T410s = not worth the money

T400/410/420 and T500/510/520 series specific matters only
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t410sucks
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T410s = not worth the money

#1 Post by t410sucks » Thu Jul 01, 2010 12:24 pm

Just bought t410s (128SSD, Intel HD - switchable with NVIDIA, Intel i5) and it's simply not worth the money.

1. Idle temeprature is around 50-55C on the lowest performance option = 1200Mhz with very noticable heating in top left edge.
2. Fan running all the time at 4000RPM
3. Batter life = no longer than 2h while browsing the net and doing simple txt/html tasks
4. CPU Noise

I just beleived that after efficient low-cost SL500, t410s will be a monster in 14'1 cage. I was wrong. Seriously, think twice before choosing it.
I hate mine at the moment!

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#2 Post by ZaZ » Thu Jul 01, 2010 12:55 pm

50-55° does seem kind of high. Perhaps you can get it fixed under warranty.
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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#3 Post by t410sucks » Thu Jul 01, 2010 1:12 pm

Seems so. But I need to find out about other 410s users. Maybe it's normal for those laptops.
I'm used to COLD SL500 :-)

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#4 Post by niccolo » Thu Jul 01, 2010 1:31 pm

And you didn't even mention the worst-in-the-industry screen! But I'm a broken record on that, as are many others in these forums...

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#5 Post by t410sucks » Thu Jul 01, 2010 1:32 pm

To be honest I like the screen :-)
I bought Lenovo for its keyboard. [censored], keyboard is sweet, but the rest.. sucks

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#6 Post by niccolo » Thu Jul 01, 2010 1:49 pm

Interesting. I know a few people like the screens. Baffles me, personally. On the plus side, they're plenty bright. On the downside, blacks are at best a dark gray, vertical viewing angle is zero, i.e. if you watch a movie with the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, one of the two bars will be light gray or inverting at any given viewing angle, and the whole screen has a limited, washed-out color palette. That final point can be addressed to some limited extent by color calibration, but then you take a hit on the contrast, and the contrast is already so bad that this is a tough trade-off, plus there's only so much color calibration can do. Almost makes me wonder whether there's more variation in the individual screens, and those who like their screens somehow lucked out, although that seems pretty unlikely.

Regardless, I'm glad to hear you're happy with the screen--curious whether you think it is the same, better, or worse than other screens you've encountered, e.g. on a generic Dell, or a matte MacBook, or a desktop flatscreen?

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#7 Post by t410sucks » Thu Jul 01, 2010 1:57 pm

You won't get deep black that's for sure. But comparing it to SL500 it's much better.
Comparing it to DELL e6500 it's almost the same. There is no comparison to my desktop Eizo.

I'm more concerned about CPU temperatures.. It sucks to have left side of keyboard warmer than right. It's not that bad, but it didnt exist in cheap Lenovos.

On the bright note, I paid for Integrated Intel model and in box I had T410s with Switchable Nvidia.

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#8 Post by underclocker » Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:19 pm

That is a little strange. Maybe it's the dual graphics mobo that generates heat?

I just finished configuring two T410s models with the integrated video mobos and I never even noticed the fans go on. That was after several hours, 500MB plus of OS & Lenovo updates and GBs of installs & data transfer.

Also, I was concerned about the LCDs due to comments that I read previously, but the two LCDs on these machines are gorgeous.

The machines weigh 3 lbs. 15 oz. and absolutely fly with the SSD. I am quite impressed. These are just about perfect machines...finally a worthy T4x model replacement! The only short-coming seems to be battery life, it's probably around 3 hours with Internet, etc.

Below are the system order details;

2901CT CONFIGURED SYSTEM
45M3091 VBB GENUWIN7PROFES.32
45M4936 SBB GNWN7P32 US ENGLISH
60Y6838 SBB 14.1 WXGA+ TFT,LED BCKLGHT
60Y6826 SBB ITGRMA5700MHDIC2DPRI5-520M
42X6309 VBB 4GBPC3-8500 1067MHZ2DIMM
45M4839 SBB KEYBOARDUS ENGLISH
44C7947 SBB ULNVTRKP,TCHPD)FNGRPRREAD
44C7970 SBB CAMERA SUB CARD
60Y6844 SBB INTEL 80GB SLD ST DR,SRATA
60Y6840 SBB DVD RCRDBL8XMAXDLLAYULBSLM
44C7973 SBB 5-1 MEDIA CARD READER
44C7954 SBB 6 CELL LI-ION BATTERY
41W1787 SBB CPK NORTH AMERICA
45M3043 SBB BLUETOOTH W/ANTENNA
45M4805 SBB IN.CENTADV.-N+WIMAX 6250
45M4809 SBB IN.MOB.BROAD.(3G)-QUALCOM
75Y0098 SBB OPEN SM CRD VERIZON:USA
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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#9 Post by niccolo » Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:24 pm

The Dell e6500 is available with some very impressive optional displays (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Del ... 958.0.html). The generic Dell display is close to the display in the T410s. (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Len ... 386.0.html) The SL500 sounds like it had a pretty poor display, the reviewed one measures better than the T410s, but presumably that's a function of the fact that the review sample had a glossy screen (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Len ... 741.0.html).

