How much would an upgrade help?

[Jill D Holloman]

*

[dr_st]

Hello, Jill and welcome to the forum.

There are quad-core Thinkpads. In the **10-**30 series 15" T and W series can come stock with a quad-core CPU, and some 14" T series can be modded to accept one.

In later Thinkpads, even the 14" T series (the 'p' variants) can have quad-core CPUs.

If you are struggling with 8GB RAM spilling over to the swap, it almost goes without say that moving to a 16GB machine will give you a noticeable improvement.

[w0qj]

We also have T410, specs: i7, 8GB RAM, SSD.
Our T410 usage does not exceed 8GB RAM, and its SSD greatly increased the overall speed of the machine.
(A friend of ours marveled at "how fast" our T410 was).

As to your daily usage spilling over the 8GB RAM and into Swap Drive, the SSD should mitigate the noticeable slowdown in your machine when accessing the Swap Drive.
But this comes at a cost to your SSD product life.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
For example, I personally used a X1C3 (X1 Carbon Generation 3) which maxed out RAM at 8 GB (!), and my daily RAM usage went up to 12 GB, thus Swap Drive was heavily accessed.
Even with the fast PCIe SSD in my X1C3, I can actually notice my system slow down somewhat when Swap Drive was accessed.

Therefore having enough physical RAM to avoid Swap Drive is a priority.

ymmv

[Screamer]

The T510 does not accept any quad-core Core i7 processor, though. I am fairly sure that the T510's BIOS and its motherboard circuitry lacks support for it.

An additional note: the W510 may come factory-installed with a dual-core Core i5/i7 processor, but that specific configuration cannot be upgraded with any quad-core Core i7 processor. Be careful of that.

If you are interested in lugging around heavy machines (10 pounds+) that has desktop-class processors, with MXM graphics cards, I would say Clevo. Some of their 15.6" and 17.3" machines are loaded with that equipment, although they are not very cheap.

[w0qj]

[Edit: This posting is *Out*of*Date; please see posting further below dated March 5th 2019 for update]

Just to be clear, the consensus on this Thinkpads Forum is:

1. T410 / T510 does not support Quad Core.
[Edit: Factory-installed Dual-Core CPU W510 cannot be upgraded to Quad CPU.]
[Edit: Factory-installed Quad-Core CPU W510 were once available, but rare.]

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=127082
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=103480

[Edit: For example, W510 can use Intel Core i7-820QM 1.73GHz Quad Core CPU]
www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-W510-Lap ... B00WHKYVQ0

[Edit: Disclaimer: I do not work for Amazon! Just a fellow ThinkPad user.]

2. T410 / T510 supports maximum 8 GB RAM.
W510 supports maximum 16 GB RAM. [Edit: This W510 16 GB RAM detail is still being double-checked, and we will revert on this matter!]

http://forum.thinkpads.com//viewtopic.php?f=45&t=109410
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=109597
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-P- ... 913/page/2

(Note: Some older OS cannot use all that RAM!)

[Screamer]

Some W510 configurations that came from the factory with a quad-core Core i7 processor installed, can be upgraded with faster quad-core Core i7 processors. This is not the case for the dual-core W510 configurations, as far as I know.

Also, that is not the maximum amount of RAM that the W510 can support. The quad-core W510 configurations do support 32GB of RAM, but the dual-core W510 configurations do not. They only support 8GB of RAM, since they are using a motherboard with only 2 RAM slots. When you add that limitation with Arrandale's memory controller being based off the GM45's memory controller, it would be limited to only 8GB of RAM (it can only address up to 4GB of RAM on a single RAM module).

[w0qj]

1. OK, many thanks for your very detailed info on dual/quad CPU for W510...
[Updated above posting to show Factory-installed Dual CPU W510 cannot be upgraded to Quad CPU, many thanks!]

2. We are double checking the maximum user-upgradeable RAM for dual/quad CPU for W510 over at another Sub-Forum here:
(We will update above posting about maximum W510 RAM after a consensus has been reached!)
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=128179

[AndyMH]

I've got a T430 with 16G RAM and replaced the stock i5-3320M with an i7-3632QM. Yes it does run nicely and does feel a lot quicker than original. Fairly simple mod, trouble will be finding 3632 at a reasonable price. There are very few T430's for sale with an i7.

