Hi everyone, I have an older G53SX-XT1 laptop. I have upgraded the hard drive to a SSD. I am currently looking to add more ram than the current 8GB which come equipped. It comes with 2 Samsung 4GB sticks, PC3-10700, model number M471B5273DH0-CH9. At fist I was thinking of just getting 1 8GB but I was reading about running ram in dual channel mode etc. Supposedly it is possible with 3 sticks by moving them around and having the 2 4GB sticks acting as one unit and the 8GB stick as the other to get dual channel mode. But to keep things simple I thought maybe it'd be better to get 2x8GB sticks. However, according to intel specs for the processor http://ark.intel.com/products/52219/Intel-Core-i7-2630QM-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-2_90-GHz
it is only capable of up to 16GB ram. I could have sworn I've read on the forums here of people using up to 32GB ram but maybe it was for a newer processor? Can anyone elaborate? I have also read in other forums that OEM specs might differ sometimes from official Intel specs. One example is the Nvidia 560M in this laptop having only a 128-bit bus instead of the usual 192-bit. I'm running Win7 Pro so I don't have the 16GB Home Premium limitation.

Another question, although getting Samsung ram would be ideal, it tends to cost almost twice as much as other brands, for example here are 2x4GB of the exact ram this laptop has costing as much as a 2x8GB kit of other brands http://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-10600-SODIMM-LAPTOP-MEMORY/dp/B0067GGPXC/

I assume as long as I get same specced ram from another manufacturer it should cause no problems? ie DDR3 1333 pc10600 9-9-9-24.

Thanks in advance.