T420i owner with a few questions...

Hi, all. I own a T420i (i3-2100 [I think], 4GB ram, 250GB HDD, 1600x900 screen, 7 Pro x64) I bought refurbished from Lenovo about four months ago. Everything is running fine, but I was thinking about a few upgrades to give it a bit of a boost for the fun of it. I have some questions, though. I'll be piecing it together over the next few months, so I'm not in a big rush.

1) Right now, I have two 2GB DIMMs in the computer, and the Windowes Experience score shows this is the lowest rating (like a 5.4), so I want to upgrade the ram. If I were to buy, say, an 8GB DIMM, can I run that with one of the 2GB DIMMs for 10GB, or would it tweak out on me and I'd be better off with just the 8 on its own? Might seem silly, but I remember a few other computers I've owned (like 20 years ago) that weren't happy with such arrangements, and I haven't done this in a while .

2) I'm thinking of an SSD and a HDD in a caddy. These are the drives I'm looking at:
Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

They seem to have good reviews, and the price is about what I can spend ($100 here, $100 there over a few months is easier than $400 this week, you know...)

I also know the T420 will take an mSATA drive, which could free up the Ultrabay for my DVD drive... and I have no intention of getting a WWAN card.
Newegg.com - OCZ Nocti Series NOC-MSATA-60G mSATA 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Of these three drives (or others), what would offer the best performance? I just need the OS, Photoshop (either CS5 or Lightroom, not sure yet) and an MMORPG on it, so a big drive isn't really needed.

3) The next-lowest Windows Experience score is for video (a 5.6... it's the base GPU option). Are there any options other than building an external video card for when I need it?

So there we go. Feel free to chime/chide in with your comments .
--Bob

 

1.- Unless you need more RAM, just getting more to boost your WEI isn't going to give you noticeable performance gains. That said, RAM is inexpensive nowadays and adding a 4GB stick (for a total of 6GB) or replacing both (for a total of 8GB) will be an easy upgrade. Running an asymmetrical arrangement like you mentioned should not be a problem.

2.- Yes, the T420 does have a mSATA drive capability. I would recommend going with that, as you won't have to go purchase a caddy and it does leave the DVD drive in for the few times you do need it. A great mSATA drive to consider is the Crucial M4 mSATA, available direct from Crucial for ~$110-120 (128GB). It uses a Marvell controller which is generally regarded to be more reliable than the OCZ Nocti's SandForce controller.

3.- Nope, other than an eGPU. But, unless you're playing intensive 3D games, you won't notice any performance benefits.

 

1. You can add any 204-pin SO-DIMM DDR3 1333MHz (like this one) to the second slot. No problem. Forget about WEI.

2. If you want to keep the optical drive and do not want to spend some bucks on an UltraBay drive caddy adapter, install an mSATA SSD (like this one). You can either do a fresh Windows 7 installation on the mSATA SSD, or clone your existing system partition on the stock HDD to it. You can then keep the stock HDD for storage.

3. The HD 3000 integrated graphics is good. Forget about WEI.

(Don't try to "over-optimize" the notebook. If you are absolutely serious about video, graphics and games, get a desktop system with an awesome graphics card and with proper cooling.)

 

Agreed, although note that Crucial's website has a better price on the same drive.

 

I noted carefully and realized that the difference between $74.99 and $71.99 is indeed very small, especially in light of the fact that Newegg offers free shipping.

 

Crucial/Micron also offers free shipping standard, but I think it'll basically come down to where you'll end up having to pay tax

 

^^^ A bit OT, but Newegg "knows" me as a repeat customer, whereas Crucial doesn't. I can return merchandises to Newegg without any questions asked (plus free UPS shipping label), whereas a friend of mine only got "store credit" when doing a return to Crucial. I am loyal to Amazon for the same reason.

$3 difference is hardly a better price.

 

Really there is no need to go with mSATA since it costs more and only SATAII on T420. Unless you use DVD alot its better to replace the DVD with an ultrabay hdd candy -- even you're not going to put another HDD in -- the eject button of the DVD is the most annoying part of the laptop.

 

Perhaps, but the modular caddy costs more than the price difference between the mSATA and a standard SSD. Plus, with the mSATA you can keep the optical drive or add a third drive if desired.