Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

Thanks for the tip. Typing "Disk Management: in the W7 search bar I found that my USB stick is:

Healthy (Active, Primary Partition)

How do I get it to be Healthy (System,Active, Primary Partition) ?

Or does it say "System" only when you actually have booted up with the USB stick?

 

Any Linux users here? Just wondering if anyone has been able to get some thermal readings from this notebook under Linux... it works fine under Windows 7, but under Linux it has been another story. Currently running kernel 2.6.39.2.

 

dimm0k:

You should be able to get the temperatures using lm-sensors and the xsensors frontend to it. I don't have a W520 yet, but here is how to would set up lm-sensors:

1. Install lm-sensors (could also be called lm_sensors). It should be either in the repository or on the SlackBuilds website.

2. Run sensors-detect as root. Just answer yes to all the questions.

3. When sensors-detect finishes, it will give you a list of kernel modules you need to load. For my computer (not W520), the modules were coretemp and sbs. To load them, you would run, as root:

Code:

#replace with your modules
modprobe coretemp
modprobe sbs

If you want them to load at boot, just type in the modules in /etc/modules (one module per line).

4. Now, just run xsensors and it should give you your motherboard/hard drive/CPU/etc temperatures.

 

No offense to you linux folk, but does it really make sense to have a linux oriented discussion in this massive thread?

If I were you, I would start a linux w520 owners and users thread.

 

Mind reposting your reply to http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/590217-lenovo-w520-owners-linux.html#post7645501 ?

No offense taken... seems like everything was getting thrown into this one thread, but it would definitely make sense to start a new one.

 

I think that in general we need to split the owners threads up to 4-5 subthreads each. For a newbie to come in and check out a W520 (or whatever he wants in whatever "owners thread") would be crazy to have to read 311 pages of material.

It becomes worthless data.

 

I read 300 some pages before I posted ... But my wife thinks I'm crazy already, so it's probably ok.

But I agree with you. What sub threads do you propose?

 

dimm0k: Just reposted

 

speaking of which, i read this thread up to ~250 and remember seeing somewhere the correct way to install RAM.

Mine came with 4GB and i just ordered 2 more 4GB sticks, how should i install it (as in which slots)?

 

Download the maintenance manual it is pretty specific. I recall that you put 2 sticks under the keyboard and one stick in the bottom.

The single stick goes on one side on the W520 and the other on the X220. But the maintenance manual is specific and also is very helpful in removing the keyboard.

 

Thanks! =)

In case there's any confusion with the manual, this should definitely clear it up... Lenovo Support - What is the correct DIMM slot order to populate additional memory DIMMs - ThinkPad W510, W701, W701ds

 

Thanks!

BTW, in case anyone needs it, one of today's newegg shellshockers is 2 x 4GB of Kingston DDR3 1333 for 56.99 + free shipping:
http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellShocker.aspx?cm_sp=ShellShocker-_-20-139-482-_-06282011_1

 

I do think this one is the correct one:
Optimizing memory in W510 - which slots to use - Lenovo Community,
It is conflict with the one on the lenovo site. I remember my machine came with 2X2GB Ram on slot 0 and 1 in the link. If the one on the lenovo site is correct, then it came with the wrong population.

 

Actually that link is wrong. In the hardware maintenance manual, the description matches up with the other link I provided. I believe in your link, which I have referenced before, the picture is wrong but the description is right.

 

So you think the machine came with the wrong population of the 2X2GB Ram? It is possible though.

 

It's possible... if you only have the two sticks in your system, then run memtest86+ and it should tell you whether you're running in dual channel or not. You can download a bootable CD here Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool. If you are in dual channel then you're good to go. If not, move one chip around and see if it changes. Please report back to verify!

 

Right now I have CPU-Z recognize the Memory as dual channels on the "Memory" Tab. I have 2X2GB and 2X 4GB installed. CPU-Z shows: slot#1 4G; slot#2 4G; slot#3 2G; slot#4 2G.

