Thinkpads Forum

Hi Folks,

I currently use a W510 and want to know what you think of upgrading to the 530. I do intensive calculation, but no gaming or AutoCAD. My major concerns are speed (of calculations, code execution).

Any comments would be most welcome.

SAD

Anything processor intensive, Ivy Bridge should offer a pretty good bump performance wise, but you'll lose the tradition keyboard. The T530 might be worth a look if you don't need the GPU.

I grabbed a W520 before they are gone to get the "normal" ThinkPad keyboard, and also got the 2960XM processor. From what I understand, there is no a huge difference in performance from the W530 and W520. If the keyboard change and lack of modem doesn't bother you, the W530 should be a good machine. I just can't deal with the keyboard, and also use the modem for out-of-band administration for network devices.

ZaZ wrote:Anything processor intensive, Ivy Bridge should offer a pretty good bump performance wise, but you'll lose the tradition keyboard. The T530 might be worth a look if you don't need the GPU.

Really? The biggest increases I see are 20% if I compare the W520 with 2820QM from this review:
http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Lenov ... 417.0.html

To the W530 with 3820QM from this review:
http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Lenov ... 861.0.html

And that is with a clockspeed increase from 2.3 GHz to 2.7 GHz; a 17.4% increase

The difference between the more typical 2760QM and 3720QM (the ones I see on most W520's and W530's respectively) is only a bump from 2.4 GHz to 2.6 GHz; 8.3%

But that was to be expected. The change from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge is mostly just a die-shrink.