Question about adding memory to my T400

Greetings:

I have 2 gigs of memory in my computer and would like to upgrade -- for several reasons, but mostly so that I can upgrade my OS from XP Business to Windows 7 64 bit. In any case, never done a memory upgrade -- I'm wondering:

1. How do I know how many slots I have available? (I ordered my T400 directly from Lenovo, built to order.)

2. How much should I upgrade to?

3. Can anyone point me to the most appropriate brand/model for this computer?


Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

1. you should have a total of 2 memory slots. 2 gig should be fine for Windows 7 though. You can still download software (such as Everest) to check whether you have 2X1G memory or 1X2G memory.

2. you can upgrade up to 8G(2X4G) memory. But 3G-4G would probably cheap and should fit what you need.

3. DDR3 SDRam 1066MHz should be the best for upgrading. any brand would be fine.

 

I would say low halogen memory (which is the same as non in performance), but environmentally more friendly if possible is a good choice.

 

(1) Look at your build info, it should say something about the DIMM's used. If you didn't specifically upgrade to 2GB / 1 DIMM then you likely have two 1GB memory modules and thus both slots used.

(2) Only you can answer that question and it depends on what the "several reasons" are for upgrading your memory. Windows 7 is fine on 2GB in most instances and 3GB or 4GB would be easy and relatively inexpensive. Since 4GB DDR3 memory modules are VERY expensive compared to 2GB modules you ought to have a very good understanding of why you need more than 4GB memory in your system before forking over the $$$.

(3) hding's answer is spot on. Choose any of them with decent reviews on sites like Newegg and with lifetime warranty. Memory modules do sometimes go bad; I've had it happen and the manufacturer swapped it out with no issues.

 

IMO W7 chokes on 2 and even 3GB of RAM. I'm not sure if its the dual channel effect but 4GB is a dramatic noticeable difference from 3GB. One thing you can do is just use USB flash for ReadyBoost.

 

Depends on what you're doing. If typical web and office apps, 3GB is perfectly fine in my experience. I have 4GB in my T400, running Firefox, Word, Excel, and a couple other items and I'm showing 1931MB used, 2060MB free, 3990MB total.

If using heavy memory intensive apps then more memory is certainly better. Again, it really depends on what you're doing. It's pretty easy to figure out the usage given your application load and make an intelligent decision for your own specific circumstances rather than trust any of us folks here.

I ran my T400 with Win7 x32 and 3GB for a while during the Win7 RC period and switched to 4GB when I went to Win7 x64 Pro RTM. I'll admit that going from 3GB to 4GB was more to see if there was a difference than for any performance reason. I could have stuck with 3GB and probably not seen any difference.

 

1) You can scan your local ram situation and options online with the Crucial memory scanner: http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/
2) Or download HWiNFO32 3.35 from http://www.majorgeeks.com/HWiNFO32_d280.html, install and it will let you know your ram situation.
The crucial scanner is easier.