Lenovo T530 Owner's Thread

That tells me that it is a non-issue.

Just psych up for the occasional tick and/or pop.

My bet is that if you are old enough, you were one of the 1st to buy music albums on digital CD discs when they 1st came out 30 years ago.

At the time I remember scratching my head and thinking that all these people hear is the ticks and pops, that are always part of the old 33rpm vinyl records.

They don't really listen for the great music that is there, just the ticks and pops.

Just so we are clear, that's not a put down of you; just psych up and don't let minor 1-time connection pops bug you.

FWIW I have a lot of expensive hifi gear, and almost all of it makes 1-time start pops, or 1-time connection pops, that I hear from the speakers.

I do however have the odd piece of gear that makes almost no pops; but I don't bother spending either time or money on minor 1-time pops that clearly do not have any risk of blowing out the speakers.

Given that you're not really a PC hardware geek, am I correct in thinking that you don't really have thorough backups of either your data, or of what to do if your boot drive (512GB Samsung 830 SSD) fails?

 

Yep. A non-issue.


Just so we are clear, that's not a put down of you; just psych up and don't let minor 1-time connection pops bug you.


Point taken and no worries. We just finished digitizing my in-laws vinyl albums (hubby did some, then we sent the rest out to the pros) plus old cassette tapes. Lots of "extra" noises but it is a sign of the times. We're okay with that.

I'm geek enough to be a paranoid writer who doesn't want to lose 30 years of writing that I started with all those years ago on this thing called a typewriter then keyed it into an old Smith Corona word processor before buying my first IBM PS2. Then there's the 80K+ photos.

So I have Crashplan for offsite storage plus auto backups to a multi-drive NAS. Plus any current/non-archived projects saved to Dropbox. Married to a PC hardware geek.

Thanks though.

 

I keep going through the configure option at the Lenovo web site for a T530.

1st time thru totaled to "sale" price of ~$1,300 (with an i7 and nVidia)

2nd time thru totaled to "sale" price of ~$1,100

3rd time thru (today) totaled to "sale" price of $1,002.39 (Hurry, hurry, hurry!)

But I'm not going to hurry. I'm going to wait until after Xmas.

For one thing wait and see if US Congress does the crash and burn thing with the Fiscal Cliff. For another, it's after Xmas is over that you really can find out how business really did. Prior to Xmas the sales spin is just too intense.

The biggest changes today were to drop the FHD 1920 x 1080 screen and go with the $200 cheaper HD 1600x900 screen. And add a full 2 year on site w/accidental warranty which has the real chance of being important to me in the next 18 months when I expect to do some serious travel with this notebook. I also dropped the nVidia option, going with only HD 4000 graphics that is found on the low cost (relative to i7 choices) i5-3320M cpu.

One person (that I've seen post somewhere in this thread) has made mention of possibly buying the FHD 1920 x 1080 screen as a separate buy on either ebay or amazon. If anyone can provide info on actually doing that I'd very much appreciate it.

e.g. how tricky is it to replace the screen to the FHD 1920 x 1080 screen by yourself? How much might one save by doing this? Does Lenovo somehow white list screen panels so that only their approved panels will work?

Or given uncertainty involved in doing something like this, maybe just better all around to buy the the FHD 1920 x 1080 screen and pay Lenovo the $200 for it. For one thing I'm going to buy the max overnight 2year warranty w/accidental coverage.

Which gets me back to about $1,200.

Gee did I really ever actually have a real order w/Lenovo for a Y580 IdeaPad for only $900?

 

That's so wrong.

I've recently seen a T530 config (FHD, i5-3320M, HD 4000) for $820 or so.

 

That might be an OK deal.

Depending on what all got dropped from the rest of the configuration.

I went out to the HP web site, but didn't like what I saw with regard to a NBD warranty w/accidental. But that's a very quick take on my part, so I could easily be wrong.

