Added SSD to T520 - wow!

[KeatonR]

Got a Samsung 850 EVO m-SATA SSD for my ThinkPad, 500 GB, and wow, what a difference it makes. The machine boots up significantly faster, and everything opens and runs faster. This was definitely a worthwhile upgrade, for anyone considering it.

And for what it's worth, the installation was really easy, as was the configuration. I used the free Samsung data migration tool, which cloned everything to the new drive seamlessly.

Now I'm just doing a little partitioning and organizing. At the moment I'm thinking if I were to do it over I'd do a smaller m-sata drive for just the OS and then replace the spinning disk with a large SSD for everything else, but with what I have I can just run everything from the SSD and still have plenty of storage there, too.

Now I'm curious to see if this upgrade has any noticeable impact on battery life. I suspect it will.

I had previously upped the ram from 4 GB to 8, and then I replaced the absolutely mediocre screen with a 1920 x 1080 one (a huge-impact upgrade), and suddenly my older but barely used ThinkPad is feeling like a really nice machine!

[kfzhu1229]

Nice! I have done exactly that to my T530. Upgraded the crappy 768p display to a 1080p one and 2GB of RAM to 16GB DDR3L and has a 256GB SSD with a 500GB HDD.
That said though in this pandemic it probably isn't the best time to buy SSD's since their prices are heavily inflated due to high demand and low output from Covid hitting factories.
Are you gonna upgrade the CPU and do you have the NVS graphics though?

[TKuser]

I had previously upped the ram from 4 GB to 8, and then I replaced the absolutely mediocre screen with a 1920 x 1080 one (a huge-impact upgrade), and suddenly my older but barely used ThinkPad is feeling like a really nice machine!

You know what's even better on a T520 than 8gb of RAM? 16gb of RAM! I recommend it. (Original specs say max is 8gb, but it's actually 16gb. Two slots, each can be 8gb. "SO-DIMM 1600 MHz PC3-12800 DDR3" works fine and is pretty inexpensive to find on eBay, since it was popular in some old Mac.)

I've been recently setting up a newly acquired T520 to be my primary (yes!) machine. I also have the 1920x1080 screen (Nvidia Optimus option), a quad-core i7 2.5Ghz processor, a 2TB SSD drive installed (SATA III), an eSATA (combo w/USB) port which I'm using for a fast connection (SATA III) to an external 3.5" drive (this machine lacks USB 3.0, but the eSATA makes up for it), an ultrabay SATA adapter which I'm using for the occasional fast connection (SATA III) to some other 2.5" drives. External monitor via Displayport.

With the classic 7-row keyboard, this is just a great machine, and about the best T520 I believe one could get without Frankenpadding.

[kfzhu1229]

You know what's even better on a T520 than 8gb of RAM? 16gb of RAM! I recommend it. (Original specs say max is 8gb, but it's actually 16gb. Two slots, each can be 8gb. "SO-DIMM 1600 MHz PC3-12800 DDR3" works fine and is pretty inexpensive to find on eBay, since it was popular in some old Mac.)

I've been recently setting up a newly acquired T520 to be my primary (yes!) machine. I also have the 1920x1080 screen (Nvidia Optimus option), a quad-core i7 2.5Ghz processor, a 2TB SSD drive installed (SATA III), an eSATA (combo w/USB) port which I'm using for a fast connection (SATA III) to an external 3.5" drive (this machine lacks USB 3.0, but the eSATA makes up for it), an ultrabay SATA adapter which I'm using for the occasional fast connection (SATA III) to some other 2.5" drives. External monitor via Displayport.

I thought it is a known fact that most of the time if you buy these max capacity DDR3 or DDR4 RAM sticks on eBay you will end up with a bunch of replica or no name stuff in all sorts of ways. I typically prefer getting them on local classifieds and over here locally DDR3L sticks are FAR more common than the non low voltage DDR3 sticks. Pretty sure they will work just fine but at regular voltages instead. Alas when I got RAM for my T530 it was 4 years ago and right up at the global shortages and I paid C$100 for a pair of 8GB HyperX DDR3L sticks.
When getting 2 8GB DDR3 desktop sticks for my friend's H61 motherboard so it can have 16GB of RAM, it was an absolute pain in the butt to get remotely good deals here in Canada and even when we shopped locally, the seller was trying to sell us a dead stick - thanks to my SFF HP 8300 Elite and a small 17" Dell monitor that I brought with me to test so I avoided that scam and got two real working Kingston sticks. Not helping though we needed LP RAM.
I have a quad core i7-2860QM on mine (The best non-extreme CPU for T520) but unfortunately it won't stay there because I am selling that to a buyer doesn't have money for this thing.

