Thinking about buying Thinkpad W520

[backseatjuan]

Good choice for gaming, web & graphic design, and long life actuality in this technological turn-to-**** every year???????

Want 16 gigs of memory, mSATA SSD and large WD drive for storage.

What would be candidates to look at to compete with W520? Mac Book Pro is not considered.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Good choice for gaming, web & graphic design, and long life actuality in this technological turn-to-**** every year???????

Want 16 gigs of memory, mSATA SSD and large WD drive for storage.

What would be candidates to look at to compete with W520? Mac Book Pro is not considered.

You might want to look at the HP Elitebook series. Some of them have an IPS screen which the Lenovo is lacking. For graphic design this is important, you don't want color shifts as you're adjusting the angle of the screen. The Lenovo screens are usually quite **** (they are the same as every other laptop including Apple's, crap TN panels). Where Lenovo excels is making a solid laptop and having replacement parts and a fantastic keyboard.

I needed to repair a cracked screen on my thinkpad. Not only was the full repair manual available online, but it was easy to open, used no crazy screws or fasteners or special hard to find screwdrivers and pointless tools (like Apple does) and I had a choice of parts both brand new and used from eBay, IBM, and Lenovo's suppliers. If you break something, parts are available. ALL THE PARTS. It's fantastic. I could build myself an entire laptop if I ordered all the parts in the repair manual and followed the instructions.

The laptops are durable because the skeleton is a magnesium alloy frame with a rubberized ABS skin and it has some entry level military toughness rating.

The HP Elitebooks have excellent specs but be prepared to pay top dollar. They are also heavy and usually use Quadro mobile cards. They are not the same laptops as the low end crap HP/Compaq you find at Best Buy. The Elitebooks are for business. I am not sure about their support so you might want to look around. The high end HP stuff is excellent. I've seen their Dreamcolor Profesional monitors. Great stuff. Couldn't afford it at the time, but solid build and excellent quality panel.

Consider it before you make your final purchase but make sure to look into warranty, repairs and replacement parts.

On the Elitebook: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4673/hp-elitebook-8760w-color-so-dreamy

 

[backseatjuan]

I'll consider elitebook. I also looked at Envy and Quisimo. Right now I'm looking at Thinkpad though. Can you visit it's online configurator? Well, I'm trying to decide which processor to go with, and also which video card to go with.

Choices are i7-2760QM vs i7-2860QM and Nvidia quatro 1000M vs 2000M. The one with cheaper processor (2.40Ghz) and cheaper video card cost only $1525, the one with 2.50Ghz processor and 2000M video card cost $1921... Of course better processor and video card is better, but do I need them?

I want to play some games, do some graphics, and design some webs.

Now tell me about memory. Can I install 16 gigs of DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)?

Now tell me about storage. I'm going to be upgrading the main hard drive, no problems there. I want to keep my DVD burner. But I also want an SSD. Considering that I only chose an option for combocard wifi+wimax and no option for mobile broadband, can I install an SSD in available slots? Are those slots mSATA or mini PCI or what, point me to newegg for an SSD plz?

 

[Alle_Gory]

Based on notebookcheck.com the Quadro 1000M has 96 "processors" and the 2000M has 192 of them. That would be a significant speed boost even though the 192 version is clocked slightly slower.

For the benchmark section in notebook check, I looked at the Maya benchmarks and the 2000M gets around 45 fps and the 1000M gets around 33fps.

As far as the speed differences between the processors, it's the same processor just with a different clock speed and slightly more cache. Marginal speed difference. Passmark (cpubenchmark.net) has a rating of 7998 for the 2860QM and 7558 for the 2860QM.

I say get the faster GPU and forget about the CPU since the difference in speed is very slight but you're going to pay WAY more money.

Sources:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-2860QM+@+2.50GHz

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-2760QM+@+2.40GHz

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-2000M.47316.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-1000M.47317.0.html

 

[Alle_Gory]

The memory would be laptop memory. I would find the proper size. It's probably SO-DIMM format.

When comparing memory, consider the following options:

1. Buy the laptop with minimum memory. Buy a 16GB DDR3 kit. What is the total cost?

2. Buy the laptop with 16GB DDR3 from the manufacturer? What is the total cost?

Make sure when comparing memory that it's the same speed DDR3 as the manufacturer uses.

I would go with whichever option costs less. The memory it comes with will probably not be very useful. Once you remove it, what are you going to do with it? Maybe sell it on eBay for cheap and recover some costs. Or sell to a friend.

I don't know about the layout of the board. Since you're not getting a broadband card, you probably have a free mini PCIe slot. Mine has a mini PCIe slot free if I am not mistaken since I only have WiFi. I think you can purchase a mini PCIe SSD but it's expensive.

You're better off buying the laptop with the smallest hard drive (cheapest option) and then chucking that and installing any old SATAIII SSD. They're very popular now. Mushkin makes them very cheap for the money and performance is pretty good. It will probably use up all the bandwidth of the SATAIII slot anyways. The best SSDs are PCI express cards and hella fast.

