Underclocking SODIMM for better performance in Laptop

[Bster13]

Hello Everyone,

I just purchased a refurbed Dell XPS 14 Ultrabooks (421x). It only has a single dimm slot and can accept up to 8gb of memory.

To make the most of it.....(yes I know I won't ever notice a difference surfing the web on my couch, but still) I came across articles where even though a motherboard would only accept 1333mhz memory, they were throwing 1600mhz memory at it and then clocking it down, but lowering the memory timing for increased performance/ decreased latency. I think I understand where they were going with that.

My question is...

I haven't even received the laptop yet, but my friends worry my dell laptop BIOS won't have the flexibility to set memory timings. Is there a way to tell or look this info up? I suppose even if my BIOS does not have specific settings to set memory timings, I could purchase 1333 and 1600 memory, and then benchmark and send back the slower stuff? (perhaps my BIOS will automatically take advantage of the 1600MHZ ram at lower MHZ and set lower timings even if there is not a setting?)

Many thanks.

EDIT: Hrmmm, looks like the BIOS is accessible (at least to change boot order), at least in the similar XPS 13:
http://bobsageek.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/dell-xps-13-ultrabook-clean-install-guide/

 

[th3_ory]

I dont think you can access your BIOS on that dell

 

[ish416]

On laptops and other pre-built systems you might have the ability to set the memory speed but I am very doubtful you can adjust the timings from stock.