X60 Memory question

[waterloser]

Hello everyone

I want to upgrade ram on my X60 tablet. the required ram type is found on Lenovo's website as following:

* PC2-5300 Non-Parity (NP) Double Data Rate Two (DDR2) Technology
* 512MB or 1GB memory
* Supports up to 4GB maximum memory
Notes:
o Windows Vista support up to 4GB maximum memory
+ Recommended for memory expansion are 256MB, 512MB and 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SO DIMM, or 2GB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz SO DIMM
o Windows XP supports up to 3GB maximum memory
+ Recommended for memory expansion are 256MB, 512MB and 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SO DIMM, or 2GB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz SO DIMM



So my question is:
I am planing on geting 4GB = 2GB x 2
Do I have to get PC2-4200 or can I get PC2-5300 which will be backward compatible with the memory requirement?

[Brad]

Welcome to the forum!

Either will work. PC2-4200 will run at a slightly slower speed. I could not notice the difference.

You can probably find the best deal on the PC-5300.

Brad

[tselling]

I thought the X60 series could only see 3GB max regardless of the OS. Has that changed?

[ryengineer]

I thought the X60 series could only see 3GB max regardless of the OS. Has that changed?

It might see full 4GB under few combinations/flavors of OS's but when it comes to usability it's still around 3.xGB.

[EOMtp]

The 3GB limit is imposed by the Intel chipset that is used on the motherboards of the X60/s units.

[tourist.Tam]

The 3GB limit is imposed by the Intel chipset that is used on the motherboards of the X60/s units.

Could you provide a link to the documentation on that chipset?
I fail to find any reference to that 3GB limit you are talking about, and like the OP, I only found a reference from lenovo stating a 4GB hardware limit. :/

Edit: I found a datasheet from Intel stating otherwise:

1.1.2 System Memory Support
• Supports single-/dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM
• Maximum Memory supported: up to 4 GB at 400, 533 and 667 MHz

I am planing an upgrade purchase and want to make sure I am getting the right thing.

Regards,

Tam

[tourist.Tam]

I shall answer my own question;

what I knew? Windows XP is a 32bit OS with a limit of 3GB of Ram. So no question asked, it won't see more (you can argue all you want, that is from both experience and documentation). Now, theoritically any (AFAIK) 64bit OSs can see 4GB of RAM.

what I've learned? I got confused when EOMtp wrote "chipset". In my mind he was going on about some of the component on the mobo I know pretty much nothing about (and maybe it is what he meant). So a quick search gave me the impression he was wrong compared to the Intel documentation. But, the real thing is the CPU!

See, my TP being a CoreDuo (Yonah), it doesn't have the EM64T (AKA x86-64) instruction set that would make it able to support a 64bit OS. This is, of course, not true of the TP featuring a Core2Duo, based on the Merom core or the Penryn core. I would recommend anyone to look at the documentation online to fully understand the that CPU is the bottleneck on the X60 generation, compared to the X61 generation.

So the answer is, I should not get a 4GB set of ram stick. Unless I can find one cheaper than getting two sticks of 1 and 2 GB.

Hope this helps.

Tam

[edit: see documentation of the different CPU in the X60 and the X61, or PM me if you want to talk over this again]

[tricky]

One more thing to consider is having two matching memory sticks will enable dual-channel operation. In theory, you would get better performance with 2GB+2GB, even if the OS can't use it all. In practice, the difference may be negligible. Just thought I'd throw it out there...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-channel_architecture

[adrianaitken]

I shall answer my own question;

what I knew? Windows XP is a 32bit OS with a limit of 3GB of Ram. So no question asked, it won't see more (you can argue all you want, that is from both experience and documentation). Now, theoritically any (AFAIK) 64bit OSs can see 4GB of RAM.
Tam

Windows Server 2008 32 bit edition sees 4 Gig of RAM on my X61 even though XP sees only 3Gig. I would think that the same is true on the X60.

[smvp6459]

Windows Server 2008 32 bit edition sees 4 Gig of RAM on my X61 even though XP sees only 3Gig. I would think that the same is true on the X60.

Nope. The X60 has a chipset limitation that won't even let an OS that is capable of seeing 4GB to use 4GB (plenty of people put on 64-bit OSes that could only see 3.something).