Thinkpads Forum

Had to order T520, 2.5GHz, 8GB, 500GB 7200rpm. How to improve? This was best choice I had? How do I make it better? Need to migrate from current IBM T4x ASAP. Should I remove certain software to make perform better? I'll get an SSD for it as soon as I can, but need to migrate first.

On order machine:
- i5 2520M, 2.5GHz, 3MB L3
- Windows 7 Professional 64
- Display 1600 x 900
- 8GB DDR3 Ram, Dual Dimm
- 500 GB, 7200 RPM Serial ATA/300
- DVD±R/±RW
- 9 cell Li-Ion Batt
- Bluetooth 3.0
- Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (2x2 AGN)
- 90WUltraslim AC/DC Combo Adapter

The preload is okay in terms of extra programs, although you might want to uninstall the ones you don't actually need. Just keep the platter drive well defragged.

Cut the lenovo ram, get cheaper better ram from crucial. (better as in warranty, lifetime vs 1-4 year. it'll probably use the same chips and save you 400 dollars)
Go ssd as fast as you can, biggest performance upgrade you can do do that system, IMO. i5/i7 perform the same, intel and nvidia are pretty close too.

Also, strongly, strongly, consider getting a W520 with the quad core and FHD lcd. better specs for less cash.

blackomegax wrote:Cut the lenovo ram, get cheaper better ram from crucial. (better as in warranty, lifetime vs 1-4 year. it'll probably use the same chips and save you 400 dollars)
Go ssd as fast as you can, biggest performance upgrade you can do do that system, IMO. i5/i7 perform the same, intel and nvidia are pretty close too.

Also, strongly, strongly, consider getting a W520 with the quad core and FHD lcd. better specs for less cash.

Would have loved to get the W520, but this is a company issued machine. From what I am told Lenovo cut a deal with discounts to the Co. that could not be beat by Dell, Toshiba, HP, etc.

Colonel O'Neill wrote:The preload is okay in terms of extra programs, although you might want to uninstall the ones you don't actually need. Just keep the platter drive well defragged.

If the HDD comes preloaded with Windows 7 Professional 64bit, can I partition it? Should I try and partition it? Especially if I am going to migrate again to an SSD as soon as I can?

Don't bother re-partitioning the drive. If you create the recovery disks (or not) you'll get the entire disk to yourself.
It's not worth re-sizing everything and making your computer unusable for 4 hours especially since you mentioned you were going SSD anyways.

And when you get the SSD, start fresh.

None of lenovos enhancements really 'beat' the speed increase of a clean install AND a fresh SSD. And their most major one is an installable driver anyway.

I looked up the steps to install a fresh Windows 7 on the T520 with SSD and it looks like from here there are about 40+ drivers to install. Am I not looking at this correctly or what? Not scared of installing device drivers but this just seems like an exorbitant list of things to tackle.

Do all these programs and drivers need to be installed separately or is their a method for installing them as a bundle?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 77167.html

System update 4.0 will work to install all the drivers and updates at once.

craigmontHunter wrote:System update 4.0 will work to install all the drivers and updates at once.

Craig, thanks. I assume this installs all of the standard issue Lenovo programs and once it is installed, I can delete any of the extra programs I may not use?

It provides a list of all updates and program that are applicable to your system - check the ones you want (or what I do, I check all and ucheck what I don't want)

You may need to run it a few times, sometimes it restarts after installing an update, rather than restarting after it has installed all of them.

For convenience reasons, skip doing a Win reinstall, as the Lenovo load oughta be just fine for general use. On this forum, you'll find some who recommend trashing the Lenovo load, but in reality, unless you're up against the edge performance-wise, the Lenovo stuff works fine. If it didn't, Lenovo wouldn't be selling much. Could save you a LOT of time & headaches, too

As mentioned above, SSD + adequate ram are the bang for the buck items. And, if the company is paying, load up on Lenovo installed ram; again, for convenience. A time vs. money kinda thing. Sounds like you don't have to do it on the cheap, so order it maxed out for your needs.

It restarts before completion if you install certain Windows Updates. I'd let Windows handle it's own updates, while System Update handles the drivers. Some stuff is a bit out of date at the moment through TVSU, notably Power Manager (3.48 vs 3.52) and the UltraNav drivers (15.2.14.0 vs 15.2.20.0; former has a RAM leak).

Colonel O'Neill wrote:It restarts before completion if you install certain Windows Updates. I'd let Windows handle it's own updates, while System Update handles the drivers. Some stuff is a bit out of date at the moment through TVSU, notably Power Manager (3.48 vs 3.52) and the UltraNav drivers (15.2.14.0 vs 15.2.20.0; former has a RAM leak).

So Colonel, what is the best procedure to reinstall on the SSD.

Should I install the Think Vision 4.0 bundle on the SSD and then reboot so it grabs the updates on line? Or is there some other method?

TL;DR how to do a clean SSD install on sandy bridge era thinkpads.

turn the bios setting to EUFI only, use a windows 7 install DVD as uefi will not boot USB devices without proper formatting and that would add a few pages to this tl;dr.
Get into windows 7 installer, delete all partitions on the SSD, proceed to install using default partitioning. windows will detect and install UEFI stuff automagically.
(if using intel SSD, once install is done, run the tuner)

Install drivers with the lenovo downloader, or far more simply, back up your c: drivers and SWtools folders and point all unknowns in device manager to them.


From there, just install the lenovo apps you *really* need, as anything extra is just lag inducing noise.

blackomegax wrote:TL;DR how to do a clean SSD install on sandy bridge era thinkpads.

turn the bios setting to EUFI only, use a windows 7 install DVD as uefi will not boot USB devices without proper formatting and that would add a few pages to this tl;dr.
Get into windows 7 installer, delete all partitions on the SSD, proceed to install using default partitioning. windows will detect and install UEFI stuff automagically.
(if using intel SSD, once install is done, run the tuner)

Install drivers with the lenovo downloader, or far more simply, back up your c: drivers and SWtools folders and point all unknowns in device manager to them.

From there, just install the lenovo apps you *really* need, as anything extra is just lag inducing noise.

Sorry to be remedial but what does TL DR stand for?

it's just a modern version of "long story short".

Too Long; Didn't Read

Literally translates to: That was too long to read.
Really translates to: I'm too lazy to read the entirety of what you said, but I still want to say something.

blackomegax wrote:it's just a modern version of "long story short".

Too Long; Didn't Read

Literally translates to: That was too long to read.
Really translates to: I'm too lazy to read the entirety of what you said, but I still want to say something.

haha, Thanks for the explanation. I'm a little surprised I have not run into that abbreviation before, on some of my other forum sites.

Received my new T520 last night and so far so good with simple down loads, speed and quietness of fan. I will say I am surprised how much shorter the screen is compared to my old T43. When folded shut, the T43(14.1") and the T520(1600 X 900) have the same depth.

And my X200 was slightly wider or as wide as a 14" 4:3 T60.
just an oddity of aspect ratio change.