Thinkpads Forum

After lots of reading online and seeking advice, I have ordered a T520 with a quad-core i7-2630QM and NVidia Quadro NVS 4200M Optimus, along with SSD and 8GB ram. The alternative I was considering, at the same price, was a dual-core i7-2620M with Intel gpu only. Now several people online have suggested that perhaps the quad might not be so good for a quiet business machine! Should I go the other way? My present W500 with 35watt TDP T9400 cpu, ATI Mobility FireGL V5700 and SSD runs mostly silently, which I really like. Maybe I should phone Lenovo and ask if I could change the cpu and the gpu? I want a machine as quiet but better than my W500, and i like the concept of 4 cores, as well as again having the flexibility of switchable gpu's as in my present system. I am depending on both the quad and dual i7's being similarly cool and efficient when doing things like web browsing and office applications, despite the quad having a higher TDP. Would that be so? Or is there a huge difference between the 2 chips even in close-to-idle computing? Perhaps someone could bring some clarity to the two options?

Giday ;
could have saved ya ,,,, some DoH !
I would have left out the 8GB men ( as you can get cheaper from non Lenovo) ; even via 'puter store in toorak = 95$ Aust for 2x4GB sticks ! Syd is a bit cheaper !

yeah i7Qm = very nice ! and W series = would be a bit 'quiter' but then T Series shouldnt be any noiser than your current W500. Optima is way to go if ya a Gamer!

joy ya TP - Bonza mate