The issue with T60p and 4GB of RAM... ?Answered?:

Hello,

This is my first post and I have been reading about a few of you who have recently purchased a T60 or T60p Series IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad and questioning the 4GB of RAM only registering as 3GB or 3070MB in VISTA Control Panel. There have been some answers here and there and all seem to be good and right to an extent however I received a bit of a different answer when I asked the rep that sold me my IBM Thinkpad T60p. Here is what I was told (word for word):

"The T7600 CPU can support 64-bit OS. The main reason we are selling 32-bit OS is due to the limited driver support of 64-bit OS version. It is true that a 32-bit OS cannot fully utilize 4GB memory. Most likely, it can utilize 3GB of the RAM. The advantage of having 4GB RAM is it allows dual channel mode operation, which will increase the speed of the RAM accessing speed. There is one thing that I am not 100% sure is whether T60p (hardware) supports 4GB ram or not (even if you have a 64-bit OS)"

My actual experience to this point is that I received the IBM T60p a few days ago and installed the 4GB of RAM... I have Windows Vista Business 32-bit installed and sure enough, through Control Panel, mine reads 3070MB or 3GB RAM as well. Same as others of you have noticed.

However, let's keep in mind that IBM does indeed sell this same exact Model (8743CTO) IBM Thinkpad T60p Workstation configured with 4GB of RAM so IBM/Lenovo themselves have some reason in this offering. This leads me to believe that there is a reason for the 4GB whether now or soon in the future.

I am interested in further discussion on this topic as I was somewhat frustrated at first as well. I received my T60p (as configurations show below) with 2GB of Installed RAM which I then replaced with two 2GB sticks for a total of 4GB installed RAM.

Thank you

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My Systems:

- IBM Thinkpad T60p - (Core 2 Duo T7600 2.33GHz, 4GB, 100GB - 7200RPM, 802.11N, DL-DVD Multi-Recorder, 15.4" Display)

- IBM Thinkpad X31 - (Pentium Mobile LV 1.4GHz, 2GB, 120GB - 5400RPM, Cisco 802.11a/b/g, Dock with DL-DVD Multi-Recorder, 12" Display)

 

Your hardware will support 4 GB's

 

As far as 32-bit goes, it can only support 2^32 bits of addressing space, or about 4.2 GB of addressing space. Since some of that is taken up by the video memory, the computer will show around 3.2-3.5 GB of system RAM.

Most modern computers are built to support at least 4 GB of RAM, even though not all of it will be utilized in a 32-bit OS. However, when one switches to the newer 64-bit OS's, all 4 GBs will be recognized. The reason why most people are still at 32 is like the Lenovo Rep stated: drivers for 64-bit OS's aren't created/optimized yet and thus some hardware parts won't work.