[TKuser]

I thought it is a known fact that most of the time if you buy these max capacity DDR3 or DDR4 RAM sticks on eBay you will end up with a bunch of replica or no name stuff in all sorts of ways.

I've gotten lucky, then. Never had bad RAM in all these years. I've chosen my eBay sellers carefully, and generally seem to be buying from people who've pulled it out of an old working computer, rather than mass sellers from overseas. (Using the same kind of RAM in other T520 plus a T420.)

[MikalE]

Before my T520 arrived after purchase I had ordered the 850 EVO drive and 16 GB of ram. Later I upgraded the processor to a quad-core and added a second 250 EVO drive and installed Windows XP Pro 64.

I never saw XP run that fast on a 32 bit system. It really runs.

I've also upgraded the BT to 4.0, changed the wi-fi card to Ultimate N6300 AGN, and added a QWERTZ keyboard in German.

It also has the camera and FPR. I used the camera to monitor my dog when she was being house trained. I haven't used it since, but it's there.

About the only thing that seems un-upgradeable is the crappy audio these machines have, along with the T510. My A31p blows this T520 away in the audio area. It sounds fantastic. It's too bad they skimped on the audio amp and speakers in these machines.

Have fun with your T520. They don't make 'em like this anymore.

[kfzhu1229]

About the only thing that seems un-upgradeable is the crappy audio these machines have, along with the T510. My A31p blows this T520 away in the audio area. It sounds fantastic. It's too bad they skimped on the audio amp and speakers in these machines.

Oh that is not the real audio problem I am having with these machines though. Due to the way those speaker grills are, they are extremely easy to get deformed and give you a bunch of dimples, and if you don't close your lid when you are done using it, dust eventually collect inside and turn them brown. Good luck cleaning those speaker grills. Short of soaking the sides of the palmrest directly with detergent and constantly brushing them (soft brush only, the grills are plastic) for a few hours, I don't think there is another way of cleaning them.

[RealBlackStuff]

Running 32-bit XP on a T520 with 16 GB RAM?
Slight overkill!
When set up properly, that XP can only use 3.25 GB!

[MikalE]

The T520 is a 64 bit system.

I loaded XP Pro 64

I was comparing how XP ran on a 32 bit system with 2 GB of ram to the T520, a 64 bit system, with 16 GB of ram.

[RealBlackStuff]

Oops, Sunday morning hangover and getting up too early...

[TKuser]

Running 32-bit XP on a T520 with 16 GB RAM? Slight overkill! When set up properly, that XP can only use 3.25 GB!

But, 32-bit XP can use the extra RAM in conjunction with certain RAM disk programs (such as Primo Ramdisk). Then you can put your Windows virtual memory swap files onto the RAM disks, and then it's like you've got a lot more than 3.25 GB of RAM for your applications! (But still 2gb per individual process.)

Re: The bad speakers

Yes, this is a really sad thing about the T520. Has anyone come up with a way to retrofit some better speakers/amp into this thing?

[KeatonR]

Nice! I have done exactly that to my T530. Upgraded the crappy 768p display to a 1080p one and 2GB of RAM to 16GB DDR3L and has a 256GB SSD with a 500GB HDD.
That said though in this pandemic it probably isn't the best time to buy SSD's since their prices are heavily inflated due to high demand and low output from Covid hitting factories.
Are you gonna upgrade the CPU and do you have the NVS graphics though?

I think I may be done with the upgrades for this one, but we'll see. As is, I think it will serve my relatively modest needs. I am tempted to find an extra battery just for the future, though. Although this machine did sit unused for a handful of years and the battery seems like it's in good shape.

One factor holding me back on further upgrades is I'm contemplating bringing my Thinkpad X61s up to speed, though that is looking like a bigger job and I'm not positive that I'm up for it. I don't love the screen aspect ratio (square vs. today's horizontal), plus I'm kind of lusting after a new Thinkpad X1 Carbon. We'll see ...

But anyway, another real performance gain I've noticed with this new SSD is in the startup times. Significantly faster now!

[MikalE]

Something else I added that I forgot to mention was a SmartCard reader. This was usually specified on corporate TCO orders for logging into a private network.

It was somewhat of a PITA to set up initially because I didn't understand how these things worked with keys and codes and such.

