Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

dont think the ecoupons10 coupon works for canada I tried it with my visa order before. Have not been able to find a 2nd stackable coupon on top of the visaperks one

on the subject of reps the rep that gave me my deal was away in the afternoon. So I tried chatting with another rep who said they couldnt go lower then the visaperks offer (which is false because my 1st rep did)

 

I won't recommend my rep. He gave me about $100 less than what I got off the web with corp discount. The next day, Lenovo had the 48HOUR discount. I wanted him to credit me the difference. He said he will work on it and also said they don't usually give difference for web orders. On top of it, by the time he is done, his price will be the same price I get off the web. Not happy at all.

 

Can't you just refuse the shipment when your laptop arrives? I know lenovo outlet charges 15% fee even for refused. But Lenovo store should not. You need to duble check it. If you can than do that and place another order with lower price!

 

Just tell him you want to cancel the order because it is cheaper to do so. Don't wait, when they starts to ship the laptop out, it will be a know lot of inconvenience for you to return it without the 15% discount.

 

I just ordered this config.

1 4270CT CONFIGURED SYSTEM
05/10/11 $1,571.43 $1,571.43
0A68541 SBB ICI7-2720QM
45M3090 VBB GENUWIN7PROFES.64
0A68625 SBB GW7P64 E
0A68535 SBB 15.6FHD (1900 X 1080) LED
0A68894 SBB NVQ2000M GR
45M4572 VBB 4GBPC3-10600DDR3 1333SODMM
45M4839 SBB KEYBOARDUS ENGLISH
0A68526 VBB FINGERPRINT READER
0A68558 SBB 720P HD CAM INT MICR
0A69620 SBB I RAID-NOT EN
0A68552 SBB 320GB HDD7200RPM
0A68547 SBB DVD RC8XMXDLLRULTEHATA
0A68528 VBB ECS+4IN1CR+SCR
45M4816 SBB 9CELLLI-ION BATTERY
0A68904 SBB CPNAMLC+ 170W AC AD
0A68261 SBB BLUETOOTH 3.0
45M4804 SBB IN.CENT.ULTIMATE-N 6300
44C7950 SBB INT WRLSSWDAREANTWRK UPGR
0A68564 SBB LANG PCK US E
0A68561 SBB SMART CARD READER
41C9169 2YR Depot Warranty

It was a pretty good deal (significantly better than web pricing and even about $160 less than an EPP site I tried going through), although I feel like I probably could have haggled a little bit more. I heard that someone got a better deal through a different rep (3YR onsite warranty, 500GB HDD, and color sensor all for $100 more) but I'm happy with this config.

 

That's the Windows XP Mode option under Windows 7. Basically it is a virtualized version of XP Pro SP3 for running applications that have compatibility issues with Windows 7 (for example 16-bit applications under 64-bit Windows). You can make it full screen or windowed if you like. I have it installed on all of my current Windows 7 desktops and laptops but I only powered it up once and have never needed it. Even if you didn't get it from Lenovo, it is a free download from Microsoft for systems running Windows 7 Pro, Ultimate, and Enterprise.

More info here: Windows XP Mode

 

ukieandrew and k2001 - I think I am going to have to live with it to avoid the delay in getting the W520. My current laptop is really on its last leg. Sometimes I have to hit it several times in different places to get it to start up. Don't think I can risk waiting any longer.

 

Anyone has a eCoupon for Germany?

Please PM me. Thanks!

 

Sorry budder12, we can't PM you! Perhaps you don't have enough posts yet? Anyways, if you e-mail me I will give you the contact information for my rep who might be able to help you.

 

hope you have your stuff backed up

 

Great, my email is [email protected]

Thank you in advance.

 

I have used t43p (pentium m 770?, 2gb ram, 180 gb hdd, etc) since 2005.
Recently it was dead because of graphic card issue. This is a kind of the last IBM model. (Anybody interested in this?? )

For a new laptop, I was interested in HP dv6tqe, but it has been delayed 3 times. Now I'm interested in W520 and become a newbie here .

I got an estimate from a Lenovo rep for the following spec:
Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor (2.20GHz, 6MB L3)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
NVIDIA Quadro 1000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory
4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
UltraNav with TrackPoint & touchpad plus Fingerprint reader
500 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)10
2yr onsite and protection warranty

How long does take from order to delivery for W520? A Lenovo rep said theoretically 10days is possible. I couldn't believe it.