Dell seemed good for a NBD warranty w/accidental, similar to Lenovo.

Any of the other big notebook makers that provide good NBD warranty w/accidental?

 

What else is there to drop? i5-3320M, HD 4000, Windows 7 Pro, FHD 1920x1080, 1x4GB, 500GB HDD, Fingerprint Reader, Intel 6205 WiFi. $800.

Dell is always good with warranty, from my experience.

 

Have anyone notice tearing while playing 3D games on Linux with the Intel GPU without optimus/bublebee? I haven't tested the machine with windows 7 much but it also shows some tearing when playing crysis demo. I'm not entirely sure how optmus work. Maybe Crysis loads and starts with the Intel GPU and the system automaticaly switches to Nvidia GPU when it notice the demand. Maybe the tearing is not as evident after the swtich.

We got the T530 for $689.00 on ebay new with an unopened box and lenovo upgradable warranty.
Here are the specs, Intel Core i5 processor i5-3210M, Windows 7 Home Premium 64, 4GB PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz SDRAM SODIMM Memory, 320GB, 7200RPM HD, 15.6” HD WXGA (1366 X 768), Nvidia NVS 5400M (because I want to be able to upgrade the CPU to the more powerfull quads), Backlit Keyboard, 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery, no webcam but with firewire.

BTW, I was getting complete system freezups with linux kernel 3.2 but that was fixed after I upgraded to kernel 3.5 (3.4 and 3.6 should also work)

 

Hi,

Can someone please point me to a place where people sell their Lenovo T530? I am looking to offload mine and following are some of the specs:

Condition: MINT (barely used)
CPU: Core i7-3820 (quad core)
RAM: 16 Gigs (1600 GHZ)
HDs: Intel 310 mSata-80GB and 500 GB 7200rpm
Screen: FHD panel with 1920-by-1080
Battery: 9 cell battery
Bluetooth 4.0
Camera: 720p
Warranty: 3 years onsite (expires in 2015)

Craigslist has not been much help.

thanks.

 

You could try the Marketplace of this very forum, or of forum.thinkpads.com.

 

I want to make another copy of my Lenovo Recovery so I can do a fresh install on my SSD but I get that message that I can only make one copy. I have looked at a lot of websites but nothing has helped. Does anyone know how I could make another copy to my flash drive?

 

I've read through this thread and, having used a new T530 for about 30 hours, will comment on a few issues that have been discussed earlier.

Fan noise: I have a 3720 quad core with the Nvidia graphics and it is the quietest laptop I have ever owned. I use it a lot in bed, resting on my stomach or even chest, so my ears are quite close. I haven't really stressed the CPU yet beyond having a bunch of browser windows open with music and videos while typing on Wordpad. However, I read people having excessive fan noise and cycling while the computer is idling. I don't have that problem at all. It's just a very quiet sustained whisper, which occasionally increases in speed and volume.

Screen resolution: I have the HD+ screen. I use about 2 diopter reading glasses. About 90% of the text in various applications and web pages is too small for me to read. Therefore, I must increase the font/icon scale in Control Panel to 125% and zoom in browsers between 110% and 125%. This experience caused me to question whether readability would be better or worse on the higher resolution FHD display, and I started a thread here on that issue.

Backlit keyboard: I felt certain this feature was just French pastry, but I couldn't eliminate it from the packages. Well, well . . . hello, France. Since so much of my laptop use is in bed during the evening and night hours, I have found this feature note only visually aesthetic but very functional. A quantum leap better than the Thinklight. I won't give it up.

Keyboard: The new "chiclet" style is still better than most of the competition, but not as comfortable to me as the older bevel-topped individual keys. I just find the spacing to be confusing and the tops of the keys to be much too slippery. The rocker switch for audio volume and even the power button are so flush as to be very hard to locate by feel in the dark (and the sound buttons don't light up). Changing screen brightness via buried menus is a real hassle. I want hard buttons.

