Lenovo Thinkpad T520 Owner's Thread

Hi all,

Ordered my T520 a few days ago and just waiting (not so patiently) for news of delivery date. I ordered mine with the i5, 500GB 7200rpm drive and single 4GB stick with the view to upgrading the drive and Ram later on.

With the single 4GB is this installed in the slot under the keyboard at the factory or in the slot under the base? I'll need to remove the keyboard to add the mSata drive but might postpone that upgrade til the new year.

I've only just found out about the whole mSata thing.....wow..., I'm very keen to try this if possible. Are there any guides from Lenovo or others as to the maximum drive capacity supported by the T520 and/or compatible drive make/model? Any recommendations from users out there on best one to look at? Drive size ideally around 80GB,as I'm aiming to dual boot Win7 and Linux Mint 12 when it comes out.

Any advice welcome.

 

Wait, so it only has one stick of 4GB? That's much better than the report I read that said it had 2 sticks of 2GB.

Is the OEM stick by Samsung? I think I saw a Samsung logo on some review site's teardown/upgrade guide.

 

I just ordered my T520 a few days ago, this is also be my first even Lenovo computer...I beefed mine up pretty heavy simply because I had been saving up for a while...thus, I didn't wanna screw around with this machine..Here is what I got..

Quad Core i7 2.4 ghz 2760QM2
FHD (1900 X 1080) display
4 gig ram (already got 8 gig of Kingston Hyper X waiting to be run at 1600 mhz)
Intel 160 gig ssd
6205 2X2 AGN wireless card
3YR ONSITE + 3YR TPP for the warrenty

After education discount and coupon the total came out to $1781.53...

I also order a HDD caddy and a 750 gig Western Digital Scorpio Black HDD which I plan on putting in the Ultrabay slot for storage purposes...

Needless to say, I am REALLY looking forward to this machine.... =)

p.s. reallllllllllllllllllly hoping I don't have latency issues with the sound, I am going to be using this machine primarily for music production, thus I will be using ASIO drivers for my sound, IF the machine is getting those pops and cracks in the sound right out of the box will simply using ASIO drivers fix the problem?

 

Quick question - what's the best thing to do for your battery after you take it out of the box? I've charged it to full capacity but I'm not sure if I should drain it and recharge or just leave it plugged in until I actually need it.

 

I just got my t520 2 days ago, I put the battery on the machine then plugged it in and began using it immediately, I am at 100% now and have the power plan on "Max Performance". I plan on leaving it plugged in as much as I can and when I am in a situation where I don't want to bring the power adapter with me I will just change the power plan to something that takes less juice...

 

Ordered mine on 11/17 and UPS tried to deliver on 11/25....not bad! Configured mine as basic as it gets:

I5-2520M
500 gig 7200 rpm HDD
4 gig RAM (had 4 more Kingston Value purchased from amazon and waiting)
NVS 4200
HD+ (1600 X 900)
Basic 1 year warranty
Bluetooth
Camera
basic b/g/n wireless (should have upgraded!)
Cost = $902 delivered

Cranked it up and everything is smooth out of the box.

 

I purchased the T520 primarily for music and web work. So far the latency has been pretty good just with turning the wifi off. I still plan on upgrading the RAM, storage drives and do a clean install but if you do the necessary tweaks for working with audio you should be in pretty good shape.

 

Anyone know a place in Canada that has stock of the T520?

It's over 4 weeks shipping time on the Lenovo Canada site.

I wonder how I'll like the 1600 x 900 screen compared to that on my MacBook Pro?

 

I don't know who might have one in stock, but I know my machine did not take 4 weeks after ordering. I don't recall exactly, but I think it was closer to 2 - 2.5 weeks when I ordered in the summer.

Compared to the MacBook Pro, well, I like that the Lenovo screen has a matte finish, but in my subjective opinion, the Mac's screen is tough to beat otherwise.

 

Nice man, mine has been rock solid so far, been handling multiple vsts with no problem, no clicks or anything in the audio. For me, the extra money I put in to this thing with the 8 gig ram and extra hdd in the ultrabay was totally worth it...

 

No love for the T520?

I notice the W520 and T420 and Xseries threads have hundreds of post and thousands of views compared to the T520. Why is that, is the T520 the least popular of them all?

If you want the best thin and light 15" Lenovo what else is there to choose from?

 

Yes, I was wondering this myself.

 

It is often a marginal increase in price to jump to the W520, especially when configuring a quad-core with discrete.

