Snapdragon X Elite Motherboard Belonging To The ASUS Vivobook S 15 Gets Pictured With Soldered RAM, Impressive Cooling Solution & Empty M.2 Slot

The ASUS Vivobook S 15 will be one of the several notebooks shipping with the Snapdragon X Elite, delivering an incredible OLED panel with a crisp resolution and a decent build. An early specifications look of the machine revealed that it would feature 32GB LPDDR5X RAM, hinting that the memory would be soldered to the motherboard.

While that is the case in the latest motherboard showcased in a few images, it is refreshing that ASUS did not go down the same route as the Apple Silicon Macs by incorporating a vacant M.2 slot that users can expand their storage if necessary.

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The robust cooling solution of the Snapdragon X Elite hints that it can run at higher TDPs in demanding situations

Three images were uploaded to X by Anshel Sag, showing the ASUS Vivobook S 15 motherboard sporting Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon X Elite. A close-up photo shows that the Taiwanese company sourced DRAM chips from Micron and placed them right next to the chipset, with white-colored lines showing the current traces. Soldering the RAM next to the SoC means it will take less time for both components to communicate with one another, leading to increased bandwidth and responsiveness.

This approach differs from Apple’s unified memory architecture, where the DRAM chips are part of the silicon die and not kept separate from it. Our personal take is that there should be the option to upgrade your RAM at will, but if companies take a different route, then at least there should be a way to effortlessly swap out the storage drive for a faster, high-capacity one.

Fortunately, the ASUS Vivobook S 15 motherboard sports a single M.2 SSD and likely supports the PCIe Gen 4 protocol, allowing you to experience a snappier machine by upgrading the storage in the future. We also noticed that ASUS has employed a robust cooling solution for the Snapdragon X