Thinkpads Forum

Hey Guys,
I can't wait for lenovo to get the FHD screens in stock and i'm leaving the USA in 2 weeks so i decided to get a w510 with a FHD from ebay.

It doesn't have the touchscreen, but i read that the touchscreen has a slightly visible mesh on it so i figured I'd rather have slightly better display quality than touch the screen. (i appreciate your thought on whether this is true and whether multitouch is really that beneficial)

It comes with a 320 gb 7200 hdd.
I plan to get a ssd (Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2MH080G2R5 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)) they run 215$ on newegg and put the 320gb in a 12.5mm ultra bay SATA adapter (available on ebay). Do a system backup and have the original thinkpad configuration win win 7 pro 64 bit on the ssd and the 320gb for storage.
Is there any reason this would not work?

Finally since the ebay w510's never have the color calibrator i figured i'll just use the external one i have (EyeOne X-Rite). After all it's not like I have to run it every week so this should be a no quality loss substitute right ?

Also i decided not to upgrade the 4gb of 1066 ram to 4gb of 1333 (i'd rather get the ssd) because I think there would not be a huge difference also I would not get more ram (or would 6gb be a lot better for lightroom photoshop web dev and gaming?)

Getting a similar config from lenovo with touchscreen, color calibrator and 128gb ssd would cost me like $2200 and here i get it for $1900.

Thanks so much for your time and opinions and advice - this really means a lot to me since I can't afford to make a mistake due to time and money constraints.

Regards,
Kris

1) Try to buy from a retail store rather than eBay.
2) The SSD plan will work. That is what most people opt for and do.

just buy from ebay - the two sellers who have W510 FHD - have lots of ebay references. But one of them is offering 3 year depot warranty - vs 1 year - I would go for that.

And as a tablet user (X40/41/61) - i would say - stay away from touch screen at least until they find a way to stop fingerprints on your screen. Else you will have to carry a microfiber cloth with you at all times.

SSD - fine choice -and adaptor will work fine.

Memory - I would also go with 1066 since 1333 is to expensive at the moment.

Color sensor - well I would prefer one with color sensor. I have an EyeOne Pro - but find that often i forget to use it on my W700 at home since it is running on external screens. Then it is nice to have the built in sensor when you go out.

Alternatively if you want to wait - setup an account with myus.com - they will ship and freight forward to you from any US retailer/ebay etc. If you have and can maintain a US credit card - it is even better - then just list myus.com address with your credit card provider as a vacation home. Then even Lenovo ships to your forwarding address.

I have a myus account -and am happy with the service. I live in the middle east - and unfortunately Lenovo here - does NOT take in the high-end models. The so far biggest Thinkpad available here is the W510 with HD screen (yes not even HD+) - no W70x models at all - and usually it is both cheaper and quicker to buy from ebay -> via myus -> to my home in Abu Dhabi. Usually I get my things within 10 days of ordering.

/kasper

Thanks so much for your replies!
I got one from ebay (the one with the 3 year warranty), they didn't have the color calibration but then again none on ebay had.

Thanks for the tip with the forwarding address - I'll use a friends address for now but in the future will probably switch. I got the fhd without touchscreen (not that I had a choice) and am happy that I wont have to clean it all the time. I decided not to upgrade ram and will stick with 2x2gb @ 1066 and upgrade later.


Thanks again and the only problem so far is that the ssd adapters are 46$ in the us and 20$ but sent from china so they wont get here on time .

regards,
Kris

I use Acronis DriveImage to transfer.

First thing I do whenever I get a new notebook

1. Take a complete image BEFORE booting the new computer with Acronis (Acronis makes a boot CD you can use) - you can backup to network or USB drive
2. Boot the pc and install the important applications and activate them and windows. Then I do another Acronis backup.
3. Then I add the notebook to my WHS (Windows Home Server) - and does a FULL backup there - and mark it as "Do Not Delete" in WHS. So now I have 3 backups/restore posibilities. Homeserver restore has saved my b** at least once...

I use an Intel 160GB gen 1 drive in my W700ds - and works fine with my X60 drive rubber and case In 2nd slot (W700 has two hd slots) - I have the original 320GB drive.

Don't forget to cut/burn a copy of the Lenovo recovery disks when you first get your new laptop in.

