Just looking for advice/opinion. I bought from ebay, what i thought was an x220 Thinkpad with 8G of RAM…turned out only to have 4. I left a bad review but will keep the machine. I put Arch/Sway anyway.

I want to add RAM…i think it can go up to 16. I looked on line and i think it would be about $50 to buy the memory…so i thought o would find an online tutorial and add the memory myself…is this a bad idea?

  • If you have a little bit of skill with a screw driver and basic electronics it’s a good idea. I think it fits two ram sticks, so you could buy two 8gb ones. Or you could buy a second 4gb one for very cheap and end up with 8gb, which is fine still anyways.

  • Hello. I recommend you upgrade the storage to an SSD, or a 7200rpm (or higher) HDD (which is, still slower than SSD) SSDs in like 256gbs are cheap nowadays, and they last long (~TLC) Be sure to get it from a trusty company, like Sandisk (cheap nice ssd) or Samsung, though.

    It seems like you’re also trying to make a 4+8=12 ram setup, but I recommend not. Rams with same frequency and size should be installed, otherwise the ram will function in single channel rather than dual channel making the ram access speed slower.

    If using it for web browsing, lemmy-ing or anything lightweight, even 4gb or 8gb is enough. (In fact, my primary laptop with debian only has 2gb of ram, and a penryn cpu.)

    • Actually…i am very new, but enthusiastic about tech. First…after research, it turns out my new (to me) laptop can only be upgraded to 8G…so i ordered 4G of memory…specifically for the x220. I know SSD would be faster…that’s not a priority, I’m using a minimal Arch OS anyhow…i do want to use virtualization so i want at least 8G of RAM.

      I never wanted 12G of memory…i thought that my laptop would accept 16G of memory and again, i am very unknowledgeable!

      Lastly, thank you for your detailed message…although they’re are less users on Lemmy, the helpful support i get from people like you is very refreshing after all the hateful responses I get seeking help on Reddit in the past. You are much appreciated!