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[W520] W520, RAM slots and Dual/Quad CPU

W500/W510/W520 and W700/W701 Series
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WarMachine
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[W520] W520, RAM slots and Dual/Quad CPU

#1 Post by WarMachine » Fri Aug 13, 2021 4:05 pm

Hello,

I haven't seen any topic on the subject. It surely has been discussed and if it's the case, it's probably a good idea to concatenate this topic with another.

Well, I received my new CPU today. I had bought a 2860QM to replace the 2640M I had in the laptop. A surprise because it was supposed to arrive later in the month. It arrived one week before. I was pleasantly surprised and very happy.
I installed the new processor, of course, and everything runs perfectly fine.

Some days after receving the laptop, I tried various RAM sticks I had lying around (I have approximatively 20 sticks of DDR3 in a little wood box and even more DDR and DDR2, the same goes for the desktop sticks). I have what it takes to test. I knew that with Sandy Bridge, you could install 32 GB only if you have a Quad Core. If it's a Dual Core, you'll be limited to 16 GB. This limitation disappears with the Ivy Bridge.

So, I tried to install 16 GB with the 2640M, using my 4 GB sticks I had (I have two 8 GB sticks, but they are in my T420). And I wasn't able to boot the laptop with other sticks than the ones that were present at the beginning (I had tried all the combinations, it took me an hour or so). I didn't know if the sticks would be incompatible or if it was linked to the CPU.

I tried again today, with the 2860QM and miracle ! I can run 16 GB of RAM with 4 sticks of 4 GB.

So, what I learned is that we have 2 limitations, in fact :
- the Dual Core (I already knew that) ;
- only 2 slots are active when there is a Dual Core. If you want 16 GB of RAM with a Dual Core, even if you have 4 slots, you must use 8 GB sticks, on 2 of the 4 slots (the one which is on the left when the laptop is face down, and the upper slot under the keyboard when the laptop is face up).

I would have liked to know that before, I wouldn't have tested my RAM for nothing during an hour ! :D

Interesting to know that the sticks aren't the same. The first ones are Dual Rank, the new ones are Single Rank. The chips are on the two faces. The frequency is the same (1333 MHz), the capacity also, of course. Three are Hynix, the fourth is a Crucial one. All run together and I even have the Dual Channel enabled ! :)

W.
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mikemex
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Re: [W520] W520, RAM slots and Dual/Quad CPU

#2 Post by mikemex » Sun Aug 22, 2021 4:19 pm

WarMachine wrote:
Fri Aug 13, 2021 4:05 pm
This limitation disappears with the Ivy Bridge.
I do not have a spare dual core Ivy Bridge CPU to test, but I'm pretty certain it's the same situation: if you use a dual core CPU in the W530, only two slots will be available. Nice that you've found which ones exactly, because I had that doubt myself.

What are you going to do to your 2640m? I've been trying to source one for a while for my T420.
X301: SU9600 | 8GB | 1TB | WXGA+
X1C5: 7600U | 16GB | 1TB | FHD
X1C9: 1145G7 | 16GB | 1TB | WUXGA | WWAN
X1Y8: 1365U | 32GB | 1TB | WUXGA
P14s G1 AMD: 4750U | 32GB | 1TB | PG FHD Touch
T14 G2: 1145G7 | 32GB | 1TB | FHD

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