 

I am close to pulling the trigger on a W520. I used to have a T61p when they first came out before it died about a year and a half ago with a fried mobo and hd.

I have a few questions about the system though. I take it that the chasis is the same as the old t61p except for the relocation of the speakers along the side? (according to their tech support it's the same computer?)

Also, how does the 1000m compare to the 2000m. I have looked at notebookcheck but that isn't the same as actual user experience a lot of times.

I am buying the laptop for law school next year. I will do some light gaming on the side when time allows during the semester and hardcore gaming during the summer and winter at nights.

I also use the full adobe suite in my spare time. (primarily acrobat, premiere, photo shop, after effects, and flash) and the occasional messing around in 3DSmax and a few sound suites.

I know that the 2000m and 1000m aren't gaming cards but has anyone had any driver issues with them? What is the likelihood that I'll have an issue when D3 is released?

Thanks

I really miss my thinkpad and its keyboard and that's probably the main reason why I am headed back towards one.

 

Well, I just purchased a W520 (BIOS version 1.24) - i7-2720QM, NVIDIA Quadro 2000M, 15.6" FHD 1920x1080 LED, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD. Like you, I play games on occasion. I also owned a T43 once upon a time. Went to HP (got a great deal through work) then decided to go back to the ThinkPad. Nothing like the keyboard and solidity of the build.

I purchased another 12GB from Newegg and installed that shortly after receiving the W520. There was some sluggishness with only 4GB of RAM. Nothing earth shattering, but definitely noticable.

Playing HL2, Portal, Doom 3, Mass Effect 2 all on high settings, the games are smooth and run great. I changed the bios to discrete graphics and noticed better performance as well. I can't speak for the 1000M, but I'm thrilled with the capability of the 2000M.

One thing I have an issue with is that the left palm rest gets a little warm. The rest of the family doesn't seem to mind, so it's probably just me. I wouldn't see this as a showstopper.

I have an HP 8540w for work that has the NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M and quad core Intel Core i7 740QM and an FHD LCD. It's not a dreamcolor, but the clarity of the LCD is quite nice. The W520 LCD is as good or better imho. Also, compared to the W520, the keyboard is not quite a solid, nor is the DVD tray. Real loose.

Overall, I would choose the W520 again without hesitation. Get the minimum RAM and order more from Newegg or Amazon. The Corsair 4GB sticks worked great. You might consider an SSD, but the 500GB HDD is still pretty fast.

Oh, if you want to have RAID in the future, make sure you order it with 2 HDD because you can't enable it later. Not an issue for me, but some have been very disappointed by this.

 

The 1000M works perfectly fine for my purposes. I use the machine for casual stuff like 1080p videos, 720p videos, web surfing, etc. and the occasional game (SCII, Sims 3, Vindictus). I run SCII and TS3 at native resolution (1600x900) and the highest settings possible, and Vindictus at native resolution and normal settings. Other less intensive games run fine without even touching the Quadro 1000M (yes, Optimus actually deems some games so unintensive that it doesn't even use the dGPU). I'll probably be using it for software development as well, I have no doubt that it'll be plenty fast.

Yes, the left palm rest gets warm when playing games, but that's because both the CPU and GPU are sort of under it.

 

Trying to use the Barnes and Noble discount but the code that's given at the first page on the upper right doesn't work. I end up paying 2000 for a W520 with the same specs others are paying 1600 for.

You register, you're given a password, you sign in...how much of a discount should I expect? Thanks for any help.

Last Thinkpad I had was a 500. The changes will be interesting.

