Need 2nd opinion - I *think* I know which Thinkpad I want...

[cy630]

I think I know which one but I need your help to see if I'm close or not.

Basically as much as I would love to buy a Thinkpad with 'IBM' on it - I'm going to need to buy something from the Lenovo stable in order to run modern games (Starcraft, DOTA.)

The 'one' Thinkpad I think I need to buy is a 2011 T520. The reason why I chose it is:

1. Seems to have gotten good reviews.
2. Has enough horses to handle prementioned games.
3. And very important [to me]: appears to be the last year the Thinkpad came with a high quality scissor switch keyboard in the classic layout.

Any other models or am I on the money?

Of course everyone wants a reliable laptop that is going to last for a long time but I do love the classic scissor switch mechanisms/layout and it seems like they switched this over for 2012. I know I can buy an external USB keyboard but ... I also want it on the laptop as well. I don't mind buying a 2-3 year old laptop if that means I can still get that perfect keyboard...

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

You're going in the right direction. W520 might also be worth a look, especially since these were available with some more powerful configurations than the T520.

[Adda]

The W510 is also an option, but might require some tinkering with the cooler to be completely cool and stable running.

This is worth looking at if you want to keep temps down while gaming on a W510/520:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=108366

This involves undervolting and then overclocking the video card, for a boost in performance and reduction in temps at the same time.

If that is not enough, turboboost can be disabled, this will reduce temps quite a bit, at a very small performance hit.

Another thing to do is disable core parking, this makes all cores active at the same time, limiting the max turbo boost speed to the highest it can run on all four cores, for a 720QM that is 1.73GHz.
It doesn't seem to reduce performance much, even in single threaded apps, as the CPU balances the load on all four cores, rather then loading and overclocking one core, with very high temps as a result.

After doing all of this, I can play Skyrim or Fallout 3 for hours, and the temps remain around 70C max, yes I use a W510, and it runs faster then default.

[cy630]

I want to thank you very much for your quick replies and your willingness to help newbies.

I think I'm going to narrow this down to the W520. However before I do so can you impart any knowledge on whether this model will include any reliability improvements over the T520? Besides the improved performance are there any sacrifices or things that would decrease longetivity over the T520?

I've looked at pricing for the W520 and it seems to be holding. I'll probably wait to snatch one up once it hits around the $1,000-$1,250 mark.

[Adda]

The W520 is a very hot running ThinkPad, so hot that if nothing is done about it, it might suffer from slowdowns or crashes.
The same is true for the W510, but it's issues are mostly due to a poorly fitted cooler in some units.

I know that the tweaks I mention above reduce the temps dramatically on my W510, but I don't know how they affect the W520, as no one have shared that information yet, to my knowledge.

I think you should definitely stay away from the 55w XM CPU's and stick to the 45w ones.
Also I think you should consider choosing the Quadro 1000M rather then the 2000M, it's all about the heat, if you want this machine to last and be trouble free, you gotta' keep it cool.

[cy630]

I was actually thinking of going with this one:

Intel Dual Core i7-2620M (2.70GHz, 4MB L3, 1333MHz FSB, 35W)

Games typically only utilize 2 cores anyway; plus it's only 35w.

[ajkula66]

I've looked at pricing for the W520 and it seems to be holding. I'll probably wait to snatch one up once it hits around the $1,000-$1,250 mark.

You can do a lot better than that. Trust me.

[cy630]

You can do a lot better than that. Trust me.

In what respect? W520's seem to be pretty rare as it is, and when they are on sale they usually go for $2k.

Unless you know of a reseller that has a warehouse of them that I'm not aware of?

[Adda]

I was actually thinking of going with this one:

Intel Dual Core i7-2620M (2.70GHz, 4MB L3, 1333MHz FSB, 35W)

Games typically only utilize 2 cores anyway; plus it's only 35w.

Ah yes, completely forgot about dual core CPU's hehe.

A CPU like that should run nice and cool, especially with the Quadro 1000M.
But if you plan on undervolting the GPU, then the cooler might be able to handle the 2000M, with that 35w CPU.

Only down side is that you are limited to 16GB memory as the dual core CPU's only come with two memory slots.

[ajkula66]

In what respect? W520's seem to be pretty rare as it is, and when they are on sale they usually go for $2k.

Rare they're not by any stretch of imagination.

If I were shopping for a W520 I'd be looking for a lightly used machine with warranty remaining. And that's $700 or less, guaranteed.

Unless you know of a reseller that has a warehouse of them that I'm not aware of?

Well, if you want strictly NIB, Lenovo's Outlet might be your best bet, but it will take some patience. There are good deals to be had there on occasion...

Here's a top-shelf model that was sold NIB on feebay for a pinch over $1100...and I'm certain one could do better if they had their heart set on it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-LENOVO-Thin ... 56539094df