Shipping: I received the machine 12 days after I ordered it -- Nov. 30 to December 12.

 

Would it be possible to clone the Lenovo Recovery partition onto another hard drive and use it?

 

So, I am finally about to upgrade my three year old Latitude. I was gonna go with the MBP but then stumbled upon this: Amazon.com: Lenovo Thinkpad T530 - 239245U 2.60-3.60GHz i7-3720QM 16GB 1.256TB SSD Blu-Ray 1GB NVIDIA NVS 5400M 15.6" Full HD 1080P: Computer Upgrade King. These specs just seem too good to be true. Building a similar one on Lenovo official site is easily over $2,000. Anybody else got theirs for a similar price?

 

I spent many hours on the Lenovo T530 configurator the past 4 weeks and am sure I never saw a 256 mb mSATA SSD option or a blue ray ROM option. I suspect the Amazon vendor, Computer Upgrade King, puts those in.

I'd want to know which is the Windows boot drive, the HD or the mSATA SSD.

The price is certainly better than the Lenovo prices without discount, but you can always get a good discount if you search around and wait long enough. Re price, the vendor probably puts in the memory above the Lenovo minimum, and so should everyone else. Lenovo charges about $300 for memory that you can get for about $70 on the open market. I got 16gb of T530 memory from Crucial for $60.

 

+1

You might want to edit the last sentence and change 16mb to 16gb.

 

Like other resellers, Computer Upgrade King buys Lenovo's "TopSeller" (prebuilt) products in bulk for manufacturer prices much lower than CTO prices, even with so-called discounts. CUK then sells those laptops with component upgrades -- either pre-done or per-order. That's the difference between CUK and other resellers, who simply take an order for a TopSeller and turn around to initiate a shipment from one of the major national distributors throughout the country. Every party in between gets a cut. Consumers like you and me feed them.

Sure, that 256MB mSATA SSD would be installed by CUK. Most likely, that SSD would be the boot drive. Oh and, for like $25, CUK does a clean Windows installation for you. So on and so forth.

 

Does anyone know if the Crucial M4 still has to be upgraded so it doesn't crash?

 

Thanks, I just did so, though I'm not sure the memory is in decimal or binary gigabytes or gibibytes. I'm not a technical guy.

I vividly remember being in IBM's Tucson laboratory around 1980 looking at the unnanounced disk drive that would finally break the 1 gigabyte barrier, which became known as the 3380. It was the size of a fat oil drum, and to lift the drive out of the case, it would have been helpful to be Nautilus trained.

 

For a non tech guy, you do OK.

I rather liked that display thread you started on Dec. 14. I've also got a T530 arriving soon. I went with the FHD 1920x1080 screen. It's my 1st real laptop, so it's somewhat of a shot in the dark as to whether or not I'll like it or not (the screen).

I hate to admit it, but I remember when those showed up on the IBM 370/360 scene.

In the early days, you could still get close to the hardware, but I always found the reel-to-reel tape drives more fascinating... >hypnotic!<

 

I've got a second T530 on order. I downgraded the quad core CPU one notch and upped the display to FHD and the storage from HD+SSD/cache to full SSD in the main bay. I rush ordered my current 530 before doing all my research because Lenovo lied about when their Cyber Monday discount was ending.

So . . . I'll be able to compare FHD vs. HD+ with my own eyes, and full SSD vs. SSD-cache with my own speedometer. Then I'll return the losing machine. I'll be happy to share my experience and opinions on these subjects at that time if I stay around.

 

I can relate to that, given that my 1st order with Lenovo got canceled by them (Lenovo) by their mistake, and they refused to reinstate it. But suggest that you go easy with words like "lied"

Not because of any presence by Lenovo here, but rather that there are many here on NBR that are incredibly helpful, and you really don't want to turn them off with careless word choice.

