Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

I see the best deals on the W520 ship with the PC DOS 2000 OS and don't offer Win 7 Pro. I can buy a builders OEM of Win 7 Pro (x64). Should I expect any issues installing this on the main partition of the OEM drive (500GB7200)?

 

Willing to sacrifice 1920 display if still 95% gamut,
need color sensor,
want 6300 for Dual band
will max out RAM at later date
base i7 quad cpu is fine, don't need faster versions for cost difference

but I do need Win 7 Pro x64;

$1275

Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor (2.20GHz, 6MB L3)
Operating system: ThinkPad PC DOS License
Operating system language: PC DOS 2000 License
Display type 15.6" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display
System graphics NVIDIA Quadro 1000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3
Color sensor Color Sensor
Total memory 6 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz
Keyboard Keyboard US English
Pointing device UltraNav w/ TrackPoint plus Fingerprint reader
Camera 720p Camera
Hard drive 500 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Optical device DVD Recordable
System expansion slots Express Card Slot & 4 in 1 Card Reader
Battery 9 cell Li-Ion Battery - 55++
Power cord North America with Line cord & 170W AC adapter
Bluetooth Bluetooth 3.0
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)

 

The 1600x900 screen is only 60% gamut.

Get the base 4GB RAM and upgrade afterwards, same goes for HDD (unless they are free upgrades).

With a FHD screen, Windows 7 Pro, Centrino Ultimate-N 6300, 4GB of RAM, and the base 320GB HDD, that machine should be around $1300.

 

Sorry, forgot to mention I'm on the 320 GB HDD. Why would you put the programs on the OS partition? I was mainly thinking if I have an OS partition and then a partition for everything else it would make restoring an image of the OS much easier.

 

If you toast the OS then you'll have to reinstall the programs too. I always separate data from the OS/Installed Programs when given the option.

Thx for the feedback on the 1600, I will definitely opt for the 1920 now. The HDD & RAm were free upgrades.

 

I use this version:
http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~schmitzr/TPFanControl4W520.zip

And the temperature section of my ini reads:
Level=30 128 128 1
Level=80 128 128 1
Level=90 64 64 1

This puts the laptop in BIOS control until it hits 90C. Then it kicks the fans to high. Once it comes back down to 80C it reverts to BIOS control.

This has worked well for me.

 

It does sound like it's about to take off! But then again I'm not typically doing this heavy kind of processing in a meeting or in an area where quiet is mandatory!

 

$1,911.60 $1,911.60
0A68541 SBB ICI7-2720QM
45M3090 VBB GENUWIN7PROFES.64
0A68625 SBB GW7P64 E
75Y0162 SBB M W7 XP MD- E
0A68535 SBB 15.6FHD (1900 X 1080) LED
0A68893 SBB NVQ1000M GR
75Y0175 VBB COLORSENSOR
45M4574 VBB 8GBPC3-10600DDR3 1333SODMM
45M4839 SBB KEYBOARDUS ENGLISH
0A68526 VBB FINGERPRINT READER
0A68558 SBB 720P HD CAM INT MICR
0A69621 SBB I RAID-CONF BY LENOVO
0A69623 SBB PRSATA RAID 1(2 HDDS REQ
0A68901 SBB DR HDDS320GB HDD7200RPM
60Y7204 SBB RAID VIA BAYADAPTER
0A68528 VBB ECS+4IN1CR+SCR
45M4816 SBB 9CELLLI-ION BATTERY
0A68904 SBB CPNAMLC+ 170W AC AD
0A68261 SBB BLUETOOTH 3.0
45M4805 SBB IN.CENTADV.-N+WIMAX 6250
44C7950 SBB INT WRLSSWDAREANTWRK UPGR
0A68564 SBB LANG PCK US E

This is after the 10% discount + California tax...

I'm a software engineer and RAID1 is my best out of the box option for this machine, which is great.

 

I didn't think about all the registry stuff, blah. I assume that's why the programs wouldn't work after reinstalling the OS? I may put Steam + data on another partition just to make it easier reformatting. Is that the only benefit though? It seems like it's more work for a relatively small reward. I just back up everything on my external HDD so I'm not worried about it crashing.

