T400 8GB DDR3 upgrade!

Who would?

 

oh of course, let me triple the cost of a base system by getting 8gb of RAM!

 

The memory is worth more than the laptop? Lol

 

You can buy cheaper DDR3 memory off ebay like $50 for 1333 mhz DDR3 notebook ram haha

 

I am glad I have 8GB of DDR2 on my desktop. DDR3 prices are outrageous!

 

Wow, 8GB for $50? Link?

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OCZ-OCZ3M10662GK-DDR3-Laptop-RAM-2GB-kit-7-7-7-24_W0QQitemZ110316761387QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_3?hash=item110316761387&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318

Thats the cheapest brand named DDR3 mem on ebay, you can get cheaper from random brands which are like £12 per 1 GB

 

That's 2x1GB (or maybe 1x2GB, the description is a bit ambiguous), far off from 2x4GB.

 

Nanya, Micron and Samsung have been selling Generic OEM and Bulk 4GB DDR3 Modules for almost a month now. There have been a couple of modules I've seen on sale on ebay UK for the last week or so.

http://www.oempcworld.com/OEMPCworld-com/4-0G-PC3-SO8500.html
https://usm.channelonline.com/techego/storesite/Products/Overview/?id=M004776160
http://www.laptoppartsexpert.com/i-...ex.com/4gb204-pinsodimmddr3ct51264bc1067.aspx

 

Those prices look a little more like what I'd expect on a 4GB PC3-8500 SO-DIMM!

 

I remember reading a Polish site, which stated 8GB DDR3-1333/1600 SODIMM modules are in the making.

 

Going to cost like 1500-2000 bucks a piece I bet... absurd.

 

Only $1700 for 8GB, DDR3? I'll take two (not).

Still, this is encouraging. Next quarter it will be $1000 more, then $500, then $200 by end of next year.

I would love 8GB...very useful.

BUT I really would like to see some app developers make 64-bit version for their apps, so they don't hit the 32 bit / 2GB process limit. There are a lot of apps out there that would run a lot better of the process limited was higher. (ex. Outlook, Search/Indexing tools, VMs, etc.)

 

o.o thats insane, i really wonder who would get that much on a laptop

 

Anyone running virtual machines, or any memory intensive apps.

 

Any links to places where you can buy 4GB DDR3 SODIMMs other than eBay? None of the major manufacturers (Crucial, Corsair, OCZ..) seem to have any listed...

 

How so? I'm very interested to know how 8GB is useful. I would love to upgrade to 8GB, but I need to be able to justify it to myself.

 

I find 8GB very useful for certain programs such as MATLAB. Almost everything else, there isn't really a difference.

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I was trying to see if anyone could disprove that, though.

 

Holy crap!

That's insane. The RAM is more than the laptop. Not sure I'd ever invest in that.

 

Uses include:

Virtual machines. Run several at time with limited performance impact. Allows for more complex scenarios.

Applications that use a lot of RAM. Outlook is one, as are indexing and search apps. These could take advantage of 8GB, assuming they are 64 bit (I think Outlook will be early next year).

In general, running a lot of different applications at once; not having to wait on loading, etc. Games as well could benefit.

I'm telling you, once 64 bit native apps become more prevalent, you will see 8GB become the norm in laptops within 3 years.

 

Those prices will drop like a rock 3 months from now. Just hold your breath.

 

that's 3 months, dang.

but cool.

 

At this point in the technology adoption cycle, it would take a relatively niche application to justify those costs (but such applications certainly exist). Soon, however, the cost should be quite afforadable. I have a related question however... is there anything in the X200 (Tablet, explicitly) that would prevent 4GB SODIMM's from functioning? Current specs list it as only supporting 4 GB (2x2GB), but is that a technological limit, or just a practical one based on no 4GB SODIMM availability when the spec was written?

Thanks,
Warren.

 

Unless you're a professional graphic designer or you're running multi virtual machines, you don't need 8Gb of ram.

 

That's even worse than Dell trying to get $290 to upgrade a 250GB 7200 drive to a 320GB 7200 drive! Come one manufacturers - wake-up and get with this centuries' prices. A brand new 320GB 7200 runs a whopping $100-120. Trying to charge $290 just to upgrade by 70GB is a joke.

 

Any laptop running 3D applications (Maya, XSI, 3DMax, Lightwave, Houdini...) would be very happy while rendering if they have 8Gigs of Ram... my pocket wouldn't.

 

I know you got W700.

 

hahaha!! Yup zerosource. At least I paid for it while Dollar to Yen was good for me. By the time I start render for my short film the price of a 4Gig DDR3 stick will be on par with a stick of one umaibo

 

wow, $1700 is crazy. i wonder...if you already have an existing t400, could you install those bigger ram sticks into your computer? or is the motherboard different? are there 2 different versions of the t400 now? (one that can support 8 GB and one that can support only 4 GB)

 

I think the motherboard may be different.

 

I very much doubt that. The most you will have to do is a BIOS update. The least would be just dropping in and it would work.
Different motherboard = new model.

 

I'm pretty sure all of the new ThinkPads (T400, x200, x301, W500, W700) should support 4GB DDR3 sticks.

