Thinkpads Forum

Hey, getting a thinkpad soon. my first thinkpad was a T61p. Had it for 4 years and it was fun while it lasted (especially when I added 8GB of ram and a SSD.) But now the defective GPU finally crapped out on me and it overheats within 30 min.... runs at 89C.... added new arctic silver 5 to no avail.

I want to get the next gen T series, i.e. the 520/420 but am wary of the discrete GPU. any issues with overheating, or in general i should know about?
How is the battery life of a t420 compared to a t520?

I too had a T61p and went through 4 motherboard changes due to the NVIDIA self destruct "feature". My T61p actually roasted the Microsoft label to the point where you couldn't read it. Nevertheless, I loved the machine. I now have a fully configured T520. It runs cool even under high stress situations like video editing and mastering. I've never had to take it off my lap.

On the "other" board the number of posts concerning problems with T420 machines is far greater than for T520 machines. I don't know if that's because Lenovo sells far more 420s than 520s, but it's a point to consider.

No systemic flaws to my knowledge, but be aware that the 14" screens are almost universally of a lower grade than their 15" brethren. (The top-end FHD 15" screen is pretty much top-of-class for a TN screen, too.)

I have a T420 and a work issued W520. The T420 has the 1600x900 display and the work W520 has them 1920x1080 display. The W520 (which should be the same as the T520 FHD) display is a good bit better. That said, I prefer the size / weight of the T420.

That said, unless you have a use case that specifically calls for a discrete graphics card, I'd consider a model with Intel GPU as I've had very good success with the Intel integrated GPU's.