Lenovo Thinkpad L412 vs SL510 vs Edge 15 | NotebookReview

Kirov Class Notebook Geek

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I want mainly the L412, but these are the runners up:

L412 with I3 370M. Price: high, around 7700 NOK (Norwegian kroners). 2GB DDR3
SL510 with T6570. Price: medium, around 5500 NOK. 2GB DDR2
Edge 15 with I5 530M. Price: high, around 8000 NOK. 4GB DDR3

The reason I'm nervous about the L412 is this

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-Thinkpad-L412-Notebook.31514.0.html

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The results of the Cinebench Tests (R10, R11) in the 64-bit variant lie in the lowest third of the expected values on comparable hardware. Especially striking is the comparably low value in the Cinebench Single Core Rendering Test (1932 points), which the L412 shares with the L512. Notebooks with identical CPU are usually able to achieve up to 2900 points here, representing up to a 50% increase over the L-series' results.

For this reason, we looked at the CPU in the benchmark test a bit more critically . Here, we realize that during the Single Core Rendering Test the chip practically never achieves its maximum performance of 2.1 GHz and often dips below a 1GHz clock rate. The problem does not lie with temperature, as the CPU stays at a stable level of under 50 degrees Celsius both before and after the benchmarks. It leaves one with the conclusion that there must be something (known) set to brake the system in this manner, which makes sense in the context of this test among the others in the benchmark suite.

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This is a major problem for me, as the reason I'm buying a new laptop in the first place is because I need Photoshop & other CS3 apps to work properly.

Thoughts? And are there any fixes for this huge and very serious problem (severe under-clocking of CPU)? Did the Thinkpad people think they could make their laptop more appealing through artificially low temperatures for the CPU??

Kirov Class, Sep 5, 2010

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Kirov Class Notebook Geek

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oh btw, my most important concern is build quality and good enough performance for the most "hardcore" school programs (which is photoshop, I believe). I don't care much about the rest.

Kirov Class, Sep 5, 2010

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Kirov Class Notebook Geek

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thanks for the help... I got the l412. Hope its OK when it gets here.

Kirov Class, Sep 12, 2010

#3