[SOLVED] Single channel 1x16GB SODIMM DDR3 or DDR3L - any manufacturers out there?

[d0ntsm0ke]

Been scouring online for this and have yet to stumble across such thing. I've been wanting to double the capacity of my existing 8GB in the Lenovo Yoga 13. It's a 7-year old system which has been running strong with the latest Windows 10 build. Thing is it's a laptop with only a single channel slot so I believe my only option is to get a 1x16GB SODIMM stick. Came across ones which are specifically DDR4 but not one bit which is either DDR3 or DDR3L, which leads to me guessing if such thing do really exists.

Was hoping if there is a manufacturer or two who still recognizes the niche to make a relatively high capacity RAM for legacy systems, at least for the few people like me who still like to maintain their old but otherwise well-functioning systems. Otherwise it seems that I can't do anything much to my laptop in terms of memory.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is the EXACT model of your Yoga 13? There should either be a sticker on the back OR the full model/sub model should be printed directly on the laptop case in the battery compartment. Some models may not HAVE a battery compartment, so that won't apply in that case. Somewhere on the unit though the full model including any sub model or service tag number should be listed. This often is the telling factor which determines which motherboard was put into that specific sub model of laptop so that we can find whether or not it supports 16GB SODIMMs or not.

Clearly there ARE 16GB DDR3 SODIMMs, but whether they are supported by that unit or not is another question.

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Sing...rds=1x+16gb+sodimm+ddr3&qid=1605677868&sr=8-4


https://pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/#U=3&t=9&Z=16384001&sort=price&page=1

 

[d0ntsm0ke]

What is the EXACT model of your Yoga 13? There should either be a sticker on the back OR the full model/sub model should be printed directly on the laptop case in the battery compartment. Some models may not HAVE a battery compartment, so that won't apply in that case. Somewhere on the unit though the full model including any sub model or service tag number should be listed. This often is the telling factor which determines which motherboard was put into that specific sub model of laptop so that we can find whether or not it supports 16GB SODIMMs or not.

Clearly there ARE 16GB DDR3 SODIMMs, but whether they are supported by that unit or not is another question.

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Sing...rds=1x+16gb+sodimm+ddr3&qid=1605677868&sr=8-4


https://pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/#U=3&t=9&Z=16384001&sort=price&page=1

Hi @Darkbreeze, it simply states Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 13 on the back. Anyhoo, to reach for the slot is just a matter of popping out the keyboard in less than 5 seconds and voila, there we have it. A single slot with a single stick of 8GB SODIMM DDR3. System info states 8GB so obviously nothing extra is soldered on.

Good point bringing up pcpartpicker.com. I should've not missed out on that but I did anyways. It seems that Crucial is the only suggested reliable option then?

 

[Darkbreeze]

There are three different brands listed at that PCPP link, unless you are in a different country and are viewing PCPP on it's native page for your region. Then I don't know. I'm seeing Crucial, Mushkin and Visiontek there, any of which probably work but not only is the Crucial part less expensive, I'd also trust their products for OEM type memory before most any others aside from maybe genuine Samsung memory. Both have been in the memory game a very long time, considering Crucial is actually Micron.

If it were me, I'd go with Crucial even if there were other aftermarket brands available. It's likely to be cheaper and still be very good quality. But of course, G.Skill, Mushkin, Corsair, Kingston, Samsung, Supermicro, these are all good brands.

The problem is, that unless your device was build just prior to the change to DDR4, then it's unlikely (And it's STILL unlikely unless it was a fairly high end product) that it supports 16gb DIMMs. Most products from that era only supported 8GB DIMMs, especially in laptops. Still, it's possible.

There are definitely different models of Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 13 though, such as model 20175, etc. Knowing that would pretty much be necessary to know for certain, but this thread seems to indicate at least somewhat definitively that 16GB will not work in that device.

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-Yoga-Series-Notebooks/Yoga-13-max-8-or-16GB-RAM/td-p/1220611

 

[d0ntsm0ke]

There are three different brands listed at that PCPP link, unless you are in a different country and are viewing PCPP on it's native page for your region. Then I don't know. I'm seeing Crucial, Mushkin and Visiontek there, any of which probably work but not only is the Crucial part less expensive, I'd also trust their products for OEM type memory before most any others aside from maybe genuine Samsung memory. Both have been in the memory game a very long time, considering Crucial is actually Micron.

If it were me, I'd go with Crucial even if there were other aftermarket brands available. It's likely to be cheaper and still be very good quality. But of course, G.Skill, Mushkin, Corsair, Kingston, Samsung, Supermicro, these are all good brands.

The problem is, that unless your device was build just prior to the change to DDR4, then it's unlikely (And it's STILL unlikely unless it was a fairly high end product) that it supports 16gb DIMMs. Most products from that era only supported 8GB DIMMs, especially in laptops. Still, it's possible.

There are definitely different models of Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 13 though, such as model 20175, etc. Knowing that would pretty much be necessary to know for certain, but this thread seems to indicate at least somewhat definitively that 16GB will not work in that device.

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-Yoga-Series-Notebooks/Yoga-13-max-8-or-16GB-RAM/td-p/1220611

Digging further into outside threads that specifically talk about the issue, I also found out that the limiting factor would be the processor itself, to which I quote from Wikipedia:

The DDR3 standard permits DRAM chip capacities of up to 8 gibibits (Gibit), and up to four ranks of 64 bits each for a total maximum of 16 gibibytes (GiB) per DDR3 DIMM. Because of a hardware limitation not fixed until Ivy Bridge-E in 2013, most older Intel CPUs only support up to 4-Gibit chips for 8 GiB DIMMs (Intel's Core 2 DDR3 chipsets only support up to 2 Gibit). All AMD CPUs correctly support the full specification for 16 GiB DDR3 DIMMs

And indeed mine's pretty much the standard Ivy Bridge i7-3557U from early 2013. Oh well, it's a good learning experience though for me to know that getting the 16GB SODIMM DDR3 will just be a waste of effort. Thanks for the advice, you've just saved me some.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Usually, the CPU isn't the limiting factor. Normally it's the motherboard. There are OFTEN situations where the same CPU on one motherboard chipset can support up to, just as an example, 128GB of RAM while on a motherboard with a different chipset might only support 64GB. It just depends on the motherboard. Certainly the CPU CAN play a role, but the chipset is usually the primary consideration and the CPU is normally only a factor when there are multiple generations of CPU supported by the chipset in question and one generation has evolved to support more or faster memory than the previous generation models.

Either way, I agree, it's pretty unlikely to work with your unit BUT there is one other consideration as well and that is that there may have been a lack of BIOS support for a 16GB DIMM at the time that thread was current. Since then Lenovo may have released a newer BIOS firmware for that device that provides support for a larger DIMM but the only way to really find that out for sure aside from stumbling across evidence of it in some thread is to contact Lenovo directly and speak with technical support OR even contact Crucial directly and speak to their support department. It's a very long shot, and may not even be worth doing, but I thought I'd mention it anyhow. Sometimes the maximum capacity or supported speed can change via new BIOS firmware when newer memory products are released.