NEW W520 or W701DS --which one would you take?

[chazz]

I do alot of amateur videos stuff and my beloved T60p is showing its age..
Since the W701 is no longer available ...other than ebay,
and the price is comparable to a top spec w520
so which one would be better.
Iam not sure but can the W520 take 2 Hard Drives? i need 2 HD for Video stuffs..

here are a sample spec..

W520 (NEW!)
Intel core i7 2920XM
Nvidia Quadro 2000M (2 gb)
15inch FDD screen

VS.

W701DS (used )
Intel i7-920XM Extreme Edition CPU
nVidia Quadro FX2800M
17 inch Dual screen

are there any big difference on these two machines? other than size?
any feeback is appreciated.
Thanks.

[Brad]

The newer ThinkPads especially the W520 will cut your video encoding times substantially. I don't have real numbers to compare though from what I have read you are looking at maybe half the time with the
W520 compared to even the W701 you suggest.

The W701ds weighs almost half again as much as the W520 so if you travel much you will notice the difference.

I haven't spent much time with a W70x LCD. I have reluctantly switched my main ThinkPad from a Flexview T60p to a W5x0 with the FHD LCD's and I was happily surprised how nice they are. Of course what is not to like about the speed of the new W series.

The W520 can have a mSATA SSD drive in the WWAN slot though as of now they are limited in capacity. Then you can have a storage drive in the main bay. You could also have another drive using a second hard drive adapter in the optical drive bay. So the W520 can have three drives. So can the W701ds.

If you are going to keep the new ThinkPad as long as you have your T60p then I would recommend the newer W520 with longer warranty. Buy it with the standard warranty then you can always upgrade.

Brad

[underclocker]

Head says W520. Heart says W701DS!

[chazz]

Underclocker you are so right...

Thanks Brad for your advice, Iam wondering since u have both machines...Do u think its worth it to upgrade the T60p to a C2D T7600 and add a new Seagate Momentus XT drive to improve on its performance..(I don't want to spend additional $ on buying a SSD and a new Win7 for just one upgrade) have u try to upgrade your T60p? if so has it improve its performance Also can u elaborate on the W520 screen Vs T60P screen, other than the viewing angle, how about the contrast,brightness,colors and sharpness of the FHD screens vs good old flexview?Thanks very much

[ZaZ]

Here's a vote for the T7600 being a waste. A T7600 will give a very small performance increase, hardly noticeable. I guess if you plan to use the T60 for a while longer, then perhaps the W7 upgrade might be worth consideration. A W520 with a quad core will run circles around a T60p performance wise, but I'd ask why the W520 with the $750 i7-2920XM upgrade? I mean unless you've got a trust fund or something. I suspect the base i7-2720QM would be near as good for a lot less. It's only 300mhz slower. Unless you need the GPU, the T520 can have a quad too for a lot less cash.

[AMATX]

I've been looking at this very comparison, as I need more horsepower than what's in my W700.

A little poking around has me here:

* Unless you need something specific to the W701, the W520 is the way to go. Way more processor power, especially on the 2820/2920 chips. Way more memory, with four vs. two slots available. Smaller form factor/screen, which may or may not matter to you. Faster SATA, with the new drives coming out.

* That said, the W701 has more/better hard drive options, as there are TWO primary drive slots + ultrabay = three drives in slots that deliver. It also has much better expandability, as there's two external slots that can be configured to both have ExpressCard slots, or one ExpressCard + other. The video ports on the back are DP and FULL DVI-D, unlike the W520, which, if I understand correctly, isn't quite as good(not for sure about all of the details on this one). Bigger screen, with mucho brighter display, if that matters.

If monitor support matters to you, consider ViDock into the Expresscard port, with a 4/6/8 port video card in it.

Hard drives? Not such a big deal anymore, with improved SATA, USB 3.0 for external drives, and the msata gizmo.

Worth remembering that the W70x line was developed and marketed towards photographer types and power users. Guess either they all have 'em now, or there wasn't enough of a market to carry the line forward.

Answer becomes pretty obvious, given the above. W520, unless there's some compelling reason to go with the W701.

[Brad]

I used an upgraded T60p with a T7600 and SSD for several years. Was happy with those upgrades. Spend on the SSD is my recommendation. That was the largest performace upgrade that I noticed.

Finally looking for something faster I tried a W510 then a W520. In my opinion while not a better display both FHD displays are worthy replacements for the Flexview LCD's. I prefer the W510 FHD slightly for better color reproduction. When I fire up my T60p regularly to run an XP legacy program I am always reminded of how nice the Flexview LCD's are.

Brad