Alright, so I have an HP Elitebook 8540p, currently running 6GB of RAM. According to 1stchoicememory.com, the machine is capable of handling 16GB of RAM, while documentation on HP's website claims 8GB (If I'm reading it properly, I might not be).

I'm currently using PC3 10600 ram in the machine.

So, I'm coming to you all, see if I could get some help in figuring out the actual max RAM I can install on this, and possibly where the best price for a good brand can be located.

I see 2 8GB sticks on ebay for around $70 by ATech, but I've never heard of that brand and not sure what to make of them just yet.

I wouldn't quite trust 1st Choice Memory. But I'm rather uneducated. I do know that some OS's only support so much RAM. I think 32bit Windows XP supported 4GB max. But if you're using 64b anything it shouldn't really matter. This could be a limit imposed by HP.

But, FWIW, Apple said my Mac Mini was only capable of 8GB of RAM but I have successfully installed 16GB; I think it's because that's as high as Apple would pre-install.

I've had mixed luck with 1st choice, I think out of the dozen ram chips I've bought from them, only 1 didn't work? I have a feeling you'll more or less get that from any supplier, though. I've found additional docs that say only 8, and more that say 16. lol

I'm really tempted to just throw $70 at the 16gb upgrade kit and see what happens. But I'd rather not waste money :p

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Atech-16GB-Kit-Lot-2x-8GB-SODIMM-DDR3-DDR-3-Laptop-10600-1333MHz-1333-Ram-Memory-/321872623216?hash=item4af11a7670:g:IwYAAOSwWnFWALFr is what I'm currently looking at, btw.

I would generally believe HP that it supports a maximum of a 4GB stick in each slot for a total of 8GB, although I'd also consider the possibility that 8GB sticks did not exist when HP wrote that documentation. Have you found any forums out there where people have talked about successfully putting 16GB of RAM in that model before?

I'd avoid buying online. I do all of my research online but about 90% of the time buy things in a store. I feel better about returning and issues when I purchase it in-person. The 16GB not working out? Drive back down and swap it for an 8GB. Can be up and running a lot faster than a series of deliveries will provide.

I'd believe HP's documentation over anything else, so max 2x4GB (which is also consistent with the age of the machine).

As for finding memory, I'd just sort by $/GB after filtering to DDR3 SODIMMs.

My only issue is the fact I have no place to buy from locally anymore. There is a computer shop, but they will only get me ram if they get to put it in, costing additional money for labor. -.-

Also, I've been gandering around, it seems it could handle 16gb of ram if I had a quad core system, because then it would have 4 ram slots. Took a while to find that information, but there it is. Soo, guess I will only need to get myself another 4gb stick :p

I wonder if Walmart has any.. Their tech area has gotten quite sparse lately, though.

What? You can have 2 8GB sticks and still have 16GB. My Mini is a Quad Core with 2 8GB sticks. Would you mind sharing the source you read this from?

I don't have those pages up anymore, and they were quite buried, but from what I've been able to find on this model line of laptops, it's basically 4GB per slot. dual core machines had 2 slots, quad had 4. The pages were a mixture from RAM sellers, review pages, specification pages, and forum posts.

I'm still relatively tempted to get the 16gb upgrade to see if it works.. :p

When dealing with HP hardware, always grab the maintenance and service manual, this will usual give the most amount of accurate information. Located HERE, page 2 of the document (9 of PDF) lists the following:

Alright, looking just a little lower, it shows off the different configurations, and shows



Which was a lot more clear to me So, I ordered the 16gb kit, hopefully my laptop accepts its new memory overlords happily \o/

Maybe in a couple months, I'll take the time to actually build a desktop, so my laptop doesn't have to be so hardcore on the gaming side of things (mostly because 1gb of video seems to only take one so far)