[w0qj]

OK, updated Maximum T410/T510/W510 spec as below:

Just to be clear, the consensus on this Thinkpads Forum is:

1. T410 / T510 does not support Quad Core.
W510 with factory-installed Dual-Core CPU cannot be upgraded to Quad CPU.
W510 with factory-installed Quad-Core CPU were once available, but rare.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=127082
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=103480
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=128179


2. T410 / T510 supports maximum 8 GB RAM.
W510 with factory-installed Dual-Core CPU supports max 8 GB RAM officially (rumour has it that W510 can support up to 16 GB RAM).
W510 with factory-installed Quad-Core CPU supports max 16 GB RAM officially (rumour has it that W510 can support up to 32 GB RAM).

http://forum.thinkpads.com//viewtopic.php?f=45&t=109410
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=109597
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-P- ... 913/page/2
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=128179
www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-to-upgrade ... -32-GB-RAM

(Note: Some older OS cannot use all that RAM!)

~~Many thanks to RealBlackStuff, Screamer, & TPFanatic for their input into all this!

[jaspen-meyer]

Doesn't the T430 take 32 gb of ram?

I use a T420 with 16gb of ram and an i7-3612QM. For some work loads it is much quicker than my T410.

[Screamer]

I am afraid not, unfortunately.

Ivy Bridge's memory controller is not capable of using 16GB RAM modules, only Broadwell's memory controller and onwards, are able to use 16GB RAM modules.

[wujstefan]

It can sport no more than 16Gb of DDR3 memory.

[kiterunner]

OK, updated Maximum T410/T510/W510 spec as below:

Just to be clear, the consensus on this Thinkpads Forum is:

1. T410 / T510 does not support Quad Core.
W510 with factory-installed Dual-Core CPU cannot be upgraded to Quad CPU.
W510 with factory-installed Quad-Core CPU were once available, but rare.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=127082
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=103480
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=128179


2. T410 / T510 supports maximum 8 GB RAM.
W510 with factory-installed Dual-Core CPU supports max 8 GB RAM officially (rumour has it that W510 can support up to 16 GB RAM).
W510 with factory-installed Quad-Core CPU supports max 16 GB RAM officially (rumour has it that W510 can support up to 32 GB RAM).

http://forum.thinkpads.com//viewtopic.php?f=45&t=109410
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=109597
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-P- ... 913/page/2
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=128179
www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-to-upgrade ... -32-GB-RAM

(Note: Some older OS cannot use all that RAM!)

~~Many thanks to RealBlackStuff, Screamer, & TPFanatic for their input into all this!

1. ive seen a lot if W510 quadcore from factory, most of them use i7 720Q or 820Q and you have to use 135W adapter.
2. W510 with quadcore can easily support 32GB of ram since ive got 2 of them at the office, both of them using i7 720Q and 4X8GB DIMM 10600. and work like a charm in windows 7 and windows 10.

[kiterunner]

Doesn't the T430 take 32 gb of ram?

I use a T420 with 16gb of ram and an i7-3612QM. For some work loads it is much quicker than my T410.

nope, T430 even with quadcore processor installed only recognize 16GB memory ( 2X8GB DDR3 or DDR3L 12800 )
if you want native 32GB memory support, go for W530 quadcore.

for much quicker load in your T420 vs T410, if you using an SSD, T420 is SATA III speed while the T410 is only SATA II speed.

[olddog]

Personally, I would sell the T410 and buy a W530 with a quad core I7 and 1 8Gb stick of of RAM. Then install an SSD, and put the HDD in the ultradrive slot.

The result will knock your socks off, and have lots of upgrade potential (to 32Gb) if the RAM isn't sufficient.

It's what I did recently, coming from a T430, and I have been very pleased. And it's a pretty cheap way to get lots of power.

[wujstefan]

I don't quite agree.

If you need lots of mobility, processing power, would like to keep a good keyboard and a great IPS screen, go for X230.
If you need good mobility, processing power, would like to keep a good keyboard but the shtty (standard) screen is not an issue to you, go for T430.
If you need some mobility, quadcore processing power, would like to keep a good keyboard and a reasonable screen, go for T530 (definitely with FHD screen).
If you do not need mobility at all, but do need quadcore, 32Gb of RAM and nVidia quadro processing power, would like to keep a good keyboard and a reasonable screen, do not care for heat and have an unlimmited amount of cash to spoil, go for W530.

T410 and W530 are a great opposites of usability. The latter is simply a mobile workstation while T410 is a pick-and-run device. Not to mention a great price difference between T430/T530 and W530. You must give us some details on what you do expect from it.

I work as a CAD designer, and GPU performance, processing performance, display quality and RAM amount are very important for my everyday work. And here's where I'd take... none of that actually. I'd go for a Dell M6600 or a HP 8770/8760w w/ DC3 panel Now really, if it has to be a thinkpad, W530 for MY needs. You need to define yours, and we're all happy to help. IMO you may find X230 or T530 closest to your needs, while very budget-friendly.