8gb or 16gb maximum?

[jaromey]

Hi, I have a Dell XPS 710 with a BTX 7-slot motherboard part# is 465-3641. This system was purchased in July 2007.

I am planning to dual-boot with Vista64 so that I can take advantage of more ram. I do a lot of memory intensive computer graphic work using programs like 3d Studio Max, Mudbox, Zbrush 3, Photoshop, etc..

My motherboard comes with 4 memory slots which currently each have 1gb sticks in them. I would like to upgrade, but I'm not sure if there is a limit to what the motherboard can recognize. If possible, I would want to buy 4x4gb sticks and have 16gb total. But, I think this motherboard might be limited to 8gb maximum, in which case I guess it would be 4x2gb sticks. Can anyone verify this for me?

Thanks for the help

[JLK03F150]

Looks like the board only supports 8GB. Hope the link works correctly...
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps710/en/SM_EN/specs1.htm#wp1057323

edit: Welcome to the forum. :)

[jaromey]

Thanks for the fast reply. I see on that page that it says

Memory capacities
512 MB, 1 GB, or 2 GB non-ECC


What does non-ECC mean?

Also, can anyone recommend to me which brand of ram I should buy? I've heard good things about Crucial, Kingston, and Corsair, but I also heard I could buy a cheaper ram such as GSkill and it would be fine. I would be looking to purchase four 2gb sticks.

Thanks

[JLK03F150]

ECC is error correction that's used in server ram. Some desktops can use it, but it is usually much more expensive than non-ECC.

I've been happy with my G.Skill ram, but I don't have any experience with their 2gb sticks. OCZ is another good brand - their RMA support is 2nd to none.

[Xaero_toast]

Dell don't know (poo) how much memory the system can take. You are better off looking it up by the chipset. For example, I just now, as we speak, upgraded my wife's inspiron E1405 to take 4GB. Dell says it's max is 2GB. It is 15 minutes into a memtest run, showing as much of the 4GB as it can do to the fact that it does not yet have a 64bit cpu (3318MB), and running without errors thus far.

You can also go to www.corsair.com and www.crucial.com and go through their memory configuration tools, and see what they say for your system. Each of them in my case said 4GB where dell said 2GB.

That being said, when I bought the ram for my system, I did so knowing full well I was rolling the dice, installing beyond the mfr's specs. There was the possibility it would not have worked, but I got the ram for such a deal I was prepared to eat that cost if I had to.

--edit--:
Corsair's website says 8GB...maybe dell got it right in your case.