RAM mystery on P52

[dynaflux]

I have owned about twenty-something and bought a used P52 which I really like, the best Thinkpad I owned so far - in the same "class" I own a P51s and a upgraded W540 where I replaced the clunkpad with a real trackpad and a better screen.
. It's a 20M9001GMX which should have 16 GB RAM, today I looked at System information which said it had only 8 GB installed. I opened it up and noticed the two RAM slots were empty - are there fixed (8GB) memory on the main board? And how was the RAM populated on this specific type? I would like to have the original 16 GB RAM - or more. What should I do?
Can I suspect the previous owner removed a RAM stick?

[TPFanatic]

Theres a total of 4 slots, the 2 you found and 2 more under the keyboard.

Most likely yea, Previous Owner removed a stick.

RAM is overrated anyway because Windows and modern programs rely more on swap space. If your SSD is fast with a lot of free space im not surprised you never noticed any lack of RAM issue.

You can upgrade if you like but it’s probably not necessary.

Im running a T60 with 3GB RAM and an entire 256gb nvme ssd devoted to swap space, and swap space disabled on the primary 512gb SATA SSD. the machine is doing fine running Windows 7 with Bitlocker in 2024 as god intended

[RealBlackStuff]

The 4 slots allow for up to 4x32GB=128GB RAM.
Get DDR4-2666 SODIMMs from e.g. Hynix or Samsung.

[dynaflux]

Thanks, of course I know Thinkpad have had RAM slots underneath the keyboard but I just assumed the omitted this maner (so my guess was they had some soldered in on the motherboard). But of course, this is a P-model where performance is more important than size.

Some decades ago you could supercharge an old PC with an extra RAM-stick but today it's overrated. My stationary job HP workstation has 64 GB - I work with CAD and sometimes from home where I use different Thinkpads for CAD and I can't say there is any big difference in speed and performance - even if CPU fan runs hard occasionally.

Theres a total of 4 slots, the 2 you found and 2 more under the keyboard.

Most likely yea, Previous Owner removed a stick.

RAM is overrated anyway because Windows and modern programs rely more on swap space. If your SSD is fast with a lot of free space im not surprised you never noticed any lack of RAM issue.

You can upgrade if you like but it’s probably not necessary.

Im running a T60 with 3GB RAM and an entire 256gb nvme ssd devoted to swap space, and swap space disabled on the primary 512gb SATA SSD. the machine is doing fine running Windows 7 with Bitlocker in 2024 as god intended