Macbook pro takes 16GB Ram - Why doesn't the X220 ?

[sniper_sung]

Also FWIW, after all this talk of corsair incompatibility, I took a gamble and purchased and installed 2x corsair CMSO8GX3M1A1333C9 8GB dimms in my x220 and they're running great in it with no problems.

Like I said, ThinkPads are not picky with RAM. Just run memtest and LinX to verify the DIMMs are not faulty.

[Chris_ast1]

@sniper_sung

You pointed that all SB support to 16GB, which is wrong as Intel specs. suggest that core i7 2620M supports up to 8GB and i7 2640M does 16GB?!

It is something that confuses me! Is it possible to populate two 8GB DDR3 dimms with Core i7 (dual core) motherboard, or it isn't?

Links in question:
Intel® Core? i7-2620M Processor (4M Cache, 2.70 GHz)

Intel® Core? i7-2640M Processor (4M Cache, 2.80 GHz)

Question is, does for example HP Elitebook 8560w with core i7 2640M support more than 8GB RAM? (HP officially posts 8GB support for two dimm motherboards).

EDIT: i7 2630qm also on Intel page supports only 16 GB!RAM! When as quad it should support 32?!

[Chris_ast1]

Edit: I just spoke with Intel chat, they admitted that it is up to manufacturer, so if you upgrade to i7 2640M it can still does not support more than 8GB RAM.

[Hearst]

Not sure about that one, I have an i5-2520M alongside with 16GB RAM and it has no problems running it so most likely it would work just fine with the i7-2640M setup as well.

[Chris_ast1]

@Hearst , confused even more !

Why then HP states that their (dual core) laptops support up to 8GB RAM?
Quote: 32 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM
(Four SODIMMS for a total of 32 GB of memory is available on quad-core systems only. The Intel® Core™ i7-2620M Processor supports 2/4 GB SODIMMs, up to 8 GB total.)

[John Ratsey]

@Hearst , confused even more !

Why then HP states that their (dual core) laptops support up to 8GB RAM?

Most likely they never tested it with 8GB modules because they were quite rare / expensive when the hardware was being finalised a year ago. We had the same problems when 2GB modules first came out. Many notebook manufacturers hadn't test them so their specs said 2GB max when 4GB worked fine. Or maybe HP is a rare manufacturer who actually put a RAM limit into the BIOS.

John

[shazam26]

Not sure about that one, I have an i5-2520M alongside with 16GB RAM and it has no problems running it so most likely it would work just fine with the i7-2640M setup as well.

Hey Hearst,

Which brand of 16 gig ram are you using? By any chance do you've the direct link handy? I'm interested in putting 16 gig in my upcoming T520 (Core i5 - 2520).

thanks.

[sniper_sung]

@Chris_ast1:

When Intel specified the specifications, they had only tested the capacity available in the market at that time (e.g. for i7 2620M only 8GB total was available).

Later on 16GB total is available in the market, but there is little point for Intel to update the specification as it would cost them a lot to do the tests again, while updating the specifications may reduce potential number of customers buying their new products thinking that the old products could not catch up with the latest 16GB.

[John Ratsey]

Later on 16GB total is available in the market, but there is little point for Intel to update the specification as it would cost them a lot to do the tests again, while updating the specifications may reduce potential number of customers buying their new products thinking that the old products could not catch up with the latest 16GB.

The problem is not with Intel, who designed the chipset to support 8GB modules (and, as a memory manufacturer could probably find make some 8GB modules for testing purposes), but the individual notebook manufacturers.

John

[erik]

The problem is not with Intel...

they certainly aren't innocent though.   take the i5-2537M for example.   i've had 16GB in mine with zero issues whatsoever despite their own spec sheet still listing it as 8GB maximum.

Intel® Core? i5-2537M Processor (3M Cache, 1.40 GHz)

blame the industry.   everyone is at fault when it comes to memory qualification.