i5-3210M vs i5-3320M

[shooteagle]

the price difference is $50. The one game i probably play is diablo 3 otherwise mainly internet, MS word, MS excel, Quicken, some home video playing. Is this worth it/

[ZaZ]

I would say no.

[Cigarguy]

Slight speed bump. For games I'd look into upgrading the GPU vs CPU and/or an aftermarket SSD.

[barrywohl]

How do you "upgrade" the GPU on an X201T or an X230T?

[Cigarguy]

If buying new then I'd "look" into being able to get a unit with an upgraded GPU. If not then I'm sure Lenovo can do it.....for a fee.

[wolfman]

Unless I'm mistaken, the integrated Intel HD 4000 is the only video option available for the X230 / X230T, so if you need more juice you'd need to look into external options.

[MagicFab]

When I compared all the features based on the Intel specs site, the main difference I noticed was the 3210M does not support Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)

This is important for fast operation of virtual machines when using VirtualBox or KVM (I use GNU/Linux).

Unless you plan on using that I doubt the $ is worth it. To me it was just another checklist item not to forget.

[Lockheed]

When I compared all the features based on the Intel specs site, the main difference I noticed was the 3210M does not support Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)

This is important for fast operation of virtual machines when using VirtualBox or KVM (I use GNU/Linux).

Except it appears that neither VBox nor VMware support that as of yet.

[MagicFab]

I stand corrected.

I don't use VMware and I don't plan to use VB on this system, so yes, this matters only if you're going to use KVM for now. When and if VB (or VMWare) support this, it may be important to you. Here is the bug report for VB, BTW:
https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/5252

[soleblaze]

VT-d allows you to pass hardware through to a VM. VMware server products support it, but their workstation and player do not. However, virtual box on linux has supported it for awhile. I was using it to connect my WiFi card directly to a VM back in February of this year. I have since switched to KVM.

http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.h ... assthrough