ThinkPad W520 Order?

[WA2SI]

Hi all,

I ordered my Lenovo W520 and, despite some really great reviews, I'm reading more than a few negative posts both here and the Lenovo forum. The reason I chose a ThinkPad is because my R51 is still soldiering on while my friends' Dells, HP's, etc. have given them problems &/or gone to laptop heaven.

This is my toy, hence I spec'd it out high-end with an i7-2820QM 8MB L3 and an SSD HDD. I have 16GB (4 x 4GB) of Kingston Hyper-X PnP 1600MHz DDR3 RAM on hand to replace the stock (Samsung?) 8GB 1333MHz. (That will go in my daughter's MacBook Pro.)

I suppose I'm looking for a little outside reassurance from some folks who are having no problems and love their W520 - smile. I had actually spec'd out a similarly priced Alienware M14x with an i7-2860QM that came with 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 for not much more... Sigh.

Thanks and best regards to all.

Bert

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[AMATX]

It's worth remembering that most users don't have exotic problems, most users don't complain on forums/board, and unless you just happen to be duplicating a config/situation in which someone else has encountered a problem, don't worry about it. If most users WERE having problems, Lenovo would be in serious trouble.

That said, the throttling/battery issue is the only thing I'm aware of that could affect a large number of users. Check it out and see if it applies to you.

I haven't delved into W520 issues much, as I don't have one; I've just read occasional posts here and elsewhere.

[YW-Slayer]

Mine just arrived, so I am in the honeymoon period, but seems to be OK so far.

I also thought about ordering an M14x for around the same price. However, the thought of pulling that out when I walk into a client's office makes me cringe. Also don't think it has an mSATA slot.

[WA2SI]

Mine just arrived, so I am in the honeymoon period, but seems to be OK so far.

I also thought about ordering an M14x for around the same price. However, the thought of pulling that out when I walk into a client's office makes me cringe. Also don't think it has an mSATA slot.

Thanks, YW-Slayer. I hadn't really given the client exposure issue much thought as this is really just my toy, however, you are quite right. Good call on the mSATA slot as well, I hadn't noticed. I chose the W520 because it's a ThinkPad and my R51 is such a well built and reliable machine.

I've gotten a few messages from some other users that they've no issues and are very happy. Now, can I drop an i7-2860QM in that socket - smile? (It does share the exact same socket as the i7-2820QM... Hmmm. )

Best Regards,

Bert

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

[davidhbrown]

I admit I had some trouble for a while... BSODs every couple of days in really unlikely places, like NTFS.sys. Ran all sorts of RAM tests overnight with no problems, started to suspect my decision to go with an after-market Intel mSATA SSD. Finally, I tried swapping the factory RAM that came in slots 0/2 with the RAM I added into slots 1/3. After a couple of weeks without problems, I swapped them back. Still no problems! I think that it must just have been an issue of the modules -- maybe even the factory RAM -- not being seated quite properly. Those slots are very stiff at first.

Anyway, I've had it for nearly half a year now and after that issue, it's been rock-steady, even with many sleep/wake cycles between full reboots. (With 16GB of RAM, hibernate and restore takes longer than shutting down and rebooting.) Up to 20x as fast as my T61 was on CUDA-accelerated tasks.

[YW-Slayer]

Thanks, YW-Slayer. I hadn't really given the client exposure issue much thought as this is really just my toy, however, you are quite right. Good call on the mSATA slot as well, I hadn't noticed. I chose the W520 because it's a ThinkPad and my R51 is such a well built and reliable machine.

I've gotten a few messages from some other users that they've no issues and are very happy. Now, can I drop an i7-2860QM in that socket - smile? (It does share the exact same socket as the i7-2820QM... Hmmm. )

Best Regards,

Bert

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

No problem. Actually I worded that incorrectly because in my profession, my clients come to see me, and I own all my stuff, so I have no excuse for using something which some may consider less than tasteful.

The only thing that gave me cause for concern when I pulled my W520 out of its packaging is that it is HUGE and quite heavy, even by my standards. However that is the price you pay for power, and to be fair, I am comparing it to my X301, which as we all know easily fits in a manila envelope.

Waiting for my Intel 80GB mSATA SSD to arrive. In the meantime, should have a bit of time today to install my Crucial m4 256GB SSD and update the firmware, and prepare to migrate all the stuff from my current work desktop to the W520.

Can't help you on processors swaps I'm afraid. I only do that with desktops!

[bongo]

I think you'll be happy with the W520. As an IT department, we rolled out 30 of these in July with barely any problems. They have been used heavily by our users and IT department and have proved to be as solid as any ThinkPad model I have worked with. I had no hesitation when we made a final purchase of over 100 additional W520s.

They are a little on the big side, but if you need the GPU and CPU horsepower, that's the price you pay. We use a custom-built image with basic productivity apps as well as a few TVT tools (power manager, active protection, system update).

-bongo

[WA2SI]

I think you'll be happy with the W520. As an IT department, we rolled out 30 of these in July with barely any problems. They have been used heavily by our users and IT department and have proved to be as solid as any ThinkPad model I have worked with. I had no hesitation when we made a final purchase of over 100 additional W520s.

