T420 Noob questions

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trezaei · #1 Post by **trezaei** » Sun May 22, 2011 4:44 pm

Hi All,

I just bought a T420 and a port replicator 3 plus.
Here are specs:

i5-2540 (2.6)
8GB (4 from lenovo, 4 oem upgrade)
128GB SSD
9 cell battery
14.0 HD+ (1600 X 900)

So I stff but I still have a couple of questions:

1) It doesn't look like it, but is there a place I can add a second hard drive? Is it possible to add a large 7200 rpm drive for static files in addition to the current SSD?
2) What is up with the poor sound output? My iPhone is louder than this thing. Am I missing something? It's soooo quiet. Is there anything I can change to make it put out a bit more sound?
3) Which one is the "Slice" batter? I thought that's what I was getting when I ordered the 9-cell, but now I'm not sure. I'm contemplating replacing the DVD drive with another 3 cell or if it's at all possible to use that spot for the other hard drive, if lenovo sells such an adaptor.
4) Is the yellow USB for USB3?
5) I was told this thing can support up to three monitors. My port replicator only has 2 DVI ports. Did they mean the two DVI + i HDMI? I can't even have the two monitors while still having the laptop screen on. That's pretty lame but it'll suffice.

Otherwise I so far have no issues other than I somehow expected this setup to be a bit faster than it is. The turbo mode is a LOT faster IMO but still nothing compared to my desktop. Super-Pi and Hyper-Pi FAIL badly compared to my i7-2600 desktop (like a 2:1 factor) I was expecting the thinkpad to be closer to 70% of that performance given that I have the SSD installed and the i5 and i7 are not that different in performance.

visionviper · #2 Post by **visionviper** » Sun May 22, 2011 4:58 pm

trezaei wrote: 1) It doesn't look like it, but is there a place I can add a second hard drive? Is it possible to add a large 7200 rpm drive for static files in addition to the current SSD?
2) What is up with the poor sound output? My iPhone is louder than this thing. Am I missing something? It's soooo quiet. Is there anything I can change to make it put out a bit more sound?
3) Which one is the "Slice" batter? I thought that's what I was getting when I ordered the 9-cell, but now I'm not sure. I'm contemplating replacing the DVD drive with another 3 cell or if it's at all possible to use that spot for the other hard drive, if lenovo sells such an adaptor.
4) Is the yellow USB for USB3?
5) I was told this thing can support up to three monitors. My port replicator only has 2 DVI ports. Did they mean the two DVI + i HDMI? I can't even have the two monitors while still having the laptop screen on. That's pretty lame but it'll suffice.

1. If you replace your optical drive, then yes you can add a second hard drive. I believe only the W-series has a complete second spot for a hard drive.
2. Beyond turning the volume up all the way not really.
3. This is a slice battery
4. The yellow USB port is an always on usb 2.0 port. (Power is always applied to this port, even when the machine is off)
5. I don't know about this one, sorry.

hunterman223 · #3 Post by **hunterman223** » Sun May 22, 2011 5:05 pm

1) No. Only if you were to install a Mini SSD in the MiniPCI slot and put a standard hard drive in the main bay, which would mean purchasing a new separate SSD. Or like you mention below, using an Ultrabay adapter.

2) Is it turned all the way up? Open up the mixer and check that the separate slider for the application outputting sound is also up. If using iTunes or the like, check the separate volume controls there.

3)Looks like this: [PIC LINK] http://www.wfu.edu/~yipcw/lenovo/2011/T ... ery-66.jpg

4)That is an always on USB port, you can charge things even when the laptop is off. I believe only the i7 models sport USB3 ports.

5)You didn't specify whether you got the discrete graphics. If you did, you can support up to 3 monitors + the thinkpad display. With the standard Intel HD graphics you can support up to 3 monitors with the thinkpad display turned off. See here. You can use up to 3 of the 5 ports at any given time. If your third monitor uses DVI then you will need to purchase a displayport to DVI adapter. (By the way, you must mean the Mini Dock Plus Series 3, the port replicator does not have digital video)

The i7 2600 is quite a high end processor. It is 14th on the charts here. The i5 2540m is ranked 137th. I would say quite a difference. It is true that some of the i5 and i7 processors are similar, and some i5's are faster, but they're in two completely different leagues. (One is a mid-range mobile CPU, the other is a high-end desktop) SSDs do provide quite a noticeable boost, I would say more than a good CPU for most computing. But obviously in a benchmark it is pushing the system to the max, which you won't do very often depending on your usage.

Edit: Ah, visionviper beat me to it as I was typing it out.

