Qosmio X505-Q898 laptop was able to upgrade to 16gb RAM

[boidsonly]

FWIW, all the literature for the Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q898 (and, I assume, the others in this series) was to max out at 8gb RAM. Well, I am here to tell you that is not true. FYI, I have Win 7 Home Premium as the OS.
I initially installed 2 x 8gb Kingston sticks and the Q898 recognized but 8gb of the RAM. I had 2 x 8gb sticks of Komputer Bay RAM in another laptop (HP dv6-6112nr) so I swapped them out. I had read a few threads here and there that Toshiba PC's were "picky" about some brands of RAM. Most of the upgrades were accomplished using Komputer Bay RAM. The HP laptop could care less what brand it had installed.
Bottom line is I have 16gb of RAM in both PC's and am a happy camper. Given the price drops of RAM it is an inexpensive way to give some new life to a 2010/2011 laptop.
Hope this helps an X505 owner or two...

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello boidsonly mate I am just curious as to why you need 16GB of RAM in the Toshiba?

FWIW I have had three Toshibas now and my current main machine I am running 8GB and at full tilt the RAM use is maxing out approx 2.58GB.

Now I always use Corsair RAM and never have had a problem with it.

But if you want some good in depth advice pop over to the G Skill forum.

 

[boidsonly]

The 6gb of RAM that I had would cause stutters in my music when ripping video at the same time. Additionally, it seemed like a challenge to me. For $44 US, I went from 6gb to 16gb; money well spent in my book. I guess the bottom line is, because I could?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yeah well thats your prerogative boidsonly personally I think 8GB of RAM is plenty and the RAM I buy these days I get in pairs or quads because if they come from the same batch they are more likely to be evenly matched - I am thinking maybe that was the problem with the 6GB you had in.

The 16GB you have in mate is hardly likely to be ever used I would knock it back to 8GB and see how it goes. My Ivy Bridge is running with just 8GB of 1866MHz in and I could run it at 2133MHz if I liked but I can't see the point.You have nothing to lose after all is said and done.

I still stick by Corsair but if you want some info on RAM head over to the G Skill forum it is very good, and it is the other brand of RAM that I personally like.

 

[Erick Aguilar]

I barely use 3GB with my system, and I bought 8GB ''just in case'' Maybe sometimes when I have my dual screens running will it jump to 6, but I see no reason why a laptop would need more than 4GB unless it has many other problems related to hardware. Perhaps more ram is just taking loads of other weak hardware.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I barely use 3GB with my system, and I bought 8GB ''just in case'' Maybe sometimes when I have my dual screens running will it jump to 6, but I see no reason why a laptop would need more than 4GB unless it has many other problems related to hardware. Perhaps more ram is just taking loads of other weak hardware.

Hum well Erick I think we are on a roll here mate again we are of the same opinion as my lappy I am on right now even when I am doing some heavy duty scans I barely get over 2.5GB used out of the 8G I have on board.

To be honest with you I keep the sticks in and if I need a stick for a fix or whatever I know the machine will still function more than just good.

But if boidsonly is happy with what there is in his machine it isn't a problem I just think that his machine would go better with a nice 'matched" pair of 4GB sticks max.

 

[odanerob]

Guys can You please tell me can i upgrade my Toshiba Qosmio x505-Q870 from 8GB to 16GB even thou it state that it can go to 8GB max.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Guys can You please tell me can i upgrade my Toshiba Qosmio x505-Q870 from 8GB to 16GB even thou it state that it can go to 8GB max.

Hello and welcome odanerob mate what you are proposing is in a nutshell wasting your money even if you put 16GB RAM into your machine the motherboard is only set up to support 8GB so technically speaking the other 8GB is going to sit there doing nothing.
If you are proposing installing the max speed RAM that the motherboard (if it doesn't have it already) can support then fine but if the RAM is already the max speed the machine can run again your are wasting your time and money.

What other effects it might have on the machine I can only guess at.

Just as a matter of interest why do you want that much RAM?? it isn't going to make the machine run faster or more efficiently as 8GB is generally recognised as more than enough for running Windows 7

 

[LeisureSuit]

Guys can You please tell me can i upgrade my Toshiba Qosmio x505-Q870 from 8GB to 16GB even thou it state that it can go to 8GB max.

The motherboard does support the upgrade - the PM55 chipset has been confirmed to do so. I believe the 720QM, however, is maxed at 8GB so you'd need to upgrade that as well. The discussion at Qosmio X505 Q860 Upgrade Options - TOSHIBA FORUMS might be useful to you.

As to whether or not you need more than 8GB, you're the only one who can answer that question. Don't take the advice of those who don't have a need for it - if you're doing video or image processing, or software development then there's a very real chance you're hitting the cap. I routinely have a couple development environment instances open, a database running, and a virtual machine instance in addition to normal things like a couple browser instances, email, etc. Point being, if you're aware of your current memory usage you're in the best position to make that call.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yep LS but that ref does state something about upping the power supply hwy I don't know probably because the base one is just sufficient for 8GB and in any case why 16GB?? I have 8GB on my older Toshy L550 with an i5 430M and it uses 25% RAM flat out anyway.

Seems to be an awful lot of trouble to go to for the knowledge that there is 16GB in there .

Oh and by the way welcome to the madhouse LOL!!

 

[LeisureSuit]

Yep LS but that ref does state something about upping the power supply hwy I don't know probably because the base one is just sufficient for 8GB and in any case why 16GB?? I have 8GB on my older Toshy L550 with an i5 430M and it uses 25% RAM flat out anyway.

Seems to be an awful lot of trouble to go to for the knowledge that there is 16GB in there .

Oh and by the way welcome to the madhouse LOL!!

Thanks for the welcome. The mention of the power supply was directly referring to a CPU upgrade, which he apparently would not need to do. From that thread, the 720qm apparently will address 16GB of RAM. The following is from about 2/3 down:

"If you want to upgrade to 16GB RAM, you will need to upgrade to a 1st gen i7 CPU. Intel's specs do not say that they support 16GB, but both my i7-720QM and i7-920XM have run fine on 16GB RAM."

So, basically, the "awful lot of trouble" would be ordering CT2KIT102464BF1339 - 16GB kit (8GBx2), 204-pin SODIMM , DDR3 PC3-10600 from Crucial.com for $126, turning over the laptop and popping in the new modules.

Your RAM usage is extremely low if you're only using 2GB, so I wouldn't consider that normal usage for someone with a Qosmio. All I have to do is load up a GIS application I work on frequently and I hit 4GB usage. Add 1GB for each dev environment instance (I usually have 2 open) and I'm up to 6GB. Then I start working with a MongoDB instance and, voila, I'd hit the page file with 8GB. Anyone running virtual machines, heavy PhotoShop users, gamers who want to dual-box on a single unit with multiple monitors, etc. It's a high-end laptop so I don't think those are edge cases for that owner base.

As for why invest the effort into that laptop, it has an 18.4" screen and Toshiba's new Qosmios are only 17.3". It's a great laptop and I don't think there are any other 18.4" options right now, so it may be worth the minor cost of a RAM upgrade to extend it's usefulness. I'd also recommend a larger SSD while he's at it - the one it came with was way too small.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Interesting post Leisure I did see the CPU option and seeing what the machine is probably being going to be used for then I take back my comments.


Myself I don't go into those "high end" areas so them are dizzying heights for me.

I might however recommend the G Skill forum for RAM info if G Skill is a brand one likes as I do

Welcome to the G.SKILL TECH FORUM

 

[snow90]

Did this today. 2X8GB Kingston KCP313SD8/8. Works like a charm.