They are a little on the big side, but if you need the GPU and CPU horsepower, that's the price you pay. We use a custom-built image with basic productivity apps as well as a few TVT tools (power manager, active protection, system update).

-bongo

Thanks Bongo,

That's great news to hear. My W520 arrived just before I went on vacation so I will be putting it through its paces upon our return. I don't mind it being a little big as it's really sort of a desktop replacement laptop that'll be stationary in my amateur radio room. (Even though it's replacing a R52 - smile.) I ended up liking the R52 so much that I just stuck with the ThinkPad brand. When my wife's fmr. employer went out of business, literally overnight, they were told to keep their equipment. I put a fresh copy of XP SP3 along with MS Office Pro 2002 and this laptop has never failed me over the past five or so years. Our Dell desktops gave us an occasional BSOD and one gave up the ghost altogether.

So that's how the ThinkPad won my heart - reliability. I hope Lenovo lives up to IBM's standards. So portability is not so much a concern. We brought my 13" MacBook Pro on vacation and it is pretty good to tote around. (It'll be officially my daughter's when we get her Q1 report card w/honor roll grades.) I'll probably use the R52 for bouncing around but if the lack of processing horsepower becomes a concern, there's always an inexpensive i5 CPU'd T420s.

I did buy 16GB of Kingston Hyper-X 1600 MHz PnP DDR3 memory for the W520 but that'll probably be the only upgrade I'l go for as she's pretty well spec'd out already. I'll run it with the installed 8GB of factory memory for awhile so I can see if there really is any difference. (Probably not except for antenna modeling applications.) I'm a little disappointed that the i7-2860QM just came out but that's the way the cookie crumbles. I'll see if anyone else goes for that upgrade and if it works out well, I have no problem swapping the CPU. Again thank you Bongo and all who responded. I really do appreciate the nice feedback. Take care and be well.

Regards,

Bert

[YW-Slayer]

I've installed the Intel mSATA SSD as well as the Crucial m4, which I updated to 0009 firmware. System restore from the DVDs to the Intel drive was very quick - around 1 hour maybe - and the machine is very, very fast. Haven't had the time to migrate fully from it at work, but will probably be able to do so the week after next. In the meantime, am very pleased with it. It even seems to make a decent fist of running GTA: San Andreas at 1440x900. Haven't tried Civilization V yet, suspect that will be a challenge. Having said that, it runs (rather painfully) on my X301 with minimal graphics, so I can see the W520 handling it on Medium settings with aplomb.

Battery life actually seems quite reasonable for such a huge machine - haven't really drained it properly but the Lenovo software estimated around 3:30 after 1/2 an hour of active work, using the default Power Source Optimised profile. Maybe it's the dual SSDs?

[evemaxime]

Glad to ear all these good news, but have to say that I'm one with troubles...

recieved my new TP 520 (fab. date 11/08) on early septembre. The notebook "freeze" on the open-session screen.
advised the call center quickly, made a lot of tests, welcomed a IBM technician and finaly a carrier who brought the PC to the repair service.

That was septembre 15th (thank you for the 3 days warranty!) and since then :

-the ladies of the hotline became like parrots (the quite nervous quality, i can swear) : "motherboard defective / no spare part / repair service will call you"
-the repair service appears to have been entrusted to a ghost company (no phone number or legal status in the directories of the country) and never call back
-the dealer just switch on "no-comment" mode

So, my only resort is to refer to the rumor and assert that "lenovo seriously failed with its quality control, let a lot of defective motherboards invade the world ans is completely unable to face the problem"

thanks for attention (and sorry for language errors; I use to speak french)

PS : a German report on the forum that its M.board just died after 3 weeks and that he loose files. Just be carefull with your backups (!)

[WA2SI]

So far, so good. I received mine back on the 17th and it's been humming right along. Speed and stability more than adequate at this point. So I'm a happy camper thus far. I have noticed that sometimes my IE9 session appears to jump back to the previous page (usually Google) on its own every now and then but that could be something in IE9... Dunno?

Regards,

Bert

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[evemaxime]

Hey Wa2si,

Can't give you a answer as I'm realy not technical (I bought the TP for my son's studies). It would be paranoiac to charge the mainboard for all problems

The point is, as far I'm concerned, that a compagny who is unable to solve a problem with a new notebook within 4 weeks and refuse to communicate proprely on its failures just shoudn't sell professional computers !

Evelyne

[WA2SI]

Hi folks,

Just a quick 2 mo. update. My i7-2820QM W520 is working wondefully with 16GB (4 x 4GB)of Kingston Hyper-X PnP 1600MHz RAM. Did it make much of a difference? Probably not. The memory benchmarks went up a little and some things do seem a tad snappier though. That could be a function of going from 8GB to 16GB though. Just thought I'd let all interested parties know. Enjoy!

Nary a hiccup or glitch. I'm also pleased that the memory purchase allowed me to max out my wife's MacBook (4GB) & my daughter's MacBook Pro (8GB) with the swapped out RAM.