Worth upgrading the T430

[DeanoVIP]

So i do some light video editing, browsing, watching media and light gaming such as wow classic, Football manager and CS:GO. My current specs are i5 3320m, 8gb ram, 480gb ssd, 1tb HD, 768p display.

Now is it worth upgrading to a T460/X260 or should I just add more ram, quad core i7, need to grab a bigger 90w charger too? Which adds up similar to second hand 460/260?

Thanks.

[olddog]

Your T430 has a rather basic screen, and this is a rather more tricky item to upgrade. So if you are doing things like video editing I would rather swap to a machine with a better screen, preferably 15", or buy an external monitor - and then upgrade the processor, etc.

The fact is that a T430 with ample RAM and an I7 is not a slow machine. But you do need a better screen, one way or another.

I started with a T430 with the 1600x900 screen. In due course, as I learnt about Thinkpads, I got hold of a nice W530 with 1920 screen. I then bought a 24" monitor, and I am happy.

[sktn77a]

The T460 will not be significantly faster than the T430. The T430 has the last of the non-U CPUs (i5-3320m). The T460 has the low power i5-6300u which is only marginally (very marginally) faster than the i5-3320m CPU, despite being 3 generations newer. Now, if you want a smaller, lighter Thinkpad with two batteries, then by all means go for it.

[Elmer Fishtwanger]

I use a T430, and a T460s w/ i5-6300u. The 60 is noticablly faster. The main thing is it cause use NVMe super fast disk (i don't have it) that might help you a lot with videos. I wouldn't upgrade the 30. I'd either use as is or sell it toward getting an upgrade. Lots of things to like about the 30 and I use it most of the time. I had a T420 and really the 30 keyboard feels the same, just looks different

[jursky]

I would go for T460/X260 if I were you.

If you're editing videos, I would say having a great screen is a must, and I don't consider 768p HD-Ready TN screen (found in T420/T430) being good for that. With T460 (and also with X260) you are getting native support for FHD IPS screens - but watch out, because if I am not mistaken, there were also TN panels made for T460/X260, so make sure to get an IPS, should you decide to go for new laptop. Note: I know there are controller boards for conversion of LVDS signal to eDP, so that you can also use FHD/WHQD screens in T420/T430, but you would have to find a good screen seller (not sending you some "compatible" model, dim panel, with dead pixels, etc.), get the controller board, wish that it will not break your screen in a long run... that maybe the most easiest option would be just going for newer laptop.

Newer CPUs (6th gen. in this case) supports also more instruction sets than the Ivy Bridge you currently have, and while I am completely noob in this (so someone else feel free to correct me), I think AVX2 (which is supported by T460/X260 but not by your current T430) has something to do with video? Like helping with video encoding/decoding. Maybe.

And also from my personal experience: I have a W530 with quad core i7-3840QM and at work I used to have few years ago a T460s with i5-6200u, and the i5-6200u was much better than i7-3840QM (in my honest opinion). i7 in W530 was able to compete (was on par, at least when it came to code compilation in Android Studio) with 6200u, but it made so much noise and generated so much heat (yes, the machine was repasted recently - at the time) that I just liked T460s much more. It was also smaller and lighter, what was a nice bonus.