Thinkpads Forum

What's a good brand of memory for the W530?

I'd just pick one from a reputable memory manufacturer - Kingston, Crucial, Samsung, etc. ThinkPads are no longer picky about memory like they used to be. I usually find the best prices used on eBay.

ZaZ wrote:I'd just pick one from a reputable memory manufacturer - Kingston, Crucial, Samsung, etc. ThinkPads are no longer picky about memory like they used to be. I usually find the best prices used on eBay.

You can add Corsair to that list too, they also have quite good RAM. I prefer Crucial because they are slightly cheaper.

I've never had a problem with Patriot, G.Skill, or OCZ either. I've never used the "value brands" from the major manufacturers. e.g. From Kingston I've only used their HyperX line.

Ask 10 people, you'll get 10 different opinions. 99% of the time it makes absolutely no difference.

My suggestion, based on many years as a memory test engineer, is that if you're worried about getting "good" memory, then stick with companies that make the actual memory chip that's on the board. Currently, that would be Micron, Samsung (full disclosure: I'm employed by a division that was bought by Samsung a couple of years ago; I have nothing to do with DRAM), Hynix.

Memory module assemblers (Kingston, G.Skill, Patriot, etc.) will buy DRAM made by various memory manufacturers, some on the spot-market (i.e., prices vary wildly) or under contract, put them on a board (maybe of their own design or maybe they buy some generic board), hopefully test them to some good quality control standard and then sell them (ideally at a profit). Crucial, since it has been previously mentioned here, is owned by Micron but my understanding is that they don't always use Micron DRAM on their boards. At least that was the case several years ago; I've not bought any Crucial modules in some time.

In any case, you should probably go with a company that has a stated warranty / return policy and that's been in the business for many years so they have some sort of reputation; read: do your own online research about the company and part number in question. In ALL cases, whatever you buy you should thoroughly test before accepting it. That means installing it in the system you bought it for and running a memory diagnostic program for at least several hours. The de facto standard is memtest86+. You can get the latest version here: http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

I went with Crucial, that's what I had in my T410 and never had a problem. I bought 16 GB (2x8) and have been using it for a couple of weeks, works great. With the extra memory and Express Cache most of my programs load and run in 12 seconds or less and the system goes from power on to running applications in 27 seconds. Specs: 16 GB Ram, 32 GB Express Cache, 2x1 TB HGST HDD's.
In the next couple of weeks I'm getting an additional 16 GB of Crucial. I run a lot of VM's.

Seems like you are not running a SSD with that T410. If that's the case, a SSD will bring the biggest improvement. 27 seconds boot time seems a bit long to me.

Cigarguy wrote:Seems like you are not running a SSD with that T410. If that's the case, a SSD will bring the biggest improvement.

Most likely.

Cigarguy wrote:27 seconds boot time seems a bit long to me.

Not really, and frankly - who cares? People are making too big of deal out of something with very little practical effect.

No, I'm not running a SSD in the T410, just a Seagate 750 GB HDD as primary and 27 seconds is great for the W530. The W530 boots so fast now that I wait until I'm seated at my desk to do it. With the T410, I used to boot it and go get my morning coffee, come back and login, then start my email application. All told, the T410 took 55 seconds to load before the login screen came up and then I had to wait for the desktop to complete. This W530 is really amazing, best Thinkpad I've had since my first on in 1994.