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    T430 RAM question

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Bond1747, Jul 2, 2012.

  1. Bond1747

    Bond1747 Notebook Guru

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    Can I use my old T61 2GB ram stick and add it to the 4GB currently in the t430 for 6GB? Does anyone know if it's compatible?
     
    Bond1747, Jul 2, 2012
    #1
  2. Kaso

    Kaso Notebook Virtuoso

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    A 4GB stick (DDR3 1600) like this would be a much better alternative.
     
    Kaso, Jul 2, 2012
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  3. Bond1747

    Bond1747 Notebook Guru

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    A better alternative because its more RAM or because my other stick won't work?
     
    Bond1747, Jul 2, 2012
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  4. Kaso

    Kaso Notebook Virtuoso

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    2GB is not 2GB in terms of quantity of bytes alone.

    200-pin DDR2 800 (T61) vs. 204-pin DDR3 1600 (T430).

    Spend the $25.
     
    Kaso, Jul 2, 2012
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  5. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    To put it in a possibly clearer way, the RAM from your T61 is DDR2 and physically is not compatible with your T430 (which uses DDR3 RAM).
     
    MidnightSun, Jul 3, 2012
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  6. Bond1747

    Bond1747 Notebook Guru

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    Thanks so much for the clarification.

    Would an extra 4GB stick significantly affect performance/speed? Not talking games, but multiple open programs plus browser with ~10 tabs (streaming video on 1 or 2).
     
    Bond1747, Jul 3, 2012
    #6
  7. brinox

    brinox Notebook Geek

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    That depends entirely on your secondary storage configuration (i.e. hard disk or solid state disk). If you have a spinning hard disk, then the marginal increase in RAM will help out a lot, since it will have to do less page-file swap on the hard disk. However, with an SSD, it won't be as immediately noticeable, but more ram (across two memory slots) is generally going to give you better performance overall.

    One thing though; whether or not you'll be able to see that performance increase depends on how you use your notebook... That is the most important question ;)
     
    brinox, Jul 3, 2012
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  8. Nankuru

    Nankuru Notebook Evangelist

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    It would depend on exactly what those programs are, but probably not. I'd see if you get anywhere near 4gb used before adding more. DDR3 is cheap, but why buy something if you don't need it?
     
    Nankuru, Jul 3, 2012
    #8