I may do a 100 GB partition for the OS/Data/Programs and then a 200 GB partition for Steam. This would let me reformat without installing anything and because I backup all of my data I'm not worried about losing it.

 

Thanks for this! Now to test and see if it needs tweaking on my end!

EDIT: We have lift off! Wow, when the temps hit 90, the fans really get loud! Just curious why not have Level=80 something like Level=85 so that the BIOS kicks back in at 85? From 90 to 80, a 10 degree difference I'm not sure if the fans are fast enough to make that happen?

 

Another question (It feels like I'm spamming this thread sometimes :S)

So my laptop is going to have a 1x4GB RAM configuration. Would it be much of a performance enhancement to get another 4 GB stick and put it in there for dual channel? I don't need the extra RAM space wise, but I'm wondering if it would be worth it for the speed boost of dual channel?

Also does anyone know some good benchmarking software for CPU's? I'm mainly just curious of comparing my desktop to my laptop.

Thanks

 

Can you provide a link for this offer please? I've tried B&N Gold but still don't get the FHD for around 1300$. Thanks

 

Try calling in or waiting for a bigger sale.

 

Yes, Panasonic.

That year there were a lot of Sonys put into Thinkpads, only one problem was they over-heated, some caught fire. Some even exploded.

I've had nothing but long and faithful service from this Panasonic, though. Top gear.

 

Since you have been very kind with me I have another question to ask
Now everything is working fine BUT, when I'm on battery, the lenovo power manager does not load my battery profile until I right click on the power icon and "lunch power manager".
Am I missing something? Thanks!

 

Just bought my W520 for $1300 shipped. Should be here next week. Can't wait.

Intel Core i7-2720QM
15.6” FHD (1920 x 1080)
LED w/ 720p HD Camera
320GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA
4GB DDR3 SDRAM
NVIDIA Quadro 1000M
UltraNav TrackPoint and TouchPad
11b/g/n Wi-Fi Wireless
9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Bluetooth
DVD Recordable SATA
Fingerprint reader
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit

Seems like a good deal to me.

 

If you wait like 5 minutes it should automatically load it.

 

Thats a great price, Can you share how you got that? The lowest i can get using the B&N gold is 1444 for this config. So close to 1530 with taxes. Thanks

 

Whats the B&N Gold?

 

B&N gold

 

Quick question...does the turbo-boost have to be turned on manually or does it kick on by itself? I have noticed that when I push the machine I still don't seem to get the machine to kick on high fans or turbo-boost to turn on. Now, I can turn turbo boost on myself manually but I thought this did it by itself. Any insight would be appreciated.

 

It does it automatically. The fan speed is controlled by temperature, and nothing else.

 

Maybe I'm not pushing it hard enought..lol

 

Is your power plan set to Turbo or Maximum Turbo in the System Performance section? If it is set to Balanced or Low it won't turbo, by the way.

 

I just pushed the system to the max but it seem that you have to have lenovo power management to have turbo boost enabled for it to work...still no luck and I have all systems set to max

 

Most people never require as much CPU power as they think they need. If you want to test it, stress test a single core of the CPU.

 

let me re-phrase...i can only seem to see turbo boost working if I click turbo boost in lenovo power management settings under the "basic" tab

 

Go advanced. Basic does weird stuff.

 

the turbo boost button you're talking about just cranks up the fan to max. i don't think it has anything to do with processor speed. you could go to intel's page and download the turbo boost technology monitor to see clock speeds both ways. if you're really going to be stressing the machine you can turn the fan on boost first and it will run longer before heat becomes an issue.

 

I bought it on Ebay - brand new/never opened and comes with 1 yr. warranty till June '12. The guy I bought it from had sold several Thinkpads including couple of W520, and had a 100% feedback. So, I went for it. He was selling it for $1370 shipped, but I negotiated him for $1330 + I got 30 cash back from Ebay. You're right, even with B&N gold - I couldn't get it under $1500 shipped.

The guy is sold out of W520s - he may get some more. If you want a link for it, I can PM you.

