Thinkpads Forum

I just spent the last few days tracking down, high and low for a specific 135W Ultra Slim Power Supply, and it was such a mission. I ended up buying a Cooler Master Ultra Slim USNA 95, hoping that it would power up my W510 without the throttling issue. I thought I had it sussed, but alas, no joy. What I should have done, in hindsight, was sort out the specs...

The specs on the current stock PSU for Thinkpad W510 is

135W / 20V / 6.5A (this turns out to be an important number)

So this is an unofficial, frustrated W510 Owners' petition for a slimmer power supply (PLEASE MAKE ONE!)

Before anyone starts to say it costs a lot, check this out:
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/38253 ... ersal.html

Yes. It's a 150W Ultra Slim Adapter for laptop usage. Why didn't I get this? It's the rating, it says 20V/4A rather than the 6.5A, so I figured it won't work on W510, which is so specific on the power rating.

Cheers!

welcome to the forum!

please keep in mind that the current power supply was made as small as possible while still being able to power the system under heavy load.   this is a workstation, after all, and intended to be used as such.

if you don't need full CPU power when traveling then the 95W adapter works with the system perfectly fine.   given that most people don't use full power all the time anyway, this is a viable option.

Yep. But I do want to paint while I'm travelling, and that uses a lot of processing power. -_-.... Throttling is what I don't want while I'm travelling, but the brick is just so heavy.

Well basic physics tells us that P=U*I, so 20V * 4A = 80W. How come they sell it as 150W...

You think it's bad now - look at the new W520 and it's 170W supply. That thing is enormous and weighs in at 1.8lbs. On my. I keep having this feeling that we're going backwards.

valentic wrote:You think it's bad now - look at the new W520 and it's 170W supply. That thing is enormous and weighs in at 1.8lbs. On my. I keep having this feeling that we're going backwards.

Better hit the gym.

Lesliechih wrote:Yep. But I do want to paint while I'm travelling, and that uses a lot of processing power. -_-.... Throttling is what I don't want while I'm travelling, but the brick is just so heavy.

i'm both surprised and intrigued that your painting software uses so much CPU.   what software do you use?   does it max out all four/eight processor threads when in use?

i've had no trouble with sketchbook pro 2011 or photoshop CS5 x64 on my X200T.   but, i sketch, not paint.

MyPaint and Photoshop CS2 + opening up Chrome + Blender 3D rendering are what I normally do / leave open / rendering.

It's pretty smooth when the power brick is doing its thing. I just struggle with the brick's size for one.. though I'm semi used to it now.

I recently upgraded the RAM (so cheap! 200NZD for 8 gigs) so it's now 12 Gigs of ram total.

There is something wrong with the concept here. Reading the original post, there can be no such thing as a 20V 4.5A adapter that puts out 135 watts. The physics are simple here. Watts = Volts X Amps. A power supply that puts out a potential of 20 volts and a current of 4.5 amps is a 90 watt power supply.

valentic wrote:You think it's bad now - look at the new W520 and it's 170W supply. That thing is enormous and weighs in at 1.8lbs. On my. I keep having this feeling that we're going backwards.

The 170 W AC adapter for the W520 actually weighs less than the 135 W adapter for the W510.

Volker wrote:Well basic physics tells us that P=U*I, so 20V * 4A = 80W. How come they sell it as 150W...

It does probably draw 150 W from wall socket