FWIW (amusing in hindsight) my 1st attempt at ordering a Lenovo was about 3/4 weeks ago on Amazon. A 15.6" Lenovo Edge E535 with an AMD cpu. Got that cancelled just it time for it to not ship.

Finally gave up on ordering a pre-built machine, and then numbers 2 and 3 and 4 were all ordered custom on Lenovo's web site where one can do customization.

#2 was a 15.6" IdeaPad Y580 at a rather nice discount w/order placed on black Friday. A game machine that likely would have worked out OK for me. Oh well.

Changed my mind on #3 (a 14" Lenovo T430 w/1600x900 screen) when I made the belated ugly discovery that I'd not done enough homework and that the main bay in the T430 can only take a 7mm drive! Got that cancelled by the skin of my teeth.

I hope you stick around for at least awhile.

And please do post your direct comparison comments of the T530's 1600x900 vs 1920x1080 screens.

 

OtherSongs, just to be clear, I wasn't referring to what someone from Lenovo told me. I'm talking about a worldwide internet ad running for a week on the Lenovo site saying the sale ends on at midnight on day X. So I order two hours before midnight after some helpful but incomplete info gained here. Then, when midnight arrives, the Lenovo site says the sale has been extended for another five days. Call that what you will.

I tried to cancel by email and phone a few days later but it apparently didn't reach China. Lenovo actually shipped 3 days earlier than estimated, and the package arrived six hours earlier than UPS estimated. They get A+ for build and delivery.

The 530 is a nice machine. I forgot to mention that the 135 watt power brick is a real Godzilla. Ugh. Nothing to do about it, but it makes the thought of carrying the machine a real chore. But I won't be doing that.

 

Deleted by moderator.

 

All items offered for sale at NBR must be posted in the marketplace forum and adhere to the marketplace rules. You should also note only members with three months of membership at NBR and 100 good posts are allowed to post in the marketplace forum.

I would ask what's wrong with your T530? Perhaps there a fix for what ails it.

 

Wow, my second T530 shipped six days earlier than originally estimated, and is now scheduled to arrive 12/26, which will be 12 days after order. That would match to the order-to-arrival time of my first 530.

Unless there is a parts shortage, Lenovo really seems to have its build and ship act together.

 

My own T530 arrived today! What a nice Xmas present!

The UPS tracking showed it bounced around China for a few days.

Then to Anchorage AK, where it clears USA customs.

Yesterday noon AK time it departed non stop for Louisville KY. Got there around 3AM Eastern time. Then to Chicago (gaining 1 hr by going West this time) arriving ~5:30AM CDT and out to my area and delivered today! Count *me* as impressed. Nice self Xmas present!

I rather like Lenovo, but doubt your above statement.

A "parts shortage" would cause Lenovo to take *longer* to deliver your T530 laptop, right?

Odds are that Xmas sales are not all that great, which is why at the heart of the Xmas season we've both gotten prompt response from Lenovo on our recent custom orders.

On a more positive note, I now have enough time to get this laptop set up as I want (hardware), and to learn how to use it (software and finger mechanics).

 

OtherSongs, what configuration did you end up with?

On parts shortage, I meant to say that people have reported long delays when there are parts shortages, but that Lenovo is fast to build and ship from China when there are no such shortages, as now apparently.

 

Newegg 3AM this morning just got 16 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 1600 (2x8GB SO-DIMM) G.Skill $59.99 total.

specs for my ThinkPad T530 2359CTO - 1 Year Depot Warranty
Processor Intel Core i5-3320M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.30 GHz)
Operating System Windows 7 Professional (64 bit), English
Display Type 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display
System Graphics NVIDIA NVS 5400M Graphics with Optimus Technology, 1GB DDR3 Memory
Total Memory 4 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (1 DIMM)
Keyboard Keyboard Backlit - US English
Camera 720p HD Camera with Microphone
Hard Drive 500GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Optical Device DVD Recordable
System Expansion Slots Express Card Slot & 4-in-1 Card Reader & Smart Card Reader
Battery 6 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70+
Power Cord 90W AC Adapter - US (2pin)
Integrated WiFi Wireless LAN Adapters Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN
Integrated Mobile Broadband Mobile Broadband upgradable
45K5980 1YR Onsite Next Business Day + Accidental Damage Protection $79.00
Shipping & Handling: $0.00 Tax: $68.74 [BIGSAVINGS coupon]: -$194.10 Total: $1,247.64

Plus of course the 512GB M4 SSD.