 

i went from a t61p to a w520 and they are two different machines. i maxed mine out and haven't looked back. everything about it seems better than the t61 for my use. the screen doesn't compare. i gave my wife my t61p so i can watch them side by side. the w520 seems sturdier. no flex in the keyboard and the frame around the lcd seems much tighter. i put a vertex 3 ssd in it and it was smoking fast. had fw issues with the vertex and bought an intel 510. solid as a rock but noticably slower than the vertex. i use mine in a port replicator most of the time at work and use 2 screens and that works great. with the ssd there is almost no lag with anything i do with it. i think you'd be better off going with a slower processor and putting in an ssd if you can't do both. i tried the v3 in my t61 while wating for the 520 and almost canceled my order because of the speed difference with the ssd. glad i didn't but the ssd made it run like a completely different machine.

 

I'm shopping for a laptop now and this is great to hear. I'm only going to be getting the bare bones model with the 1000m and i7-2620M. Does anyone else have any experiences running games with this setup? I'll be upgrading to the 1600x900 as well.

Also has anyone had problems with drivers and the 1000m or no?

Thanks, I really appreciate this since it seems all the reviewers were given a $3000 model that really isn't relevant to the laptop that I am considering.

And if anyone knows of a good place to buy the W520 that would be helpful too. Also is there actually a web sale at Lenovo's official store, or does it always say this?
"Web Sale Price:"
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=E369A2C7D3B0DE2213695476685EE22B

 

I think I am buying this.

The obvious drawbacks are the amount of ram (I plan on newegging more of course) and the HD I plan on getting a SSD after I save a little money. Do I need to get the centrino wireless?


System components
Intel Core i7-2820QM Processor (2.30GHz, 8MB L3)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
NVIDIA Quadro 2000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory
4 GB DDR3 - 1333MHz (1 DIMM)
UltraNav with TrackPoint & touchpad plus Fingerprint reader
720p Camera
Internal RAID - Not Enabled
320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD recordable multiburner
Express Card Slot & 4 in 1 Card Reader
9 cell Li-Ion Battery - 55++
Country Pack North America with Line cord & 170W AC adapter
Bluetooth 3.0
ThinkPad b/g/n
Integrated Mobile Broadband - Upgradable
Fingerprint Reader

 

From my experiences, it acts weird at times with SCII, where the frame rates are lower than they should be. Though, after some tinkering, it seems that SCII runs fine as long as I run TS3 and close it before I start SCII. Nothing too bad, though. In terms of gaming performance, expect around a GT 540M for the Quadro 1000M and around a GT 555M for the 2000M. I find the laptop to be plenty fast in the bare minimum configuration + Intel Centrino Ultimate N 5300 + 1600x900 screen.

I'd say go for the 2720QM unless you REALLY need that extra bit of performance. The Centrino Ultimate N 6300 is somewhat better than Realtek/Atheros solutions, in my testing with friends. The margin is about 25% in transfer rate (3.5 ~ 4 MB/s copying vs 4.5 ~ 5 MB/s copying) at the same position.

 

I don't NEED the extra performance. However, I am expecting this laptop to last me 3 years through law school and at least my first year as a professional as a work / personal computer.

I am trying to future proof it as much as I can.

On a different note, has anyone added an after market blu-ray burner / reader to their W520?

 

I believe the difference is minimal (see this), as in <5%. Yes, people have added Blu-ray drives to their W520, it was mentioned much earlier in this thread.

 

I can snag the same system I posted + a Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (2x2 AGN) instead of the lenovo wifi card for $1,854.49.

Will the price come down at all over the next month with a back to school sale or anything? (I'm using an academic discount + 4th of July code right now) I need to have a delivery date by the second week in August as a time frame so this would put ordering it at the latest the 31st of July.

 

I am a fan of the 6300 card because of the extra antenna's ability to pick up weaker wifi signals where I travel. At a large university I would think you would be blanketed with good wifi so you may not need that 3rd antenna, but it doesn't cost much and unlike the X220 doesn't cost you the camera as it will coexist with an integrated camera.

 

Hello W520 owners
I'm thinking about this system but I would love to get an SSD, for performances but mainly for power consumption (I need longer battery life!).
I found a good offer in a local store for this:

Samsung SSD 128GB 2,5"" (6.3cm) 470 [MZ-5PA128]

Is there someone here that uses this SSD on the W520? Is it a good choice?
Thanks!

