The other day, my trusty Alienware Area-51 Gen 2, an Intel i7-5820k 3.3ghz 6 core CPU on an X99 chipset threw a memory fault. It turned out that the case just needed dusting and the memory re-seating but that reminded me that I'm still running 16GB of 2133mhz Dell memory from when I purchased the machine way back in May of 2016. Geez, that was over 6 years ago and it still runs like a bat out of hell. This was the first glitch I can remember.
I remember at the time that 32GB of DDR4 memory was very expensive and 16GB was plenty but I figured I'd look again. Lo and behold, it's come down near the $100 range! I first checked Micron's website because they have a compatibility checker, but they only offered memory rated CL19 and higher -- faster memory was "backordered". However, I found this Corsair memory on Amazon for about the same price as on the Micron website, rated at 3200mhz which is the top option in the Alienware BIOS, Intel XMP support, and claimed to be CL16, which is about as good as it gets right now. It arrived in 2 days (another plus), and I just installed it then booted into the BIOS. It detected 32GB but still at 2166mhz. I then turned on the XMP function, rebooted, and lo and behold, it chose 3200MHZ and the BIOS says 16 and a bunch of other numbers I can't see without rebooting.
I then held my breath and booted into Windows. Now, after a full day of using Visual Studio and Adobe Lightroom, the system is still rock-solid and, dare I say it, noticeably quicker than before (and it was no slouch). I don't know if that's because I doubled the amount of memory (likely), or the 3200mhz vs 2133mhz but me likey.. a lot! I was thinking that it was time to replace this machine but now I'm thinking that I can wait another year or two.
Posting this mostly so others looking for Alienware Area-51 Gen2 compatibility will know that this memory works as the Amazon memory checker was non-committal. It works... and works well.
| RAM | 32 GB SDRAM PC100^DDR 400 |
|---|---|
| Memory Speed | 3200 MHz |