Haven't yet checked the 500GB HDD to see if it is 9.5mm thick (my best guess(2 platter)) or 7mm thick (1 platter(pretty unlikely for 500GB?))

All depends on finding a small jeweler type phillups screwdriver. Otherwise after Xmas when I can get out to a local store that sells tools.

 

Ordered mine (spec below) on 19th from UK store, I didn't get a delivery date??? How long does it normally take?


1 2392CTO ThinkPad T530 - 3 Year Depot

- 3rd Generation Intel Core i3-3110M Processor (3MB Cache, 2.40GHz)
- Windows 8 64
- Windows 8 64 MUI EMEA WE (EN FR DE IT NL)
- 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
- Intel HD Graphics 4000
- 4 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (1 DIMM)
- ThinkPad Precision Backlit Win8 Keyboard UK English
- 720p HD Camera
- 320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
- DVD Recordable
- Express Card Slot & 4 in 1 Card Reader
- 6 cell Li-Ion Battery - 70+
- Country Pack United Kingdom with Line cord & 90W AC adapter
- Bluetooth 4.0
- Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (2x2 AGN)
- Integrated Mobile Broadband - Upgradable
- Language Pack Win8 WE (FR/GE/IT/DU/EN)

 

It varies.

BTW did your 1st T530 get sent from China? How long did that take?

Anyway you'd think that the "busy" Xmas season would cause delays, but that doesn't seem to be happening this Xmas season, at least not by my experience (below).

So I'd say it depends on both the deal and the machine. e.g. ~30% off on "Black Friday" (the day after Thanksgiving (big USA holiday on the 4th Thursday in Nov.)) for their popular 15.6" Y580 gaming machine saw the estimated shipping quickly go over 4 weeks.

I got my order for a Y580 promptly placed early on Nov. 23 with a shipping estimate of only a week (I called up ASAP!), but I made the mistake of doing it via telephone. For whatever reason Lenovo screwed that order up. And they refused to reinstate it. I was more than a little upset!

I then placed an order for a T430 and a cheap Lenovo mouse on Dec. 1, this time using Internet Explorer. On Dec. 5 Lenovo shipped the mouse (from their location on the USA East Coast (New Jersey?)). But they didn't ship the T430. I managed to get the T430 order cancelled before the machine actually shipped from China. Confirming cancellation e-mail is dated Dec. 10.

I placed my order for the T530 on Dec. 12 near the end of their 15% off sale. On Dec. 16 Lenovo sent me an e-mail that it had shipped. But it was unclear if they had shipped the machine or only shipped the extra charge 1year accidental NBD warranty. The detail on the UPS tracking number shows that the machine itself did in fact start movement within China on Dec. 16.

Which is a long winded way of saying what I said at the start.

It varies.

 

When you place the order, Lenovo gives you an estimated shipping date.

Right?

When they e-mail that they've shipped it, you can go to the UK store and get a UPS tracking number?

I'm curious if UPS goes with a single non stop flight from China over the North Pole to Heathrow airport in London?

For me UPS went from China to Anchorage in Alaska where it sat to clear USA Customs, then a non stop from Anchorage Alaska to UPS's hub in Louisville Kentucky. The UPS tracking start/stop times make it clear that the flight had to go over Canada.

Just curious if the start/stop tracking times make it obvious if the flight went over the North Pole.

Once you've signed for it, the detail on UPS disappears and all it says is delivered with your name.