 

Please share how you did this. Thanks!

 

This configuration in Belgium is €2,418.57.

 

Quick question for the group:

I'm trying to install Linux via a USB stick, since I replaced my DVD drive with a hard drive.

Apparently there are some known issues in regards to USB3 and Ubuntu, which means that I cannot use the USB3 ports to install the OS. Whenever I try using the USB2 port however, my system refuses to boot from it. It sees the flash drive just fine, but will not boot. It seems odd that I can boot (but not complete the install) over USB3, but that the slower port will not work at all.

I've taken care of the common issues, display set to integrated rather than Optimus, UEFI set to legacy mode, and I manually select the flash drive via the boot menu.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Any suggestions?

 

Dunno about that. Whenever I pull the plug and go onto battery, my Power Manager profile switches over automatically. Maybe my old T60p is faster than these new-fangled W520s after all.


When you set up your profile, did you "save" it??

 

I used everything on default settings except display set to integrated, and I installed Ubuntu 11.04 fine over a USB 3.0 port.

 

Any owner here with W520 + 2920xm? Please see the W510 thread, we want to know if the W520 is over clock-able. I made a video of how to check, this is CPU specific people with 2920xm cpus only. I am trying to decide should I go for it or not. I currently have the 920xm W510 overclocked to speeds of 2920xm.

 

I hate to get all Linux up in here since my question was more geared towards "booting over USB2" rather than what I was trying to boot.

I used both Unetbootin and the Universal USB Installer, both of which give me the same: "(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system" error after I select to install Ubuntu or run the Live CD.

Any tips, via PM or here, would be most welcome.

 

Ah, I got that error too when I last tried to install Ubuntu. I just made Universal USB Installer remake the bootable USB and it worked fine afterwards.

 

Ok guys I got a small problem but I could be wrong. I just ran StarCraft 2 on high for a campaign level. Was getting about 46fps which isn't bad but the issue I am really concerned with and maybe I might be wrong but I started reading into the cpu temps and I got as high as 91 degrees celsius which equates to about 196 degrees fahre. Is this safe??? Kinda botherin me just a bit.

 

What are the specs on your W520?

 

2920xm with NVIDIA 2000m...8gigs ram...fhd screen...just did another run and got.it.up to 96c

 

Those temps sound in line with what dimm0k is reporting with his machine, which has a 2720QM and Quadro 2000M if I'm not mistaken. With my setup, playing SCII in ultra goes up to 86C. Heading to bed now, need to rest up for more SCII training tomorrow. Want to get that gold league for season 3, currently silver league division rank 10 (I first started playing the game like 2 months ago, first RTS, and I bought it like 3 weeks ago).

 

I bought it on Ebay - brand new/never opened and comes with 1 yr. warranty till June '12. The guy I bought it from had sold several Thinkpads including couple of W520, and had a 100% feedback. So, I went for it. He was selling it for $1370 shipped, but I negotiated him for $1330 + I got 30 cash back from Ebay. You're right, even with B&N gold - I couldn't get it under $1500 shipped.

The guy is sold out of W520s - he may get some more. If you want a link for it, I can PM you.

 

That's crazy!!! Import tax?

 

Cool, sorry you had to answer that twice. It's weird, when I posted, I didn't see your FIRST reply even though it shows you posted before me. Anyway I'll keep an eye out on eBay as well!

 

I have the w520 with i7-2920xm and 2000M on the way. I am going to reapply the thermal compound on my w520 for better cooling. That also means that I will have to redo the thermal pad on the GPU memory chips.
Does anyone know how thick the thermal pad for the GPU memory chips are? Frozencpu.com has three different size; 0.5mm, 1.0mm, and 1.5mm.

 

Yes I did
As kirayamato26 said, it takes some time to load the profile xD
I expected it to be way more faster ahah
Thanks again

 

You could always get a T60p.

 

You can tweak the ini however you like!

 

As I posted just a bit ago in this thread those temps are normal. Once you hit those temps however the machine is throttling back the CPU to prevent overheating. If you don't like it, see my post about running tpfancontrol.