Thinkpads Forum

Hello,

I got a PC4200 2GB stick that i add to my PC5300 1GB original from Lenovo (i guess..);

Windows was starting slowly or not.. So i changed slot order and now everything seems ok..

In this situation, the PC5300 is supposed to lower its frequence, right? I guess there's no risks doing that?

Thanks.

All of the RAM in the machine will run at the lower (PC2-4200) speed. That will slow the machine down. With that said, PC2-5300 is really cheap, so it's a shame to handicap the laptop for that reason.

But even if you get 667Mhz rated ram it will still run it with the thinkpads 1/2 fsb to ram ratio which sucks. Wish there was a way to change that.

Don't undestand last message, what do you mean? That PC5300 is the max supported?

Harryc, from what i've heard, RAM frequency doesn't affect so much system performance...

And i believe it's true. Anyway i put both sticks and it works even thought at first weird things happened!

Thinkpad t60s have 1/2 pci divider so it always runs at 333Mhz double pumped. Some laptops have ability to change the pci divider so that you can run 5:4 or better ratios (best being 1:1) with higher timings and latencies but our oppressive BIOS will not allow that.

The best you can do on a thinkpad t60 without hacking the bios or using a program to change the fsb ratio(haven't found one) is get the lowest latency/timing ram available.

I believe the best is 4:4:4:5 timed (thats what my mushkin ram is) PC5200 but there may be lower.

But all in all the 1:2 ratio works fine and is stable so I don't know what I'm complaining about haha.

I don't think the chipset in the T60 officially supports RAM over 333MHz (666MHz DDR). Desktop motherboard makers are famous in going past the official chipset limits as far as supported RAM speeds go, laptop makers less so.

It's a R61 (so same as T61), did i say it was T60!?

I seem to recall chipset is limited to DDR2-667 (PC5300) for T61/R61 too.

General question I was wondering about.. Can one safely installing FASTER RATED RAM.. SODIMM in a Slower older laptop? To what extent?

dr_st wrote:I seem to recall chipset is limited to DDR2-667 (PC5300) for T61/R61 too.

Would DDR2-800 work? (Doesn't matter if at PC5300 speed)

Yes, it would.

I've noticed that RAM prices for a system fall and then after a point, when the systems becoming a little old, the prices become high again because major demand has moved to the next gen of RAM. So, if the next gen RAM is reverse -capable / compatible / higher capacity.. Why not use it?

True, that's why I was asking about DDR2-800 compatibility. My preferred vendor here has cheaper prices for 2GB DDR2-800 sticks than 2GB DDR2-667 ones.

Bugger now that you say that I see newegg has a mushkin 4gb kit for 3 bucks cheaper in ddr2 800. Looks like the 4gb single sticks are starting to show up in pc2-5300 too.

OCedT60 wrote:looks like the 4gb single sticks are starting to show up in pc2-5300 too

That was reason #2 for my question above! Actually here in Zurich I can't find anything bigger that 2GB in DDR2-667! My future plan for my T61 is putting a 8GB and a 64bits OS, to do that I have no other choice that DDR2-800

I found a PC4200 2GB stick for extremely cheap price, that's why i took it

Tasurinchi wrote:That was reason #2 for my question above! Actually here in Zurich I can't find anything bigger that 2GB in DDR2-667! My future plan for my T61 is putting a 8GB and a 64bits OS, to do that I have no other choice that DDR2-800

I went to Crucial's website yesterday and searched for RAM for my T61 and it said it supported PC2-6400 (I believe that's 800MHz) and only 2GB sticks for a total of 4GB maximum memory. I don't know if that's a limitation of the T61 or just that Crucial presently doesn't supply 4GB sticks (at the moment).

I have a couple of sticks of 2GB PC2-5300 667MHz G.Skill DDR2 I plan to put in my T61 (and load Windows 7 64bit Ultimate), which presently has 2GB. Don't know if this is much of a penalty, anyone?

It appears the 4GB limit is definitive for the T61:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=49703

That thread is quite old.
More modern here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 95&start=0
allowing for up to 2x4GB = 8GB in a T61.

RealBlackStuff wrote:That thread is quite old.
More modern here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 95&start=0
allowing for up to 2x4GB = 8GB in a T61.

Thanks. 8GB it is then. The thread I linked is stickied here.

I have a T61 8889-26U with 2x4GB PC 5300 RAM. I mostly run 64 bit Ununtu linux 10.04 and all 8 GB are seen. I dual boot 32 bit windowsXP, so the XP doesn't see more than about 3 GB, but I rarely use XP and don't care about the memory address limitations.

Muse wrote:Crucial presently doesn't supply 4GB sticks

Kingston & Corsair offer 4GB sticks here, I've just checked my usual vendor. Too lazy to check more shops But I'm sure other companies will offer them too.

@Tasurinchi
Are you aware of PC Hai?

Almost forgot that one! I thought they were broke! I will add it to my favorites, thanks RBS!

Tasurinchi wrote:True, that's why I was asking about DDR2-800 compatibility. My preferred vendor here has cheaper prices for 2GB DDR2-800 sticks than 2GB DDR2-667 ones.

Thats what burns me as well. I wonder why.. Why is DDR3 RAM SODIMM cheaper than DDR2 RAM SODIMM?
G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBSQ 79$
Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Laptop Memory Model PSD28G800SK 139$

I want to get the highest possible RATED 2x 4GB Sticks that are Future proof (when I move to next gen machine I can just pull out the sticks and insert) but can also be backward usable in my T61 / X61T.

Thoughts / ideas?

DDR3 is cheaper because there is a glut of memory chip in the market. Last I heard, which was in the news a month ago, DDR3 chips have dropped below $1 per gigabit chip. It means after assembly, the price should be around $10 per gigabyte or less.

DDR3 memory modules are not compatible with DDR2 systems and vice versa. They may have the same number of pins, but the actual connector, voltage and timing are different. Forget about bringing the memory to a newer system. All new systems are on the DDR3 standard.

4GB DDR2 modules will be as uncommon as the 2GB DDR modules when the industry moved from DDR to DDR2 standard. The prices on these modules will remain very high.

msb0b wrote:DDR3 is cheaper because there is a glut of memory chip in the market. Last I heard, which was in the news a month ago, DDR3 chips have dropped below $1 per gigabit chip. It means after assembly, the price should be around $10 per gigabyte or less.

DDR3 memory modules are not compatible with DDR2 systems and vice versa. They may have the same number of pins, but the actual connector, voltage and timing are different. Forget about bringing the memory to a newer system. All new systems are on the DDR3 standard.

4GB DDR2 modules will be as uncommon as the 2GB DDR modules when the industry moved from DDR to DDR2 standard. The prices on these modules will remain very high.

Interesting. I was checking out the price spider graphs and DDR2 really dropped at Dec10-Jan11 border line.
OTOH - DDR3 had been falling more gradually through last year.

Can I / should we expect DDR2 to fall a bit more?

Highly doubt the price of DDR2 will go significantly lower.

The rock bottom was back in 2007-2008. The retailers were moving 2GB modules for $10 to $15 each. 4GB modules were not yet available however.