 

Hey guys, I received my T530 yesterday and I really like it so far. This is not my first experience with the T530.

The first thing I noticed when I got the T530 yesterday was how light it felt, even with the 9-cell battery. This machine is portable. I had an X230 before with the 9-cell battery and this feels almost as light.

I am actually shocked at how silent this laptop is with an SSD. The T530 I had before had a regular hard drive so there is a big difference in how the laptop feels and functions. Once again, very quiet. The keyboard is excellent. The palm rest area makes a difference in how comfortable the typing experience is.

I have not tested the battery so I cannot comment on that. I got the FHD screen and it is extremely sharp. The viewing angles are very good as the colors do not shift. However, some colors appear too bright and saturated (if that is the correct word). Reds and whites are very bright, for instance. It is not comfortable to view the screen at higher brightness levels due to the extreme brightness of the white background. At lower levels, the brightness is too low. Compared to yesterday, the screen feels more comfortable right now as I'm typing on it. Maybe I'm adjusting to it. I'm not sure but I may try a different color profile. Overall, it is an excellent screen.

One thing I am curious about is the different feel of the laptop on the bottom. The T530 I had before had a rubberized feel to it all around. The one I have now only has that rubberized feel on top of the laptop. The bottom has a similar feel to the palm rest - slightly rough texture. I have no problem with this but I'm just curious if the T530s that are being shipped now have a similar texture.

So far I am very happy with this laptop.

 

Any chance you get mixed up with another ThinkPad model? The few T530's I've seen have "rough texture" surface on the bottom, similar to the palm rest, but not rubberized.

I told you so.

 

Bluebird, did you end up going with the factory installed SSD?

BTW, the bottom and palm rest of mine has a rough plastic feel unlike the rubberized feel of the top lid.

 

Yeah, I should have stuck with it.

If I recall correctly, the bottom of the T530 felt rubberized. It's possible I'm mistaken, though. The X230 was rubberized all over.

 

Yes, I felt the deal was good and I didn't need the extra capacity. I'm definitely glad I did.

I did not notice that plastic texture when I had the T530 before. Regardless, it is still good. How are you liking yours, Kilt?

 

I also got my T530 late yesterday afternoon.

When you start carrying it around, it won't feel so light.

I got mine with the 6-cell battery, which is flush with the rest of the plastic case.

How much does the 9-cell battery protrude? Do me a favor and get a tape measure to be sure.

Mine is also quiet, and that's with a 500GB HDD. So I'm more than a little relieved, given all the comments I've seen about fan noise. And the backlit keyboard is pretty good, thank goodness! Of the 3 "mice" I've tried (trackpad, and cheap wired USB Lenovo mouse, and medium expensive wireless Cherry USB mouse (high precision 2.4GHz), both the trackpad and the wireless Cherry mouse are good.

I also got the FHD screen and agree that it is excellent. It's immediately useable as is without having to futz with it. Well worth the extra price that it cost.

Although when I do start to use it for real, I'm sure I'll futz with font sizes.

I am also very happy with my new T530. Agreed that the top has a slight rubberized feel, whereas the bottom does not.

 

OtherSongs, I'm glad you're liking your T530.

The 9-cell sticks out less than an inch, maybe 8/10 of an inch. I actually think that the laptop feels lighter than it looks.

I did not get the backlit keyboard but I'm sure it looks pretty nice. Are you not using the trackpoint much? I've gotten used to it now and try to find it in a laptop. Hope to see you around here!

 

From experience:

T400 and T60- rubbery lid only
X200- rubbery lid and body excluding palmrest and battery
600X- IIRC rubbery all over including the palmrest

I am pretty positive that all the T-series ThinkPads have the special coating only on the lids. IIRC the only other ThinkPad series with the special rubberized texture on their palmrests would be the X300 & X301.

I usually have both a flush battery type and a 9-cell for my T-series and the X200 as you never know when you might need extra battery power!

