It's a tough decision. When did you buy the last version? If it's just few months ago I would recommend you to hold off. It also depends on your work "season". Meaning, if summer is the time when you need it most, it may be worth spending the extra. Otherwise, just wait for the next version, which w...

KongMD,
Any update on the post that you are preparing?

Did you see this review in Amazon : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W7 ... ynadata-20 ? Now am thinking twice about buying the drive. Are you experiencing any problem?

I can confirm. There is no modem in the CTO.

I got it. Thanks!

You mean pirated? No thanks!

I bought a copy of Windows with my laptop. I can expect to obtain a media containing the OS legally. Why would I bother to go for a pirated one?

Perry, Both are actually SATA III 6gbps. This was confirmed by an Lenovo blog post. I don't have the link right now. However, the main bay is forced down as 3gbps for data integrity reasons. Although, some people found that recent shipments come with the 6gbps enabled. I haven't got the chance to fi...

Thanks David and KongMD! I wanted to know the behind story as well. No only the Yes/No answer. Thanks for clearing the issue!

I found out that my system came with Samsung 4GB memory installed. I installed G-skill 4gb unit with same CAS latency and speed. All units are working great as dual channel.

I just received the W520 few days back. I will be using this for photography too. I have the color calibrator. After running the calibration it looked a bit better. I not so disappointed though. You can probably tweak the setting to get better results. Let me know if you a get settings for photograp...

Does the sandy bridge issue discussed in the following video affect W520?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJcE2alQPvY

From the Lenovo forum wditters pointed out the following link:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-Th ... a-p/249257

It took 10 days. Reached here on May 17, 2011. I am in the eastern part. I live in the greater Pittsburgh area.

I am planning to populate all 4 slots of memory with 4GB each. A pair of the memory cards I bought are 'dual channel kit'. The question is where to put these two so that the pair works as a dual channel memory? From the manual it is not really clear which one is which slot. I am guessing, the slots ...

Hardware maintenance manual W510:
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 536_02.pdf

Hardware maintenance manual W520:
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 078_03.pdf

Great post!

I am planning to skip the system recovery partition (Q:) onto the SSD. SSD space is costly. IMHO, a copy of the recovery partition on the HD is good enough. Is there a possible problem to this approach?

Wow! Eye popping speed!!

I just checked the 2nd DVD. It's showing a binary image. I guess there is no way to know without using the recovery image directly.

From http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=52133 , the second recovery disk contains the Windows installation media. I am creating the disks now. I will post more info once I find out.

I would say, try out different combinations and choose what you want to go with. I learned from this forum that you can save some buck by choosing less memory, hdd and no ssd. But others are completely your choice.

I am planning to install a fresh copy of Windows professional 7 x64 on the SSD I am yet to receive. But there is no Windows 7 disk provided with the laptop. Where can I get the Windows 7 disk for W520?

I thought people are paranoid, but I got my lenovo today. This thing IS a monster! OMG, what were they thinking while engineering this module?

Anyone tried this? http://tascam.com/product/us-800/specifications/

@thePCxp Thinkpad Wxxx series are meant as workstations. Why would I expect a cheap audio card from a workstation class device?

Did anyone try this?
http://cgi.ebay.com/SATA-hard-drive-Ada ... 5d2e37af62

KongMD,
Did you get the 6GB/S speed? A video would be helpful.

Talking of video there is one video posted on it.

http://youtu.be/g6iEcxaPvHE

Sounds good! I will be looking forward for the tutorial. I will be ordering the SSD tonight. Too bad this wonderful disk can not get be installed easily.

Amazon is selling it for $290. So is newegg. But newegg has replacement only return policy in place.

I think I will buy from Amazon. I can return if it does not fit my laptop. But Amazon says "Usually ships within 1 to 2 months". Does that mean long delay?

From the tabbook: "DDR3 memory controller (up to 1333MHz)". So 1600MHz memory modules would not be compatible.

Volker,
Can you please post pictures of your caddy? Like the way David did earlier. It would help the community to learn more about this caddy. Thanks very much in advance!

Since I am planning to use is almost full time I am leaning towards the knock off. Where did you buy it from? I could not find the ebay page to the product. Would you mind sharing the link?

I think I will buy Kingstone, considering their reputation. I will buy a dual channel kit from here and another one from here , totaling 16GB including the 4GB I ordered with the laptop. Does anyone anticipate any compatibility problem? What kind of memory does the laptop ship with? Also does the la...