Adding memory to W520 - conflicting information?

[LeoB]

Have an i7 W520 that I've been using daily for 18 months with factory installed 8GB (2x4GB) of memory. I just got a new i7 X230T with 16GB and was amazed at how much faster it seemed, so I thought I would add more memory to the W520 desktop workhorse.

I ordered 16GB from Crucial (2x8GB) that they recommended to give me 24GB total.

I've been researching forums for a while and I'm getting confused about where to place the memory. The factory installed 2x4GB are under the keyboard (slots 0 and 1), and I found information that I should configure it:

Slot 0 (under keyboard) - 8 GB
Slot 1 (under keyboard) - 4 GB
Slot 2 (underneath) - 8 GB
Slot 3 (underneath) - 4 GB

But then some other forum entries suggest putting both the higher capacity sticks under the keyboard and the lower capacity sticks underneath.

Any confirmation from the wizards out there that the first option is correct would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[ZaZ]

I don't think it matters much where the memory goes. If your X230t has a SSD and W520 has a hard drive, that could be the reason the X230t seems so much faster.

[iThinkSL]

I have installed 32Gb of RAM on my laptop. No any issues. Well there is no difference how you put those rams but I recommend you to buy memory kit of 2. Where comes two rams in one pack. Like Corsair, Kingston or what ever with same parameters. I have installed: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0076W9Q5A , this will speedup your computer. And yes needs SSD drive.

[Synthetickiller]

Slot 0 (under keyboard) - 8 GB
Slot 1 (under keyboard) - 4 GB
Slot 2 (underneath) - 8 GB
Slot 3 (underneath) - 4 GB

But then some other forum entries suggest putting both the higher capacity sticks under the keyboard and the lower capacity sticks underneath.

Any confirmation from the wizards out there that the first option is correct would be appreciated.

Thanks.

This is right. Only AMD (I can confirm desktop usage, not sure about mobile) uses banks 0,1 for the first channel & 2,3 for the second channel. Intel is staggered. If you were to put both 8gb sticks under the keyboard, you're not running that kit in the same channel. You'll have a little slowdown as the density of the chips (8gb vs 4gb) is not equal and some latency overhead will occur.

You can confirm dual channel vs single channel with a program like CPU-Z.

Will you notice it? Probably not, but why limit your computer in any way?

Unless you need more than 16gb, I'd sell those sticks & get another 16gb kit (same one, obviously). That just ensures everything works a little bit better together.


As iThinkSL & ZaZ stated, get an SSD. The IOPS performance of something like a samsung 840 pro will blow your mind. Your computer will feel 10x as fast if you're using an hdd as an OS drive.

Hope this helps.

[LeoB]

Synthetickiller:

The sticks arrived and I did install them as per the recommendation, although I thought I'd screwed up when it ended up only showing 4GB. But then I found out that I had not seated one stick properly.

Showing all 24GB now and dual-channel, so all seems right. Things do load much faster and quite happy with it.

Next project in a couple months is to reload Windows and clean up a lot of stuff, like a stupid 0 byte file on the desktop that cannot be deleted.

Thanks!

[Synthetickiller]

No problem. 24gb is awesome isn't it?

[LeoB]

No problem. 24gb is awesome isn't it?

Well, I considered going to 32GB but an IT friend of mine said my eyes were too old and my brain too slow to notice the difference between 24GB and 32GB. He's probably right.

[Synthetickiller]

I'm not "technically" an IT guy, but if you aren't maxing your ram, there's no need to add more. Check your ram usage. If you never break 16gb, I'd say sell the 8gb sticks while you can still get cash for them.

I have 16gb in my desktop & I've rarely broken 7 gigs. I did install about 8 programs at once and that actually maxed my ram to nearly 16gb, but that's a once a year thing. More ram does not yield higher speeds. You'd do better to either spend that money on a faster SSD or an SSD in general if you don't have one or even a second if you have the need.

[davidhbrown]

...More ram does not yield higher speeds. You'd do better to either spend that money on a faster SSD or an SSD in general if you don't have one or even a second if you have the need.

I think you're probably right in the general case, but once you *do* have a SSD for your OS/Apps, more RAM will be used (if running Windows) by SuperFetch to make applications load more quickly because they're already at least partially in memory. (I've read articles that say Windows will automatically disable SuperFetch with a SSD, but this has not been the case for me.)

[iThinkSL]

One of best things what you cand do with ram if you have like 32GB, turn it on in RAM Disk. Its really speed up apps like firefox etc. Search google.

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