Which type of RAM for T420??

Well, I'm ordering the T420 with stock RAM and upgrading myself. Problem is I don't know which type to get? There's different speeds and different pins like 200-pin.

I just don't know which type of RAM is compatible with the T420. Anyone can shed some light on this is greatly appreciated!

 

I suppose you order 2GB RAM with your CTO and want to add another stick of 2GB to make 4GB total. Or, if you really need it, you can get a pair of 4GB and boost your notebook to 8GB total.

RAM type: 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600).

 

As stated above, any DDR3, max 8 GB (2 x 4 GB sticks). Dual core i5/i7 will support 1333, quad core i7 1600.

 

DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
DDR3 1333 (PC3 10660)
DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
All of these will do, correct?
Newegg

I'm planning to buy one of these, Corsair 4GB or this GSKill 4GB

 

Yep, that's just naming inconsistency, with some manufacturers terming it 10600 and others terming it either 10660 or 10666. I recommend the GSkill stick, since it's cheapest--go for the lowest price with the same specs, the manufacturer really doesn't matter when it comes to RAM.

 

Don't bother with brand name RAM. Get whatever's cheapest. Either it does the spec. or it doesn't.

 

I bought that same exact G Skill ram and put it in mt T420, works great.

 

I've been very happy with G.Skill RAM. Reliable, and reasonably priced. I use it on a number of systems, and so far I haven't had a failure.

 

By the way, have some curious

If i order the t420 coming with 2gb, is it possible to insert a 4gb of like gskill into the second slot ? will it work together? 2gb+4gb but with different brand and different size

 

Yes.

Again, brand does not matter. At all. Ever. For any RAM. The only thing that different brands of RAM offer are different labels. Ostensibly some brands have different QC than others, but that doesn't really matter; this isn't like hard drives where QC affects the lifespan of the product -- either the RAM works and passes memtest, in which case you keep it, or it doesn't, in which case you take advantage of NewEgg's return policy.

 

Okay One more thing just to make sure, Does different RAM size put together matter?
A 2gb and a 4gb RAM together for ex.
Will it decrease the speed or performance of the other.


It would be great to have total 6gb to make use of the 2gb RAM that came with the laptop

 

^^^ 2GB stick + 4GB stick will work fine. Just make sure the new 4GB you're buying is 204-pin DDR3-1333.

 

Works fine, it's the exact setup I'm using now.

 

^^^ I'll be using the same exact set up. My t420 just shipped this morning and I bought the G skill 4gb ram today for it.

 

I just purchased a t420 and I want to add a 4gb ram stick. I noticed on newegg there are two kinds of Gskill ram with different CAS numbers and PC numbers. Is one one better than the other and will both work?

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9S-4GBSQ

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model F3-8500CL7S-4GBSQ

 

^^^ Go with the DD3-1333.

 

2Gb RAM removed from Lenovo Thinkpad T420 ...
hynix Korea 05
2Gb 1Rx8 PC3-10600S-9-10-B1
HMT325S6BFR8C-H9 N0 AA 1101
FRU: 55Y3716

4Gb RAM sticks (x2) installed into Thinkpad T420 ...
G.Skill F3-1066CL9S-4GBSQ
DDR3-1333 PC3-10666
CL9-9-9-24

Installed 4Gb sticks .. one on base and one under keyboard.

Works perfectly!

 

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBSQ

If I buy these I dont have to put them both into the same laptop right. It says dual channel kit so I want to make sure its okay to put 4 in one laptop and 4 in another.

 

^^^ You can split the pair.

 

Did anyone use the RAM below? If you did, was it worth the extra money? Thank you.

Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1866 HyperX Plug n Play Laptop Memory Model KHX1866C11S3P1K2/8G

Newegg.com - Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1866 HyperX Plug n Play Laptop Memory Model KHX1866C11S3P1K2/8G

 

You probably want such RAM if you have a Core i7 Quad Core processor to take advantage of the extra speed but Lenovo don't offer a Quad Core processor in the T420 so the system would simply clock the memory speeds down to 1333MHz which is a waste really.

Still that doesn't mean you can't put a Quad Core processor in the T420 yourself as someone had done this sucessfully, but even so it still won't be able to take full advantage of the 1866MHz speeds on offer (only up to 1600MHz).

Overall I would advise the following:

Core i3/i5/i7 Dual Core Processors - Buy the 1333MHz rated RAMs, any higher the RAMs will simply clock back down to 1333MHz speeds anyway = wasted money.

Core i7 Quad Core Processors - If you can, buy the 1600MHz rated RAMs if you want to take full advantage of the extra speeds on offer.

 

Thank you Hearst. This was my first time ever typing a reply or asking a question on any type of forums. With your quick reply, you made it a great experience.

If you have time, could you read the review below? The review appeared to say that you can get great improvements without the i7 Quad Core. The reviewed machine is not a T420. This is my first laptop in 5 years. My current laptop was from 2006 so I am not very familiar new laptops. I plan to use this machine for 5 to 6 years so I just want to make it the best it could be. I included my configured system below. What would you recommend for a 120 GB SSD harddrive? Is there anything else you would recommend? Thank you very much again for your help. If anyone else has any advice, please let me know.

This might be another silly question. Is there a way to get notify of replies by email from this thread?


