Latitude E4200 dual-channel memory question

jasonlitka

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I'm planning on ordering a Dell Latitude E4200 as soon as it comes out the middle of next month (at least, that's what my Dell rep says) but I've got a question that I wonder if anyone here can help me with.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop_latitude_e4200

According to the specs at the link above this notebook comes with 1GB of DDR3 on board and can accept up to a 4GB DIMM in a single add-on slot for a total of up to 5GB. Where I get confused is where it claims to be dual-channel.

How, exactly, does dual-channel memory work when the modules are different sizes (assuming I don't stick a 1GB stick in the slot for a total of 2GB)? Would it be dual-channel for the first 2GB and then single-channel for the remaining 3GB?
 
dual channel won't work with 2 different size memory chips. sometimes it doesn't work with equal sized but different density memory chips.

sometimes "on board" means soldered ram chips and sometimes it just means ram chips that are in a less convenient place. i know my latitude d630 has one ram slot on the bottom of the computer and one under the keyboard. sometimes the manufacturer doesn't consider the hidden one replaceable, but you should probably speak with a dell rep to find this out. if you're buying a latitude, you should be able to speak to a rep who actually knows something about the system, as dell's business support is better than their consumer support
 
dual channel won't work with 2 different size memory chips. sometimes it doesn't work with equal sized but different density memory chips.

sometimes "on board" means soldered ram chips and sometimes it just means ram chips that are in a less convenient place. i know my latitude d630 has one ram slot on the bottom of the computer and one under the keyboard. sometimes the manufacturer doesn't consider the hidden one replaceable, but you should probably speak with a dell rep to find this out. if you're buying a latitude, you should be able to speak to a rep who actually knows something about the system, as dell's business support is better than their consumer support

I believe that in this case "on board" actually means soldered to the motherboard (since that seems to be the opinion on the forums at notebookreview.com), although I could be wrong.

Yeah, I've got a "support team" at Dell, I just didn't want to ask them because I know they won't know the answer until the notebook is actually released. I was hoping that someone else had run into a notebook like this before and had the answer. I guess I'll send them an email now, thanks.
 
Heh... Dell tech came back and said that their tests with PC Mark showed that the performance difference between DC and SC memory is negligible and that most users won't notice the difference. They claim that most of the demand for DC is from Intel Marketing claiming that there is a 50% performance increase and that if you have an application that will use more than 2GB of RAM then you're better off with 3GB in SC than 2GB in DC (this part is probably true).

That said, the notebook only operates in DC mode when a 1GB module is installed (for a total of 2GB).

I'm still waiting to find out whether the 1GB "onboard" is actually soldered in.
 
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