I found a card that reportedly worked with Windows log-on instead of a network log on. The software for this is $60 but it's sort of a cool feature I added just to see if I could do it.

It works, and along with the FPR it doubles the security of the log-on. Now, some would say just use the HD password, the BIOS password, and the log-on password, but those can be forgotten or lost as I've seen from so many threads here explaining that very problem.

Not so with a key card or your fingerprints. As I said it was just something I wanted to experiment with and I wanted to have just about every option I could stuff into this T520.

If you are interested in this little upgrade, a Smartcard reader from any T510, W510, T520 or W520 will work, and your machine has the jack already installed on the MB to plug it in. If you decide to order one, make sure you get one with the cable already attached or included because they are hard to find by themselves.

If interested I will provide the link to the software to purchase. I have no interest in this, other than it works, and it's is the only one I found that will work on a stand-alone machine that is not on a network.

The slot for the SmartCard is not cut out already on your machine, but it is on the left side, just ahead of the two USB ports. The keyboard and top bezel must be removed and the slot must be carefully cut from the inside, and all supporting ribs under the bezel where the card reader sits must be removed. Not a big deal with an Exacto knife and a sanding drum on a Dremel.

[cadillacmike68]

We have had mandatory smart card use to log into DOD computers since 2005. Our ID cards had the little gold chip. It was mostly USB readers at first, but later on machines started coming with the readers. I'll need to fit one in the T530 / W530 eventually. Some of these T61s already have the reader.

[KeatonR]

Actually one potential area of improvement could be with WiFi speeds. I did a test at the speedtest site and came up with lower than expected numbers. Is this something I could upgrade on a T520?

[RealBlackStuff]

Standard would be a Lenovo-approved Intel N6300, speeds up to 450Mbps. (FRU 60Y3233)
If you remove the BIOS wifi-whitelist, you could also install the PCIe version AC-7260, speeds up to 867Mbps.
That card includes BT4.0, which may (not) work also.

[KeatonR]

Standard would be a Lenovo-approved Intel N6300, speeds up to 450Mbps. (FRU 60Y3233)
If you remove the BIOS wifi-whitelist, you could also install the PCIe version AC-7260, speeds up to 867Mbps.
That card includes BT4.0, which may (not) work also.

If I do the Lenovo-approved one, is that just a simple swap (plug-and-play) kind of thing?

[MikalE]

Yep. That's what I have in mine, except mine was not a Lenovo approved model so I had to upgrade the BIOS and remove the whitelist.

[kfzhu1229]

That card includes BT4.0, which may (not) work also.

Keep in mind for any card with Bluetooth to work properly you need to plug the thing into a slot that has USB pins in it, and that is unfortunately, the WWAN slot. So you can't use msata at the same time and also the wifi led won't work, nor will the switch most likely.

[MikalE]

I would upgrade the BT separately as I did.

[KeatonR]

I would upgrade the BT separately as I did.

I'm thinking I'll just upgrade to the Intel N6300, so presumably no bios work or anything about the whitelist. I haven't had a use for bluetooth on this machine (and am not even sure it has it, come to think of it ...).

[MikalE]

Well then, that is something else you could add if you find a need for it. The jack for the BT module is in the front right of the machine after you remove the keyboard and top cover.

It's that small rectangular circuit board you can see in the photos of mine with the cover removed.

[KeatonR]

Just a quick follow up: ordered and installed the Intel N6300 wifi card and will report that it is a seamless plug and play swap. The only slight hassle with the upgrade was plugging the tiny wired things into the corresponding slots on the card. But wifi is now 4x faster, according to speedtest.net.

Overall very pleased with this older but highly upgradeable laptop. There are other things I can upgrade on it, but I think I may be done.

[cadillacmike68]

Just a quick follow up: ordered and installed the Intel N6300 wifi card and will report that it is a seamless plug and play swap. The only slight hassle with the upgrade was plugging the tiny wired things into the corresponding slots on the card. But wifi is now 4x faster, according to speedtest.net.

Overall very pleased with this older but highly upgradeable laptop. There are other things I can upgrade on it, but I think I may be done.

Those are referred to as antennae.

[kfzhu1229]

YMMV but SSDs are still pretty cheap @ Best Buy.

Well in this pandemic the new SSD's just stopped having discounts. But if you are trying to cheap out even more like I am by going with used SSD's, they are all sold out and you might even have to pay more to buy a used one (albeit a faster one) than a new Kingston A400 for example