It's 2016. Why an 8GB limit?

[Dannar26]

Just got ahold of my latitude e5270 yesterday. I've been shopping around for RAM so I can take advantage of dual channel capabilities. It came with 8GB installed on one SODIMM.

So much to my chagrin, I find that dell's website lists the e5270 as being capped out at 8 total GB.

This doesn't make any sense; it has two SODIMMs.

Why would this limitation be imposed? Did they cheap out on the memory controller? We're talking about a system with an i5 6300U...not some BS silvermont tablet CPU. The last generation of this model, the e5250, accepted up to 16.

I don't understand this limitation. Sure 8GB is enough for most...but why release a brand new laptop when 8GB is bound to become less than idea in the near future?

 

[biostud]

So in two years you buy a new laptop that can use 16Gb or pay a hefty premium today for a laptop that can use 16gb.

 

[Dannar26]

It's a failure of research on my part, to be sure. I had been eyeing a 5250 prior to this, and remembered that it could go up to 16GB. I assumed the new model would be similar or better in this regard.

Planned obsolescence and all, it just seems odd to have two DIMMs and just 8GB for max capacity. Ah well. Guess you're right.

 

[paperwastage]

no, dell (or intel) only tested/certified it up to 8GB

I have a Dell E5470+i7 6820HQ

my Dell llaptop spec sheet says DDR4 2 slots up to 16GB
http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/usc...-latitude-14-5000-series-e5470-spec-sheet.pdf


for my processor Intel says 64GB dual channel (DDR4 or DDR3L/LPDDR3), probably tested across 4 dimms
http://ark.intel.com/products/88970/Intel-Core-i7-6820HQ-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3_60-GHz






I have 2x16GB DDR4 running without issues... when 32GB DDR4 dimms come out, I'm certain that laptop supports that as well (2x32GB = 64GB)

 

[paperwastage]

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/usc...-latitude-12-5000-series-e5270-spec-sheet.pdf
your E5270, specsheet says DDR4 2 slots up to 16GB.

with your i5 6300U, I'm sure you can put 2x16GB DDR4 as well

Intel only says 32GB dualchanenl (vs my 64GB i7), dunno if 2x32GB would work
http://ark.intel.com/products/88190/Intel-Core-i5-6300U-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_00-GHz



there are instances where people put more memory than Intel's specification, and works

P.S., the E5470 and E5570 can have dual storage drives* (2.5" slot <for 2.5/m.2 2280/PCIe> and separate WWAN m.2 2242). it's likely that E5270 supports dual storage drives as well

*some models (large extended battery, discrete card) don't have space for 2.5", only space for a m.2/PCIe 2280 and separate WWAN m.2 2242)

 

[Dannar26]

Thanks for the info paperwastage. The information that I was going off of was something I pulled right from dell's owner's manual.

http://www.dell.com/support/manuals...6EED3C-E8C9-4DBD-B5FC-E8D19FDDDA9B&lang=en-us

I then double checked by chatting with one of their tech support over web prompt. The individual said it was 16, then after following my link, retracted his statement and said it was capped at 8.

This document also states capacity maximums for HDDs, SSDs, and m.2 storage drives....which I found odd as well. I thought storage capacity recognition was a function of the OS...

The 5270 is quite small, but I have yet to open'er up. It would be interesting if there's space for both. I would likely take advantage of that as prices for m.2 drives fall.

 

[paperwastage]

http://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/latitude-e5270-laptop_Owner's Manual_en-us.pdf

page 12 picture seems to show 2.5" and WWAN (which makes sense, because most latitude laptops have WWAN for business purposes)

and as I've said above, some models could be slightly different (extended battery taking more space, discrete GPU having larger heatsink taking more space), so the picture might not match 100% to what you have. on some of the earlier models (E7450, E5450), the wwan slot doesn't accept m.2 SSDs, so YMMV

anyways, WWAN fits only m.2 2242 (shortest version. m.2 2280 is more common, but it's longer and will not fit into a WWAN slot) - the max capacity m.2 2242 that I've seen is 512GB by Transcend (~$190). I have that version on my laptop along with a 2.5" SSD

https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Information-512GB-MTS400-TS512GMTS400/dp/B016W1PP5K

 

[mxnerd]

The manual said maximum 8G means Dell only test it up to 8G, it doesn't mean the laptop only supports up to 8G. PC & motherboard vendors do this all the time.