I'll leave it anyways as the two both provide good info.

trezaei · #4 Post by **trezaei** » Sun May 22, 2011 5:19 pm

Thanks guys. That helps a lot!
So since I posted just an hour ago I found some great ways to up the volume, this is how:

On the Speakers Properties, under the enhancements tab, make sure you have "Loudness Equilization" checked.

Then, in the control panel, under "Hardware and Sound", select SmartAudio and play with those options a bit.

Mine is now about twice as loud!! It's still half as loud as I'd like to be but ...

So how would I go about replacing the DVD drive for another HD? Is there an adapter for this?

Thanks

trezaei · #5 Post by **trezaei** » Sun May 22, 2011 5:24 pm

I think I may have found my own answer, even though it doesn't say so, I'm assuming this is compatible with the T420. What is the best (for the money) HD to buy and use with this thing?

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont ... u_area=yes

And is this going to affect the battery and performance at all even if I just static files (like music, videos,..) on it?

Thanks

visionviper · #6 Post by **visionviper** » Sun May 22, 2011 5:35 pm

trezaei wrote:I think I may have found my own answer, even though it doesn't say so, I'm assuming this is compatible with the T420. What is the best (for the money) HD to buy and use with this thing?

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont ... u_area=yes

And is this going to affect the battery and performance at all even if I just static files (like music, videos,..) on it?

Thanks

It is compatible and it does say so

Yes it will if the hard drive is spinning. How much it will affect your battery depends on which one you get.

hunterman223 · #7 Post by **hunterman223** » Sun May 22, 2011 5:43 pm

That's the one, but I would shop around as lenovo tends to overprice things.

I recommend the WD Scorpio Black drives. I have one as my main drive and it's nice and fast. Do you plan on leaving it in their primarily? As it is a 7200rpm it will affect battery life slightly, but you can set it to power off after being idle for a few minutes. It also is not a whisper silent drive and can be heard above the fan. If you plan on leaving the drive in most of the time I would pick up a WD Scorpio Blue drive as it will use less juice and be quieter, but you sacrifice some performance.

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trezaei · #8 Post by **trezaei** » Sun May 22, 2011 5:55 pm

This is amazing guys. Thank you. So I'm gonna buy an combo of eBay and Amazon.

On eBay I got:
http://cgi.ebay.com/SATA-adapter-IBM-TH ... 989wt_1106

and on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-S ... 361&sr=8-1

Total of about $80 I get a 500GB 7200RPM added to my setup which is just crazy imo.

I'm going to set it so it powers down if not in use after 5 minutes and I'm assuming the affect on battery and performance will be almost unnoticeable. I just can't believe how easy this sounds.

Is this HD going to basically work plug and play? Any formatting/partitioning necessary?

OOH!!! I just thought of something! Is there a way to move the recovery partition to this new disk and free up wth 20GB on the SSD ? That would be AMAZING!!

Thanks

zhenya · #9 Post by **zhenya** » Mon May 23, 2011 9:56 am

Yes, you'll lose a decent amount of battery life with the second drive, as rotating hard drives consume a not-insignificant amount of power. Spinning it down may help, but I've found that it spins up so frequently that it's not much savings.

I would create a set of system restore cd's, and make an image based back-up of your drive (using something like Acronis True Image), and then delete the recovery partition entirely.

hunterman223 · #10 Post by **hunterman223** » Mon May 23, 2011 10:10 am

zhenya wrote:Yes, you'll lose a decent amount of battery life with the second drive, as rotating hard drives consume a not-insignificant amount of power. Spinning it down may help, but I've found that it spins up so frequently that it's not much savings.

I would create a set of system restore cd's, and make an image based back-up of your drive (using something like Acronis True Image), and then delete the recovery partition entirely.

Beat me too it again!

Basically this, if you don't access the data frequently, or windows isn't accessing the data frequently, it may or may not stay spun down.

Also ditto for the recovery DVDs.

One last thing, that adapter is not a Lenovo part, it is generic for Dell's and Lenovo's. So it may or may not work the same way. If it does, you just pop the drive in and windows will detect it. As the drive is new it will need formatting, just right-click the drive and select format, set it to NTFS. I would try and find a genuine Lenovo, it will cost more but it will be of better quality, it will work as expected, it will be under warranty, and people here will be able to better help you if something goes wrong. Also, shipping from HK can easily take well over a month, so your choice. I tend to be impatient with shipping.

Edit: One thing to add, if you want to go the Lenovo branded route with the Ultrabay adapter, you could post a WTB ad in the marketplace.

trezaei · #11 Post by **trezaei** » Mon May 23, 2011 2:16 pm

hunterman223 wrote:
One last thing, that adapter is not a Lenovo part, it is generic for Dell's and Lenovo's. So it may or may not work the same way. If it does, you just pop the drive in and windows will detect it. As the drive is new it will need formatting, just right-click the drive and select format, set it to NTFS. I would try and find a genuine Lenovo, it will cost more but it will be of better quality, it will work as expected, it will be under warranty, and people here will be able to better help you if something goes wrong. Also, shipping from HK can easily take well over a month, so your choice. I tend to be impatient with shipping.

