Thinkpads Forum

I'm a long time thinkpad user, going all the way back to a Thinkpad 600 around 2000. From there it went A30p, A20p, A31p, and now T60p. Yes, I too was really annoyed when I finally had to go from W2k to WXP back as early as 2010. And I have yet, in 14 years, to see a non-thinkpad laptop which didn't look like a consumer joke.

But, I am now needing to run Solidworks 2011 and Camworks 2012, both 64 bit. And my T60p's fan is dying for the second time. I will be needing to buy my third battery pack as my existing pack barely has holds 15 seconds of charge to let me run from room to room. I am on my second LCD replacement and thats actually fine. But the case has cracks from being dropped a couple times. The keyboard is filled with cat fur and metal chips because this thinkpad sits right next to both my cat and my CNC mill. Its to the point where I keep a pair of tweezers next to it so I can pop a key off and pull a curly metal chip out maybe once a day. I have tape holding the little lid-down magnet in place. The DVD-RW drive stopped burning discs after I dropped the laptop the first time. (it does still read disks though)

I like many others I'm sure thought things could not possible get better than when the T23p came out...and was proven wrong when the T60p came out..but then pretty much proven right ever since.. :/ If im wrong about that please let me know!!

Other than that the laptop works fine and I'm using it right now.

But, I'd like to upgrade.

So please help a fellow thinkpad devotee! Heres what I need:

8gb of ram
IPS or visually equivalent/superior display => 1600 x 1200 (1920 x 1080 would be okay)
SSD
As good or better keyboard
Trackpoint MUST have buttons. I will not use a laptop that has only a trackpoint and touchpad and no buttons. It must have THREE buttons too.
Weight not that important
Physical size not that important
Can be used
Must be less than $800 (so definitely used). If its available but not $800, needs to have its market value reach $800 within the next year.
Must have 64 bit operating system
Video card must be at least 3 times faster than t60p and preferably solidworks optimized (Quadro?)

Thank you for any help!!!

Welcome to the forum.
This W520 might be right up your street: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=115798
It is currently a bit above your budget, but the owner seems to be willing to remove some parts and thus lower the price.
Don't even look any further/newer than T420/T520/W520, because Lenovo has royally effed up their keyboards.

RealBlackStuff wrote:Welcome to the forum.
This W520 might be right up your street: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=115798
It is currently a bit above your budget, but the owner seems to be willing to remove some parts and thus lower the price.
Don't even look any further/newer than T420/T520/W520, because Lenovo has royally effed up their keyboards.

Thanks for the help!!

Wow the W520 does seem like it might be a winner. My only concern would be that its not IPS....would the display look better or worse than an ancient T60p as far as clarity during actual use? I dont bend my screen backwards very often lol..its usually at the normal 95 or so degree angle..would I miss the IPS?

Check with the seller what screen is on there.
It has LED-backlight, so will be brighter than the 'old' T60p, but AFAIK those widescreens are not IPS.
They are supposedly great screens (especially FHD) from what I have read.
For detailed specs, see this: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/pd015362
Good luck.

saw this post while validating new member(s)..
i'm full of opinions even though my wife calls those opinions something else..
anyway, for the first time since the X300 i have seen (except a few T400 thinkpads i got for friends) a new thinkpad and it is an X1 carbon..
this display is great.. high density and IPS..
the place lenovo screws up is this new keyboard..
really badly.. if anyone is a touch typist ths keyboard will really suck..
if, like me, one is a hunt and peck typist, its not so bad EXCEPT the page forward or page back keys are gone.. just gone and replaced by a right arrow on that cute but silly function key strip..

the good news is the display.. the case.. a LOT about the X1 excvept the keyboard thing..
which should have been an option..

doctordoctor wrote:

Wow the W520 does seem like it might be a winner. My only concern would be that its not IPS....would the display look better or worse than an ancient T60p as far as clarity during actual use? I dont bend my screen backwards very often lol..its usually at the normal 95 or so degree angle..would I miss the IPS?

Yes. You most likely would miss the IPS screen.

However, there's a LG Philips IPS screen that is almost a drop-in replacement...sort of...some hacking is required...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-15-6-FHD-DI ... 5d4a101484

Two things to bear in mind:

a) I'm not affiliated with the seller in any way, proceed - or not - at your own risk.

b) The IPS panel will have somewhat worse gamut, but to me personally IPS beats TN every day of the week and every hour of the day.

Happy upgrading.

