Inside Lenovo Ideapad 3 (15) – disassembly and upgrade options

Due to its low price and wide range of options, the Ideapad 3 (15) would probably be one of the most popular notebooks of 2020. but how user-friendly it is, when it comes to self upgrades?

Check out all Lenovo Ideapad 3 (15) prices and configurations in our Specs System or read more in our In-Depth review.


1. Remove the bottom plate

For starters, you need to remove the bottom panel. In order to do so, there are 10 Phillips-head screws, that need to be undone, and only then you can start prying the panel away. This process is fairly easy, but you need to protect the plastic, so you should preferably use a plastic tool or a guitar pick.


2. Battery

Our unit came equipped with a 35Wh battery, but there is a 45Wh option, as well.


3. Memory and storage

On the bright side, you can see one RAM SODIMM slot, that according to Lenovo can fit up to 8GB of DDR4 memory. However, there are 4GB of RAM soldered to the motherboard. Additionally, you can find a single M.2 slot, which supports PCIe x4 drives with lengths of 42mm and 80mm. Not only that, but there is a 2.5″ SATA drive bay, although, we didn’t find a cable nor a bracket inside the box.


4. Cooling system

This is how the cooling looks like on a model, equipped with an integrated graphics card only. There is a single heat pipe, which is larger than the average, as well as a heat sink and a fan. Pretty standard.

Check out all Lenovo Ideapad 3 (15) prices and configurations in our Specs System or read more in our In-Depth review.

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Joe Black
Joe Black
3 years ago

Amazing work thanks!!!
What would be required, cable, other equipment to add an SSD?

Osbosmo
Osbosmo
2 years ago
Reply to  Joe Black

Hi, have you find something about it?
Thanks

Last edited 2 years ago by Osbosmo
Jeff
Jeff
3 years ago

I’d like to upgrade my ram. Do any frequency compatible with this laptop?

qwxoiyux
qwxoiyux
3 years ago
Reply to  Jeff

DDR4 2666MHz SODIMM

fszdxs
fszdxs
3 years ago

can i upgrade to the intel core i7

ERR0R
ERR0R
3 years ago
Reply to  fszdxs

no, this would require a new machine

I need more than 8 ram on this lenovo ıdea 3
I need more than 8 ram on this lenovo ıdea 3
2 years ago
Reply to  fszdxs

I had an AMD ryzen 7 on it when ı bought it from mediamarkt

christian
christian
3 years ago

can the graphics card be upgraded ?

Bradford
Bradford
3 years ago
Reply to  christian

No, Laptops normally don’t allow for upgrading of the graphics unit.

Clerck Jasper
Clerck Jasper
3 years ago

can change the processor?

JasonoutoftheRed
JasonoutoftheRed
3 years ago
Reply to  Clerck Jasper

No as the processor is soldered onto the motherboard making it irreplaceable.

nothing
nothing
2 years ago

does it have a pcie express slot?

SMU
SMU
3 years ago

Can I my lenovo idea pad slim 3i from 4 gb ram to 32 or16 gb???

JasonoutoftheRed
JasonoutoftheRed
3 years ago
Reply to  SMU

There are 4gbs of RAM memory soldered into the motherboard and space for 1 ddr4 3200mhz RAM Memory card. The Ideapad 3 15 comes with 4gbs already on it and the max you can put is an 8gb giving you a total of 12gbs of RAM

Krishna
Krishna
2 years ago

RAM 8GB DDR4 3200 MHz CL22 Laptop Memory CT8G4SFRA32A , Will it fit Lenovo I3 Idea Pad ?

Abaan
Abaan
3 years ago

can i upgrade to AMD Ryzen 9 3950X from intel core i5? if yes, the from where and how?

qwxoiyux
qwxoiyux
3 years ago
Reply to  Abaan

No. The motherboard has an Intel chipset soldered onto it. You’ll need to look for another laptop that supports AMD CPUs.

JasonoutoftheRed
JasonoutoftheRed
3 years ago
Reply to  Abaan

No, laptops do not support cpu upgrades or replacements.

nothing
nothing
2 years ago

they do and we can if it have a pcie express slot.

Louis
Louis
3 years ago

Can I upgrade the battery?

NN__
NN__
2 years ago

Can I put RAM with the DDR4 2400MHz in there?

Carto Ten
Carto Ten
2 years ago

What kind of motherboard is it exactly? I need to replace mine.

nothing
nothing
2 years ago
Reply to  Carto Ten

lnvnb 161216

John
John
2 years ago

u mentioned there is a sata 2.5 bay for HDD. what is the max storage this machine can handle? 1TB?2TB?4?8?

plus, i saw that the 4GB of RAM is soldered to the motherboard, and the other 4 is a stick.
there isnt any other slot other than these two for an upgrade? if i wanna upgrade RAM i have to take out the unsoldered one and get an 8GB one cause there isnt other slot? so the max ram possible is 12?
or there is another free slot?
thanks

Stephen Wallace
Stephen Wallace
2 years ago
Reply to  John

I got a 16gb 3200 ddr4 from crucial and it’s running beautifully at around 20gb of ram. Drains the battery when running that high but I can actually play more graphics heavy game on it which it’s awesome

Giovanni
Giovanni
1 year ago

can this pc can mount a 3200mhz ddr4 sodimm kingston fury? sry for bad english

Giovanni
Giovanni
1 year ago
Reply to  Giovanni

it’s a 8gb ram

Figo
Figo
11 months ago

What type of cable do we need to add HDD?

oen
oen
10 months ago

hi, can i replace the hdd to ssd on the parts of this model

tzvi kaplan
9 months ago

does the 15abr8 have the same RAM upgrade abilities as this model?