Second, i have read the thread from the beginning. Most people ordered W520 through Lenovo, but not many people ordered preconfigured one through online stores. What is the main reason for it? Some preconfigured models have a little better options.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

 

if anyboy has a good canadian rep that can get me more off then the visaperks offer (I have one but its about $80) but as anyone would do I am always looking for a better one. pm me if you do. My rep wouldnt throw anything else in the deal he said he could not do it so I am wondering how you got a freebie. I have no use for a dock but even something like a laptop bag would be fine

 

Can anyone confirm if the W520 BIOS allows you to swap the left Control and FN keys? I prefer my Control key to be the leftmost key on the keyboard (as is standard in most keyboards).

 

What was the price for this W520 specs?

 

I received my W520 yesterday. So far it is working great. It is running much cooler than my W510. However I am very surprised to see that the boot up time is more than 1 min instead of 20 seconds that was claimed. By contrast, W510 boot up time is very short! Do you guys have any thoughts on this?

My W520 is equipped with i7-2720QM, FHD, 4G RAM, 2GB NVIDIA Quadro 1000M Graphics, 500G 7200RPM.

Here is the windows experience index:
Processor: 7.5
Memory: 5.9
Graphic: 4.9 !!!!!!
Gaming Graphic: 6.6
Hard Disk: 5.9

Very interesting, the graphic value of W520 is lower than that of W510 with FX 880M.

 

When did you place your order?

 

Not a great deal. $1694 (W520 $1495 + 2yr onsite protection $199) before tax
If I can't get a better deal, I may buy a preconfigured one: 427637U
Everything looks the same excepting wireless card 6205?, 8GB ram and 3yr basic warranty

 

I made the order on April 1.

 

Thanks, not sure why mine is suppose to take a week longer. BTW, if anyone uses Premier CS5 at all and got the 1000m, here's a link to hack it to work with the Mercury playback engine.

Adobe Premiere CS5 Video Cards with CUDA Acceleration Mercury Playback Unlock Enable MPE Hack Mod Tip

 

you mention that it is running cooler compare to w510, so can you tell me how is fan noise & also any cpu whine noise..

thanks

 

Hi nni123. The fan is running most of time (the air is cold, not hot) although the temp is very low around 40 degree. It is just like my other thinkpads X301, T410. Maybe I am not very sensitive to the noise. I did not get any cpu whine so far.

But compared to W510 with i7-720, this W520 is so cool.

Also I did not find any screen freezing on W520 which I saw frequently on W510.

 

So at least there is no serious delay, right? That's great. I was tired of HP delay....

 

I'm sure you can find better. Here is what I got:

I7-2720QM
15.6FHD (1920 X 1080)
NVQ2000M
COLOR SENSOR
4GBPC3-10600DDR3 1333SODMM
FINGERPRINT READER
720P HD CAM INT MICR
500GB HDD7200RPM
9 CELLL I-ION BATTERY
CPNAMLC+ 170W AC AD
BLUETOOTH 3.0
IN.CENT.ULTIMATE-N 6300
LENOVO THINKPLUS 3 YEARS - ON-SITE
LENOVO MINI DOCK PLUS SERIES 3 - 170W
TOTAL - $1,882 plus TAX

 

It depends. Most of time it will be shipped in 8 days or 2 weeks.

Also I suggest that you use UPS 2-day ship instead of UPS ground which really sucks.

 

I just got my W520 yesterday too. Mine is very similiar to yours but with the 320G HDD instead. I also noticed the slow boot times; my T61 with 2GB RAM and a Seagate hybrid HDD boots Windows (both running Win7) quite a bit faster. I ordered the Intel 310 eSATA and 4GB RAM (Samsung is what mine shipped with) today, so I am holding out judgement on the boot time until I finish tinkering, but like you I was a bit puzzled at the boot time.

Awesome machine though; I'm loving it so far.

 

All new Thinkpad model allow you to switch the FN Ctrl key.

 

Probably because it's partially using the integrated GPU (optimus).

 

My thought on the long HDD boot times was that we have EE 2.0 but it is likely not activated when received.

At least I haven't activated mine, if it is necessary. I did change to a SSD however and that solved the problem.

The user guide returned "no items" when I searched for Enhanced Experience 2.0. I suppose it is one of those things the marketing department felt was necessary to sell a lot of laptops but the engineers couldn't figure out how to imlement.

