Buying advice: T520 vs T520i?

[sysiphus]

Hi all,

Haven't been around these parts for a while (since I had to sell my T60p), but I'm back...and about to buy a new toy, er, tool.

I'm planning on picking up a T520 with the FHD screen and HD3000 graphics, with the base i5 processor, Bluetooth, base Intel WiFi, and video camera. I'm quite resolved to get the FHD (after seeing a buddy's T520 with it, and refusing to have less vertical pixels than my SXGA+ T60s did), and the Intel graphics is my preference anyways--less heat, better battery life, and easier Linux drivers.

In short, I can't see a good reason to pay extra to get one that says T520 instead of T520i--is there anything internal/unseen/unknown by me that should warn me off? I know some of the older "i" models had limited features, but I can't find any here.

Any help would be much appreciated--and preferably before the sale ends on Wednesday

Thanks!

(The machine will be used for coding and basic office/multimedia use)

[chairsky]

i3-2310m should be fine, and it runs extremely cool. i5 keeps ineffecient and unnecessary turbo boost, which makes the laptop much hotter (why I say "much" here is because i3 is so cool )

[Q-Ball]

The only part that is physically different on a T520i vs a T520 is that the nameplate says "T520i" instead of "T520".

Actually, if you can afford it, grab an SSD for the system. That will do much more than a better processor will (the system will be much more responsive than an i7-2720QM + 7200RPM HDD).

If you must have the 320GB of space, I'd pick up an mSATA SSD, like the Intel 310 (there are other, better ones out there as well but I can't remember their names).

If you can make do with 120 GB, I'd advise you to replace the main drive with a SATA III drive- good ones to look at are the OCZ Solid/Agility 3's, Corsair Force 3's, or the Intel 510.

You'll probably find the 30-seconds-to-work-ready time useful considering your usage scenario for the machine.


Just be aware of how SSDs can fail- the drive just disappears from the BIOS never to be seen again- they're known to fail silently like that since they have no moving parts.

[ssd_thinkpad]

i5 starting from i2520 helps you with AES encryption and virtualization, and it can turbo boost (which makes your notebook hot and you can turn it off in windows). If you don't need this, get definitely a i3. It is the same cpu, without boost the only speed difference is the cpu clock.

[ThinkRob]

The Core i3 has hardware virtualization support as well.

[sysiphus]

Thanks for the replies, all!

My T520i with i5/FHD/320GB HDD/2x2 Intel WiFi is due to arrive tomorrow

The SSD was tempting, but the idea of sudden total unrecoverable failure scares me--not to mention the price premium. I'll be dropping in an additional 4GB of RAM next to the stock 2GB chip (their 80USD upgrade to 4GB seemed unreasonable...)

Glad to hear the 520i is the same as the 520, save the nameplate...I'm happy to pay less for essentially the same machine.

Can't wait for the big brown delivery truck tomorrow!

[ThinkRob]

The SSD was tempting, but the idea of sudden total unrecoverable failure scares me

Oh dear. I shouldn't tell you what I've had happen with traditional hard drives then...

[sysiphus]

Oh dear. I shouldn't tell you what I've had happen with traditional hard drives then...

Hahahaha.

Anyways, got the machine today, and it's fantastic! Cool, quiet, fast, and the FHD screen is great--although anything over setting 11/15 is far too bright.

My only complaint is that Lenovo preloaded Norton and Office 2010...seems like more of a big-box retailer move than what I'm used to from a ThinkPad. Oh well, easy to get rid of them.

One question--the Lenovo Access Connections program doesn't seem to be loaded by default...is there some good reason for this? I rather liked it... (stock preload of Win7 Home Premium)

Oh, and the system is labeled T520, even though I ordered a T520i--wonder if the "i" designation is only for the i3 models?

[craigmontHunter]

Congrats on your T520 - that sounds like a very nice system.

Yes, the "i" is only for i3 versions. Lenovo/IBM have always had preloaded antivirus (My T41 had norton preinstalled) - office 2010/2007 are more recent, esentially since they came out, since there was no trial version of office 2003. Either way, they are a lot better than the HP/DELL consumer preloads, on which the desktop is almost entirely covered in useless shortcuts.