The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    W500 additional memory, power consumption / battery life

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by kevin071586, Mar 4, 2009.

  1. kevin071586

    kevin071586 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    26
    Messages:
    101
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I'm thinking about upgrading the memory in my Lenovo W500 laptop. I got it with 2GB of DDR3 1066mhz in a single slot, and my battery life has been great ... almost 5 hours with a 6-cell during my normal usage.

    I'd like to throw another 2GB stick into the empty slot-- does anybody have any experience on how this affected their battery life?
     
    kevin071586, Mar 4, 2009
    #1
  2. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

    Reputations:
    6,668
    Messages:
    8,224
    Likes Received:
    231
    Trophy Points:
    231
    No personal experience with my T500, but with my old computer, the addition of a stick of RAM had pretty much no noticable battery life impact. I don't think there should be much impact on your battery life.
     
    MidnightSun, Mar 4, 2009
    #2
  3. jonlumpkin

    jonlumpkin NBR Transmogrifier

    Reputations:
    826
    Messages:
    3,240
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    A second stick of RAM (especially DDR3) should only use a fraction of a watt. The effect on battery life will be miniscule (less than 15 minutes).

    The one area where you might notice a difference is Standby (S3) life. During S3 standby, everything except the RAM is shutdown. With 2 sticks of RAM you should have double the power draw in standby (e.g. from 0.25 watts to 0.5 watts). This shouldn't be an issue, but that's the only place you might notice a difference.
     
    jonlumpkin, Mar 4, 2009
    #3
  4. batmodem

    batmodem Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    4
    Messages:
    24
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I haven't tought about this before. But I think you could actually have longer battery life as your OS should have to write less to the swap/pagefile to the HD. HD access is much more expensive in energy terms that memory access.
     
    batmodem, Mar 5, 2009
    #4
  5. MastahRiz

    MastahRiz Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    179
    Messages:
    463
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    More Ram Ftw
     
    MastahRiz, Mar 5, 2009
    #5
  6. jonlumpkin

    jonlumpkin NBR Transmogrifier

    Reputations:
    826
    Messages:
    3,240
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    That is certainly possible. Especially considering Vista Superfetch cache (populates all of RAM with stuff you might want). However, this depends on how accurate the caching is.

    In any event, the downsides of an extra stick of RAM are minimal, and the upside is potentially quite large. So by all means, add another stick.
     
    jonlumpkin, Mar 5, 2009
    #6
  7. kevin071586

    kevin071586 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    26
    Messages:
    101
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Ok well i've been looking at the ram on Lenovo's website... there are two options for me, I believe. I have a W500 with 2GB of DDR3... i'd like to make it 4GB.

    Option 1: 2GB PC3-8500 1066Mhz DDR3 SODIMM Memory
    Option 2: 2GB PC3-8500 1066MHz DDR3 SODIMM Notebook Topseller Memory

    Option #2 is about $2 cheaper. I can't seem to find any difference in the specs at all, does anybody know what the deal is?
     
    kevin071586, Mar 5, 2009
    #7
  8. Snakecharmed

    Snakecharmed Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    298
    Messages:
    289
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Buy your memory elsewhere and save $30.
     
    Snakecharmed, Mar 5, 2009
    #8
  9. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

    Reputations:
    6,668
    Messages:
    8,224
    Likes Received:
    231
    Trophy Points:
    231
    MidnightSun, Mar 5, 2009
    #9
  10. Snakecharmed

    Snakecharmed Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    298
    Messages:
    289
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I was looking at the exact same page about 10 minutes ago. Despite the commotion about DDR3 being more expensive than DDR2, it's still cheap. I have never before paid as little as under $35 for 2GB RAM.
     
    Snakecharmed, Mar 5, 2009
    #10
  11. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

    Reputations:
    6,668
    Messages:
    8,224
    Likes Received:
    231
    Trophy Points:
    231
    Yeah. And to think a few years ago I paid $70 for a 1GB module of DDR 2700 RAM for my Averatec... :rolleyes:
     
    MidnightSun, Mar 5, 2009
    #11