Next up we’ll look at installing a 2.5” drive, this can be either a hard drive or a faster SSD, which ever you like.
Now reverse the process with the new Wi-Fi card, stick it in the slot with the antenna bits facing up, screw it in place, and put the cables back in the same position. Simply pull off the cables, unscrew the single screw holding the card in and pull out the Wi-Fi card. Note that the cables to the Wi-Fi card are colored differently, these need to be taken off and installed back in the same order. Not an issue if it doesn’t though, it will just run at a lower speed if required. I bought a newer Wi-Fi 6 card for less than $20, so a cheap upgrade for faster network connectivity, assuming your wireless access point supports it. The Wi-Fi card that I’ve got installed supports up to Wi-Fi 5, or 802.11ac.
Installation is easy, the stick can only install one way, so insert it on a slight angle and push it in until the side clips click in to hold it in place.īoth my old and new stick ran at DDR4-2400 CL17, so no difference in speeds here, just size. To remove the old memory stick, first take off the metal cover if there is one, then simply pull out the two tabs on the sides and remove the stick. This is a disadvantage as it means the laptop will not run in dual channel, which gives a performance boost in games, however we can still increase to say 16gb which will be beneficial if you’re hitting the limits of 8gb. The 元40 has a single memory slot, and I bought mine with 8gb. This is done by simply removing 11 Phillips head screws and then prying around the edges. Pretty much everything else can be upgraded though. Unfortunately neither of these components can be upgraded, so you have to buy it with the CPU and GPU that you need originally. My 元40 comes with an Intel i5-9300H processor and Nvidia GTX 1650 graphics.
In this guide I’ll show you how to upgrade everything in the 元40, including the memory, Wi-Fi card, SSD, and hard drive and see what sort of performance differences these upgrades will make. The Lenovo 元40 is a cheaper gaming laptop which offers serious value.