XPS 8300, maximum supported memory?

Hi sop23456,

Both the manual and Crucial show a maximum of 16GB (4x4GB).

Dell's maximum supported RAM for this system is 16 GB. However, it works fine with 32 GB of RAM. I used this memory kit in mine:

Corsair XMS3 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 1333 MHz (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory (CMX32GX3M4A1333C9)

Probably other ones will work fine, too. The only caveat is that most Dells would have come with Windows 7 Home Premium installed and that will only allow access to 16 GB of RAM. You need to have Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate to access the full 32 GB of RAM. You can do the Windows Anytime Upgrade to buy Win7 Pro if you want to go that route, basically it magically makes your existing install into Win7 Pro so you don't have to reinstall anything.

If you put more than 16 GB in a Home Premium system, when you right-click on Computer and go to Properties, you'll see the memory listed as something like 32 GB (16 GB usable). So the OS will see it all, it just won't let you USE it all. Harsh, ya?

I had looked this question up and not gotten anything solid for an answer so I tried it myself and am posting about my success.

Hi Scrotos,

Excellent. Thanks for posting your information. Yes, you're correct that W7HP 64-bit will only recognize 16GB.

Same thread:  My 8300 came with 6 GB--2x1 + 1x1 + 2x1 + 1x1.  My question is whether I can replace both 1x1 slots with 8 GB modules.  That would give me a total of 20 GB (I'm running Win7 Pro).

TIA,

Daryl

Yes.  I actually have 2 XPS 8300s and after I put 32 GB in one of them as a proof of concept, I split it into 16 GB per machine.  They came with 8 GB and 6 GB so it actually worked out to be 20 GB per machine.  One is running Win7 Pro so that uses 20 GB and the other is Win7 Home Premium so that shows 20 GB (16 GB Usable) in Win7 properties.  I figure at some point I can upgrade Win7 on that machine to get the full 20 GB if needed.  Otherwise I didn't have anything else for the RAM to go into so I left it in there for the heck of it.

So your proposed configuration is EXACTLY what I'm running in two machines.  BTW, the BIOS on the two machines at time of upgrade was A06 and A03.  I have since upgraded the A03 to A06.  So the extra RAM works fine even on earlier BIOSs.

I am currently running 4 x 8 = 32 GB (Crucial 32GB kit (8GBx4) DDR3 PC3-12800 Unbuffered NON-ECC 1.5V 1024Meg x 64) all usable with Windows 10 on my XPS 8300, and when I recently went from Windows 7 to 10 which alllowed all 32 GB to be used, it seemed much faster, though this speed-up could be due to all or part of Windows 10.  I made sure all of the many internal wires gave plenty of space around the memory sticks and chip in order to allow cooling.

Could you tell us if it's windows 10 HOME or Windows 10 Pro that you upgraded to? (I got the free upgrade from 7 home prem to Windows10 Home) I really don't wanna drop the money on all new ram if it's not gonna work. (Currently have 4 x4gb)

32 Gigs of RAM works fine in our XPS 8300 running Windows 10 Pro.

unless your 32 bit, your ram is only restricted to what your board can run in Windows 10 (within reason lol ) 64-Bits

Windows 10. 128 GB
Windows 10 Professional. 512 GB
Windows 10 Enterprise. 512 GB

So if I understand you and the others in this thread, since I have an 8300 using Win10, with 8 GB (4 slots of 2 GB each), I may upgrade to 4 slots of 8GB?

The Crucial site has provided several compatible upgrades - are their recommendations accurate?  Thanks for your help.

buy that memory and I have a XPS 8300 but the computer throws a blue screen, will leave only 2 modules of 8 for a total of 16GB of RAM and runs without problem, ask'll have some parameters on the wrong BIOS that does not allow me to use the 32 gb of ram