 

The Samsung 470 has been highly rated, as far as I've seen here on NBR as well as Newegg. Personally, I use an Intel 320, which I'm happy with. Haven't tested power usage vs a hard drive yet, though I hope I could get at least half an hour increased battery life (but I didn't think of battery life when buying an SSD, I bought one for performance reasons).

 

To be honest, the SSD isn't going to give you a tremendous amount of additional battery life. The newer HDDs these days have very good power saving features and some SSDs can actually use more power during read/write than some HDDs.

But from a performance standpoint, HDDs cannot compare to SSDs.

 

I ordered my W520 with Lenovo's ssd, which turned out to be the Samsung 470.

Power consumption... not sure if this one will give you more battery life. I get 7 - 8 hours on web browsing and light duty tasks, with medium brightness settings.

Performance... slower than the SATA III ssd's, but miles ahead of the fastest hdd's. I can get to a usable firefox window from using the fingerprint reader to boot, in about 40 seconds. Shut down is about 10 seconds. Everything loads up almost instantly.

Quality... I think it's safe to say that Samsung makes the best ssd's on the market. There's a reason why everyone wants to get their hands on Samsung's new msata ssd. Haven't heard many issues about the 470 series.

If you can get a good deal on the 470, and don't mind the slightly slower speed compared to SATA III ssd's, then pull the trigger and join the ssd movement

 

It all depends... Let's say you pay 100$ more for a system that is 1% faster and you make $100 per hour with it, the upgrade could have paid for itself in 100 hours!

 

Thanks guys, you convinced me (pretty easily )
I will purchase this 470 SSD before the offer expires, I will get the SSD before the W520 eheh
The W520 will come with a 500gb, I will probably buy a case an use it as an external backup hard drive.
At first I was thinking about a larger SSD, like 250 gb but I just realized that I live on a 100gb hd and is always half empty lol. The 128gb will be more than enough, I'm so curious to try the SSD difference

 

Woo hoo!
So I've been following the w520 since it was announced and finally pulled the trigger with the B&N discount, 4th of July Discount and $200 back from Chase I got it down to an affordable bit!
Went with the
Core i7-2720QM
Quadro 2000M
and 1920x1080
options
So I'm stoked! My T61p died last November I had had since it was released... I'm working on a 2004 mac mini now running unbuntu... egh.

But I went with the default 4 gigs of ram with 1 stick stuck in there intending to upgrade to 16 gigs. So my question is as follows:
Does the w520 support pc15000 RAM or pc12800 RAM? I know it takes 10600 RAM...
Has anyone tried this and do they see an appreciable performance boost?
Work on this will be primarily AutoCAD, 3DStudio Max, Photoshop and CDMW3 (some day).
Thanks!
Now the waiting begins!

 

I'm thinking about buying a W520 this summer with:
Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor (2.20GHz, 6MB L3)1
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 6412
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
NVIDIA Quadro 1000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory
4 GB DDR3 - 1333MHz (1 DIMM)8
UltraNav with TrackPoint & touchpad plus Fingerprint reader
320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm4
DVD recordable multiburner5
9 cell Li-Ion Battery - 55++60
Bluetooth 3.0
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)10
Integrated Mobile Broadband - Upgradable65
4270 : 1 Year Depot Warranty - TopSeller
And the dock

I'm just wondering if the 1000m will be enough to power a Dell U2711 (2560 x 1440) and the built in one at the same time. I'd like to be able to play 1080p videos on both displays at once. I do not want any lag at all. I don't game much at all and if I do it's usually a fairly old game anyway. I do not do much video editing or anything that would like the extra CUDA cores.

How much faster is the 2000m over the 1000m? I've tried to figure this out by searching but I can't seem to find a good answer.

 

Here's another confirmation of RAM location... Re: W510 wont detect 16GB RAM - Lenovo Community

 

The 1000M is quite a powerful GPU, slightly faster than the GeForce GT 540M in terms of processing power. I haven't tried that configuration, but I doubt that there will be any problems. In theory, the 2000M has twice the computational power of the 1000M, as it has twice the number of shaders, but other specs are the same, so I'm guessing it is more like a 40 ~ 50% performance increase in games (FPS wise).

 

Hey guys I was considering ordering the W520 and had a question about the Barnes and Noble Gold Account discount ( Lenovo - Barnes and Noble Gold.) I'm not sure if this is the right place for that but hopefully you can help.

I can only find that page through links from forums or other places and not directly from google or lenovo's site. Do I have to actually be a member of some special program to use that discount, because just by creating an account from that link I can access the discount without doing anything to prove I'm part of a program.

 

I'm thinking about pulling the trigger on this too if I can get the price down a little more. How did you get $200 back from Chase?

 

How much did you pay at the end? What did you exactly do? Is the chase discount just for chase member or is there a discount for master card/visa card members?

Thx.

 

visa has a discount. you have to go to the visa site and then follow the links to discounts and log on to the lenovo site through the visa link. that's how i ordered mine.

 

I've had my W520 for about 2 months. I have been "hand-rolling" driver updates so far. At first, it was sort of fun. Checking which version of each driver that I had, determining whether there was a newer version and whether I should install it, downloading the update, and so on.

But, for all the drivers needed and the frequency of updates, I can't keep up this pace. I understand that ThinkVantage System Update will determine when and what updates I need, and install them automatically.

However, I am basically leery of anything that promises to take care of my system automatically. I recall the bluetooth driver update fiasco, various BIOS fits and starts, and assorted other issues that have rendered users' systems less usable than before they were "updated," or worse.

If one uses TVSU, does one get to pick and choose which updates to install? Do you use TVSU, and if so, how has it been for you?

 

Yes, you control what you download and install.

 

Well, I bit the bullet and ordered today. Thanks to everyone here for the B&N tip, you saved me something like a hundred bucks. Of course, if I'd never found these forums I likely wouldn't have discovered the W520, so in that sense you all *cost* me the $700 more I spent than I planned... but it's okay, I'd rather pay $1700 for something I want than $1000 for something I don't.

I think this will be an improvement over the Z61m I'm typing this on right now. Just a little bit. I can hardly wait until I can have Netbeans *and* Outlook open at the same time... and I can't even imagine what it's gonna be like to go longer than 30 minutes on battery...

 

The way I use TVSU is without any automatic updates. The benefit for me is that I can install Windows, pop in the wireless driver and TVSU then check all the drivers I want and walk away while it installs everything for me.

I don't worry about updating drivers unless something isn't working on my system. Once everything is working, why worry? Turn on Windows update for security updates but I don't see the point in constant driver updates.

 

So B+N, and 4th of July, what else could i do to bring this down into a more reasonable price?

Its about 19% off I believe but with taxes I end up spending more than I would like to. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions? Last resort would be to chose the lower processor but I would rather not.

 

To be honest I think you'll be hard pushed to notice a major difference between the i7-2720QM and the i7-2820QM in real world situations, $200 seems quite steep for marginal gains.

Personally looking from the specs I would save up the CPU upgrade, and probably opt down the HDD choice and invest in the SSD elsewhere. It can be a bit of a lottery of which SSD Lenovo provides (i.e. Samsung/Toshiba) and performance wise its usually quite lacklustre compared to the mainstream offerings from Intel, OCZ and Crucial.

 

I got mine for 23% off through B+N and talking on the phone. As mentioned, go for the 2720 and the HDD instead, then buy the SSD aftermarket. My total cost is (before taxes): W520 @ $1500, Intel 320 160GB @ $290, and an extra 8GB of memory @ $75 (before a $15 rebate; same memory is now $60 -.-) = $1865 (so my total after taxes is something closer to $2000; Newegg for SSD/RAM is tax-free where I live).