Have new W520 427623U arriving Monday

[Greg Gebhardt]

I could not stand it and could not wait for Lenovo any longer!

Will this have the new version of their rapid start with the small SSD drive just for this purpose. I would still like to swap out the 500gb spinner with the 160 or 256gb ssd

[ssd_thinkpad]

When did you order it? I am still waiting for my T5200.

[Adda]

Cool, I would love to hear about it's cooling system and temperatures under heavy loads on both GPU and CPU.

[MikeM]

My T61p has served me well and I'm about ready to pull out the wallet for a new computer. I've looked at pre-built Sandy Bridge desktops, spent hours at newegg putting together my own desktop in my virtual shopping basket, and almost went for a 17" MBP. Thank you for posting about ordering your W520 427623U. That rig is awesome!

All of the W520 units look to support the EE2.0 that Lenovo is offering - according to the product brief PDF file that you can snag here: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/ww/pdf/w520_datasheet.pdf

I'm attempting to sit on my hands for a bit to see if Lenovo starts the CTO sales on Monday so I can compare this machine that you ordered to what they have to offer. I think that you hit the jackpot on a preconfigured W520 and I'm likely to follow suit.

[MikeM]

I'm still poking around going over the W520 and T520 units with FHD displays and discrete graphics and I noticed in the tabook.pdf that this part number 427623U has no Intel vPro.

What does not having vPro do as far as limiting the use of the computer? Can I still use VMware and VirtualBox or is this primarily for remote IT sessions and the like? That would be about the only reason that I'd even possibly need that much ram anyway.

Thanks!

[craigmontHunter]

vpro is only for management situations. I think it has something to do with the network adapter, but I am not sure. Unless you are in a large corperation, you don't need it, in fact IIRC, it adds something (small) to the boot time.

[Chatbox]

craigmontHunter is correct. VPro is for remote system management, not related to virtualization. Not to be confused with VT-x. So you're safe in regard to run virtualization solutions (VMWare, VirtualBox...Xen...). Even a dated Pentium II can run VMWare (http://www.vmware.com/support/ws3/doc/ws32_intro2.html)

Regarding Adda's post, I'm also interested in the implemented design of the cooling assembly in the W520, especially about its efficiency and effectiveness.

[commander]

great news and congrats! I cannot wait any longer to buy a new system too. But I will wait to your review about cooling too. I have T60+dock running all the time as a workstation and the noise is crazy. I hope W520 will be more silent at max performance. If not, I will buy a desktop with 2600K CPU. Crazy fast.

[Greg Gebhardt]

Well it arrived yesterday and i am NOT missing vpro!

First thing I did was make the restore disks, removed the factory drive and installed the new IBM 160GB SSD. I then restored the new SSD with the fresh disks and am now getting my software installed. As far as hardware goes this laptop is near identicle to my W510 except it does not have the touch screen. I do like the color calibration feature and find it works rather well. Also not sure why but my Internet download speeds are faster with the W520, some improvement in the hardware had to cause this and there is not doubt it is faster.

So far all is going good and hope to get the rest of my software installed soon, AutoCad was running really good, graphics engine seems improved to say the least.

I got to smile when I shut down and boot up this thing as I did not think it was possible for this process to be faster but it IS! Not much reason for the sleep function when it boots this fast. Will be running some tests this evening but the things I like best, like the keyboard on the W5XX series remains unchanged. I looked at the W4XX series but am glad I stuck with the moster workstation!

[Greg Gebhardt]

great news and congrats! I cannot wait any longer to buy a new system too. But I will wait to your review about cooling too. I have T60+dock running all the time as a workstation and the noise is crazy. I hope W520 will be more silent at max performance. If not, I will buy a desktop with 2600K CPU. Crazy fast.

Help me out and let me know what tests to run. Where and what to download. The CPU is the only thing to heat up in this thing and it sure was not working hard during my software installs. Bottom was barely warm after OS and software installation.

Like I said the cooling system is likely going to be exactly like the W510. The differences would be in the amount of heat from the CPU and any software tweeks to the cooling system. I was never unhappy with my W510 temps but then I am not running any software that really stresses the CPU.

[commander]

Great news!

