Improved alternative or upgrade to T520 i5-2520M

[lemonstar]

I bought one these earlier this year:-
http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/produc ... e-Premium/

Mainly because I wanted a decent keyboard and didn't want to spend too much. I'm using mainly for writing atm, I had faster machines in the past for compiling code as that was my job. I eventually got used to the wider screen than the T60's I had before although I didn't like it at first.

I like it - it's adequate for what I want (no CD/DVD) and I didn't pay for more than I really needed. It has Win7 Pro on it which I'm happy with.

It's slow to start up (I run all the usual CCleaner/Spyware S&D. Malwarebytes, to keep it clean, etc) and I weed things out of the start-up with WinPatrol etc
This display is fine but hardly impressive. I occassionally plug into the TV to watch something on iplayer. It can get slow with a lot of tabs open.

I could upgrade this with an SSD but I feel it's underpowered - the i5 is underwhelming, I can't say it's any quicker than the i3's I've had.

So - is there another inexpensive machine (Lenovo or otherwise) with a good mechanical keyboard and min 15" display that has better graphics capability/display and a faster processor? I could upgrade mine to a limited extent. I ask for 2 reasons - one is for myself as I've just outlined, the other reason is that my daughter had her ipad air stolen (insurance-£100 excess gives us about £350) and she is prepared to give up the portability and great graphics/display of the ipad she likes for a better performing machine like my T520 - a decent keyboard and a min 15" screen. All her lectures are on video and there are a lot of resources that are video based (she's doing medicine) - her T60 was never up to this - this is why she bought the ipad. I've lost track and frankly lost interest in hardware these days but I still have to spend money on buying stuff now and again. I think if she needs a laptop with anything like her ipad's processor/display/screen capabilities, with a good keyboard, 15" display (min, maybe larger) then she'll have to spend maybe £600-700, maybe more. I wondered if she should get an ipad air 2 and buy a £200 T520 with an SSD and just watch the video's etc on her ipad. I could just do with a bit of help or an opinion on what's worth considering - it takes time to get up to speed with what's on offer and I just don't have the same motivation I used to for weighing up the pros and cons of the hardware/software.

cheers
Neil

[brchan]

I have a machine with a 2520m and 8GB or ram and it runs more than fast enough for web, media, office, and most programming tasks. Sounds more like your Windows OS has become bloated and slow over the years.

Try test driving Linux Mint Debian by burning the iso to a usb stick. If all your performance problems go away, then a fresh Windows reinstall will fix the issues. However, if you happen to like linux, you could just stick with it as well. No need for AV, and programming, performance, and stability are generally much better.

[lemonstar]

It's a fair point - I'd forgotten my T520 has 4GB RAM and could be upgraded - I think I'll do that.
My Win7 Pro 64-bit was a clean install in Feb 2016.

Debian Mint - I tried a version on an old Samsung MC10 (which I still love because of the keyboard - used to take it away with me for writing in preference to using my Sony Z tablet.) - this must have been a year ago. TBH - I chose a slimline version of Mint recommended for such small memory netbooks - I think I upgraded it from 1GB to 2GB!) and I didn't think it ran as well as the XP that is on it but it's no hassle to try Mint again on my T520 laptop - I don't think my daughter would be interested in using it though.

[brchan]

I would like to add that a good SSD will likely give the most improvement in system performance and responsiveness over an HDD. Also, depending on how full your HDD is, that may also be causing a bottleneck.

[MikalE]

For a cheaper upgrade I agree with the SSD idea and bring your RAM up to 16GB. For something even a bit better consider the T520 with an i7, switchable graphics, and the SSD and 16GB of RAM.

That is where I went from the T510 i5. I now have a T510 i7 as well. These systems are getting cheaper and cheaper as the months go by and they are the best value in a high-end business class machine.

[kfzhu1229]

Or if you are hesitant about upgrading to SSD, get a mSATA SSD and you can have both SSD and HDD. I feel like I should do the same thing to my T530 because the WD blue hard drive is so much of a bottleneck that it boots Windows 10 slower than my T43 with HITACHI HTS541680J9AT00 PATA drive.
If you have the Nvidia GPU then you can perform the mSATA SSD and 16GB RAM upgrade and maybe even a quad-core i7 upgrade if you are ready to spend a fortune. If you only have the Intel HD graphics, leave it as-is and use it as office use

[mj0]

Don't underestimate the Core i5-2520M - it's plenty fast! Compared to the latest and greatest Intel Core i5 DualCore for laptops, the 2.5 GHz Core i5-7200U Kaby Lake, it's only around 15% slower in singlecore and 25% in multicore scenarios. Intel has been working less on performance improvements and more on energy efficiency for the past three, four generations, which means even Sandy Bridge isn't really noticeably slower than Kaby Lake but rather stays much cooler and uses significantly less energy than the former.

If you want to improve performance of your T520 you can do two things:

a) Upgrade the RAM to at least 8GB or even better, 12GB or 16GB. This will solve your "gets slow with many tabs open" issues.
b) Replace that HDD with a decent SATA III SSD. This will solve all your other problems in terms of performance.

That second upgrade will make your T520 feel like a brand new machine.

In other news: both Windows 8 and Windows 10 seem noticeably faster than Windows 7 to me on pretty much every piece of hardware I threw them on to.

[kfzhu1229]

Don't underestimate the Core i5-2520M - it's plenty fast! Compared to the latest and greatest Intel Core i5 DualCore for laptops, the 2.5 GHz Core i5-7200U Kaby Lake, it's only around 15% slower in singlecore and 25% in multicore scenarios. Intel has been working less on performance improvements and more on energy efficiency for the past three, four generations, which means even Sandy Bridge isn't really noticeably slower than Kaby Lake but rather stays much cooler and uses significantly less energy than the former.

If you want to improve performance of your T520 you can do two things:

a) Upgrade the RAM to at least 8GB or even better, 12GB or 16GB. This will solve your "gets slow with many tabs open" issues.
b) Replace that HDD with a decent SATA III SSD. This will solve all your other problems in terms of performance.

That second upgrade will make your T520 feel like a brand new machine.

In other news: both Windows 8 and Windows 10 seem noticeably faster than Windows 7 to me on pretty much every piece of hardware I threw them on to.

1. i5-2520M is indeed good enough for today. Unfortunately that processor ended up on my T530 for some reason and then the MAJOR problem is heat. I mean can you believe it, a 3rd gen i7 has SIGNIFICANTLY LESS TDP than that thing so I am looking forward to an 3rd-gen i7 for mine. This may also explain why my i5-2520m is able to handle 4k just fine without any kind of efficient player (even though you need a good player to get audio working because some of the stock players I have tried (Samsung player from my Galaxy phone, Movies&TV App, etc.) does not produce audio when playing 1080p or higher).
2. I would say upgrade to 2x8GB once and for all. If you plan to use that machine for a long time there is no need for you to waste your money on 2gb and 4gb sticks as you will upgrade to 16gb eventually to get the most out of it
3. The word decent is key. Just as what I said my T530 ended up with a WD blue 500GB hard drive that is SLOWER than my IDE drive in T43. Get a mSATA if you need space (From your current HDD) + speed (from that SSD)
4. If it was only for me or for everyone, but I feel like even Windows 10 x86 on a T43/p (The first ever ThinkPad that supports it) can get faster than Windows 7 SP1 if you debloat it.