I have an ASUS K35e which has been a great laptop for the past several years. Recently I got into using virtual machines for many tasks, and the stock 4GB of RAM no longer cut it; my computer ran very slowly during this work. I did some research and I couldn’t get a straight answer on how much RAM this laptop could actually handle. I couldn’t even find any mention of max memory in the user manual. I read some forum posts that said 8GB, others that said 16GB. The closest I could find to an authoritative answer was a post from one person who said the motherboard for this laptop will support 16GB. I took the risk and bought 16GB, and it works!

Here’s Ubuntu 14.04 showing the details. Keep in mind that I’m not a Windows user, so I don’t know if the same maximums apply for that OS. Amazingly, the output shows that it supports up to 32GB! I’m not sure if that’s possible to acheive though, because the laptop only has two physical SODIMM slots. If there is a maximum per slot of 8GB, I’m at the maximum right now. It might make a nice experiment to try upgrading to two 16GB modules in the future, for a total of 32GB. Just think of all the virtual machines I could run at once!

$ sudo dmidecode --type memory
# dmidecode 2.12
SMBIOS 2.6 present.

Handle 0x0040, DMI type 16, 15 bytes
Physical Memory Array
        Location: System Board Or Motherboard
        Use: System Memory                                                                                                                                         
        Error Correction Type: None                                                                                                                                
        Maximum Capacity: 32 GB                                                                                                                                    
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided                                                                                                                     
        Number Of Devices: 4                                                                                                                                       

Handle 0x0041, DMI type 17, 28 bytes                                                                                                                               
Memory Device                                                                                                                                                      
        Array Handle: 0x0040                                                                                                                                       
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided                                                                                                                     
        Total Width: 64 bits                                                                                                                                       
        Data Width: 64 bits                                                                                                                                        
        Size: 8192 MB                                                                                                                                              
        Form Factor: SODIMM                                                                                                                                        
        Set: None                                                                                                                                                  
        Locator: ChannelA-DIMM0                                                                                                                                    
        Bank Locator: BANK 0                                                                                                                                       
        Type: DDR3
        Type Detail: Synchronous
        Speed: 1600 MHz
        Manufacturer: 859B
        Serial Number: E004ACA3
        Asset Tag: 9876543210
        Part Number: CT102464BF160B.M16
        Rank: 2

Handle 0x0042, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x0040
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: Unknown
        Data Width: Unknown
        Size: No Module Installed
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: ChannelA-DIMM1
        Bank Locator: BANK 1
        Type: Unknown
        Type Detail: None
        Speed: Unknown
        Manufacturer: [Empty]
        Serial Number: [Empty]
        Asset Tag: 9876543210
        Part Number: [Empty]
        Rank: Unknown

Handle 0x0043, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x0040
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: 64 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 8192 MB
        Form Factor: SODIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: ChannelB-DIMM0
        Bank Locator: BANK 2
        Type: DDR3
        Type Detail: Synchronous
        Speed: 1600 MHz
        Manufacturer: 859B
        Serial Number: E004AC9B
        Asset Tag: 9876543210
        Part Number: CT102464BF160B.M16
        Rank: 2

Handle 0x0044, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x0040
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: Unknown
        Data Width: Unknown
        Size: No Module Installed
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: ChannelB-DIMM1
        Bank Locator: BANK 3
        Type: Unknown
        Type Detail: None
        Speed: Unknown
        Manufacturer: [Empty]
        Serial Number: [Empty]
        Asset Tag: 9876543210
        Part Number: [Empty]
        Rank: Unknown

Here is the RAM I bought. It was not cheap, but it’s a quality brand name (Crutial) that seems to be very trusted in the industry. Also, it’s on Amazon, so feel free to buy it using Bitcoin through Purse.io!