And another vote for the "gorgeous" display on the T410s! It's bizarre how about 2/3 of the users on thinkpadforums think the display is appalling and unacceptable, and 1/3 think it's fantastic.

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#10 Post by Volker » Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:51 pm

High temp while idle almost certainly means that some background process is keeping the CPU busy. Crashed flash player hanging around or something like that... Even though the battery is not particularly large, you should easily reach >2h with moderately dimmed display and limited CPU/GPU load.

I've found the display to be excellent for programming/office work. Brightness can be adjusted over a wide range. Its a pleasure to work outside with it. Like almost all laptop displays it does suck for movies and photo work...

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#11 Post by t410sucks » Thu Jul 01, 2010 3:09 pm

The battery works for 2-3h now. So it's good. But CPU temp is like that on IDLE. No processes at all.

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#12 Post by Navck » Thu Jul 01, 2010 3:19 pm

I have a T410 and my idle temperatures are closer to 42-44C with my TPFC profile and thermal paste changed, 50-55C doesn't sound right at all.

I've been able to pull out 9 hours off a nearly fully charged 9 cell, I really suspect something is taking up CPU time in the background. Are you able to use use Taskmanager and the Resource Monitor to determine what would be doing this, could be a service too.

I guess you got lucky with the screen like I did too.

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#13 Post by t410sucks » Thu Jul 01, 2010 3:25 pm

To add more minuses for this model.

AC Adapter is giving me funny noises, I'm not going to plug it when I'm sleeping thats sure sure lol.

I can lower my temperature to around 45C when the fan is going at 4k RPM all the time, which is noisy.

Oh, a no point in using i5 for me when I need to have it at lowest clocks since CPU Whining issue is killing me.

I checked Taskmanager/Resource Monitor - nothing heavy in there.

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#14 Post by t410sucks » Thu Jul 08, 2010 2:15 pm

After a week of using it I start to love it, depsite its obvious minuses :-)

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#15 Post by yak » Thu Jul 08, 2010 2:32 pm

t410sucks wrote:After a week of using it I start to love it, depsite its obvious minuses :-)
And now you're stuck with that nickname ;)
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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#16 Post by ZaZ » Fri Jul 09, 2010 1:16 am

yak wrote:And now you're stuck with that nickname ;)
Fate is a cruel mistress.
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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#17 Post by Harryc » Fri Jul 09, 2010 2:25 am

@t410sucks, you only have a few posts here. If you want to change your member name to LoveMyT410s, contact a site Admin ;).

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#18 Post by Larswa » Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:10 am

I have a T410s with the Switchable graphics. When on discrete graphics, it is running really hot too.

When I first got it it was even worse, and the discrete graphics card created temperatures that made the laptop crash and freeze. After a repair where they changed the motherboard, it is now running hot, but does not crash anymore.

Temps on discrete are around 50-60 celsius. Even hotter when using the card for anything challenging. On integrated (which I rarely use) it is down to around 40 - 45 celsius. It also gets really hot when the CPU is running.

Yes ... multitouch screen is crap. Didn't see that it was a multitouch before ordering ... And yes. It is running hot. And yes ... batterylife makes me RUN between power outlets, but still .. its a nice package and I've grown to like it.

I think a discrete graphics card in such a thin packageis bound to give problems, so I have just accepted it for now. I have had / have other laptops with discrete (HP NC8430 and DELL Vostro 1720) and they are also both insanely hot when running anything else than notepad :-)

Guys ... have you felt the graphicscards on your stationary pc's? I've considered selling my stove and just setting up a NVIDIA SLI and cooking my meat directly on those ... :-D With the CPU being used if I need to REALLY fry stuff ... Cooling that kind of temperatures in a laptop chassis is a real challenge and I think that Lenovo have done a somewhat decent job with the physical constraints given.

I'm not satisfied ... I'll never be, untill I get a Cray+++++ that runs at 20 celsius, but I think we need to set realistic expectations.
Till then, I think the T410S is a decent enough buy. If you want it cool, set it to integrated.
Well .. thats just my opinion anyway ...
Lars

HP NC8430, X61, X61T, X200, T410S, T500, T60

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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#19 Post by emeraldgirl08 » Mon Jul 12, 2010 11:20 am

Harryc wrote:@t410sucks, you only have a few posts here. If you want to change your member name to LoveMyT410s, contact a site Admin ;).
He can always change the title of his post :roll:
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Re: T410s = not worth the money

#20 Post by t410sucks » Mon Jul 19, 2010 7:49 am

i dont want to change anything, it's gonna be a tough love :mrgreen:

for that price it's not worth a purchase. :-)

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