 

I was really thinking about going for the extra HHD in the ultrabay since I really don't use the optical drive, but I am going to try my luck with an MSATA drive and just upgrade the hard drive; that along with the 8 GB of ram for sure. I still wonder why they have slots for the ram separated? I have never seen that in any other laptop I have owned before.

 

I just ordered a T520.


i5 processor
6 gb RAM
160 gb SSD hard drive
Windows 7 Premium
Microsoft Office Home + Student
HD + display (1600x900)

Now I have to wait 2 weeks! My only concern is the display. Part of me is wishing I would have gone with the full HD resolution.

 

I have almost the same machine! I've been happy with the performance.

My regret after ordering was not upgrading the basic 1x1 wireless card. However, that has not been a problem at all.

I am also happy with the resolution of the HD+ screen. It works fine for side by side multi-tasking. All fonts are still easily readable. The range of brightness adjustment is great too.

 

Thanks RKJ. I got just the basic wireless too. Do you have a G router or N router? My current router is a G, I hope it will work with my new machine.

 

The basic 1x1 card is b/g/n compatible. I was only kicking myself because an Intel brand card was only a $10 upgrade.

At home, I have wireless g routers, no problems.

At school I noticed faster connection speeds, so they must have wireless n there in some areas. I've also been successful using those networks.

 

Probably to minimize distances.

 

Just got my T520 Friday. Nice computer. Fast. Quiet. Runs cool as an ice cube. Great keyboard. But man, is that screen beautiful. 1600x900 pixels of gorgeous color!! The only screen I've seen better is on the unibody Macbook Pros.

The bad news is that my computer came with a warped case bottom right out of the box, that causes the computer to rock a bit when typing on it. First computer I've ever owned that had that problem. And I've owned quite a few in my day. Still debating whether I want to send it back or not. I got a heck of a deal on it and who knows if I will ever get that same deal again. Maybe I can bend it back into shape?? Gotta sleep on it and figure it out tomorrow.

 

This is somewhat embarrassing, but I seem to have trouble removing the Trackpoint cap from my T520. I remember it was a simple pull and swap for the T400 - is it fixed on for the T520? I sort of have a few classic style ones left over and would like to swap them on.

I just have to pull harder, right?

 

Just need to pull harder.

 

On my T520 I have 110 processes running somehow. I'm trying to cut down but I don't know what to disable. How are people running just 50 processes??

I do have a retail copy of Win7 Pro - should I do a fresh install? I'm assuming all the drivers I need are online...correct?

 

you can download all the drivers from Lenovo website.

Not sure what sort of processes you got. I got about 110 processes running too, which includes various aftermarket softwares that i have. The best i can manage is about 80 processes.

 

While some Lenovo apps are useful, they do take a bit of resources. To get around the 50 mark you most likely need to do a clean install. I have around 47 processes when I first boot my machine on idle, I only use 2 Lenovo apps (Hotkeys & Power Manager) personally.

 

I've got 103 processes running right now, running the factory instal of Win 7. I'm ok with that.

 

I usually hover around 80-85 processes at boot, but I do have several utilities always running in addition to Lenovo processes. I did a clean install, so I only have the bare minimum, really: Power Manager, Hotkeys, Fn + F6 Communications Utility.

 

I see. Maybe I'm not too far off the norm then. Honestly, I don't feel like the computer is slow at all. I think the 8gb of ram and SSD really help in that regard. I think I'll keep it the way it is for now since I have everything the way I like it. I just don't think I'll ever use the restore discs I made. I'd rather just do a clean install.

 

Hi,

Just ordered T520 with few reservation and need your help/thoughts on the following:

Note: I'm a developer, so my main usage is Visual Studio type stuff; no graphic design or every playing games.

1. Integrated Graphics: Is the performance of this good enough to play 1080p stuff? Any reason I should upgrade to NVIDIA (dedicated GPU)?
   
2. 6 Cell Battery: I didn't like the 9 cell sticking out. Would any of the current 6 or 9 cell owners share your thoughts on the battery life.
   
3. SSD Add on (Afterward): I kept default HD and thinking of buying my own SSD and putting it in addition to the default HD. Anyone has such configuration? Any thoughts on it?

Thanks for your help in advance.

 

Hi,

Just ordered my 1st Lenovo T-520 lappy. Not having owned this brand before i got 3 years onsite warranty (going to replace my work laptop). Question for the existing/old timers T-series owners, how is the longevity of the T-series?

Basically, I am trying to see if my warranty $$ are well spent or might as well spend this money some where else.

thanks for your feedback.

