If you take a look at the outside of the Dell Precision 7670, you would possibly mistake it for a chunky company laptop computer from 15 years in the past. There’s nothing within the boring gray exterior that signifies it’s hiding expertise which may simply revolutionize the PC market. But crack that sucker open with Gordon within the newest PCWorld video, and also you would possibly simply be shocked at what’s hiding inside.

This laptop computer is among the first fashions in the marketplace to make use of a model new normal for reminiscence, CAMM, which we’ve covered in depth when the idea was launched. That stands for Compression Attached Memory Module, which replaces the DIMM and SO-DIMM normal that’s been utilized in laptops and desktops for many years. The new design has a number of benefits. While it’s bodily bigger than a chunk of SO-DIMM reminiscence, it’s extra unfold out, permitting for as much as 128GB of reminiscence on a single circuit board.

The reminiscence and connection plate are additionally far, far thinner, with electrical contacts that look extra like a processor socket than a conventional reminiscence slot. That’s an enormous benefit for laptop computer builders, which have been leaning into soldered RAM as an alternative of user-accessible SO-DIMM slots for years simply to save lots of a number of millimeters of Z-height. Dell’s design additionally minimizes the bodily distance between the reminiscence and the CPU.

The CAMM design is rather less user-friendly than standard RAM modules, because it requires you to take away six screws and a stiffening plate (at the very least on this model) as an alternative of merely popping off a few retention clips. But for anybody who feels comfy popping off the again of their laptop computer, it’s nonetheless pretty simple.

While the CAMM system is a Dell patent and technically a proprietary format, the corporate is making an attempt to work with Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) to license it as a reminiscence normal. Whether any of Dell’s opponents will likely be keen to hop on the bus (har har) stays to be seen. For extra explainers on the most recent in PC expertise, be sure you subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube!