Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

Yeah, I just saw that, too.
If you can wait, it will be out sooner or later. I'll check the warranty information for you when my W520 gets here (I got the shipping notification on Friday) if someone hasn't done it by then.

 

Thats about exactly what im look for. could you share the rep info please?

 

Did anyone get 1000M instead of the 2000M? Can anyone supply benchmarks or feedback from games like Portal 2, Starcraft 2, etc? The only benchmark I can find is from Notebookcheck and it's only 3DMark06. It would be great if someone can give "real world" performance reviews.

Thanks!

 

I'll get back to you on that when I get my W520. My friend has both Portal 2 and Starcraft 2, so I'll install them and try them out when I go over to his house sometime during the week. I have the HD+ (1600x900) screen though, so I can't vouch for FHD performance. My guess is that they should run fine.

 

I have as of yet no first-hand experience with this, but if I recall correctly, a previous post on this forum confirmed that XMP-enabled HyperX parts will be throttled at 1333MHz. It was also confirmed that the new HyperX PnP parts will run at their rated speeds -- this was the case for the 1866MHz part in particular on a W520.

So far I have not seen any confirmation that the HyperX non-PnP non-XMP part (e.g., 8G vs. 8GX) will run at 1600MHz.

Based on this, I have returned my KHX1600C9S3K2/8GX parts, took a hit of $39.54 for restocking and shipping, and ordered the KHX1600C9S3P1K2/8G PnP as a replacement. I will not receive it until later this week, and it may be a while before I have a chance to test it, so please, don't hold your breath waiting for confirmation from me -- it may be slow in coming.

 

Yep, I've just been to Shanghai and the T/WX20 series was nowhere to be found only the T/WX10 serie.

 

Ok, next question: I'm currently using a 15.4" T61 with the 1680x1050 LCD and have no trouble reading text at 100%. It is bothersome to me to lose pixels, but I'm afraid that the FHD screen on the W520 is going to make everything too small and am therefore having a hard time deciding between it and the HD+ option. I don't want to mess with DPI settings, because in my experience a lot of programs other than Windows itself get very graphically screwy when you do that.

Any opinions from people going to the HD+ or Full HD screens from a 1680x1050 screen?

 

I am very interested in this as well. I would like to do some light gaming on the W520, but I'm not sure if the upgrade to the 2000M is worth it for me.

 

The 1680x1050 15.4" screen has a DPI of roughly 129, the HD+ screen has a DPI of roughly 118, and the FHD has a DPI of roughly 141.

Area wise, objects will appear about 19.5% larger on the HD+ screen and about 18% smaller on the FHD screen. If you can view the 1680x1050 screen comfortably and have good eyes, then I think you should be fine with the FHD screen.

 

You should check both screens side-by-side. I did and I ordered HD+.

 

This is the one I got (Seller uq511)

2nd HDD hard drive Caddy For LENOVO Thinkpad T510 W510

 

I got one of those too.

 

Yes it works, look at page 134.
.

 

Thanks Kevin for testing the Kingston 1866MHz KHX1866C11S3P1K2/8G memory. Based on your info and after reading this review: Kingston HyperX 8GB 1866MHz PnP Memory Kit For Notebooks - Sandy Bridge Notebooks Get HyperX Treatment - Legit Reviews
I ordered it.

 

I Just got the Laptop from the UPS man!

I am in process of replacing the 320 gig (WD Scorpio black) HDD with an OCZ Vertex 3 120 gig SDD.

There appears to be an SSD spacer needed, that is different from the aluminum 'cage' on the orig HDD.

The manual says:

Table 16. Removal st eps of SSD and SSD spacers


Does anyone know if this is the case, and if there is a p/n for it?




FYI:
Order date: 04/12/11
Received 05/02

 

As I recall from my T60p, you should be able to install the drive bay without the need for any spacers. If the drive is wiggling around, you can always use a wad of electrical tape (stuck to itself) wedged in the empty space to prevent movement.

 

Maybe this helps:
OCZ Vertex 3 Mis-Fit in W510/520 Primary Drive Bay - Lenovo Community
and this one has photos:
Lenovo ThinkPad W520 Review: First Thoughts Discussion - Storage Forums - Page 4

Please let us know how you get along. (My OCZ Vertex 3 is arriving today or tomorrow...)

 

I am looking to buy a Lenovo Thinkpad W520 with Nvidia Quadro 2000M graphics card.I want to know will it be able to handle Crysis 2 in max. settings or high settings?Are there any hardware problems like overheating and random shutting down,BSOD's and system crashes with this Thinkpad W520 laptop?Is this laptop having international on-site warranty?

 

Not sure about Crysis 2, but it'll run Portal 2 maxed out no problems. I've had no shutdowns at all. I use tpfancontrol to control fan speed however.

 

Everything you need to know here:

NVIDIA Quadro 2000M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

(there are extrapolated measurements for Crysis 2 here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html)

Other much smaller differences will be made by CPU speed and perhaps fast memory.

Cheers!

 

Update: Here is another review:
Kingston HyperX Memory Performance and Benchmarks
"If the PCMark and 3DMark synthetic benchmarks are to be believed, the system performance of the W520 decreased about 1-2 percent after the "upgrade." That said, it's important to point out that the additional RAM still proves beneficial if you have a large number of high-resolution images open in Photoshop or if you have multiple HD video files open in Adobe Premiere."

 

Does anyone here have a high end pair of headphones and tried them with the W520? I'm looking at buying HD595's but I want to know how good they sound without a DAC/amp. I do plan on getting a Fiio E7 later on.

 

I was wondering, do we need a gaming forum for thinkpads? It sure seems like they are becoming increasing popular to a wide variety of people for work and school. Of course many of us like the gaming diversion from our studies or work so it's starting to make sense.

Thoughts?

 

Yes, although I am not a gamer, I think it is a good idea to start a separate Thinkpad T520/W520 Gaming thread.

 

Totally agree with this!!!

 

Ha ha - a post that I can totally get into!

Not sure - I'll let you know once mine arrives (just shipped today): I have a set of Grado 325is headphones that will be used with this notebook.

Typically, I have found that notebooks have more power to drive full size cans than say an ipod or similar, but obviously much more line noise as well (you can hear HDDs spinning up, etc...).

If you have the budget, I recommend one of these:

HeadAmp - Audio Electronics (pico USB DAC/Amp)

If not, there are certainly other less expensive DAC / Amp combos that will work very well.

Not sure if you know of this forum, but Head-Fi.org - Headphone forums and reviews for audiophiles will have a ton of information on this subject.

 

woo hoo my order shipped from the future lol. It says it shipped on may 3 on the order status page (since china is I think about 12 hours difference)

the anticipation is killing me

 

biff2bart thanks for the info. I went ahead and ordered the 595's but I didn't order an amp. I've looked at the pico dac before but I think it's a lot more than I'd like to spend. But since I've spread out my cost by buying my headphones now and getting an amp later I might look into it when I want to buy.

Anyway, I'm less worried about the headphones not having enough power and more so about the sound quality. By the way, who doesn't know of Head-Fi

 

Can anyone vouch on how good the webcam is +audio?

 

I'm a long-time lurker, but yes, that is a thread I would definitely be interested in reading and participating in.

I still like to play the occasional game and wonder if how the thinkpads would do. Unfortunately, there is hardly any information out there.

Has anyone fired up Counter-Strike Source on any current thinkpad configuration?

 

Counter Strike Source is so old I bet it will work on any configuration. Even the integrated Intel HD 3000 should be able to play it just fine.

 

I have really enjoyed reading all of this and have another question: Tokend mentions he accidently messed up his ability to create a 'virgin copy' of a boot disk. Can someone help me understand if this is something I should be thinking of doing when my W520 arrives and how to do it? Is this the same as a 'restore disk?' Thanks for everyone helping! On a side note, I now feel confident enough to order and install my own RAM! Thanks everyone! Oh, one last question... should I use DVD-R or DVD+R to make my backups? (I want to go buy some DVD's to get ready!) I am excited again!

 

Whatever you have on hand is good. I think DVD+R has better compatibility though. I have a stack of 100+ DVD+R's, so I'll be using DVD+R when my W520 gets here. The last time I created a recovery disc, I had DVD-R's handy, so I used them. The discs still work (5+ years old).

 

I suspect the same, however I'm a little concerned about how it would run on the FHD (1920 x 1080) panel.

Would just like to see it confirmed.

 

I'm very aware that the 1000m and 2000m are not gaming cards, but I'd like to know if it is worth upgrading to the 2000m specifically for gaming as I do some occasionally. The 1000m meets my CAD needs otherwise, but does anyone know how well it holds up for games? I imagine it should be perfectly fine for older games but what about more recent ones? Benchmarks for the 1000 are scarce..

 

So, I gleefully unboxed my w520 today, snapped in the 3* 4 meg memory chips, pulled out the 320GB HDD, and slapped in my OCZ VERTEX 3 SATA III.

Glee has turned to pain as all day I have struggled with BSOD's and rebuilds.

I installed WIN 7 Ultimate from a new OEM disk, and so far, so good.

Here is the situation:


1) BIOS recognized the OCZ no problem
2) Install of win 7 was fine, but I get to the Windows Error Recovery after running updates.

3) Got back a couple of times after some mix and matching of
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot
bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd


Basically, it seems as if the Laptop looses 'visibility' to the OCZ intermittently?

Fixed disk OCZ is recognized in BIOS and during bios dignostic boot.


Other thoughts
Bios 1.21 2011-3-30
SATA in AHCI


Windows repair error 0x80070002


Any ideas?
ANyone else having any similar issues?

 

Any ideas?
ANyone else having any similar issues?[/QUOTE]

you might want to try it without the new memory chips just to isolate the problem to the drive. it could be a lot of things but try to just make one change at a time until you get it up and running.

 

Did you install the Intel RST (Rapid Storage Technology) drivers from the lenovo W520 drivers web page?

 

My GT330M can run CS:S on high (no AA) at WSXGA+ at 60+ FPS (depends on the map, but it is always above 30FPS), so the 1000M should be up to task for FHD.

For comparison, the GT330M gets ~6500 3Dmarks in 3DMark06, while the 1000M gets ~8000 3DMarks in the same benchmark, according to Notebookcheck.

 

That could be it... the problem with these sorts of situations is that being slower is the more prudent course of action. I would blow away the drive with a format and then start over from scratch without the extra RAM.

Install Windows 7. Run the the first round of critical updates but don't install any recommended updates or Windows Update drivers. Keep a piece of paper next to you and write down which updates were done at each restart.

After the first round of updates then install the drivers ONE-BY-ONE. Restart every time. If it all works then go back and install the recommended updates and finish with SP1. You should be able to narrow down the problem with a fair bit of certainty.

Obviously the steps above can be tweaked a bit but the take home message is do things one-at-a-time. Once you narrow it down then Google to see if others have the same issue.

 

I finally found some time to play with external monitors. I have Matrox DualHead2Go that I attached to minidock VGA port. W520 pick it up quickly and I could setup on VGA output two external screens 1920x1080 each. Hovewer, it allows me to configure resolution of 3840x1200 (not 3840x1080), and because of that image on my 1920x1080 (not 1920x1200) monitors look a little distored. I'm not sure, but this issue could be resolved if I connect Matrox to DVI port. But I just have DVI-I to VGA adaptors and do not have any DVI-D. I need to buy some and just try.

Did anybody try something like that?

 

Did you suffer from BSODs after installing OCZ Vertex?Was everything fine before that?

 

I'm looking to install the Vertex 3 in my W520 and have been researching this problem. It seems like a common issue and there's a thread at ocz vertex 3 with t520 quad core fails with BSOD -... - Lenovo Community that discuss the problem and solution. Look at the last few posts dealing with drivers.

Btw, did you have any issues fitting the Vertex 3 into the primary or secondary drive bays? I understand the drive is a bit too large the drive bays.

 

In 1600x900 and setting "advanced" (2 of 3) Crysis 2 runs at about 25-30 fps (according to fraps). That is with the nvidia settings at performance.

I have tried a lot of recent games to check out performance.. problems only occured in Metro 2033, where I had to reduce details considerably. Dirt 2, another directX 11 game runs smoothly with max. details and FHD.

While playing Crysis 2 the cpu temperature doesn't go above 75°C. Max Temp. was 80°C while encoding FHD video.

BTW, is it normal that the cpu clock doesn't go above 800 Mhz while on battery?

 

A question about Lenovo Thinkpad W520 durability.Is it having roll cage and does it pass the millitary specifications like dust,temperature,shock,etc.

 

I did not 'fire up' the w520 on the stock drive, so I only started after installing the OCZ. I have since reverted to the stock 320 g, and am intending to clone an image to the OCZ to see if that helps.

 

Thanks, I'll check those out!

YES! it is a 'bit' too snug, but I was able to get it to fit. I do need the lenove SSD bumpers to make the fit perfect, I think. Right now its OK, just very snug.

 

Someone please answer that whether the Lenovo W520 is having a roll cage.

 

Yes it does. It uses the same chassis as the T520. There are pictures earlier in this thread, too.

 

For all who wonder which graphics adapter is running presently, here's a link to the optimus test tool.

Optimus test tools finally in users hands - LaptopVideo2Go Forums