I want to upgrade my memory from it's current stock 8gb (4x2gb) to 16gb (4x4gb) and after researching this extensively the past few days I am unable to determine if this is even possible and what the pros/cons of upgrading to 16gb would be.
Also of note: I bought my G73JH-X3 brand new from TigerDirect back in 8/2010 and I have never upgraded any of the hardware in it - meaning everything in it at this time is all fully stock components.
The ASUS website and all literature/information I can find regarding the G73JH-X3 all say that it has a maximum of 8gb of memory. The i7-720QM Clarksfield cpu that comes stock with the system has an integrated memory controller that also is reported to have a max memory limit of 8gb and a total of two memory channels. So all of this so far would would tell me that even though the motherboard could support 16gb of memory (4x4gb) the cpu cannot see all 16gb, only 8gb and thus I would be wasting money and resources by installing 16gb of memory.
All of the Intel Mobile i7 Clarksfield 45w cpus (this group includes the i7-720QM, i7-740QM, i7-820QM and i7-840QM - and excludes i7-920XM and i7-940XM because these chips are 55w) are identical in regards to having only two memory channels supporting a maximum of 8gb of memory - so even if I were to upgrade my cpu to say an i7-740QM I'd still have the max 8gb memory limit.
But what I find interesting (and confusing) is that ASUS released a limited-edition G73JW-ROG laptop that used the exact same motherboard as the G73JH with a stock i7-740QM and 16gb filling 4 sockets of DDR3 1333hz SODIMM memory chips. As I stated above the i7-740QM has a max 8gb memory limit (as reported by Intel) - so I wonder if either ASUS was advertising 16gb even though the cpu could only use 8gb (which seems like false advertising to me) or that there is something here I am misunderstanding regarding the max 8gb limit either in regards to the cpu, ASUS system - or both.
Any information regarding this would be very helpful - I have searched the web for days to no avail - I read of people getting 16gb to work in their system, but I wonder if all 16gb are being utilized by the cpu and if not what they are doing with the extra 8gb. Any information too on cons to running 16gb over 8gb would be helpful too - all I can gather is that when shutting down/starting up (and sleeping/waking) - those times could be slightly longer because the OS is caching/saving the memory to disk and takes slightly longer than if only caching 8gb. Also, assuming I get the same volt chips (1.35v I believe) would having 16gb take about the same amount of resource power as 8gb (sorry this isn't a well formed question - I just wonder what cons I would have to running 16gb both in time and power/resources). I understand that most people don't need 16gb and 8gb is enough but I use my laptop professionally and multitask a lot - watching current memory usage I see I bump up against the 8gb limit often and could see a great benefit from upgrading to 16gb.
Some links to reference for what I've stated above:
Intel's i7 Clarksfield CPUs:
http://ark.intel.com/products/codename/29898/ClarksfieldASUS G73JH-X1 Specs (from TigerDirect):
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5725517ASUS G73JH-X1 Spects (from ASUS website):
http://rog.asus.com/notebook/17-inch/g73jh/Limited Edition ASUS G73JW-ROG Specs (from Amazon website - comes stock with 16gb):
http://www.amazon.com/G73JW-ROG-Limited-Edition-Republic-17-3-Inch/dp/B004BA73XW/ref=cm_cd_ql_qh_dp_...Thanks - any help here would be greatly appreciated.