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My laptop is Thinkpad T400, and running 64 bit Ubuntu 14.04. I wonder if there is no limit of the RAM size that I can use in my laptop?

Now I am running Windows 8.1 in VirtualBox, which takes 2GB RAM, and if I open 80 Chrome tabs, My RAM (8GB, which is two 4GB RAM cards occupying two slots in the laptop, I am not sure if there are extra slots) will be fully used, and my swap (16GB) will be half full, and the speed is slow because of constant swapping.

I am thinking about upgrade my RAM to a bigger size (maybe 32GB or more). But not sure if there is some limitations on the RAM size, how many RAM cards I could buy and insert into the laptop, and other aspects that I should be aware of. So I appreciate your reply!

Tim
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about hardware recommendation. The amount of RAM you can put in your laptop depends on the types and number of sockets, not on the OS such as Ubuntu. – user68186 Jun 15 '15 at 16:08
  • Also see https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T400-Max-Memory-Supported/td-p/814749 – user68186 Jun 15 '15 at 16:11
  • I must agree, limitation are MOBO, CPU etc. but certainly not Ubuntu itself. Check how many slots there are (in 99% of times there are 2 slots), Some older MOBOS can't work with more that 256 mb RAM chips (16x256 that makes 8 on each side of 4 GB (low density) module) If it would be 512mb it just won't boot .... that just makes it impossible to have 2x8GB RAM modules .... Your best option is buying SSD, it's surprisingly fast even on SATA 2. – RiddleMeThis Jun 15 '15 at 16:16
  • @MichalHagara: "buying SSD" do you mean still swapping but swapping is much faster and the swapping speed is comparable to nonswapping? – Tim Jun 15 '15 at 16:26
  • What I meant was OS booting and application opening speed, file copying.... I wouldn't make SWAP on SSD, but it is unavoidable (nothing comparable to RAM, but certainly faster than 5200 rpm HDD) ..... I have bought Notebook with 24 GB SSD integrated on MOBO (Now used as swap) and HDD, which I have replaced with 256 GB SSD. In VB I always dedicate 4 GB to OS, that makes 4 GB left for Linux and SWAP is hardly ever used. Chrome is RAM eater and without this addon I would be doomed https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/onetab/chphlpgkkbolifaimnlloiipkdnihall – RiddleMeThis Jun 15 '15 at 16:32
  • But before this notebook I had HP 4720s, with 4 GB RAM - 64 GB SSD on SATA II and it ran really smoothly (without SWAP at all)... I have set swappines to minimum. Of course I couldn't run VB very well :)... – RiddleMeThis Jun 15 '15 at 16:36

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You can put in as much RAM as your laptop will hold. 64 bit systems have no practical limitations on RAM size. As said above, an SSD will help with your swap speed. Your laptop claims to be able to hold a max of 8gb of RAM. This is likely a limitation of the motherboard, although you can try two 8gb sticks, but no guarantees on that.

In short, it looks like you've maxed out your ram. Get an SSD.

Daniel
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