Standard DRAM Memory

[miketackle36]

Hello,

I have recently bought a Dell XPS 420, and it is currently running with 4 gigs of ram.  I would like to get it up to 8 gigs.  I  would like my computer to be as powerful as possible, however I do not know much about the hardware I am using, or in general.  My search on the internet has produced varied results of how much memory I can install.

Here are the specs to my computer, XPS 420, Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9450(2.66GHz 1333FSB) w/ 12MB cache 375W Power Supply

I greatly appreciate any help,

mike

[Crucial_Guru]

Hello,

The Dell XPS 420 has a maximum memory of 4GB.  Unfortunately, you can not install 8GB of memory into this system.  To be able to support more memory, you would need to purchase a different motherboard.  Please visit the following link for the parts we offer for the XPS 420:

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?model=XPS+420

[nikong33k]

I also have an XPS 420 and want to upgrade to 8GB of system memory. Crucial's web site is saying that all XPS 420s can only be upgraded to 4GB total memory. BUT Dell's manual for the machine indicates that the maximum is 8GB (all usable if you have a 64-bit OS). Link and excerpt from the documentation is below.

Link: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps420/en/OM/HTML/parts.htm#wp1462641

Click on Memory then scroll down to see the info. This is the first time I have seen disagreement between Dell's documentation and Crucial's info. Now I am confused. :-) What's the truth? Win 7 64-bit runds great on my machine but I want some improvement editing video and the 4GB in it does not appear adequate as far as Adobe Premier Elements 7 goes for a 4 minute video. Hmmm.

Addressing Memory With 8-GB Configurations

Your computer supports a maximum of 8 GB of memory when you use four 2-GB DIMMs. However, the amount of memory available to the operating system is less than 8 GB. This is because certain components within the computer require address space in the 8-GB range; and any address space reserved for these components cannot be used by computer memory.

NOTE: 8 GB memory is available only if you ordered an operating system that supports 64 bits. If you ordered a system that supports only 32 bits then the memory available is 4 GB.