Take a look at our
ThinkPads.com HOME PAGE
For those who might want to contribute to the blog, start here: Editors Alley Topic
Then contact Bill with a Private Message
ThinkPads.com HOME PAGE
For those who might want to contribute to the blog, start here: Editors Alley Topic
Then contact Bill with a Private Message
Advice on new Thinkpad - any with optical?
Advice on new Thinkpad - any with optical?
Hi,
I'm not sure if there is a better or right place to ask so if this is incorrect please move it.
I'm a huge long time thinkpad user. I started with the 600X and have never looked back. However, I guess I haven't looked recently The last one I purchased was a T540p which has been a workhorse but is close to 5 years old and with Windows 7 support it's time to refresh. I've decided on a X1 for my wife. (SHe had a SL410 that finally gave up the ghost and has been using a work-issued Toshiba that was acquired at the same time as the T540p)
My previous systems before the T540p were a W510 and W520 chosen for their displays and color calibration. They were the last configured with Firewire which I still use occasionally with my Coolscan 9000 scanner. The other thing the T540 dropped was the active hot swap bay, which is also required for the scanning project because of the need to swap between a hard drive and optical drive in that bay. The T540 drive bay is not supported as active hot swap but because of the way SATA works, does support a hot unplug/plug (I invented it ! ) so it's really swappable (most of the time, occasionally a blue screen but not often enough to prevent its use). The W series machines of course work fine.
In any case, the feature set of the T series seems to have been cut, primarily in ports and storage.
I've given up trying to search through all the models so I'll ask:
Of the new T and P series, which, if any, have:
Color calibration
finger print
high resonlution display
optical drive
drive bay that supports both HDD and optical.
Generally I've preferred the T series because of their superior robustness and display quality. If one of the other series supports optical/hot swap I'll take a look. I've not quite sorted out what the P series but it looks like it took over for the W series.
Or is the storage stuff such an antique that they don't even support anything but SSDs?
I need to make a decision in a few days due to a Black Friday special purchase program so prompt feedback welcomed.
I'm not sure if there is a better or right place to ask so if this is incorrect please move it.
I'm a huge long time thinkpad user. I started with the 600X and have never looked back. However, I guess I haven't looked recently The last one I purchased was a T540p which has been a workhorse but is close to 5 years old and with Windows 7 support it's time to refresh. I've decided on a X1 for my wife. (SHe had a SL410 that finally gave up the ghost and has been using a work-issued Toshiba that was acquired at the same time as the T540p)
My previous systems before the T540p were a W510 and W520 chosen for their displays and color calibration. They were the last configured with Firewire which I still use occasionally with my Coolscan 9000 scanner. The other thing the T540 dropped was the active hot swap bay, which is also required for the scanning project because of the need to swap between a hard drive and optical drive in that bay. The T540 drive bay is not supported as active hot swap but because of the way SATA works, does support a hot unplug/plug (I invented it ! ) so it's really swappable (most of the time, occasionally a blue screen but not often enough to prevent its use). The W series machines of course work fine.
In any case, the feature set of the T series seems to have been cut, primarily in ports and storage.
I've given up trying to search through all the models so I'll ask:
Of the new T and P series, which, if any, have:
Color calibration
finger print
high resonlution display
optical drive
drive bay that supports both HDD and optical.
Generally I've preferred the T series because of their superior robustness and display quality. If one of the other series supports optical/hot swap I'll take a look. I've not quite sorted out what the P series but it looks like it took over for the W series.
Or is the storage stuff such an antique that they don't even support anything but SSDs?
I need to make a decision in a few days due to a Black Friday special purchase program so prompt feedback welcomed.
-
- ThinkPadder
- Posts: 1464
- Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2013 7:45 pm
- Location: North Ridgeville, Ohio, United States
- Contact:
Re: Advice on new Thinkpad - any with optical?
No ThinkPad has had a hot-swap bay (Ultrabay) since 30 series, and the last with optical drives were the 40 series [edit - exception: P70 and P71]. The E series kept optical drives through the *70 line but they.
As far as I know all the modern (80 and 90) series offer high res displays (at least FHD, some offer higher res panels) and the fingerprint reader, although I believe only the P series offer calibrated panels. The P53 is about the closest direct descendant to the W520; it has two NVMe slots and one 2.5" SATA bay, and supports RAID.
As far as I know all the modern (80 and 90) series offer high res displays (at least FHD, some offer higher res panels) and the fingerprint reader, although I believe only the P series offer calibrated panels. The P53 is about the closest direct descendant to the W520; it has two NVMe slots and one 2.5" SATA bay, and supports RAID.
Last edited by theterminator93 on Thu Dec 05, 2019 12:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
T480 with T25 keyboard | T25 | W520 i7-2860QM·Quadro 2000m·IPS FHD | T601F T9900·NVS 140m·LED AFFS UXGA
T420 IPS FHD | X220 IPS FHD | T61p·T61·43·42p|X13 Yoga G3·220T·301·41T·24·23·22|G41|A31p·22m|i1200|TransNote
600|770Z|770|760XD|760EL|701C|755C
T420 IPS FHD | X220 IPS FHD | T61p·T61·43·42p|X13 Yoga G3·220T·301·41T·24·23·22|G41|A31p·22m|i1200|TransNote
600|770Z|770|760XD|760EL|701C|755C
-
- Senior ThinkPadder
- Posts: 2235
- Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:29 pm
- Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Re: Advice on new Thinkpad - any with optical?
