Plan to buy a T530 - what to choose

[bodi000]

Hi everyone,

I decided to buy a new laptop for my home office. I mainly do development with eclipse (php, python, android) and graphic design with Adobe Ps, In, Illustrator (or corresponding os). I mainly use ubuntu, but I still need windows for Office, Adobe. Now and then I do video editing. I do not do gaming. Of course I watch films now and then, but this is not really a decision maker, as I have a big screen with my desktop.

As I am quite familiar with TPs, and fond of, I am looking into buying a T530.

The budget is an issue, so the following question are to be read as "is it worth paying the price for..."

1. FullHD (1920/1080) vs HD+ (1600/900)
2. i7 vs i5 (which model could bring some sensible performance improvement?)
3. is the 32GB of ram (on W530 - which comes with a senible price difference) needed?

I now run on a Toshiba L40 Core duo/2Gb and its really not enough, as tasks can take quite some time to complete...

I might have some other details to settle, but these are the main questions.


Thank you for any insights!
B

[wolfman]

Hello,

I use the T420 in my signature as my primary machine and do development on this machine with eclipse based tooling on Ubuntu 12.04. I also use a number of virtual machines (Ubuntu server, CentOS and a Windows 7 VM). I'd think for your use case, you're likely able to save your cash by going with the Core i5-3360M over the Core i7-3520M - it's not worth the extra $150 or so. You'd be better off, in my opinion, putting that $150 towards an SSD instead. If you wanted to go Core i7 on the T530, I'd lean towards a quad core i7 instead of the top end dual core. The quad core would help with the video editing, but you'll likely be fine with the dual core for the development tasks mentioned.

Regarding the display, I use my machine in a dock 95% of the time with the lid closed. The dock is attached to a 24 inch HP ZR24W (1920x1200) S-IPS display. In my case, the 1600x900 internal display works fine for when I actually use it. If you use the laptop display a lot, I'd go for the 1920x1080 display as it is quite nice (I have a W520 with the 1920x1080 display from work).

Regarding the RAM, the reason to consider the 32gb of RAM capability would be if you need to run RAM heavy VMs (I was unclear from your post if you are considering a dual boot scenario or running the Windows applications in a VM under an Ubuntu host OS). In my case, I have a use case where I run the following: VM1 with 3gb of RAM allocated, VM2 with 2gb of RAM allocated and VM3 with 6gb of RAM allocated - and I then run my IDE on the host, which has the remainder of the 16gb. Bottom line is 16gb will likely prove to be enough, but the W530 would be the machine to consider if you need 32gb of RAM soon (it has 4 RAM sockets).

Hope that helps...

[bodi000]

Thank you for your quick replay!

I usually say that it's not worth buying the latest, top configurations, as there is a price premium for that... Now, I plan to keep this pc for a few years, so I think i7 still is a better choice. As where I live (Switzerland) the offer is quite highly priced, I really want to make a good choice

I am currently looking into 2429-6FG vs. 2429-6HG
i7 3630QM
HM76 vs HM77 chipset
HD+(1600) vs FullHD (1920)
4GB RAM vs 8GB (max 16GB for both)
500GB vs 180GB SSD
nVidia NVS5400 + intel HD 4000
6cells vs 9 cells battery
the rest is more or less the same for both (6HG has GPS)
win 8 on both
1500 swiss francs (1600 USD) vs 2200 (2380 USD) price points

as you can see, paying for FHD and SSD is quite expensive...

now back to usage. I don't do VM now, as I didn't really realise I needed it. But I am thinking about it as it could save me some hassle.
as win 8 comes with it, maybe dual boot is straightforward. I use ubuntu daily and occasionally win, with office and adobe applications.
I don't see me using any time soon 2 or more VMs.
Maybe it sounds a bit awkward, I think of using the dual boot AND occasionally a VM ubuntu-win for cross-platform testing and exchange.
So I guess a max of 16GB of RAM should be enough.

as for the screen, I won't have a spare screen soon, nor a dock, so I plan using the bare pc.

I still wonder whether or not the FullHD and SSD are nothing more than "nice to have" features, therefore not worth the 800 bucks extra... (I might miss some important difference between the two models, though)

Thank you so much for your time and advice.
b

[wolfman]

Sure.

Well, my first question would be do you have access to build to order a machine in Switzerland or are you limited to the "stock" configurations below? The reason I'm asking is two fold: first, in the US at least, the markup for the 1920x1080 display is typically around $200 on a build to order machine. Second, if you can build to order, I'd recommend adding the SSD after market as you can likely save a good buck that way (the same with the RAM).

Assuming that build to order is not an option for you, this is a tough call because of the price difference between the two units. Personally, I'd want an SSD either way - so for the first configuration, I'd look up a local price for an SSD like the Intel 520 series (for example) at the size you want (which may or may not be 180gb) and add that to the price of the lower priced configuration. You can then back into what the cost of the 1920x1080 display over the 1600x900 display would be and determine if you are willing to pay that amount (you also get a larger capacity battery if that matters to you).

Regarding memory, you'll likely have to replace the RAM in both to get to 16gb (the higher priced configuration is likely 2x4gb instead of 1x8gb) - so that's a wash.

In my case, my W520 has the 1920x1080 display and it's quite nice and I'd hands down rather have it over the 1600x900 - for $200 or so more. For the difference in price you mentioned, I'd probably just settle for the 1600x900 assuming the price for the SSD mentioned above is less than 1/2 the price difference (and it likely will be)...

Good luck!