Can I put PC3-14900 XMP memory in my W530?

[WizardOfBoz]

A guy posted back in October about using overspeced XMP memory in his W530. I commented, but am repeating the questions in a new post.

On the Lenovo site a guy claimed that he'd added "32 GB Crucial Ballistix PC3-14900 (1866 MHz) which works great in both. They run at 1864 MHz (932 MHz x2). The intel chipset supports XMP which allow the RAM to fun at its stated speed and net be clocked down." Upon reflection, this doesn't seem right: the Ballistix have extra cooling fins so that they wouldn't fit in std SODIMM slots.

Still, can I install standard SODIMM PC3-14900 XMP memory in my W530? Is the memory clock-rate constant or dependent upon load? Will my battery life suffer? How much of a boost will this give my numeric intensive programs? Will thermal mgmt be an issue? I do run some numerically intensive stuff (half-hour to two-hour runs, lots of number crunching). So it matters.

Thanks!

W530, i7-3820QM, 8Gb (currently) RAM, Samsung 850 Pro 512Gb, K2000M, 1080p, Win 7 Pro 64.

[indicium]

WizardofBoz,

I posted about using PC3-14900 in my 2 W530's and I get 1864 MHz on both, in one I'm running BIOS 2.51 and in the other 2.55 and the XMP Memory works fine. The Ballistix for SO-DIMM is the same as regular SO-DIMM and fits perfectly in the W530, the fins you speak about are on the Desktop Memory not the Laptop Memory. As far as I can tell the clock-rate is constant, I haven't seen any difference and I use Speccy and CPU-Z to verify. As to battery life, I mostly run on AC and only rarely use the battery, so I don't know. I have noticed that the W530 seems more responsive with the faster RAM and I run financial algorithms regularly.

One key factor is that the more RAM I have, the faster the system is. I see your running 8 GB, even if you use the standard PC3-12800 RAM if you increase you memory you should see an increase in computation speed. I have found that the W530 runs faster and cooler with the 32GB than it did with the standard 8 GB it came with.

Both of my W30's boot 24 to 27 seconds and all programs load immediately, One system has only 2x 1TB HD's with Express Cache and the other has 256 GB mSate with 2x 1 TB Hs's.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Indicium

[WizardOfBoz]

Superbly useful response, indicium. Thank you!

I was going to just get the normal PC3-12800 Crucial memory. For another 40 bucks, I think the higher-speed Ballistix will be very useful indeed.

That is some serious hardware you have. I bought both my W530's on ebay and (if you got, for example, Samsung 850 Pro 1Tb drives), your drives cost more than either computer*! I noted that you have an mSATA card that is essentially an extra disk. From what I understand, the mSATA slot is SATA2. If you didn't have that 256Gb card installed, would you go out and buy one?

Thanks again - this is really helpful.

The Wiz

* I got my latest W530, a 3820QM, with K2000M, 8Gb, BT, 2x2WLAN, 1920x1080, but with no system disk, for $750. It DID have a Win 7 Pro COA, though. When it showed up, it turns out it still is under warranty, and the seller sent along the charger. And I snagged the Mini Dock 3 plus, with an extra charger, for $100. So for a little over $1000, I've a screaming machine. The 32Gb will set me back another $280, but still. I know others have gotten way better deals, but still, I'm happier than a clam at high water.

[WizardOfBoz]

New memory ordered. $254 plus tax and shipping. Can't wait.

[indicium]

The mSata is in my second W530 as boot drive, the others are mechanical HD's, HGST 1 TB. I got the 256 GB mSata as kind of experiment to see how the Sata II interface would work versus the Sata III HD's. In my first W530 with 2x 1 TB HD's with Express Cache, I get 27 second Boot to Desktop with immediate applications start and the second W530 with the mSata as boot drive gets 24 second and immediate application start. When I bought each one had 8 GB RAM and was slower (Not as slow as my T410 with 8 GB and a 750 GB HD, it took a little over a minute to boot and I had to wait at least another minute or two to start any application). My first RAM in the W530 was PC3-12800, 32 GB and the boot time was approximately 50 seconds to Desktop and another 20 seconds to start an application.

Now you might ask why would I care for a few seconds, I run a lot of Virtual Machines running various financial algorithms during the Trading Day along with just using VM's for other tasks including Nested VM's. That takes more RAM than processor usage and large RAM equals RAW speed.

BTW, my cpu is i7-3740 @2.7 GHz

Indicium

[WizardOfBoz]

indicium,
Thanks for your posts on this matter. I got my machine set up with XMP because you shared your info.
Jim

[indicium]

Your welcome, glad to help.