X220 8GB Memory Upgrade - Best Brand?

I have had an X220 for a few weeks and was wondering what the best brand of 8GB memory is? I am on my second bad batch of Crucial memory so I would like to avoid that brand. Does anyone have a set of 2 X 4GB sticks they purchased from Newegg that work with the X220? Thanks

Teddy

 

Hmm, and I was going to recommend Crucial. I've used them for a very long time and have never had any issues with them.
What you want, as I'm sure you know, is 204 pin DDR3. 1066/1333 MHz will work. There's some G.SKILL for $82 that seems to get good ratings.

 

I use Kingston in my X220, also have alot of Mushkin and Micron in my machines.

 

I use ADATA, works well!

 

"Hmm, and I was going to recommend Crucial."

Yeah...me too.

Renee

 

I just popped 8gb kingston hyperx 1866mhz mem in my x220. I can confirm it runs at rated speed. If this is not overkill for you needs it currently is the best ram you can get for your machine.

Product number is:

KHX1866C11S3P1K2/8G

price is lowest here but they charge shipping:
Kingston KHX1866C11S3P1K2/8G HyperX Plug n Play 8GB 4GBx2 204-Pin DDR3 1866MHz Dual Channel Laptop Memory Unbuffered Non-ECC CL11-Best Computer Online Store Houston Buy Discount Prices Texas-Directron.com
next lowest here:
Buy.com - Kingston KHX1866C11S3P1K2/8G 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1866MHz Non-ECC CL11 SODIMM HyperX Plug n Play Notebook Memory

good luck.

 

I got this 8GB set from Amazon and it works great. Ran stress/speed tests on it and it came out fine.

Amazon.com: Corsair 8 GB DDR3 Laptop Memory Kit CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9: Electronics

 

I was also going to recommend Crucial. We use it in over 100 Thinkpads here, including my personal W520 and my work X220. Though I did buy some Kingston HyperX 1600 modules for my W520, they just haven't arrived yet.

 

Im another Crucial guy. Its in everything I own.

 

G.Skill in the X220 (4GB). It just works. What else can one say.

 

crucial, kingston, mushkin, corsair, g.skill. they're all the same and provide lifetime warranty. get whatever is the cheapest on newegg.com.

 

Kingston is good too. But unless you have a quad core i7, the max speed memory speed your x220 can run at is 1333mhz.
i7-2620m specs at ark.intel
i7-2620m specs at CPU-World

 

Did u notice a fps increase in Starcraft 2 (or other games u might play). According to a review its suppose to give better gpu performance.

Thanks.

 

Crucial all the way ...

 

OP is avoiding Crucial as he/she has had 2 bad sets of them already.

 

G.SKILL seems to have the most reviews on newegg, and the only one that is 5 stars. so i will probably be getting this:

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-8GBSQ

 

Ahhh, my apologies. I would say it is rare to have two sets of Crucial go bad, perhaps another issues is at play here?

To the OP, if you can't trust Crucial you really are playing the memory lotto! Try Corsair would be my second choice.

 

I use G.Skill.

I've had a slightly higher defect rate with Crucial myself over time, though overall they're good.

Kingston's great too. Very good customer service should you ever need it. Corsair rocks as well.

 

It probably doesn't mean much, but I got a WEI score of 7.5 with the cheapy corsair ram (I got it for 70 bucks for 8 gigs a week ago from Amazon). Never went wrong with Corsair before.

 

What is the quality and compatability of the Lenovo brand memory compared to these other manufacturers?

 

in my case the origional RAM was generic Samsung RAM with the same part numbers as Micron SODIMMS. almost all ram is the same, some have a little bit better timings but its neglegible to notice unless its in synthetic benchmarks. if the warranty is good who really cares?

 

I got in on last night's doorbuster deal for the x220, which comes with 1 4GB DIMM. Can anyone comment on how best to match another 4GB DIMM? Should I just fire up CPUZ and find matching timings on another 4GB stick?

 

Yes. As long as the specifications match, it'll work just fine. Go for the most inexpensive stick you can find.

 

"OP is avoiding Crucial as he/she has had 2 bad sets of them already."

I too was going to say that something is wrong somewhere. The probability of having two bad sets is infintesimally low.

Renee

 

For all of you that don't believe me, this is the RAM I ordered:

Newegg.com - Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model CT2KIT51264BC1339

Check the latest reviews, and I didn't even post a review.

For the record, out of the first set one stick was fine. The other caused my X220 to reboot countiniously.

In the second set, one stick blue screened in windows. The second stick rebooted continiously.

This was trying each stick in each slot.

Thank you so far to everyone for the advice. I was thinking GSKILL. Should I get the PC310600:
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-8GBSQ

or the PC310666?
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBSQ

Thanks

Teddy

 

i plan on getting 10600 just because there probably isnt a noticeable performance difference, and its not worth getting something that might not be compatible

 

get 10600 just to avoid any compatibility problems.

the cpu is rated to run at 10600 speeds.

 

is the current newegg price for that GSKILL pretty much the best sale price it ever is? 82 bucks plus tax seems to be good, but if its worth waiting, i will. my laptop doesnt ship until 6/10 (estimated), so theres no rush in buying the ram

 

Funny they got the JEDEC cert after the production began so it's a hidden feature. both 1600 and 1866 run at the rated speed on these lappys.