Check out this website: http://gb4less.com/

Click on the SSD picture in the top right. This site crawls newegg and makes a list for you. Even the chapest SSDs are better than a hard drive. Make sure the SSD has TRIM support. It's a kind of garbage collection mode that cleans it up and prevents it from slowing down as time goes on. If it doesn't have TRIM you would have to wipe it ocassionally because it collects garbage and will need a full wipe to return back to full stated speeds. Pain. Just make sure it has TRIM and install the proper drivers from the manufacturer to ensure everything works. Why do maintenance if it can do it by itself? Windows 7 and Vista have TRIM support.

 

[Alle_Gory]

As far as gaming, don't expect to play any game on maximum settings. This is a laptop with a quadro series card. You can build yourself a nice gaming computer for dirt cheap. Probably around $500 that will smack that laptop so hard.

If laptops were as powerful as desktops they would melt. You can't shove that much heat into a small package with a tiny battery.

 

[Tortendieb]

Thinkpads are awesome. My employer got me one at work and it's really the most powerful, sturdy and well thought out laptop I've ever worked with.

Also the battery holds ~5 hours while doing stuff. No more "try to find a power outlet" when you're in a meeting, or presentation, or whatever.

Maybe other companies have similar products? But for serious work you can't go wrong with a Thinkpad. Don't buy Acer, I have one at home and it's constantly overheating after only 1 year.

 

[backseatjuan]

Gotta clean the dust out of your acer tortendieb.


Anyway, I bought W520 with i7-2760QM processor and quatro 2000M video card, basic memory and hard drive, and Intel CA-N+WiMAX 6250 MOW and no option for mobile broadband. The whole thing cost me $1920 with a bag.

I know lenovo is good, I had experience with thinkpads back when IBM was making them, feels great just touching these notebooks. I'm excided and can't wait till it's shipped to Russia. Gonna stick Win7 Corporate onto it. I looked at elitebook and those things are expensive. Maybe next time.

Right now I'm choosing memory and mSATA SSD on newegg.com.. While choice with SSD is much more straight forward, I need help with choosing memory.

Basically W520 can take up to 32 GB memory, at that I can make use of PC3-12800. But I know for sure 16 GB is the maximum I will ever need, until my next upgrade. So I'm faced with choice, either get 2 sticks 8 GB each for $149, or get 4 stick 4 GB each for $110. Which way to go?

Also, which brand? Here is a quick link http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0000410&IsNodeId=1&name=DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

I want memory to run in dual channel!

 

[Alle_Gory]

Basically W520 can take up to 32 GB memory, at that I can make use of PC3-12800. But I know for sure 16 GB is the maximum I will ever need, until my next upgrade. So I'm faced with choice, either get 2 sticks 8 GB each for $149, or get 4 stick 4 GB each for $110. Which way to go?

Wait for the laptop to arrive. It might only have two memory slots. If you buy 4 sticks, you're screwed.

Did you get the W520 with the color sensor? It automatically calibrates the screen color for you. It costs nothing extra and it's useful for graphics work when you need accurate colors. As accurate as you can get on a laptop at least. A colorimeter, a decent one will cost you at least around $150 US or more. This one is built into the laptop though. So when you close the screen, it goes right up against the colorimeter and auto calibrates.

If you can add this option after the fact, I would do so. They probably haven't started building your machine anyways so a quick phone call or order cancellation is no problem. Did you get the extended battery? My T400 on checkout had the option for a 6 cell battery instead of the regular 3 cell for an extra couple of dollars. Double the battery life, hell yes.

As far as memory, rule of thumb I use is cram the maximum you can when building the computer. If you can cram 32GB and it's decently affordable, I say do it. If the price between 16GB and 32GB is ridiculous, then get whichever offers the best mix between value and memory size.

Memory brands I have never had a problem with Kingston.

Also, you can use WiMAX there?

 

[backseatjuan]

Here is my build sheet

Processor

Intel Core i7-2760QM Processor (2.40GHz, 6M Cache with Turbo Boost up to 3.50GHz)
Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Professional (64 bit)
Operating system language Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 - English
Windows XP Mode Windows 7 XP Mode - English
Display type 15.6" FHD (1920x1080) LED Backlit AntiGlare display, with Wireless WAN Antenna
System graphics NVIDIA Quadro 2000M Optimus Graphics technology (2GB)
Color sensor Colour sensor
Total memory 4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
Keyboard Keyboard - US English
Pointing device UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) Fingerprint Reader, Smart Card Reader
Camera 720p HD Camera with Microphone
Storage subsystem Internal RAID - Not Enabled
Hard drive 320GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
System expansion slots Express Card Slot, 4-in-1 Card Reader & Smart Card Reader
Battery 9 Cell 2.8Ah Li-Ion Battery
Power cord 170W Slim AC Adapter - North America, Latin America (2pin)
Bluetooth Broadcom Bluetooth 3.0 with antenna
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters Intel CA-N+WiMAX 6250 MOW
Language pack Publication - US English


The notebook has 4 memory slots, I know it for a fact. If I go for 32 gigs of memory it will cost me $300. Nah, I'll stick with 16 gigs, it's plenty more than I will ever need, even with graphics design. So help me choose here plz.

I've got color sensor, I think it was a $55 option, definately not free. Notebook is configured with all option minus RAID, wireless wan, and a quicker processor.

We have yota WiMAX here, for $20 a month you get unlimited 4G internet.