17" workstation ThinkPads P70 and P71 have an optical drive, subsequent P72 and P73 do not.
If you're worried about 7 losing support, you can upgrade your T540p to Windows 10. Upgrading through the Media Creation Tool will yield an activated Windows 10. I don't know what specs your T540p has however it can be upgraded with a quad core, 16 GB RAM, and a 3K IPS screen. There's plenty life left in it I'm sure.
If you're worried about 7 losing support, you can upgrade your T540p to Windows 10. Upgrading through the Media Creation Tool will yield an activated Windows 10. I don't know what specs your T540p has however it can be upgraded with a quad core, 16 GB RAM, and a 3K IPS screen. There's plenty life left in it I'm sure.
Re: Advice on new Thinkpad - any with optical?
Thanks for the info.
The 17" machines are too big.
Where is the link to the Windows 10 update Media Creation Tool? I think I downloaded it when it came out but can't find it. I now recall I did try it right after it came out on the T540 but much of the Lenovo software was lost. Maybe now that stuff can be resurrected. I recall the big one was the "Lenovo Thinkvantage tools" and many of the underlying utilities. It was a deal killer at the time because I was working. Now that I'm retired I can take a look.
P53 seems to be a good starting point for the T540 follow on. Is the 2.5" drive buried inside? I swap the drive on it about every two months. The thing about the externals is they tether you to the desk but the drive bay lets me continue "mobile".
The T540p is well equipped. It was the top processor and I think the display is called 3K - 2880 x 1620 and the new ones have even better than that.
I still like the old T and W series best - they had a nicer keyboard without the numeric and the trackpad was much better engineered and easier to use with the distinct left-middle-right buttons. After several years I still hit the scroll portion more than the left mouse button.
The 17" machines are too big.
Where is the link to the Windows 10 update Media Creation Tool? I think I downloaded it when it came out but can't find it. I now recall I did try it right after it came out on the T540 but much of the Lenovo software was lost. Maybe now that stuff can be resurrected. I recall the big one was the "Lenovo Thinkvantage tools" and many of the underlying utilities. It was a deal killer at the time because I was working. Now that I'm retired I can take a look.
P53 seems to be a good starting point for the T540 follow on. Is the 2.5" drive buried inside? I swap the drive on it about every two months. The thing about the externals is they tether you to the desk but the drive bay lets me continue "mobile".
The T540p is well equipped. It was the top processor and I think the display is called 3K - 2880 x 1620 and the new ones have even better than that.
I still like the old T and W series best - they had a nicer keyboard without the numeric and the trackpad was much better engineered and easier to use with the distinct left-middle-right buttons. After several years I still hit the scroll portion more than the left mouse button.
Re: Advice on new Thinkpad - any with optical?
What's the difference between P1, P53 and P53s?
They used to have a compare ability but there are too many things spread across too many pages now. Like a restaurant, things are so much simpler when there are fewer things on the menu.
They used to have a compare ability but there are too many things spread across too many pages now. Like a restaurant, things are so much simpler when there are fewer things on the menu.
Re: Advice on new Thinkpad - any with optical?
OK, I found the Windows 10 upgrade DVD I made back in 2015. I tried to apply the update and it asked me for a product key... Is there a way to apply the update without a key? I found the link to the windows page:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... elzul0j200
and am trying to download it again in case its different.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... elzul0j200
and am trying to download it again in case its different.
-
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2018 1:18 am
- Location: Denpasar, Bali Indonesia
Re: Advice on new Thinkpad - any with optical?
if yourT540p has a COA windows 7 pro stickers in it ( behind the battery/inside the battery compartement ) you can easily install Windows 10 with that serial key, and it will work like a charm.tpribors wrote: ↑Fri Dec 06, 2019 5:49 pmOK, I found the Windows 10 upgrade DVD I made back in 2015. I tried to apply the update and it asked me for a product key... Is there a way to apply the update without a key? I found the link to the windows page:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... elzul0j200
and am trying to download it again in case its different.
What im doing is, i download the ISO Windows 10 Pro from Microsoft page or any trusted page available, make the Bootable flashdrive, and do fresh, clean installation in every thinkpad.
ive been doing this for more than 50 pcs thinkpad's ( mostly 2nd gen and 3rd gen that have Windows 7 serial attached ) and ALWAYS WORK.
Sorry for bad english, english isnt my native language.
-
- Similar Topics
- Replies
- Views
- Last post
-
-
Need some advice to choose my new T60
by KadYmz » Sun Nov 19, 2023 2:50 am » in ThinkPad T60/T61 Series - 5 Replies
- 2186 Views
-
Last post by ZaZ
Thu Nov 23, 2023 5:32 pm
-
-
-
Any Advance docks for ThinkPad T470?
by ThinkPad560X » Wed Feb 28, 2024 1:12 am » in Off-Topic Stuff - 4 Replies
- 458 Views
-
Last post by axur-delmeria
Wed Feb 28, 2024 3:21 am
-
-
-
600e won't take any ram sticks
by Gonzaleitor » Mon Oct 23, 2023 11:30 pm » in ThinkPad Legacy Hardware - 2 Replies
- 5661 Views
-
Last post by Gonzaleitor
Tue Oct 24, 2023 9:50 am
-
-
-
WTB: any 51nb modded motherboard.
by narutorunner » Sat Nov 04, 2023 1:57 pm » in Marketplace - Forum Members only - 0 Replies
- 1654 Views
-
Last post by narutorunner
Sat Nov 04, 2023 1:57 pm
-
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 18 guests