Thinkpads Forum

which is better?

The big differences are that the W520 can have four RAM slots permitting up to 32GB RAM, vs. 16 max. for the T520. W520 also comes with a much more powerful discrete graphics chip than the one offered for the T520, in addition to standard USB 3.0 ports.

theterminator93 wrote:The big differences are that the W520 can have four RAM slots permitting up to 32GB RAM, vs. 16 max. for the T520. W520 also comes with a much more powerful discrete graphics chip than the one offered for the T520, in addition to standard USB 3.0 ports.

how does 4 ram slots get to 32gb? most cards only go to 4gb each making 16gb total

n2ri wrote: how does 4 ram slots get to 32gb? most cards only go to 4gb each making 16gb total

Nope. Either of these will take 8GB DDR3 DIMMs so T520 maxes out at 16GB while a 4-slot version of W520 goes up to 32GB.

n2ri wrote: how does 4 ram slots get to 32gb? most cards only go to 4gb each making 16gb total

There are 8gb cards. Both the W510 and W520s with quad core i7s and 4 memory slots can be updated to 32gb.

There are W520s that have dual core processors and 2 memory slots and there are some T520s with i7-2630QM quad core processors but I don't know if they have 4 memory slots like the W520.

MisterB wrote: and there are some T520s with i7-2630QM quad core processors but I don't know if they have 4 memory slots like the W520.

No they don't. All T510/20/30 series units sport two slots only.