Thinkpads Forum

I'm familiar with the generally negative feelings about the Turbo Memory option on the T61, and that it could reduce performance or cause instability.

Has anyone been able to tell if it has improved with the newer Turbo Memory option on the new T400/T500 models.

From my understanding the newest version (2.0, the T400/T500 seem to ship with 1.6) allows you to specify certain programs to use the Turbo Memory which would be a nice feature. Anyone know if that's just a driver update that the T400/T500 would be able to take advantage of?

Reason I ask is I just ordered a T400 and accidentally selected the Turbo Memory. I haven't called to have it removed yet but I am curious because if the problems have been resolved I might give it a go and just leave it on there.

Since you already ordered it, leave it as is and try it out. Try it a bit then take it out and see if you notice any significant change. Hardware Maintenance Manual indicates it's pretty easy to remove the slotted Turbo Memory card.

I chose not to go that route as it seemed like it precluded the WWAN-ready option on the T400. Who knows, if it proves to be worthwhile, I'll look at it again -- however load times are minimal with 3GB RAM and a 250GB 7200rpm drive (from newegg) in my T400. I'd be surprised if Turbo Memory created any noticable improvement.

-- Lew

Seems there just isn't much experience yet with these on the newer laptops. No surprise I guess! I still haven't gotten around to calling.

Relating to Turbo momery, I selected UWB and Turbo memory for my T400 despite the warning on lenovo sites. Still my order was confirmed and accepted by lenovo, howerver I wonder if it is true that UWB and Turbo Memory don't come in the same machine because of space issue?

As I mentioned after your post in the other thread, as far as I understand they both would use the same mini-PCI connection so you'll not be able to install both at once. I'm curious to see what happens.

In any case, I got the ITM with my new laptop and while I have no idea if it's helping or not, it doesn't seem to be hurting!

paulxu wrote:I wonder if it is true that UWB and Turbo Memory don't come in the same machine because of space issue?

Since they use the same slot, it would be quite a trick to have both of them. I've peeked inside my T400 and confirmed there's only one slot. See the T400 Hardware Maintenance Manual for more info.