Thinkpads Forum

Added 2x 8Gb SoDIMMs to my T420s. Posting here to add to the confirmation that this machine does take 16Gb.

I got a pair of Kingston 8Gb DDR3-SDRAM 1333MHz 1.5V
Working flawlessly.

The machine works noticeably better too. With 8Gb installed I was getting memory usage at 7.5Gb or so. With 16Gb installed I now get memory usage at around 9.5Gb.

What are you waiting for?!

What are you waiting for?!

Santa Claus won't be here for a while. . . .

Yes it takes. I have 12gb at the moment on my T420 and 8gb on my T500 and I have turned off the paging files on both of them - in my signature. But 16 gigs without ssd is not a good idea in my opinion, you won't feel big difference......

If you use a lot of memory intensive apps like Chrome 64bit, illustrator 64bit then more ram is definitely good. You can really load up multiple windows, tabs and files.

I have an SSD. A Samsung 840pro. About 60% full. It was one of the first upgrades.

I have not changed any of my page file settings. I typically leave those up to windows to manage.

Here is the ultimate tweak for Windows max performance ultra l33t hacker settings.


1. Install Windows

2. Leave it alone

If I had a half dollar for every person i've heard about turning off their page file, I could take a nice vacation.

@OP: Glad you got 16GB going in your T420.

I had 16GB RAM in my X220 3 years ago. It's old news to me.

I've had 16 GB of RAM in my T420 for 3 years as well. Great machine.

Just bought a T420 i5 2520M with 4 GB Ram. I know from your post this laptop takes 8GB dimms. Can I use only one of the following with existing 4GB I have, to make it 12 GB.

Found this on Amazon.
Kingston Technology 8GB (1x8 GB) 1333MHz DDR3 PC3 10600 204-Pin SODIMM Memory KTA-MB1333/8G by Kingston Technology

Thanks

I read somewhere that you can do so; but performance will be reduced.

I have had 16Mb running in my 380ED since 1998. Oh, wait, you said 16Gb....

...Nevermind...

Brad

I have 8gb in this T410s I am typing on. I had 8GB in my Q6600 in 2009. I have 16GB in my desktop gaming PC. I don't see a need for 16GB in a laptop other than to say you do it because you can. More power to you.

If you can afford to put 16GB in a T420 I don't see any reason why not? It's a shame to use it with 4GB ......

Brad wrote:I have had 16Mb running in my 380ED since 1998. Oh, wait, you said 16Gb....

...Nevermind...

LOL . Although you missed saying, "Oh! That's quite different...."

Hans Gruber wrote:I have 8gb in this T410s I am typing on. I had 8GB in my Q6600 in 2009. I have 16GB in my desktop gaming PC. I don't see a need for 16GB in a laptop other than to say you do it because you can. More power to you.

Of course you are entitled to your opinion, but if you can make my development VMs (all 4 of them which need to be running at the same time) to simulate a real environment run in 8gb (including the host OS) I'm all ears. Other folks have different use cases than you do.

Don't look at the workstation in my signature... 32gb of ECC RAM... My boss says it's a server, I say it's under my desk, therefore a workstation...

zern wrote:I read somewhere that you can do so; but performance will be reduced.

Whatever you read is straight up wrong. End users and power users do not know memory usage and resource management better than the kernel devs over at Microsoft. Leave your Windows settings alone.

Turn the page file back on and leave it as system managed.

Temetka wrote:

zern wrote:I read somewhere that you can do so; but performance will be reduced.

Whatever you read is straight up wrong. End users and power users do not know memory usage and resource management better than the kernel devs over at Microsoft. Leave your Windows settings alone.

Turn the page file back on and leave it as system managed.

:-/

With a SATA III SSD, a pagefile is not as bad, but with an HDD and 16GB RAM with page file enabled, there is without a doubt a noticeable difference in speed Vs. no page file. It certainly isn't for me, but I am not interested in starting any flame wars, to each his own.

Windows does other things with the page file other than using it as "extra RAM" once system RAM fills up. Just leave it turned on and your PC will thank you.

zern wrote:Added 2x 8Gb SoDIMMs to my T420s. Posting here to add to the confirmation that this machine does take 16Gb.

I got a pair of Kingston 8Gb DDR3-SDRAM 1333MHz 1.5V
Working flawlessly.

The machine works noticeably better too. With 8Gb installed I was getting memory usage at 7.5Gb or so. With 16Gb installed I now get memory usage at around 9.5Gb.

What are you waiting for?!

what processor is in yours?

Processor: Core i7 2620M @ 2.70 GHz

Yeah I want to stick 16GB in my T420s.

You know what the fastest RAM it supports?