I haven't tried making a second copy from the dup'd original/virgin hard drive, but would imagine this is possible.

Usually, you're limited to cutting one copy from the hard drive; after that, you have to go to Lenovo
and coerce/convince them to send you a copy.

The day my new 510 arrived I did the recovery disk very first. After that I removed the factory drive and put in my 256gb SSD Patriot, did the restore with the disks and have not looked back.

I love this beast of a machine and am SO GLAD I did not get the W700!

Greg Gebhardt wrote: my 256gb SSD Patriot, did the restore with the disks and have not looked back.

I love this beast of a machine and am SO GLAD I did not get the W700!

Hi
Can you publish some benches of your Patriot SSD ?
How high is the W510 palmrest ?
Thanks a lot

What's the warranty situation if you don't have the original drive inside, assuming warranty fix is for something other than the drive? With the original drive, do you need to "keep it around" if you ever need warranty service for anything?

Hard drive's are considered user upgradeable. Replacing it won't void your warranty, but Lenovo won't warranty the drive either. That will come from the drive manufacturer. Most drives have a three year warranty.

FredGarvin wrote:Hard drive's are considered user upgradeable.

If you are claiming Lenovo officially considers hard drives user upgradable, I'd to see documentation.

I have a T43 that will not work with anything except an OEM Lenovo drive. Although users are allowed to service the drive (remove and replace it) they "expect" us to use factory parts. There is a whole slew of Thinkpads out there that will not work with aftermarket drives. Seems like they may have scrapped the idea of white listing drives, but I wouldn't count on it unless you have the docs to back it up.

It clearly states in the Hardware Maintenance Manual for the T510 that the hard drive is considered a CRU, customer replaceable unit. Page 149 if you care to look. It's the same for my X200, page 175 in the HMM.

The T43 works fine with any PATA drive if you don't mind the 2010 error when booting. The T43 and R52 are a special case. Lenovo employed a SATA to PATA bridge in order to use PATA drives in those machines. You're right in that a T43 or R52 will throw up the 2010 error if you're using a drive without the Lenovo firmware, but the machines will work normally after you ESC out of the error message. I believe there's a BIOS update which still throws up the error message, but won't beep and continues on after hanging a second or two. No other Thinkpads are effected by the error.

Tableteer wrote:What's the warranty situation if you don't have the original drive inside, assuming warranty fix is for something other than the drive? With the original drive, do you need to "keep it around" if you ever need warranty service for anything?

Why on earth would you send the drive in if it's not part of the problem?

Becaused Lenovo's service depot is expecting the system to be exactly the way it was originally shipped. I'm not talking about sending in the original Lenovo drive by itself. For some naive reason, I though the orginal drive had to be inserted back into the system otherwise the warranty would be void on the whole thing. But as it was clarified to me here, Lenovo doesn't care about a new drive, or RAM I suppose for that matter, as long as the problem is not with user upgraded components which they justifiably will not service. (You'd need to take that to the component manufacturer or back to the retailer.) Lenovo will service everything else if there is a problem as I now understand assuming the problem is not related to user upgraded components in which case I don't know what they would do if it was discovered that as the case.

Never send anything to EasyServ that isn't part of the problem.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

kaz911 wrote:I use Acronis DriveImage to transfer.

First thing I do whenever I get a new notebook

1. Take a complete image BEFORE booting the new computer with Acronis (Acronis makes a boot CD you can use) - you can backup to network or USB drive

...

I do the exact same thing! I boot to Acronis and use a USB drive to store the image. I have changed out hard drives for size and rpm upgrades and never experienced an issue when using the Acronis images on new drives.

I like your second backup idea as well ... I suppose that since I have responsive broadband I don't do this extra step, but good idea as the patches and updates become larger and installation longer. I try not to keep anything on my primary drive that is a necessity to me w/o backing it up. For this I use SmartSync Pro and simply copy my Office files, etc., in their native format. I use the Ultrabay for a secondary drive for my own application programs, music, and even backups of files from C: (I will normally have 2-500Gb drives @ 7200rpm) . I have never cared much for "real" backup programs, such as what you referred to or Lenovo's backup program - or even Acronis, with the exception of using it to create and restore the initial images as noted above. I like to have immediate access to my files rather than relying on recovery methods to restore - this is what I like about SmartSync Pro (and that it is simple and cheap)!