Should I upgrade now or next year?

[thinkpadgeek91]

What should I do? My T410 is just over a year old and is still fast but I want an i7 for school and work and really need a high res 15" screen.Should I get the T520 or wait for the Ivy bridge T530? My T410 is nice and all but I'm starting to feel the lack of speed with my Core i3 first gen.
Should I wait or not?

[Neil]

Welcome to the forum! If you need to upgrade, then upgrade. Now is as good a time as any, if there is something available that will meet your current needs. If you wait for the next gen technology, there will always be something better on the horizon, and you will always be waiting.

That said, if there is nothing available now that will meet your needs, then by all means wait until there is something available that will.

[ZaZ]

My T410 is nice and all but I'm starting to feel the lack of speed with my Core i3 first gen.

How so?

[jayton4]

deja vu... Seems like I was just reading this post somewhere else. How many forums have you posted this to in all?

Wait until the T530 comes out and then get the T520 at half price.

According to Windows Experience Index, which is a good "rule of thumb" benchmark, there is not much difference between the 1st gen i3/i5 and the sandy bridge i3/i5, as far as processor scores. The intel graphics 3000HD is an improvement.

It is too early to say whether or not Ivy Bridge will be worth the upgrade.

If you are having lack of speed issues, perhaps refreshing it with a clean install of Windows and/or a solid state drive would be a better move.

[CanadianDude]

Get the T520 now. With the Christmas / Boxing week sales I'd say it's a good time to buy a T520. I got my T520 a couple weeks ago, fully loaded with a Core i7 2760qm, 8gb ram, Nvidia graphics and all - and it's a great computer. However, coming from a Mac I think that all Thinkpads are bargains, even at regular price. I'm not used to buying this much power for such a low price!

I suggest you put in an SSD and see how that works. It will be faster but if you need more CPU power the current generation CPUs are fast enough.

[thinkpadgeek91]

deja vu... Seems like I was just reading this post somewhere else. How many forums have you posted this to in all?

Wait until the T530 comes out and then get the T520 at half price.

According to Windows Experience Index, which is a good "rule of thumb" benchmark, there is not much difference between the 1st gen i3/i5 and the sandy bridge i3/i5, as far as processor scores. The intel graphics 3000HD is an improvement.

It is too early to say whether or not Ivy Bridge will be worth the upgrade.

If you are having lack of speed issues, perhaps refreshing it with a clean install of Windows and/or a solid state drive would be a better move.

Just on lenovo forums. Wanted different opinions. I'll probably just wait. This is my first new computer I've ever been the first owner of. Every Mac I've ever owned were all previously owned. So I know this machine should take another year no problem.

[thinkpadgeek91]

How so?[/quote]

Idk, just feels sluggish when I'm using virtual machines and web browsing and watching movies. Just more cores I think would be good.

[jayton4]

As mentioned on the 1x8GB thread, having more memory will greatly improve performance with Virtual Machines. The sandy bridge based laptops will support up to 16GB of RAM, with the W520's handling up to 32GB.

You should at least go ahead and max yours out at 8GB RAM. The 4GB sticks are down to just $20 now, with the fancy stuff running $25: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=4153

Does your model have the Nvidia graphics or Intel graphics only? On my T410, I noticed a difference in video performance when I upgraded to the 8GB RAM when only using Intel graphics. Intel graphics will dynamically allocate the shared memory up to 1.7GB as needed, and you need to have plenty of system memory in order for that much to be available.

I am very interested to see how the new Ivy Bridge will be on battery life with these new 3D tri-gate resistors or whatever the heck it is they are talking about.

[thinkpadgeek91]

As mentioned on the 1x8GB thread, having more memory will greatly improve performance with Virtual Machines. The sandy bridge based laptops will support up to 16GB of RAM, with the W520's handling up to 32GB.

You should at least go ahead and max yours out at 8GB RAM. The 4GB sticks are down to just $20 now, with the fancy stuff running $25: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=4153

Does your model have the Nvidia graphics or Intel graphics only? On my T410, I noticed a difference in video performance when I upgraded to the 8GB RAM when only using Intel graphics. Intel graphics will dynamically allocate the shared memory up to 1.7GB as needed, and you need to have plenty of system memory in order for that much to be available.

I am very interested to see how the new Ivy Bridge will be on battery life with these new 3D tri-gate resistors or whatever the heck it is they are talking about.

My T410 just had Intel HD graphics.

[Neil]

Upgrading to T530 Core i5 Ivy Bridge next year.

By "next year" do you now mean this year? Or 2013?

[ZaZ]

Idk, just feels sluggish when I'm using virtual machines and web browsing and watching movies. Just more cores I think would be good.

Sluggishness is usually more related to the hard drive speed than the number of cores. Perhaps a SSD or something like the Momentus XT might might be worth a look.

[indicium]

Jayton4 is right, add another 4GB and you will see some improvement when running virtual machines with Intel graphics.
Unless you need alot more memory immediately and are running virtual servers or development clients and/or nested virtual machines then 8GB will be fine until Ivy Bridge comes out.

[thinkpadgeek91]

I think another 4GB stick and an SSD should breathe some life into it.I guess what my next paycheck is going too.