What memory do i need to buy for my x201 ?

[johnfretwell]

Hi

I searched on the Lenovo website and i can't find 2 x 4GB memory for my model, i put the model number in which is 3249CTO but it does not recognise it.

I have the X201 i7 M620, the only info i have on the memory i have now is this PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM. I can find this on ebay but there are different codes as well so i assume that has to match as well.

I found this on ebay "8GB 2x 4GB DDR3 1066 PC3-8500 MEMORY FOR LENOVO 51J0493". Mine is 1067 but i guess they round up the 1066 to 1067, its the 51J0493 i am not sure about.

If anyone can help that would be great.




Regards

John

[ausmike]

Giday John,

your can look here , (not sure of equiv. website in UK) .....(but you get pretty good idea of what you need)... and NO I DONT work for this website
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... %208500%29

Lenovo Memory oage for what you looking for is here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... %208500%29

Note : AFAIK, as long as its "DDR3 PC3-8500 SODIMM" it will work ,,, and most thinpads would take ANY brand or mfger etc (en general)
However , in my experiance - you get what you pay for !
also the lwoer the CAS Latency -(lenovo above links says CAS = 5) is super nice , as I been lucky enough to have those fitted in my many thinkpads ! They are NOT CHEAP - but are super fast and very very reliable however you can get equally fast and good ones via non Lenovo Vendors -eg NewEgg.

Hope this helps
Cheers

[johnfretwell]

Hi

After a little more surfing it seems the 51J0493 is a model number. MY model number is 3249CTO but comes up on one site and shows it as a x201i ? which i don't think mine is.

I guess the easy way is to take out the RAM that i have now, check the number and buy that type.





Regards


John

[johnfretwell]

Hi

Thanks for that information, that makes it more clear now. I am from the UK but i am in Canada at the moment, flying back 17th Dec.

You are right, you get what you pay for, if its cheap there is normally a very good reason, buy cheap buy twice.




Regards

John

[johnfretwell]

Hi

That website is very good, you mentioned latency 5 was the best, i can't find any 4GB sticks on there with a latency of 5 only 2GB sticks. If you think it is that much better I will continue to search.

Thanks for the advice, very much appreciated.




Regards

John

[jdrou]

I don't think there are any 4GB DDR3 modules with less than CAS 7 latency.
I don't necessarily agree that you get what you pay for in this case; I have had no problems with any name brand memory purchased from NewEgg (Crucial, Patriot, G.Skill, OCZ). (I have had an issue or two with no-name modules from 18004memory.com.) I'm currently running a pair of http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231265 in my X201 which are the cheapest 4GB PC3-8500 modules they sell at $64 each.

[johnfretwell]

Hi

Thanks for the information, very helpful. 64 bucks is a very good price, when i bought my laptop i nearly upgraded to 8 GB for an extra 500 bucks, glad i never now.



Regards

John

[johnfretwell]

Hi

Not sure if i did this URL right on that page below, i have it down now to 2 types of memory.

1st one says
DBT (Die-hard Burn-in Technology) Enhanced Optimized SPD Guarantee 100% Compatiblity, Dual Channel Compatiblity

2nd one says
8GB SODIMM memory kit guaranteed to work on all current DDR3 notebooks.

Is this just sales talk or is there a difference ? I have learnt a lot about memory after just these few posts you guys sent in, great stuff.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productco ... 144-467-TS




Kind regards

John

[mediasponge]

Your link did not come across as a link, but copy and paste still works. Might want to compare pricing with memory that comes with a lifetime warranty. All the major brands offer that too.

[johnfretwell]

Hi

Here is the copy and past without that URL part. Both of them have a few bad reviews but i guess all hardware produced by the millions will have some defaults.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productco ... 144-467-TS



Regards

John

[mediasponge]

Nope, that didn't work either. The Newegg link has something in it that breaks the formatting in this forum. I tried it several ways, and no go. Normally, what I do is preview the post, and verify that a link works by right clicking on the preview and doing "Open in new tab" or the equivalent. Don't worry about it.

[rkawakami]

re: 3249-CTO

"CTO" stands for Configure To Order. Basically, it represents a custom build of the various options that are/were available and isn't/wasn't something that Lenovo offered in bulk. For most model type numbers, you can go to this site and find out how the system was configured:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... y=3249-cto

Lenovo shows that the 3249 TYPE applies to both the X201 and X201i. For CTO systems, you can plug in your type and serial number at this site:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... yle=lenovo

and it should give you a list of some of the parts that were put into the laptop at the factory.

re: memory

PC3-8500 is essentially a standard speed of memory. As long as you get one that matches this speed, you'll be okay. I would strongly suggest that you test the memory once it is installed. To do that, download a copy of memtest86+ from here:

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Use the boot floppy / USB / CD to start the laptop and the memory test will start. Let it run for at least three complete passes through all of the various tests. 8GB will probably take a couple of hours. The GeIL and Corsair modules you have referenced from newegg are both what I would consider "module builders". They don't actually make the memory chips that go on the module but rather buy them from the open market from various memory manufacturers and assemble them into modules. Some of these companies will actually test the completed module to see what the maximum speed it can be operated at and then sell them as "overclock"-capable. Or they will do some other sort of stress testing to add "value" to the memory. GeIL's "DBT (Die-hard Burn-in Technology) Enhanced" marketing-speak is their way of saying that those modules are subjected to a 100C burn-in for 24 hours in order to weed out the parts that would fail from infant mortality (failure within the first couple of hours/days of normal operation).

[johnfretwell]

Hi

Thank you for that Ray and everyone else that helped. I have that installed now on USB and i will be testing the RAM i have just to make sure that is ok. I wonder how many people have RAM in their computer that does not work as it should so just blame their Microsoft software.




Kind regards


John

[Harryc]

Moved thread to » ThinkPad Hardware » ThinkPad X200/X30x Series