB Samsung 830 regardless of what I do with the RAM. I "fly" quite a bit with Microsoft FSX and X-plane 10. If I loaded the flight sim on the RAM disc along with a lot of the scenery data I use a lot it seems to me that this would be the best way to improve performance (frame rate, etc.) or am I wasting $$ expecting a RAM disc to be much faster than an SSD?

I look forward to your comments.

[c_man]

Do loading times have an impact on fps? Not really.

Will 32Gb of RAM work at 1866? Most likely not.

Will 2x4 work with 2x8? It should, but maybe not every module combination will be stable.

You can try the RAM disc and see how that goes. The SSD should suffice.

[X-ROG]

Loren wrote:
I would like to add more RAM to my Best Buy G75. I wanted to add 4 new RAM modules, but have read on the forum that getting at the stock RAM will void the warranty as it is located under the keyboard. If I were to leave the stock RAM alone and add two 8 GB RAM modules with the same specs (1600 DDR3...) would it work? i.e. does it mess things up to have two 4 GB modules under the keyboard and two 8 GB modules in the easy to get to locations?

I have read that the reason 16 GB is the max is due to the version of Windows--that you have to run Windows 7 ultimate for the machine to use more than 16 GB. If that is true what amount of RAM can Windows 7 ultimate utilize? 24GB? 32GB??

If I were to replace the stock RAM and have four 8 GB modules could I successfully use a higher MHz than 1600 (1866)?

Also, if I made a "RAM disc" would the computer be able to access the info significantly faster than it would from a solid state hard drive? I am replacing the primary HD with a 256 GB Samsung 830 regardless of what I do with the RAM. I "fly" quite a bit with Microsoft FSX and X-plane 10. If I loaded the flight sim on the RAM disc along with a lot of the scenery data I use a lot it seems to me that this would be the best way to improve performance (frame rate, etc.) or am I wasting $$ expecting a RAM disc to be much faster than an SSD?

I look forward to your comments.

Home Premium is 16GB
Pro and Ultimate is 192GB

Removing the two under the keyboard will void your warranty but adding 2x 8GB into the normal slots will be fine.

1866 will fall back to 1600MHz automatically- there is no manual setting in the BIOS to force this as all Intel mobile CPUs apart from the extreme editions are locked to 1600 max.

I don't know about FSX and RAMDisks sorry.

[Zygomorphic]

A RAM disk would be much faster than an SSD, but unless you allocate a bunch of RAM to it will Flight Simulator X even fit?? Then, if you do, will the system have enough RAM to use as RAM for the purposes of running the game? That SSD will make enough difference that the RAM disk isn't worth it.

It may work with 1866 RAM, I do not know, but there isn't much of a gain at all. micro-stuttering would be the only issue that gets helped - even that is questionable. A better bet is the SSD with plenty of RAM (1600 MHz is pretty fast).

[Loren]

FSX uses only about 3 GB RAM. The entire program uses ab out 30 GB of space on the hard drive and a huge portion of that is scenery. The closer your plane is to the ground with max scenery, the more scenery info is used. I realize that has to go into the video card so maybe a better question to ask would be would a RAM disc transfer data to the video card at a significantly faster rate than a SSD. I'm sure that depends on the "road" each would take through the motherboard and that's beyond my level of knowledge.

I bought an extended warranty from Best Buy for 3 years that covers even if I pour coffee into the laptop. When everyone says it will void the warranty are you referring to ASUS? How would they know if you put the stock RAM back in if you had a problem?

[Zygomorphic]

Here is the path:
RAM Disk -> FSB (QPI) -> RAM [FSX] -> FSB -> Mobo -> PCIe Gfx Card
SSD -> SATA Controller -> RAM [FSX] -> FSB -> Mobo -> PCIe Gfx Card

Maybe little in between the FSB and the Gfx Card, someone with more experience please chime in.

RAM wise, that would be enough. An SSD will make more sense, since I highly doubt that FSX is caching data at a rate > 250 MB/s (good SSDs are much faster than this -> 550+ MB/s). If you want to pull all the stops out, go with SSDs in RAID.

[X-ROG]

Loren wrote:
FSX uses only about 3 GB RAM. The entire program uses ab out 30 GB of space on the hard drive and a huge portion of that is scenery. The closer your plane is to the ground with max scenery, the more scenery info is used. I realize that has to go into the video card so maybe a better question to ask would be would a RAM disc transfer data to the video card at a significantly faster rate than a SSD. I'm sure that depends on the "road" each would take through the motherboard and that's beyond my level of knowledge.

I bought an extended warranty from Best Buy for 3 years that covers even if I pour coffee into the laptop. When everyone says it will void the warranty are you referring to ASUS? How would they know if you put the stock RAM back in if you had a problem?

Because usually the screws have marks on them that tell the repair center if they have been undone before. If you bought the extended warranty I would strongly advise taking it back to Best Buy and asking them to upgrade the two hidden memory slots for you.

[rewben]

a rough check shows that a ram disc is about 10 times faster than ssd 😄



a raid-0 with performance ssd can only reach around 900MB/s.

[Zygomorphic]

@rewben, you are correct, RAM disks are faster, but is that increase necessary? That was what I was saying. The slowest link in my diagram below is the Sata controller/SSD.

[rewben]

@Zygomorphic, yes i know what you meant haha; it's not practical and cost effective for now.