 

I love my new T520 except I'm having such a hard time because mine came with the Fn key where the Ctrl key is supposed to be!! I thought my trouble was due to switching from my old laptop, but now I've noticed that of the 5 PCs I use, only the T520 has the misplaced Ctrl.

Steve

 

So I found in the BIOS that I could swap the Fn & Ctrl key functions, which works great.

 

there is no such thing as where the Ctrl key is supposed to be. my older asus also has that in a different position but i know it can be annoying. same deal with the t520 keyboard, I'm used to it now

 

My w520 is on the way! I ordered with the minimum 4 gb ram. They said it was in a slot under the keyboard so the two under the back cover should be open. I didn't check, but since they put 4 gb in one slot I'm assuming they don't have to be in pairs?

I was going to remove the 4gb and put 16 gb in, but if the channels are independent of each other I might just get 2 x 4 for the back cover slots for a total of 12 gb.

Any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations?

 

oopss sorry wrong thread, lol. My apologies.

 

I wanted to add a 2nd HDD to my T520 and was looking at this particular caddy.
Should I go for it or is there something else I should look at?
http://www.amazon.com/hard-drive-Ca...9A2A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1327764643&sr=8-2

 

Just ordered a New T520 from the Outlet

here are the specs:
Condition: New
Intel® Core™ i3-2350M (2.3GHz, 3MB L3, 1333MHz FSB)
4gb Ram
500 gb hard drive, 7200 rpm
15.6” HD+ (1600 X 900) LED
Intel® HD Graphics 3000
6 cell battery

Got it for just $638. It looked like a great deal to me. What do you guys think? Great thing is that it is brand new not refurbished.

I've been a long time admirer of Thinkpads but never thought I could afford one. I'm so excited to find this deal!

 

A couple of questions:

I have MSDNAA through my school so I can get a copy of Windows 7 for free. Should I do a clean install or is any of the preloaded stuff actually useful? My old HP came with so much crap that a clean install was pretty much necessary.

Would a clean install on the T520 speed up the computer and get an increase in battery life?


What is Enhanced Experience 2.0? and if I do a clean install will that go away?

 

Interesting. I know you are talking about the W520, but can you put 16 GB in a T520 (2 x 8GB)?

 

Most likely yes, I have 16GB RAM in my T420 so I doubt it be any different for the T520.

 

Neat! Do you notice much difference in speed or capability with the 16GB versus, say, 8 GB? I have 8 GB right now but see an upgrade in my future!

 

To be honest if your system was running smoothly under 8GB RAM then you won't notice any difference with 16GB RAM unless it happens that you either upgrade to a higher speed module (such as 1600/1866MHz RAM) where it can give the Integrated GPU a slight boost of speed or is already bottlenecking the 8GB RAM with highly intensive work.

 

Anyone else having trouble getting the space bar to register? I'm thinking I just need to break it in, although sometimes I strike it pretty well and it doesn't register, other times I barely hit it and it registers. I wonder if there's some kind of "smarts" that's protecting me from typing too fast or something.

 

I just canceled my order for the T520 because I found a L520 in the outlet with the same specs for just $300 !!!

now I can upgrade to 8gb ram and SSD and not feel guilty about spending a lot of money!

 

I got one of these a week ago. Awesome laptop. Completely satisfied with everything.

 

If screen size is not a deciding factor, could someone tell me what advantages does T520 offer over T420? Hope I am not missing something here.

 

the quality of the screen on the T520 is better.

 

Hmm, I understant T420 doesn't support 1080p but how's the 1600x900?

 

hey all I have 1600 x 900 on t520 and it's pretty sweet, personally, screen quality aside, the bigger desktop space is necessary if u dont have a screen to which you hook up your laptop

I wanted to ask if anyone here has had an issue with the keyboard
thinkpad keyboards have an awesome touch and mine did

what happened is I spilled a lil bit of sugary solution on the laptop which i cleaned quickly and didnt do any damage. i took the keys off just to clean them off in case sugar residues got caught in. I put them back in but the keys are a bit stiffer.

when i work them in a bit everything is pretty much back to normal but they still make a slight clicking sound that wasn't there before.

when i stop using it and reuse it after a while I have to work them in again for the feel to be comfortable.

anyone have an idea? Is cleaning the only solution here or did I somehow not place the keys back on the keyboard correctly? I didnt want to mess to much with washing but I am considering just getting liquid alcohol and cleaning the keypad and keys themselves

 

for users with a 6-cell battery, which notebook sleeve are you guys using?

I read that the lenovo 15 inch sleeve is too loose and not a snug fit. would like to know which one to order.

thanks