It lets you build one motherboard with all possible ram options.
The smallest one has all it ram soldered on. Therefore less time is required in assembling the laptops. All other patients just need the extra ram placed in the dimm slot.
Generally you can upgrade RAM of different capacities, but only the amount of RAM that matches the original will run in dual channel. I’ve done it in a couple of machines, and it worked fine. the extra RAM should take a small performance hit, but In my case the tradeoff was worth it. I’ve also upgraded RAM beyond the specified max. Hasn’t always worked.
I’ve never understood why so many manufacturers do that (laptops with 1 slot soldered and 1 slot replaceable) it seems like the worst of both worlds:
It lets you build one motherboard with all possible ram options.
The smallest one has all it ram soldered on. Therefore less time is required in assembling the laptops. All other patients just need the extra ram placed in the dimm slot.
Generally you can upgrade RAM of different capacities, but only the amount of RAM that matches the original will run in dual channel. I’ve done it in a couple of machines, and it worked fine. the extra RAM should take a small performance hit, but In my case the tradeoff was worth it. I’ve also upgraded RAM beyond the specified max. Hasn’t always worked.