E420s Upgrade Confussion

[nathannew2009]

I have recently purchase a lenovo thinkpad edge e420s.

Im looking to upgrade the ram and hard drive but i need to know:

Does it support sata 3 (6gbs)

as it has an i5 2430m should i use 1600mhz ram or keep with 1333 (I want 8 GB)

also the internet says the laptop takes 8GB 2x4gb but the thinkvantage software says 16GB is this correct?

Please help.

[andrewbaxter]

The official word from Lenovo is that "Yes", all current generation ThinkPads will support SATA III.  As far as RAM, the max memory will be 8GB for the E420s.

[nathannew2009]

I still have a lot of confusion,

Should I use 1333 or 1600 RAM as its a sandybridge i5 is 1333 better?

Does this laptop support XMP (allowing you to run 1600 at true 1600)

and why is the hard drive bay 7mm not 9.5mm thick?

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

it supports 1333 mhz speed, not the 1600 mhz speed.

The drive is 7 mm because the machine is ultraslim.