Thinkpad T430 as a laptop for mobile VMWare use.

[thinkpadin]

Hi,

I am planning to buy a T430 with 8 GB RAM for the following purpose:

1) Install VMWare Workstation (Atleast two instances) In these, I will install ESX and inside that some VMware Guest OS.

I know that a desktop would be most suitable, but I am mostly on a move and hence need a portable/mobile VMware environment.

2) Read PDF Docs, Perl Scripting, trying out various Linux Flavours.

Will T430 be a good choice for this?

I have come across complaints about the Fan Noise issue..but from what I see as of now, the Fan Noise/Fan running at full speed seems to happen only if a GPU (Optimus) is present. I am planning to buy one without a GPU.

Are there any chances that the Fan Issue will come up in the VMWare setup mentioned above?

Kindly let me know.

If I have posted this in the wrong forum, kindly pardon me and move the thread.

[wolfman]

Welcome to the forum.

I can't speak to the T430, but I can to the T420 (see my configuration in my signature). I use this machine for doing a lot of work in VMs (I use VirtualBox, but there should be no difference with VMWare). Virtualization tends to be RAM heavy, so I'd recommend just getting 16gb of RAM from the start as it's cheap now (purchased separately from the machine via a site like http://www.newegg.com and install yourself will save you a lot of money).

I run Ubuntu linux as the host OS and run mostly Ubuntu server VMs as the guest OS, but I also have a Windows 7 guest, and a couple other Linux guest VMs (CentOS, Scientific linux, etc).

I have the T420 with integrated Intel graphics only and do not have any issues with fan noise (understand the T430 may be different, but just saying) - I tend to prefer getting machines without discrete graphics as my use cases do not need them.

I will typically run some pretty heavy weight VMs in terms of their configuration, for example one scenario I run is an Ubuntu Server VM with 3gb of RAM allocated running an enterprise database server, a second Ubuntu Server VM running a deployment manager with 2gb of RAM allocated and a third Ubuntu Server VM running popular Business Process Management server and web server with 6gb of RAM allocated. Of course then I have development client IDE and browser running on the host OS. The T420 handles this nicely, so the T430 should be able to do this just as well as it's slightly faster clock for clock.

I run an SSD for my host OS (Intel 520 series) and a 750gb, 7200 RPM drive as my VM storage drive. This drive is installed in an ultrabay second hard disk drive adapter caddy (I bought mine from newmodeUS - they advertise at the top of the page - I have no affiliation with them). This works nicely for this use case as I mount the 7200 RPM drive when I want to use VMs, otherwise, I do not mount it.

I prefer the form factor of the T4* series machines. That said, I have a W520 from work with a 2.5 gigahertz quad core processor and that machine can take up to 32gb of RAM. It's a beast. If you want raw horse power, are willing to accept the larger size, heavier weight (don't forget 170 watt power adapter which weighs about 1.2 or 1.4 pounds itself) you may wish to consider the W series...

Hope that helps...

[thinkpadin]

Hi Wolfman,

Thank you very much for such adetailed answer. It really helps.

The W series is not yet available in India and I think will be more expensive than the T Series, hence my choice of the T430.

16GB sounds better.

Glad to hear that the T420 you have doesnt make the fan noise. A lot of posts on Lenovo support site made me think that its a common problem, but doesnt seem to be so.

Thank you very mcuh once again.