Here is a cpu-z screenshot from some review site:
http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/58202.jpg

from my linux install:
# dmidecode -t memory | grep -w Manufacturer
Manufacturer: Kingston
# dmidecode -t memory | grep Speed
Speed: 1867 MHz

I'm not playing games on this box. I have a separate rig for game play which isn't in the form of a laptop. I got the ram to aid in software compile times and video rendering. And because I could

My main goal for this machine is for software programming.

I do plan to go back to duel booting it once larger capacity ssd drive come down in price( currently using a intel 160 x25-m). If your saying that gaming can be a decent experience on these little machines that sounds like a bonus to me!

 

I can back you up on this. I ordered a Crucial 8gb kit and one stick was bad - failed memtest+ (after BSOD'ing on me a few times before testing). I've sent it back to Crucial UK and hope to have a working replacement stick to go with the working stick shortly...

It's the first bad memory stick I've got in over 15 years.

Petrov.

 

I can get this memory quite cheap from newegg.

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

Has anyone used this specific memory in the X220? Thanks

Teddy

 

I have not used the one you listed but I did get the below Corsair memory and put it in my X220. Works great.

Amazon.com: Corsair 8 GB DDR3 Laptop Memory Kit CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9: Electronics

 

Toss up a coin, they'll all work just as well. Sure there will be a few lemons for each kit, but in the end all memory come from the same few sources.

 

So true, memory is memory. I've used all brands and have had a bad stick or two in each one.

 

UNIXGod and others have listed putting 1866mhz rated ram works in here... and someone even put in a WEI score that shown it was higher with the ram. Is anyone else able to run some other kind of benchmark to compare how much of a boost going to the faster ram (from 1333mhz to 1866mhz) will provide?

 

I just ordered it. It's on sale for $64.99.

 

Use this:

$81.99 - $17 w/ code EMCKEHF29
= $64.99

Courtesy of slickdeals.

 

I wondered the same thing in regards to my future T420s so I did some searches.

The Model Number of the Lenovo branded 4GB memory seen here gave me some Kingston hits like this one. The same site also gave this hit.

That site shows #55Y3711 and #55Y3717 for the same Kingston memory while the Lenovo one only says #55Y3711. Not sure what that means seeing as Lenovo only lists it as 55Y3711 while 55Y3717 can be found here, recommended for last gen units.

 

My T420s came with a Samsung 2GB M471B5773DH0-CH9. It was out as soon as I found a screwdriver, since I already had my 2 x 4 GB Patriot waiting to be installed. Personally, I don't believe that the quality of RAM varies much between manufacturers.

 

I only checked the 4GB ones because that's the lowest available from my reseller, but that is good to know, thanks!

It seems then that they like to mix up their RAM providers. Maybe cause they, as you said (and I've also heard before), doesn't differ that much in quality.

 

What CPU do you have on your X220? I'm going to get a T420s with the Core i5 2520M processor. Do you think the said speed (1866 Mhz) will be achieved? I can't see anything supporting this so your help would be appreciated.

Edit: Sorry for the double post.

 

hi...i just installed 8gb kingston 1866mhz however in the "lenovo thinkvantage toolbox" system information it lists the both ram modules as running at 1778mhz. is this what you see as well?

lenovo thinkpad x220-4286CTO/i72620M/Samsung 128gb ssd/bios 1.17

 

^did you see increases in the WEI?

S

 

Couldn't we have compressed this thread to just these 3 posts, perhaps prefaced with the headline: "Buy the cheapest RAM you can find; the differences are like different brands of table salt or bottled water!!"

Sorry, I just think there's something silly about a thread packed with posts, all essentially saying: "My favorite brand is "X," but they're all good and all warranteed for 5 years. Here [hyperlink] is what I bought."

But I am really just observing that it is a bit amusing, not being critical. Every poster clearly meant to be helpful.

 

Yes I agree. These memory chips are all made to the same specs and it's just a matter of personal preference.
And of course very few users will ever use more than half of their 8GB memory. It's just sitting there doing nothing except using up battery power.

 

Unfortunately after years of good experiences with Crucial we are having a heck of a time getting a good stick to put in the X220.

I added 3 sticks of Crucial to the W520 and all was good. However the addtl stick (same product) I ordered for the X220 did not work, nor did the RMA replacement, although any from the first batch would work well.

So we are on RMA number 2.

 

wei with stock 4gb 1333mhz
processor 7.1
memory 5.9
graphics 4.7
gaming graphics 6.1
primary hard disk 7.7

wei with 8gb 1866mhz
same except memory increased to 7.6

lenovo thinkpad x220-4286CTO/i72620M/Samsung 128gb ssd/bios 1.17

 

Strange how you had problems with Crucial, but then again maybe you were just unlucky, quality control isn't ever 100%.

As for some other brands:

Kingston
Adata
PNY
Corsair

The funny thing is that even though you don't want Crucial you'll probably end up buying a SODIMM that uses Crucial (Micron) chips on it Lots of others buy in their chips and make their own RAM this way adding their own branding.

 

I just added a 4gb stick. Anyone else find the slot extremely tight? I was afraid I was going to break it. All works though.

 

I had this problem the first time I installed a stick but i think i was just being timid. Didn't want to damage my new baby! lol

I upgraded to 8gb crucial 1333 and my graphics rating stayed the same. I didn't really need it but it allows me to remove a lot of virtual ram from my 80gb ssd and also use some of the ram as a ram disk - just testing it out as a favor for a friend. I get an extra few gb from removing virtual which is good because I am only using a msata 80gb ssd.

My first 2 4gb sticks were Mushkin from newegg but they gave me BSOD. Probably just a bad batch. It was annoying though :/