Even with the SSD however I do get a 60 second lag until the logon password screen. After that it boots up in 15 seconds from password entry.

Perry

 

Pardon my ignorance, but what is EE? (Others may be wondering too)

EDIT: Never mind, I am dumb. EE = Enhanced Experience based on previous post.

 

Were you using the 170W power supply and Max performance power profile before running WINSAT?

Doesn't look like it.

 

Yep. better deal.

 

Yes, I used 170W power and max performance.

 

Spot on ... In the Bios you can set the graphics to integrated, discrete and optimus. If you want best battery and slowest graphics then set the Bios to integrated and disable the Optimus aware OS support. If you want to have the fastest settings, then set the Bios to discrete and disable the Optimus aware OS support.

Is you leave it at Optimus (plus Optimus aware OS support) then you get these intermediate results. Perfectly understandable and perfectly normal.

 

Slow boot up times can happen for several reasons. Once I get my system, I'll try to install a completely clean version of Windows 7 and see what happens.

The graphic numbers seem very suspect. On a Dell XPS m1340 laptop, simply setting Optimus to Max (or is High?) Performance I can get much higher graphic scores and the system is almost 2 years old. You might want to try to BIOS settings as wditters suggested.

Lastly, those of you that have gotten your W520 laptops... have you tried tweaking using ThrottleStop? I'd be interested see the results people are getting with tweaking the Turbo settings.

 

Almost pulled the trigger on a Macbook Pro 15", however looking on-line before ordering I found the W520. Could not pass it up! OSX will have to wait for me

Intel Core i7-2720QM
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080)
NVIDIA Quadro 1000M
No Color Sensor
4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM
500 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)

TOTAL: $1,583.10 (plus tax) with 10% for being a new customer.

Getting 8Gb RAM from Crucial for $94, and at some point I will drop in a nice Intel SSD in there...

 

Congrats on your purchase! The Crucial RAM is a pretty good deal but it is DDR3-1333. The single 4GB module coming with the W520 is also DDR-1333. The i7-2720 (and the 2 higher CPUs available on the W520) can run DDR3-1600. While I'm pretty sure the actual benchmarks may not show much improvement, Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) kit is DDR3-1600 for $99 from NewEgg. 16GB of RAM for $198 isn't bad at all.

I won't stake my reputation on the W520 being 100% compatible (both with mixing 2 RAM types or with the faster DDR3-1600 RAM alone) without a field report but this is another option. Once I have my laptop, I'll order the Kingston RAM from NewEgg and post a field report both with mixing modules and pure DDR3-1600. If there is a problem then I'll be able to return to RAM. I can always sell the DDR3-1333 4GB module to one of you for a couple of dollars if it all works out.

 

Anybody know how long after you make an order you can cancel it or even if you can cancel it as long as it has not shipped. I plan on being sneaky and ordering on the last day of the visaperks deal. So I can see what the easter sales are on the off chance it is better

 

As a general rule they will let you cancel the order prior to shipment and not charge you the restocking fee (ask and verify anyway when you cancel.)

However, it is has been known for them to ship the order, even up to a week, after cancellation (Been there, done that). If that is the case your card will have the charges on it until you can get the laptop back to them and they can go through their check on it. It could be three weeks or more before you get the credit back. Absolute pain, if you have a limited budget.

 

also don't hold your breath that they will put lot of discount on w520 series. I still remember when W510 had no coupon compare to T410 series had good discount... sometime it is weird... just give or take

 

I actually changed my order yesterday, two days after submitting it, so some variation is possible:

Upgraded from HD+ to FHD resolution after initially deciding that I didn't think that I would want FHD on a 15" screen (was worried that it was going to be too small); in hindsight I think it will be good for the amount of CAD work that I'll be doing so I switched.

Also, decided to get the 500GB drive instead of the 320GB just because it was a cheap upgrade and it's just one less thing to think about...

