Question Lenovo Thinkpad T420 Upgrade

[EdilbertoGsf]

Hello there! I'm upgrading my lenovo thinkpad t420 cpu from a i5 2520m to i7 2760QM. The laptop has native support for 16Gb RAM with the original i5 2520m, but checking on the intel ark website, the new processor has support up to 32Gb. By upgrading the processor, does that automatically mean that the RAM could be upgraded to 32Gb or there would be other incompatibility issues? Thanks for your time!

 

[EdilbertoGsf]

- And by the way, are there no 16Gb RAM SODIMM sticks with 1600Mhz available?

 

[COLGeek]

"Officially" the T420 only supports 8GB of memory (while I am sure 16GB will work if compatible memory is installed).

However, given the age of this system, I hope you are using free parts. Spending money on this ancient rig makes no sense. Any performance gained (if any) will be minimal.

https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/withdrawnbook/ltwbook_WE_2012.pdf

 

[EdilbertoGsf]

"Officially" the T420 only supports 8GB of memory (while I am sure 16GB will work if compatible memory is installed).

However, given the age of this system, I hope you are using free parts. Spending money on this ancient rig makes no sense. Any performance gained (if any) will be minimal.

https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/withdrawnbook/ltwbook_WE_2012.pdf

Hi there, thanks for your reply! I am gladly spending a bit of money on it, and given the fact that the machine has been with me for over 10 years and has never given any problem, I consider an internal upgrade a sensible thing to do. The t420 does support 16Gb for sure, but I was in doubt if changing the processor would also increase the laptop's RAM capacity; but even if it did, I couldn't find any 16Gb PC3-12800 SODIMM 204 Pin RAM Sticks for a reasonable price. The only one I found was the following one, which I would not buy considering the price they're asking for a single stick. ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/16GB-RAM-Memory-204-Sodimm/dp/B01KG2CDZQ )

I'll probably go ahead with the standard 16Gb (8Gb x 2),

 

[COLGeek]

Understood, just don't expect miracles in terms of performance gains. The CPU will also run hotter, something to keep in mind when the fan runs more often.