Kingston HyperX 8GB 1866MHz PnP Memory Kit For Notebooks - Sandy Bridge Notebooks Get HyperX Treatment - Legit Reviews

Kingston HyperX 8GB 1866MHz PnP Memory Kit For Notebooks - The Test System - Legit Reviews

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0A68248 SBB INTEL HD GRAPHICS 3000
45M4572 VBB 4GBPC3-10600DDR3 1333SODMM
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Since the thread is about RAMs and not the whole T420 in general i'm not going to hijack this thread so I answered your questions in the ThinkPad T420 thread which I hope helps.

 

did anyone tried the crucial memory: Newegg.com - Crucial 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model CT51264BC1339
someone said there that it was incompatible with his x220, can anyone elaborate?
thanks,

 

I don't see why the Crucial Memory module you mentioned shouldn't work with the T420, the specs and timings seem fine. Reading the review mentioning BSODs on the X220 means he/she was probably unlucky to receive a bad batch (yeah you can get duff memory sometimes ).

Crucial however do offer a lifetime warranty on their modules so if it fails then you can always do a RMA and get a replacement like many others manufacturers out there. I remember I had to do a RMA with a Crucial module and I just got a working replacement within the week with little hassle. Same goes with the Kingston and Corsair modules I used before too.

 

So, what do you recommend me to buy?

 

Any name brand with a lifetime warranty.

I don't entirely trust Newegg reviews, I know some gorillas that have more experience with technology than some of the buyers..

 

+1 - Just go for the cheapest 1333MHz DDR3 204 pin SODIMM RAM available that offer lifetime warranty. You can afford to be choosy since G.Skill, Corsair, Kingston, Crucial Micron are just some brands that offer this warranty.

 

thank you for your replies,

What about samsung's ddrs, I understand that t420's come with samsung dimms installed.
I have a t400, when I upgraded it from 2gb to 4gb using a 2gb g-skill dimm, I felt a decrease in battery life, is there an electricity consumption factor to this rams?

thanks.

 

Again, as has been stated before, any brand. Any brand. Samsung? Sure. Corsair? Great. Crucial? Definitely. Hynix? 'course. Kingston? Definitely.

Any brand. Buy it, install it, run memtest86+, done. Dig?

 

Funny dude!

what about the power consumption?

 

Minimal impact if any. It shouldn't even cross your mind when selecting RAM upgrades.

 

Samsung, Hynix, Qimonda, etc make the memory chips that the RAM manufacturers use--Samsung itself doesn't make RAM, I believe. Lenovo, like other OEMs, use whatever memory they have available: my T500 came with a 2GB stick that had Hynix chips, my X120e came with a 2GB stick with Samsung chips.

Unlikely--whatever decrease you felt was likely the placebo effect, or your imagination. RAM power usage is minimal compared to the screen, CPU, GPU, etc.

As for brand, go for any. I added a SuperTalent stick to my T500, and a Lenovo/IBM-refurbished stick to my X120e. Just use the cheapest RAM with the specs you need.

 

I wonder what started this awful trend of people worrying about power consumption of memory chips...

 

Probably at least partially due to some OEMs advertising laptops as being "more battery efficient" for using DDR3 over DDR2 a few years ago when laptops were still half-half split between DDR3 and DDR2

 

BTW, Samsung is one of the biggest semiconductor manufacturers and I believe that includes RAM.



I also buy the cheapest RAM with the right specs. Power consumption differences are minimal.

John

 

Just looked into it, and yep, Samsung does make the RAM modules as well. Thanks for the correction!

 

I've done more research and see that Micron is starting to produce 1.35V RAM (the normal voltage is 1.5V). That should provide a 2% reduction in RAM power consumption. However, it's less easy to find out what is the current power consumption but if it is 1W then the saving would be 0.2W.

John

 

While I buy the cheapest RAM with the right specs, I do make it a habit to put it through a 6-12 hour run of memtest86+ before using it. In my entire computing career I've only ever found one memory module that passed memtest86+ but still had faults. (It was temperature dependent and only failed when the temp was below a certain threshold, hence why extended testing didn't find it.)

Anything that fails gets sent right back to the vendor. I've caught a number of bad modules this way and would highly recommend it to anyone who plans on upgrading the RAM on their own.

 

Thanks for the advice. It is interesting and I will try it with my new Kingston RAM

 

I've bought a Kingston 4gb stick for my t420, but I'm not sure if it is giving problems. After installing the ram, the system would occasionally freeze/hang for a few seconds (sometimes half a minute) while the harddisk light stays on. Is it a bad stick or is something else wrong?

I've removed the new ram and it seems to be fine for now with only the original 4gb unit. Only gripe is that the system seems to be running near the limit when I use XP mode (required for some of my work).

The Kingston model I purchased is KVR1333D3S9/4G
http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KVR1333D3S9_4G.pdf

Any ideas?

 

memtest86+ can answer all these questions and more!

...


Actually, that's about the only question that memtest86+ can answer, but it does a damn fine job of it!

 

ran one loop test, nothing shows up. Will let it run overnight and see what happens tomorrow.

I'm beginning to think this random freezing isnt RAM related.

 

Ran many memory test loops now, no issues.

Seems like it is a harddisk issue. Using Corsair Force 3 120GB at the moment.
Corsair Force Series 3 SSD Issue Resolution: Drive Return Procedure - The Corsair Support Forums