16GB upgradable, next laptop advice

[louisJ]

Hi everybody,

I need advice for my next machine.
I am really used to the T series. I have now a t400 but I need more power.
I am looking for a model for which the memory is upgradable to 16GB, with ssd storage.

Can you please give me your views on what model I should get ?
I am going for the 'second hand' market, in France, around 500 euros (some T440p or T450 are at this price).

Thanks

[brchan]

T420
Classic keyboard and design, 16GB max ram, sata III, more than fast enough cpu for modern applications.

[MikalE]

The T520 will accept 16 GB of RAM. I just installed 16 GB last night in my T520.

[louisJ]

Thanks @brchan what do you mean by 'classic keyboard' ?

Thanks @MikalE, but I forgot to mention that I am looking for 14'' max.

[brchan]

Classic keyboard is non chiclet and keeps the standard key layout nearly exactly the same as your T400. The new style keyboards came with T430 and newer laptops.

[louisJ]

I was actually looking for a newer model you know, something a more recent than T420.
I don't care about the keyboard, because most of the time I'll use it with my external keyboard.

[Temetka]

Then I'd recommend the T430 or T450. The 440 has something weird with how they did the mouse buttons. Google som pictures of the T440 and you'll see what I mean.

We could provide better recommendations if you tell us what you plan on doing with the machine.

[ZaZ]

If you want to save some money, the L450 might be worth a look. It offers a 1080 IPS screen and I believe can do 16GB too.

[louisJ]

We could provide better recommendations if you tell us what you plan on doing with the machine.

I am looking for a powerful machinne because I going to install Ubuntu and virtualize Windows for work reasons.
I need to use Dragon Naturally Speaking in the VM.
I do sciences computations too.

[Hans Gruber]

LouisJ,
Just my two cents. You probably want a i7 SandyBridge or newer. Because these systems throttle for power saving features I don't see the need for the newest thinkpad i7 processors. I would say T420/T520/W520 with 16GB of ram. A nice 240/256GB SSD drive and Nvidia graphics.

My desktop PC is an Ivy Bridge i5 3570k @ 4.5ghz. 16GB of 1866mhz ram and a GTX 970. It's my video gaming rig. The ivy bridge is the T430/T430s generation of Intel processors.

The newer i5/i7 processors benefit more from power saving features and a 10-15% boost in performance over previous generations. The greatest benefit is in the integrated graphics each generation with significant performance increases in performance far greater than 10-15% on the CPU side of things.

My personal opinion, for serious computing power you need a desktop. For mobile power you simply need a number crunching i5/i7 processor.

[markos]

Does it have to be exactly 16gb? Can it be 20gb instead? I'm getting a T450s (to replace my T440p) and it is upgradable to 20GB (4GB fixed on the MB plus a 16GB DIMM). I'm going to have 12GB to begin with as that's more than plenty for now, but if in the future I feel like upgrading, it's nice to know that I can go to 20GB.