ram speed / frequency (x220)

[naltar]

I'm buying (another) x220 i7, so I looked up mine and it appears it runs "slow" RAM, i.e. PC-10700 (667 Mhz) (2 x 4GB), while it can take PC-3 PC3-14900 (1866MHz).
Does anyone know if this faster ram is actually noticeably faster than my PC-10700? I do realize that it's technically impossible to answer with a "yes / no", because it depends on the job at hand, and "noticeably faster" is subjective too. So, I'm asking for a biased, subjective opinion, whether it's worth upgrading ram (given that ram is not exactly dirt cheap these days)? I do realize that I am likely to see "some" increase in performance if I go for faster ram, AND 2 x 8GB, but at this point I'm just curious whether PC3-14900, same size, is noticeably faster than PC-10700?

p.s. and as I'm at at, has anyone noticed a (subjective :) performance increase moving from x220 to x230, same processor? There is a youtube video to display benchmarks, but again, I'm curious about subjective impressions. I'm not opening an x220 / x230 museum, but now they're cheap enough, so I'd use one as a semi-throwaway, kind of, laptop for a trip when I'll have to work too, but then, if it survives, it'll be handed over to one of my kids, and an x230, if I pick one up too, will go to the other :)

Regards,
n.

[dr_st]

Faster RAM typically has the smallest possible effect on perceived system speed. You may need a hacked / older BIOS to support PC3-14900 speed in X220, as official new BIOS versions are locked to PC-10700 speed. Not worth it, IMO.

X220 to X230 will not give a noticeable CPU speed boost; GPU speed - maybe, and also X230 GPU better supports Windows 10 and has some support for triple-display configurations.

[as.nielo]

According to online info BIOS revisions newer than 1.38 check the RAM frequency. So downgarding to older revision should allow to run higher clock modules without mod. Don't know about the downgrade tho


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[shawross]

There is a modded bios for the X220 and some other X220 info on this page.
http://x220.mcdonnelltech.com/resources/

I also don't believe the faster ram is worth the expense. YMMV

[naltar]

Thank you very much for the comments! I already run the latest modded bios (and I'm aware of the lenovo block). Interestingly, in the "new" x220 I just got today, which runs W10 (not for long though), updated (official) bios isn't shown as one of available updates in lenovo system update, while it was available when run on W7. Also, drivers missing for the 3G modem and, oddly enough, for a PCI serial port, but that's just... temporary. Interestingly, it runs fairly snappy on 4GB RAM in W10.
Anyway, thanks again for the feedback! :)

Regards,
n.

[naltar]

p.s. and thanks for the excellent x220.mcdonnelltech.com site, I have used it many times. Now, if I get a decent x230 at some point, I'll start thinking about that (...) bios lock