dual channel & funny screws

Well, I just got a new t60 (the 2623 with the sxga 14" screen) and I must say it is VERY nice - much more solid than the dell 600m it replaces. Of course, it came with 512 MB of RAM and now I need to upgrade. The question is - if I add a 1 GB module for a total of 1.5 gb, will performance suffer from not taking advantage of the dual channel architecture? Would I be better off just adding 512 MB? Also, the laptop came with two funny screws in a little bag, one long & skinny, the other short & fat. I can find no mention of these screws in any documentation - are they just extras? Or is my HD going to fall out?

 

Dual channel offers only a slight performance increase. The important thing is to get more memory.

 

My guess is that your new T60 has 2 sticks of 256mb of ram. I would start by purchasing a 1gb stick of the DDR2 ram. I'm not sure if the T60 supports 2gb sticks. I'm not sure if they exist yet. 2GB of total ram should be more than enough for now. I have 1.25gb myself. I'm waiting for the 1gb sticks to hit $50 before I buy another stick.

 

If it said 512MB in the machine type specs it is more than likely 1 stick. Just pop the panel off the bottom and you'll know for sure.

 

Lenovo doesn't usually fill both slots unless you order the machine that way. I should have one stick of 512MB. Dual channel mode doesn't net much of a performance increase especially on a discrete video machine like the T60. If you happen to have a T60 with integrated video (Intel) then the machine will perform slightly better due to the increased memory bandwidth. If you have a T60 with ATI video just get the amount of RAM that you need (min of 1GB).

The short screw is meant to lock the ultrabay drive. Prevents people from running off with the drive. Not sure about the other screw other than it may be a spare for the keyboard / palmrest screws.

 

Thanks for the info. Last question - does it really matter who manufactures this kind of RAM? I'm noticing that there's a lot of price variation on the 1 gig stick out there at 667 Mhz.

 

Not really. But I always buy name brand...I just trust it more.

 

An off brand slightly increases the chance it won't work.