Upgrading a Gigabyte P55W-BW1 from 8GBx1 to 16GB (8x2)

shmaptop

Commendable
Jul 15, 2016
1
0
1,510
I just bought a gaming laptop on eBay from Computer Upgrade King (CUK). It's a P55W-BW1, which I believe is also called a P55Wv4. It came with a single G.Skill Ripjaws:
F3-1866C10S-8GRSL
PC3L-14900 8Gx1 SODIMM
DDR3L-1866 CL10-10-10-32 1.35V

I upgraded it from Win8.1 to Win10. Just doing some web browsing, I'm often hitting 90% of capacity, and I also figured it would be nice to get some dual-channel punch. (Crucial says this "Intel HM97" chipset can go up to 16GB max.)

But I cannot find that exact chip for sale. Newegg does have a very similar Ripjaws for $33; only difference is CL11 rather than CL10, and no "L" in the label despite the 1.35 voltage:
F3-1866C11S-8GRSL
PC3 14900 204-Pin
DDR3, Timing: 11-11-11-32 1.35V


Is this a pretty good fit? (I realize there's no guarantee.) In other posts I see that tweaking BIOS settings can help if there are issues, to force, say, 1600MHz and CL11 or whatever, if there are problems. But the Chipset tab in my BIOS doesn't seem to have any tweakable settings, just a non-detailed label: "DIMM#0: Not Present, "DIMM#1: 8192 MB (DDR3)". BIOS is "Aptio ... Version 2.17.1249 ... Megatrends".

Newegg also has 16GB (8x2) Ripjaws kits of nearly the same thing, but not exactly:
$70 : 1866, PC3L 14900, 1.35v, CL11 (F3-1866C11D-16GRSL)
$90 : 1866, PC3 14900, 1.35v, CL10 (F3-1866C10D-16GRSL)

Anyway, if I did yank the old one and bought a new pair, maybe a 1600 Ripjaws pair ($60, 1600, PC3L 12800, CL9) would be just as good, given dual-channel speeds?
 
Solution
The F3-1866C11S-8GRSL would more than likely work, but the problem is that the original CL10 RAM would be forced to run at CL11. The F3-1866C11D-16GRSL would perform nearly identically to the F3-1866C10S-8GRSL + F3-1866C11S-8GRSL so I wouldn't bother with that. The no-compromise option would be to buy the F3-1866C10D-16GRSL kit and sell your old stick of RAM; this will get you dual-channel DDR3L-1866 at CL10 which is pretty much as good as it gets. I wouldn't bother with the DDR3L-1600 kit, the way I see it that's settling for less when you don't have to :)

voltoid27

Reputable
Sep 17, 2014
609
0
5,660
The F3-1866C11S-8GRSL would more than likely work, but the problem is that the original CL10 RAM would be forced to run at CL11. The F3-1866C11D-16GRSL would perform nearly identically to the F3-1866C10S-8GRSL + F3-1866C11S-8GRSL so I wouldn't bother with that. The no-compromise option would be to buy the F3-1866C10D-16GRSL kit and sell your old stick of RAM; this will get you dual-channel DDR3L-1866 at CL10 which is pretty much as good as it gets. I wouldn't bother with the DDR3L-1600 kit, the way I see it that's settling for less when you don't have to :)
 
Solution