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.

    fastest ram for X201?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by afhstingray, Jun 4, 2011.

  1. afhstingray

    afhstingray Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    351
    Messages:
    4,662
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    105
    hi, i'm looking to upgrade my X201 to 8GB ram, and from what i've read, because the ram is shared with the graphics faster ram should produce better performance.

    what is the fastest ram it supports and what should i look for?

    cheers
     
    afhstingray, Jun 4, 2011
    #1
  2. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

    Reputations:
    5,413
    Messages:
    10,711
    Likes Received:
    1,204
    Trophy Points:
    581
    With an Arrandale Core i5, it only natively supports 1066 DDR3 RAM so buying 1333 or 1600 is pointless as it will downclock. Just get any name brand with a lifetime warranty (ie Crucial, Corsair, GSkill, Kingston, etc).
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Jun 4, 2011
    #2
  3. afhstingray

    afhstingray Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    351
    Messages:
    4,662
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    105
    do you reckon getting a matched pair is worth it?
     
    afhstingray, Jun 4, 2011
    #3
  4. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

    Reputations:
    5,413
    Messages:
    10,711
    Likes Received:
    1,204
    Trophy Points:
    581
    I mean why not? 8 GB DDR3 is like...70-80 bucks. You aren't going to see the performance drop by using mismatched RAM. More RAM > matched pairs of RAM.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Jun 4, 2011
    #4
  5. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    7,197
    Messages:
    28,842
    Likes Received:
    2,172
    Trophy Points:
    581
    Using two modules does give some boost to graphics performance with full dual channel giving the best results.

    Eg, 3DMark06 scores for my Dell E6410 (i5-540M + Intel graphics)

    4GB as 1 x 4GB (RAM timings 8-8-8-16) =1638 3DMarks
    4GB as 2 x 2GB (RAM timings 7-7-7-20) =1909 3DMarks
    6GB as 4GB + 2GB (RAM timings 8-8-8-16) = 1849 3DMarks
    8GB as 1 x 4GB (RAM timings 8-8-8-16) = 1921 3DMarks

    However, I wouldn't go out of my way to buy a matched pair if only one module is needed. My two 2GB modules are from different manufacturers but have the same timings (they are actually PC10600 while the 4GB are PC10666).

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Jun 5, 2011
    #5