Try Prime95 - it is tiny little SW which will stress all your cores to max.

WIN 64b download - ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/p64v265.zip
If you want to know more - http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/

It is very easy to use, it won't install, just run the .exe and hit OK and wait

It will also be helpful if you can monitor temperatures and rpm of the internal fan (does W520 have one or two?). For this you can try TPFancontrol:

download - http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~schmitzr/tpfc_v062.zip
website - http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~schmitzr/donate.html

Also very easy to manage, just install it, leave the mode to SMART and watch temperatures and rpm.

The most important thing is you - how loud the notebook is in idle and when load.

do not forget to have the adapter 170w in and set everything to max. performance.

BTW VGA needs nearly as much cooling as a CPU. You will see in the TPFancontrol, that the GPU core will be probably more hot than the CPU. It is common these days.

Thank you very much if you can spend some time testing and give us results!

[Adda]

Help me out and let me know what tests to run. Where and what to download. The CPU is the only thing to heat up in this thing and it sure was not working hard during my software installs. Bottom was barely warm after OS and software installation.

Like I said the cooling system is likely going to be exactly like the W510. The differences would be in the amount of heat from the CPU and any software tweeks to the cooling system. I was never unhappy with my W510 temps but then I am not running any software that really stresses the CPU.

I would like to see what happens if you run both furmark in extreme burning mode, and prime95 with six threads in maximum heat mode at the same time until the temps have stabilized.

Furmark:
http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

Prime95:
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=205

Temperature monitor:
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

[Adda]

The HMM shows that the W520's have 6 different cooler FRU's, three 45w coolers and three 55w ones.
Might these be W510 compatible...

Edit: it seems not, the W520 coolers look quite different from W510 ones.

[Chatbox]

I would like to see what happens if you run both furmark in extreme burning mode, and prime95 with six threads in maximum heat mode at the same time until the temps have stabilized.

Furmark:
http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

Prime95:
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=205

Temperature monitor:
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Can I also add "rthdribl" to the list (run at 1280x1024 or higher):
http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/
(Download V2, and DirectX is needed)...if this can run for 60minutes, then it's definitely an improved cooling system.

[Adda]

Oh yes forgot about that one, video memory testing is just as important as the rest.

[Greg Gebhardt]

LOL!

Some of these tests might catch my new W520 on FIRE! WTF are you people running on your laptop all the time to require it to be able to maintain it's cool while running everything wide open for long periods of time?

I think it more ego than real need!

[commander]

hahaha I thought that you will be shocked )

It is a workstation notebook, it have to handle some load... Greg, I think that all these tests are not necessarily. We just want to know how the fan is noisy during load and how silent is when idle. All you need is that prime95 which takes really a 10 seconds to start running. What adda posted is a overkill. I guarantee you that prime95 is enough for that purpose. Prime95 with TPfan control to see the fan RPM. Can you do this for us please?

The noise factor is critical at least for me because the notebook is running all day.

[Adda]

I don't think those tests are overkill, we are talking about an expensive workstation, it has to be able to deal with anything you throw at it.
My W510 handles all those tests just fine, but it took a lot of bending and adjusting to get the cooler to fit well enough to do it without throttling and/or crashing.
My CPU temp never goes above 86 and the GPU temp doesn't go above 84.
A proper cooling system has to be able to cool the maximum combined heat output of the components it's designed to cool.

Edit: if those tests would brake anything, my W510 would have been fried a long time ago, but even though it's cooling system was compromised, it shut down in time to prevent damage.

[commander]

adda: How did you modified your cooling system? I was thinking of installing some 80 mm fan with some windtunnel to the intake area of the docked notebook, to help cooling of the system and keep the internal fan quiet. Is it possible?

P.S.: sorry for my English, I meant by overkill for our "silences" test. Of course it has to do everything without crashing.

[Adda]

adda: How did you modified your cooling system? I was thinking of installing some 80 mm fan with some windtunnel to the intake area of the docked notebook, to help cooling of the system and keep the internal fan quiet. Is it possible?

P.S.: sorry for my English, I meant by overkill for our "silences" test. Of course it has to do everything without crashing.

This thread will answer all your questions:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=90854