Thinkpads Forum

So I'm thinking about buying a Lenovo Thinkpad 540p and was wondering if anyone had any advice. The specs look pretty good for the price and with the Intel Core i5-4300M CPU it has all the virtualisation features I'd want for my usage.

I've never owned a proper PC laptop let alone a Lenovo so I don't really know what to expect. Is the build quality good? I need it to last 4 years as I'm going through University doing a Computer Science degree.

Any advice at all would be great .

I am in CS too! Tx40 series seem to be a mixed bag. I would recommend you to find one at a brick and mortar store to try out for yourself. Some say T540/T440 machines have build quality issues vs the previous generations, others say the opposite. Since you haven't used a previous thinkpad with a 7 row keyboard, a T530 or W530 should suit your needs well (proven track record). In fact, anything with an i7 or even upper end core 2 duos (excluding games and heavy graphics/computation work) should be plenty for today's needs, including most computer science classes (90% just editing code).

brchan wrote:I am in CS too! Tx40 series seem to be a mixed bag. I would recommend you to find one at a brick and mortar store to try out for yourself. Some say T540/T440 machines have build quality issues vs the previous generations, others say the opposite. Since you haven't used a previous thinkpad with a 7 row keyboard, a T530 or W530 should suit your needs well (proven track record). In fact, anything with an i7 or even upper end core 2 duos (excluding games and heavy graphics/computation work) should be plenty for today's needs, including most computer science classes (90% just editing code).

Thanks for the reply. I'll see if I can manage to make it to a shop to see one.

The more I think about it though the more I'd like one. The specs are good for the price and the machine looks reasonable in the photos I have seen. It's not pretty but not bad in a rugged sort of way.

The only thing that requires more from the specs that I'll be doing is running virtual machines on it. I do all of my programming in Linux so I'll need to run that in VMWare Workstation 10. Normally I have a couple on the go at the same time so I'll probably upgrade the RAM to 16GBs so I don't run out.

I have a W530 with a 3720qm and 24GB ram. Needless to say, it is more than capable of running 4+ VMs at the same time . You could also use the extra savings to get a better ssd, upgrade ram, and so on. If you must buy new, there are also hp elitebook and dell precision workstations that have the specs you are looking for, and have arguably better support and durability than the new line of Thinkpads.

brchan wrote:...and have arguably better ... and durability than the new line of Thinkpads.

I guess you could argue about that statment. There is no way to say the are more durable, they are heavier in fact - two things one should not mix up.

Carbon is a lighter material than Aluminium or Magnesium - but it is even more durable.

There's no IPS option on the T530 or W530, which is worth consideration.