The Acer laptop I bought 4 years ago also said maximum is 4G and I upgraded it to 8G right after the purchase, no problem at all.


YMMV. Just make sure you can return the memory if it does not work.

 

[Dannar26]

anyways, WWAN fits only m.2 2242 (shortest version. m.2 2280 is more common, but it's longer and will not fit into a WWAN slot) - the max capacity m.2 2242 that I've seen is 512GB by Transcend (~$190). I have that version on my laptop along with a 2.5" SSD

https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Information-512GB-MTS400-TS512GMTS400/dp/B016W1PP5K

Do you use it for your boot drive? I see that it's a SATA spec model, and not a PCIe. Is it any faster than the 2.5" SSD?

The manual said maximum 8G means Dell only test it up to 8G, it doesn't mean the laptop only supports up to 8G. PC & motherboard vendors do this all the time.

The Acer laptop I bought 4 years ago also said maximum is 4G and I upgraded it to 8G right after the purchase, no problem at all.


YMMV. Just make sure you can return the memory if it does not work.

The idea of being stuck at 8GB in the future makes me uncomfortable. All I care about is the breathing room. I'll be getting a matched set soon in order to take advantage of dual channel capabilities. I'm hoping it might be slightly noticeable since I'm using integrated graphics.

 

[Sheep221]

You can freely install another 8 gig stick, it will work fine, memory controller is built-into CPU now and Intel claims that you are safe with upto 32 gigs of RAM.
I have 5 year old Fujitsu-Siemens T901 laptop with i7-2620M, for which manufacturer claims max memory is 8GB running in 2x4 sticks and no quad core CPUs, it's not true, as almost everyone upgraded to 16 gigs and quad core i7-2630QM or higher. So if laptop introduced in Q4 2010(albeit for the chunky price tag of $2.1K at the time) can take 16 gigs, yours can too. If anything else, you will just return your new stick, that it just wasn't working in your computer. Just install it and run memtest for 5-10 hours, if it won't crash, you can have it.

 

[paperwastage]

Do you use it for your boot drive? I see that it's a SATA spec model, and not a PCIe. Is it any faster than the 2.5" SSD?

My OS are completely separate. Windows 10(os including efi) installed on wwan m.2 2242, Ubuntu 16.04 (Os including grub) installed on a 2TB 2.5" ssd

In bios i can disable 2.5", windows still works
Disable wwan m.2, Ubuntu still works

Someone else claims that they can't boot off wwan m.2, so ymmv

It's fine for me, I just want decent enough ssd (not a spindle drive), and more space (compiling Android and other stuff takes a lot of space

 

[Dannar26]

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of discourse on this model. I'm assuming because it's new...

So as you pointed out (and by looking at the pics) I have my choice of a 2.5" drive or a m.2 2280 card. And then separately I have a WWAN slot that can be used for a shorter M.2 card.

Is the WWAN card only useful if I intend to use this machine with a mobile phone data network? If that's the case, then I guess it would make more sense to sacrifice it for storage...

 

[Raduque]

The Acer laptop I bought 4 years ago also said maximum is 4G and I upgraded it to 8G right after the purchase, no problem at all.

My mom's Acer also stated a total of 4gb, though it shipped with 6. I threw away that 2gb SODIMM and put an 8gb in, now it has 12gb and runs fine. I think 20gb is the most it will support though, as I don't think the i5 quad in it supports more than 32gb, and it only has one DIMM.

 

[lightningbaron]

This is like my Asus laptop of mine from 2009, the specs said 4GB of DDR2 was the max. It had two slots, ended up buying 8GB kit, dropped it in without incident. More than likely, I would trust Intel on their specs for chipset / processor. Of course, the memory controller has moved to processor.