In regards to a protruding battery I like the 9-cell because in the words of another member in the ThinkPads forums " Whenever I have them installed in a laptop and I grab the laptop by the extending battery part, it feels like I'm holding a huge Kit-Kat bar."

Couldn't have said it better

 

No. Also, X1 and X1 Carbon use the rubbery texture all over the palmrest. In addition, some other old IBM ThinkPad use the rubber coating for the palmrest.

I personally don´t like this rubber coating that much (it is different to clean and the corners become shiny). Thats why I only purchased ThinkPad R- and L-Series until now, because they have a textured-plastic lid and no rubber coating at all.

 

Ah, someone who "thinks" like me! I always find the rubberized stuff on the T-series lid a nuisance: a magnet for fingerprints/handprints and prone to scratches. When you try to wipe-clean it, it shows shiny particles and becomes dull. After a few years of use, the lid looks miserable.

 

Yes, thats right. After some years it has a real "used-look". In contrast, the plastic lidsare very easy to clean.

While the coating feels good, it is less practical.

 

I spent about 5 hours today loading Windows s/w and it all went very smoothly.

I also gave a try of booting a Linux based partitioning disc (recent Gparted 0.14.0-1, Debian based) and the default settings worked fine. Only thing was that my wireless mouse wasn't seen, but the trackpad got me by; had to struggle a bit before remembering that holding the on/off button down for maybe 6+ seconds turns the machine off!

Next time I boot Gparted, I'll have a wired mouse plugged in!

Thanks very much for the feedback as it gives me a good idea of what to expect if I buy a 9-cell battery (by Lenovo, of course) as a 2nd battery. Amazon has them at what seems to be a good deal.

I struggled all day today to get the keyboard backlight on!

Nothing worked!

So your above mention of it got me to look it up in the .pdf manual: "Fn+Spacebar: Control the keyboard backlight and the ThinkLight light."

The trackpad is good and I use it. But when I've got side surface available I prefer to use a real mouse, and the wireless USB Cherry mouse, that I already owned but wasn't using, is quite good and IMHO made for use with a laptop.

 

I am assuming it won't but I just want to make sure. Will removing the original hard drive void anything in the warranty?

 

HDD and RAM are customer-replaceable units (CRUs) that can be replaced/upgraded by the user without affecting the warranty.

(It may be a good idea to keep the stock HDD around. In the event you must send your notebook to the depot, put the stock HDD back in.)

 

My T530 is subject to the linked warranty below.

Note the section entitled "What this Warranty does not Cover". It excludes coverage for "damage resulting from . . . modification [or] . . . improper maintenance . . . [or] failure of, or damage caused by, any third party products . . ."

I'm not giving legal advice, but I think a fair reading of this would be that you could replace a factory hard drive without voiding the warranty in toto, but the warranty will not cover that third party hard drive itself, or any damage to the rest of the laptop caused by the removal of the factory hard drive, the installation of the third party hard drive, or the failure of the third party hard drive.

So, for example, if a failing hard drive could somehow fry the Thinklight, the warranty would cover damage to the Thinklight if it is the factory drive that fails, but not if it is a third party hard drive that fails.

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/thinkcentre_pdf/l505-0010-02_en.pdf

 

Today I opened up the HDD cover (on the back of my new T530), and sure enough the 500GB HDD is 9.5mm thick, held at the sides by plastic "rails" -- so when I replace the HDD with my new 9.5mm thick M4 SSD, it will fit without any hassle.

Out of great curiosity, I then went to Newegg to check their laptop HDD units. Generally only a very few 2.5" HDD are 7mm thick.

 

FWIW I updated my BIOS today, from Sept. 13, 2012 to Nov. 14, 2012 (new version is 2.07).

I created a boot CD from the .iso file that Lenovo provides in their support (BIOS subsection) web page.

Any non technical T530 owners (or any other non technical ThinkPad owners) are IMO better off to not do this by themselves.