If the price ever falls to a reasonable amount (<$100 for a 4GB stick) I will probably drop one in my x200 Tablet to go up to 6GB of RAM (>4GB is the reason I got Vista 64 after all).

 

You may be right, and that's why I worded it the way that I did. I don't know if that's really the case or not, but I'll do some research.

 

yea, if it's a new motherboard, it really sucks for the people who ordered more than a week ago, because they will never be able to get more than 4 gb of ram even when the price drops to a level where you can buy the ram separately.

 

Yeah, it really would suck for those people. I plan on doing more research to try to find out for sure, though. My guess is that it is a new motherboard. I really don't believe that a new motherboard necessarily = new model.

 

What would be different enough to make it support more memory but not be a new model? The chipset is the same so the only other possible memory restriction (besides OS, which is irrelevant in this case) is the BIOS. So you'll either have to update your BIOS, or Lenovo previously did not offer this option because they were not stocking the 4GB SO-DIMMs yet. I am open to logic though, I may be thinking about this all wrong.

 

I said before that you might be right. I'm not disputing you so much as I would just like to do more research for clarification, that's all. It just doesn't seem to make sense to me that Lenovo would wait this long to update their site to offer the upgrade if the current T400 motherboards always had the capability.

Again, and I hope I'm making myself more clear, I'm not saying you're wrong. For all I know, you could be absolutely correct. I'm just saying that I want to look into it more and see what's going on.

 

I know you're not saying I'm wrong, sorry if I came off as overbearing like that. I agree that getting the facts is the best solution over hypothesizing.

 

what would be and where to get a cheap laptop memory for the t500? thanks

 

No harm, no foul. Interestingly, as I think it relates to this discussion, I noticed that the same upgrade is NOT offered yet for the T500 models. What is your thought on that? Why do it for one model and not the other?

Hmm, I don't know if this is quite the place for your question. You'd probably be better served placing it in the 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' section or maybe even starting a new thread here in the 'Lenovo/IBM' section. You'll most-likely get more responses that way. Also, do a search as I'm sure many people have already asked the very same question. In fact, do the search first so that you don't get blasted for it later (I learned through experience, unfortunately).

With all that said, I'll still lend a helping hand. I've found that Newegg is usually very cheap. I've had really good luck with them for RAM upgrades. I was also very fortunate going the eBay route once as well. Go to those places and see if anything falls in your price range.

 

Thank you thaansa and sorry for the post on this thread.

 

Low memory stock, probably. Or modules have not been tested with that specific BIOS and all that stuff might be in the process.

I believe that the 45-series chipset can address upto 16GB, so even the T500 should have no problems with addressing/supporting 8GB.

 

This is a non-issue/stop making it an issue. When the T400 was released, 4GB DDR3 SODIMMs were not readily available—it’s that simple. If you have a T400, you should have zero issues running it with 8GB RAM. It has been sold as an 8GB capable machine from day one.

 

Dude, nobody was making an issue out of anything. I was merely suggesting my own misunderstanding about the matter and the person that I was discussing it with understood what I was saying. I, unlike many people on here, don't pretend to know things that I don't and am not afraid to admit this, ask questions, and do research. By the way, isn't the point of discussion/message boards or forums to discuss things? I guess not.

Gotta love message boards.

 

cool

 

Yeah, it's really bizarre. When I first came to NBR it seemed to be primarily intelligent, well mannered people. Now it seems like [in increasing numbers] people are just at each others' throats about everything. These days, I find myself walking on eggshells so nothing I do is misinterpreted as being one of these people. Though, I digress.

I agree with Andy that none of these laptops should have an issue addressing the memory - the BIOS probably already supports it even. You know how Lenovo can be with updating their configuration options, leaving things out, adding in extras, etc.

 

I’m just trying to curb the rumor mills and speculation—wasn’t necessarily targeting you, you just seem to be the most vocal. One of the problems with discussion boards is you have clueless people making incorrect statements and misleading others—and I wanted to set the record straight before a new thread gets started blaming Lenovo for requiring people to buy new motherboards/computers for features that they have supported since day one.

 

I thought I was the only one who noticed it. It's getting to be super annoying now. I feel like I spend more time defending the innocuous things I say more than getting information. I scratch my head sometimes because I know I take great care in how I word things, for the most part, so I don't think it's simply a case of people misconstruing or misunderstanding me. Anyway, I guess it's a moot point since it's not going to change. It's probably going to get worse. However, there are still people on here who are all about sharing valuable information with no hassle, but that's unfortunately the minority these days. I'll continue to be thankful to them - Fire Snake, |crash|, ScuderiaConchiglia, swarmer - to name a few.

Anyway, I hear you about the BIOS. You're also right about Lenovo and how bad they are about updating things on their site. I've always noticed how bad they are about updates, and I should have thought of that. I did notice that they finally updated their website to reflect that the T500 has WiMax support. I'm really interested in WiMax and am glad to see that they've updated. Funny thing, I'm still not sure if I'm going with the T400 or T500 yet. I thought I had my mind made up, but I've been going back-and-forth in my own head recently. Ah well. Different discussion for a different thread.

 

Thannsa,
Ignore the other poster as you are doing a great job posting.
thanks