So, order modifications can be done and they matched my pricing as well (though the Chat rep had to check first as she wanted to cancel then re-issue the order at higher pricing). It will possibly set delivery back a couple of days, but really, who cares. Overall, stoked - hoping that this turns out to be the laptop that everyone is raving that it is because if so it'll pay for itself within a couple of months worth of work.

hrana: let us know what happens with the 1600 RAM - I think there will be a lot of people interested in this because the cost for 16gb of 1600 is only about $50 more than the cost for 16GB of 1333. If the performance is noticeable, I think it would be the way to go (and as you said, sell off the single 1333 stick for 25 bucks or something). If it's only noticeable in benchmarkes (i.e. makes a 1-2% difference on some graph that doesn't mean anything in real life), the I think the 1333 RAM will be fine for me

 

good to know thanks I doubt the next visaperks offer will be better or the easter sale will be better. But good to know just in case

As for full HD I didnt think the $200 was worth it to me

I will be interested in this ram discussion as well.

So what was your new order config and how much did it cost. Did you get any more off of the visaperks deal or get any freebies with it

 

I think FHD is must as I have compare 1600x900 with 1900x1080 resolution on FHD. If you are coder that helps.

 

Yes, definitely want to hear about the 1600 RAM working

As far as screen res, my current laptop is a Sony Vaio with 14.1" 1600x900. I'm never going with much lower DPI, love all the screen real estate. One of the reasons I ended up not getting the Macbook Pro was that the stock screen is 1400x900, and at over 15" that's just crap at that price. I had to go on-line to order the 1680x1050, so I started looking at other laptops. W520 was hard to find, not many reviews, etc., but I sure am glad I did!

Can't wait to get it, I'm really tired of cheap, crappy laptops.

Polbit

 

Here was my initial build:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/7367768-post546.html
$1375 + tax

Only two changes to the new build:

Screen resolution:HD+ --> FHD
Storage: 320GB HDD --> 500GB HDD

New cost was ~$1545 + Tax I think, so both upgrades totaled about $170.

Still will order the 80GB Intel 310 and more ram as well once I have a ship date (and perhaps once I see what happens when Hrana gets the 1600 ram installed).

At the end of the day, I'm not going to nickel and dime these guys for +/- $100 or so. I can make that back in a couple of days worth of work easily if this thing is as fast as people are saying. The price for the technology is already so awesome and the pricing is so insanely good compared to other areas (like Europe) that I'm not complaining at all.

 

Just FYI, if you upgrade your wireless card to Intel Advanced N then you would be compatible with Intel Wireless Display technology.

 

Just wanted to start by saying thanks for all the information everyone has shared. I've dug through all 70+ pages so far and there have been some really useful posts here.

Now I have a couple questions. Someone upthread asked if the W520 graphics cards are upgradeable. A couple people responded that, based on their reading of the manual, it probably isn't. However, a Lenovo rep told me in chat that it is upgradeable. So I just want to confirm whether she was incorrect or has some new information come to light that the earlier commenters weren't aware of. Right now the W520 is first on my list of laptop candidates, just ahead of the recently announced HP 8560W. The ability to upgrade the graphics card in the future could influence my final decision though.

Second, does anyone know why there is no direct HDMI support built into portable workstations offered by Lenovo, Dell and HP? Is it as simple as "there isn't enough demand in the business sector"? Personally, I have some clients where HDMI would be a nice feature to have when I visit because they have consumer grade LED or plasma displays in their conference rooms.

 

Because it is more versatile to just have the DisplayPort. DP -> HDMI cables are really cheap (under $10)...
Video Cables - DisplayPort

 

Thanks man.

For some reason I had thought DisplayPort couldn't transmit audio, but reading up quick on the subject, I've found that it's possible. I just haven't had DP on any computer I've used.

 

I'll definitely do that. I have two 2GB DDR3-1066 modules here in another laptop so I can be sure to try all sorts of different combinations of DDR3-1066, DDR3-1333, and DDR3-1600 in the W520. I could use some help with the types of benchmarking software I'd need to use. SiSoft Sandra is the only one I can think of off the top of my head to do synethic benchmarks. What else would people like to see?

Until we see a picture of the motherboard in a tear-down by a brave soul I will stand by my earlier post in this thread and say that an upgrade is not possible. If you really want upgradeable graphics then you need to look at laptops equipped with MXM modules. An incomplete list of MXM laptops can be found here. The other option is for you to use something like a ViDock so an external video card can be connected to a laptop. Lastly, if those options aren't good enough then I suggest sticking to a desktop rather than a laptop. I use different types of computers for different things because one-form-factor does not suit my various needs.

I believe the W510 has DisplayPort with Audio so I suspect the W520 will too. It should work but, again, we need a field report to confirm.