Thinkpads Forum

I own a X61, running T7300 @2.00GHz, Wifi A/G/N, 3GB RAM, 250GB HDD. Heard about this Intel Turbo Memory and have few questions:

- What is it Turbe Memory about? How good is it for my TP?
- How do I know if my TP has available slot to install this?
- Can I order the card seperately and install it myslef, will it work? Does it require a driver and if so, can I got it from Lenovo site?

Thanks for your answers.

Welcome. This subject has been very popular. I suggest sifting through all the relevant posts since May 07 and you will have all your answers. There is a search function too.

I'm assuming you already have your X61? If you have a WiFi card and a WWAN card you cannot insteall Turbo Memory. If you only have 1 WiFi card or 1 WWAN card, try opening up your machine and looking to see if there is a second MiniPCIe slot. If there is, then you can install TurboMemory by hand, by yourself. Just order a sick and slip it in. No drivers required.

Whether or not it's good. Well, the jury is out on that one. However, I feel that, just like Vista it's "ok" but with a service pack it could be good.

If you have 3gb in your system, then installing 1 gb of turbo memory (that's the limit today - 2 gb next year), will do very little for you.

You may notice a tiny bit more battery life, and it will improve your boot time. But you won't really notice a performance increase like you would have if you only had 1gb of system memory installed.

Drivers _ARE_ required for TurboMemory install. I previously added TurboMem to an x61s and the system required the driver install from Lenovo's website.

wackydan wrote:If you have 3gb in your system, then installing 1 gb of turbo memory (that's the limit today - 2 gb next year), will do very little for you.

You may notice a tiny bit more battery life, and it will improve your boot time. But you won't really notice a performance increase like you would have if you only had 1gb of system memory installed.

I was not aware that Intel has plans to release a 2GB version next year. This prompts me to ask a question: is turbo memory subject to the memory limit of a motherboard? In other words, if my motherboard accepts a maximum of 2 SODIMMs at 1GB each and those are filled to capacity, can I install a turbo memory card and get beyond the SODIMM memory limit? I hope that makes sense...

Jackboot wrote:

wackydan wrote:If you have 3gb in your system, then installing 1 gb of turbo memory (that's the limit today - 2 gb next year), will do very little for you.

You may notice a tiny bit more battery life, and it will improve your boot time. But you won't really notice a performance increase like you would have if you only had 1gb of system memory installed.

I was not aware that Intel has plans to release a 2GB version next year. This prompts me to ask a question: is turbo memory subject to the memory limit of a motherboard? In other words, if my motherboard accepts a maximum of 2 SODIMMs at 1GB each and those are filled to capacity, can I install a turbo memory card and get beyond the SODIMM memory limit? I hope that makes sense...

System memory is separate from Turbo memory. You can not leverage Turbo memory to get beyond the system memory capacity limit of the Chipset or the Mobo. Turbo Memory is strictly a cache function, and is is not the same type of memory used for system memory. (it's flash based)

IMHO why we lavish more than $50 on 1G/2G of turbo memory for 1-3s boot time faster only but more power consuming for the card. Turbo memory is tested with little use and will no longer exist as SSD will be produced massively and cheaper. SSD is superior in term of weight, battery life, heat, and speed.

The difference is that turbo memory is here today, and can be had for $50. While there are some 32 GB (and smaller) SSDs available today, it will take some time until reasonable sizes (128 GB would be a good start) are available at affordable prices.

Turbomemory has significantly sped up my boot times. I've noticed nothin' for normal use. Boot time has always been my biggest Windows pet peeve.

Transcend has an 8Gb Flash USB. Better to get that instead..

jgsx wrote:Turbomemory has significantly sped up my boot times. I've noticed nothin' for normal use. Boot time has always been my biggest Windows pet peeve.

What's your boot times with turbo memory? from pressing the power button to first seeing the desktop? Thanks

roblim wrote:

jgsx wrote:Turbomemory has significantly sped up my boot times. I've noticed nothin' for normal use. Boot time has always been my biggest Windows pet peeve.

What's your boot times with turbo memory? from pressing the power button to first seeing the desktop? Thanks

I'd also like to know. Also, how much memory do you have installed?

stylinexpat wrote:Transcend has an 8Gb Flash USB. Better to get that instead..

And yet make sure you don't pull it and suffer corrupt data, or that for whatever reason your usb bus decides to zone out for a sec and cause the same.