Don't even look any further/newer than T420/T520/W520, because Lenovo has royally effed up their keyboards.

That's not the only thing they effed up. After holding and viewing a T540p recently I realized the era of dead-cert quality of the brand has ended. The Machine is quite frankly garbage, from the build right through to the dodgy architecture/drivers. It is a disgrace to the name. I mean in the old days even the "R" series were quality machines!

Perfect ThinkPad?

T43ng, i7 Quad Core, Haswell/Ivy, 16GB, SSD, IPS 15" Flexview, Decent Graphics card, identical form factor to T43.

Not gonna happen.

In your place I would buy W520 barebones, I.E. Without, SSD, HDD, memory. That way it could be done WAY under $800 and I am sure you already have components... Only thing you will need is FullHD IPS screen, which you could install yourself in 10 minutes. Anyway, that is exactly what I did in 2012 and even then barebones W520 cost me just $600.
Hope this helps

The W520 is a beast. It will more than handle your requirements. I myself, would love to own one. For reasons....mainly to own a machine that powerful.

As for your budget, you could go without an SSD for now and pick up a WD Blue for about $50 for a 500GB drive. Not the speediest, but reliable and has plenty of space. RAM and LCD can also be upgraded down the road. If it were me, I would get one with the weakest LCD possible while still having quad cpu and the Nvidia card. Then upgrade as time and money permit. I would go upgrade in this order:

1. SSD
2. LCD
3. RAM

I have a W510 with a 1920x1080 panel. The W520 panel may be similar.
In any case, it is very, very good for a TN panel; One thing that you have
to go out of your way to do is to install a correct color profile or calibrate
the display. Otherwise, it'll show a reddish-orange cast, but this is
apparently normal. It was designed for use by photographers and has
an extra-wide gamut.

Some W510/W520 units came with a built-in color calibrator, which is something
that you might want if you're using it for digital imaging / publication.

I totally agree with Bill, the new keyboards are not sufficient for proper touch typing, you'll limited at how fast you can type on them. Not a bad thing if you don't use your thinkpad for a lot of typing (unlike myself).

ajkula66 is also selling his awesome frankenpad (which you may be able to boost to 8 GB of RAM if it's a T61 mobo):
http://thinkpads.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=118077

This way you get a fantastic IPS flexview at 1600x1200, while retaining the good features of the T6x series still.

One thing not mentioned is that the new thinkpads also have removed the thinklight (a feature which I love and use-- primarily to increase ambient light while I am using the machine in the dark and not actually used to look at the keyboard since I don't have to).

A flexview T601 frankenpad may have the best combination of performance, keyboard, screen size/resolution and ergonomics, but it is still a ~7 year old platform. For many who just browse web pages, view some >= 1080p youtube videos, do word processing and email, it is more than fast enough. But for any cpu or gpu computation intensive tasks like solidworks or rendering, the machine shows its age.

A W520 with FHD would be my pick. Fast, great screen (although 16:9), up to 32GB ram, classic keyboard + thinklight.

brchan wrote: A W520 with FHD would be my pick. Fast, great screen (although 16:9), up to 32GB ram, classic keyboard + thinklight.

I agree in principle.

What is likely to age first in these systems is the GPU aspect, and that's the only one which is not upgradeable.

However, to get a W520 into the position where it still can compete - in all aspects but the GPU - with the current offerings performance-wise, one is looking at spending $2K on a (heavily upgraded) Sandy Bridge platform machine. Not that it's a necessarily bad move - given that these are the last systems with the classic keyboard layout - but definitely one where other options, including a desktop build with a *proper* keyboard should be considered...

My $0.02 only...

bit_twiddler wrote:I have a W510 with a 1920x1080 panel. The W520 panel may be similar.

It's actually the very same screen.

In any case, it is very, very good for a TN panel; One thing that you have
to go out of your way to do is to install a correct color profile or calibrate
the display. Otherwise, it'll show a reddish-orange cast, but this is
apparently normal. It was designed for use by photographers and has
an extra-wide gamut.

I would question any TN panel that claims that it was designed for photographers, but that's me. Extra-wide gamut becomes useless once you move your head two inches in any direction. Having said that, it's as good as it gets for a LED-lit-TN screen.

Some W510/W520 units came with a built-in color calibrator, which is something
that you might want if you're using it for digital imaging / publication.

My understanding is that the calibrator in question - unlike the ones found on DC-equipped EliteBooks - is mostly a marketing gimmick.