Since I'm posting from the updated machine, all went well.

BTW, things got totally screwed up when I added 8GB of memory, which is what prompted me to proceed with doing this BIOS update. Nothing quite so risky as playing around with BIOS settings.

Anyway I went from 4GB (a single 4GB SO-DIMM (under the keyboard)) to 12GB total memory with now 2 memory modules (original 4GB SO-DIMM and new 2nd 8GB SO-DIMM under the bottom of the T530)

In the next 2 weeks I'll get around to replacing the 4GB module, under the keyboard, with the 2nd 8GB module that I have ready.

Oh and did I mention that I like this T530 notebook computer.

Also out shopping and got 3 sets of small screwdrivers at Home Depot for the pesky screws on the bottom of this T530.

 

Just ordered a T530. Think I got a pretty decent deal, so posting for anyone else who might be on the fence.

With coupon code NEWYEAR (good till Jan 2), the price before tax was $767. Note that I managed to get the optical drive out of the system . . . it's only a "travel bezel". Don't need it, thought I'd save the money now and pick one up aftermarket if ever it becomes necessary.

I saw some postings on the W530 boards (which I was also considering) that gave a tip on selecting the Win8 option, then downgrading to Win7 in the config to save some licensing fees, and that's what I did here. If you are curious, choose the "ThinkPad T530 with Faster Processing" (third option). On the config screens, choose Win7. I got an "NA" message for the price at this point, but selecting the rest of the options filled in the price. Seems like I did HAVE to choose the backlit keyboard to get a price . . . without it I was stuck at "NA".

With some extra RAM and an mSATA SSD, I think this'll do nicely.

 

Returning after sometime. Happy New Year to all!

Received by T530 and needless to say I'm more than satisfied till now . Thanks to Kaso and everyone else for the fantastic advise!!

Here's what I did for my aftermarket SSD (Samsung 840 - was coming out a lot cheaper than 830) after playing around for a little bit (not the most optimal course of action but nonetheless):
1. Created a recovery drive on a USB - faced some problems testing it during boot as the OS was not detecting but did some search on lenovo/thinkpad forums and found the current partition on a recovery USB had to be set using the DISKPART program before creating the recovery which I found interesting when I found out that you could only create a recovery disc once! (probably due to Windows licensing). Thankfully, the DISKPART steps work on already created USB's as well if you discount the cleaning steps.

2. I put the SSD into a 12.7 mm caddy to test it out - had to go to Disk Management to detect and recognize it as a partition. I thought that the stock HDD would probably be less prone to damage where it was so took a decision to use the SSD from the caddy bay itself (more importantly, I was a little scared of opening up the laptop and replacing the stock HDD so I took the easy way out!)

3. Next, I referred to Hearst's awesome guide to clean install Win 7 HP1 (Downloaded Win 7 HP SP1 from digital river and the USB/DVD tool to write to a USB for installation) onto the SSD. During the clean install I referred to this link to transfer the Users folder to my stock HDD instead of the SSD as I would use the former as the data drive. After starting up Windows 7 for the first time, it was barely recognizable from the install Lenovo provided OOTB

4. I used Lenovo's system update software and the Drivers folder both of which I had copied over previously to the USB (thanks to Hearst's guide) to update important drivers for all the cool stuff that T530 has

5. After this I uninstalled Dolby v2 and Realtek sound drivers and put in Dolby v4 sound drivers with the help of the instructions on this thread

6. After booting, I realized I now had a dual boot with the same version of Windows on 2 different drives and I could not format the stock HDD partition because I'd copied over the Users folder to it. So then I set about deleting individual system folders by taking ownership (not recommended at all) and using BCDEDIT to remove the stock HDD Windows from the boot configuration data (still not sure if all of that worked out). Phew!

And now here I am writing this...I still have to add a G.SKILL 4 GB RAM stick but I find it fast enough even without it.

PS The FHD screen rocks!