Edit: One thing to add, if you want to go the Lenovo branded route with the Ultrabay adapter, you could post a WTB ad in the marketplace.

Good point on the non-oem part. I did see that but I figured I'll give it a go. I've had varying luck with overseas shipping lately. My thinkpad only took 3 days to get here from HK. I'll give it a week and see, for that price it's hard to argue... If it works, then great, if not then it won't have been too much of a waste.

I'll say that with the HD upgrade this is going to be an incredible laptop and an easy desktop replacement. I have it setup with two 20 inch monitors right now and I don't miss the desktop at all. In fact, without the turbo it's so quiet that I wouldn't even know it's running most of the time. I am really disappointed about the lack of USB3 support though. I just bought a USB3 external drive and it's incredibly fast on my desktop. Too bad. I don't suppose there is a way to add that support somehow ???

hunterman223 · #12 Post by **hunterman223** » Mon May 23, 2011 3:38 pm

Yep, not much if a loss if it doesn't work. Just be see to backup what you store on there. Thinkpads are not shipped with the standard Chinese air mail or what not, I can't remember who they ship with.

You can add USB3 with an expresscard adapter, I don't know much about them but it seems quite straightforward.

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Colonel O'Neill · #13 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Mon May 23, 2011 5:00 pm

ExpressCard 1.0 USB 3.0 adapters are only about half the bandwidth of a native USB 3.0 adapter.

Now if only someone could jury rig USB 3.0 through DisplayPort.

zhenya · #14 Post by **zhenya** » Mon May 23, 2011 7:15 pm

What about e-sata? Not sure what the bus speed is on that port on your machine, but there aren't many mechanical drives that are saturating even the rev. 1 spec of 1.5Gbps. Doesn't carry power like USB - but if you are using a powered drive, this is a great option.

Colonel O'Neill · #15 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Mon May 23, 2011 8:20 pm

The native eSATA/USB combo port is a powered eSATA port.

zhenya · #16 Post by **zhenya** » Mon May 23, 2011 9:06 pm

Colonel O'Neill wrote:The native eSATA/USB combo port is a powered eSATA port.

Huh. I didn't think the esata spec included power. Does that mean it can power a 2.5" drive from a single cable?

Colonel O'Neill · #17 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Mon May 23, 2011 9:11 pm

eSATA doesn't. eSATAp does.

blackomegax · #18 Post by **blackomegax** » Mon May 23, 2011 9:53 pm

Yep, it's eSATAp.

Also, the expresscard slot is gen2. whatever the hell bandwidth that implies.
There is a bios setting to fallback to gen1 spec to compatibility.

hunterman223 · #19 Post by **hunterman223** » Tue May 24, 2011 9:54 am

Even if it was just a Gen 1 expresscard it would still be 5x faster than a standard USB 2.0 port, as native USB 3.0 is 10x faster. I imagine with a Gen 2 it would be faster, but again just speculating.

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trezaei · #20 Post by **trezaei** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:57 pm

hunterman223 wrote:
One last thing, that adapter is not a Lenovo part, it is generic for Dell's and Lenovo's. So it may or may not work the same way. If it does, you just pop the drive in and windows will detect it. As the drive is new it will need formatting, just right-click the drive and select format, set it to NTFS. I would try and find a genuine Lenovo, it will cost more but it will be of better quality, it will work as expected, it will be under warranty, and people here will be able to better help you if something goes wrong. Also, shipping from HK can easily take well over a month, so your choice. I tend to be impatient with shipping.

Edit: One thing to add, if you want to go the Lenovo branded route with the Ultrabay adapter, you could post a WTB ad in the marketplace.

Well, I got this POS today and sure enough, it didn't work. But it worked out okay cause since the original post, lenovo has reduced the price to $59

So I just ordered the real thing. [censored] waste of time that was.

hunterman223 · #21 Post by **hunterman223** » Sat Jun 04, 2011 5:22 am

A banned user wrote:It is compatible and it does say so
Yes it will if the hard drive is spinning. How much it will affect your battery depends on which one you get.

compatibility was not the issue. This is no place for spam, reported.

OP: well the shipping was quick! Live and learn, I guess. Let us know how this one turns out.

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Colonel O'Neill · #22 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sat Jun 04, 2011 6:38 am

hunterman223 wrote:This is no place for spam, reported.

Office 2010 is pretty awesome though.