Thinkpads Forum

Order placed from the outlet, 4174PPU. It was a good deal all things considered. I have a new Intel 520 Series 180GB SSD, 16GB Kingston DDR3, and Intel 6300 WiFi card to swap in before I ever power it on.


i7-2640M(2.8GHz)
4GB RAM
320GB 7200rpm HD
14in 1600x900 LCD
1GB Nvidia N12P-NS2
CDRW/DVDRW
Intel 6205 802.11agn wireless
WWAN option
Bluetooth

Nice setup but I hope you're aware of these issues:

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-a ... d-p/827061
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-a ... d-p/443569

Luck of the draw though.

Thanks. I have read about the password issue on the Intel 520 drives, but I do not need full drive encryption, so I do not think it will effect me.

I have not read much about the fan issue, but can stand a little noise.

This laptop has everything I need. Power and lightweight, good resolution and pixel density, eSATA, USB 3.0, supports 16GB RAM for my VirtualBox stuff, and better battery life than my current T410s. I also will not have to deal with this issue any longer: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail. ... MIGR-76367

My first fan was really ok, no disturbing sound; now I'm on the second fan (my motherboard was replaced once because of this issue - http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-a ... d-p/758605 ), this one is a little bit noisier, but nothing to bother me. Regarding the "crash to fuzzy screen" you should be safe, there were no reports that this is happening on the systems with discrete graphics. Otherwise is a really nice machine, better crafted than the regular T420 and its slimness it's just feels right.

The first thing I noticed while taking it out of the box was there is no eSATA port. Bummer. I use the eSATA on my T410s quite a bit with imaging hard drives.

Looks like I will need to find a USB 3.0 to SATA adapter or an eSATA Expresscard.

I now see from the photos online that it is not supposed to have eSATA and I should have known better than to rely on the detailed specs page:
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product ... D=PD015743

Overall, I am thrilled with the purchase. It is flawless out of the box. There are no creaks and the stickers for the Intel and Windows logos are not crooked.

Congrats that looks like a sweet rig - there is (was a few minutes ago anyway) a nearly identical machine out there now if anyone is looking. T420 and T420s is a nice machine.