Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

Yeah... I had the 25% Red Flags coupon...
I got the 4GB 1DIMM, fingerprint reader, smart card reader, and BT too. FPR and Smart Card reader seem to come stock with the quad W520, at least they do in Canada.

 

Odd that they are stock in Canada...US W520s have the SmartCard reader as an option, and I certainly didn't order one.

 

I'm okay with it as long as it doesn't cause flex. Might end up using it just for kicks... If I can source a Smart Card for cheap.

 

Hey guys I have the W520 with a 2000m and I was thinking about trying to play the Witcher 1 and 2 on it. The first game doesn't concern me as much, but I've seen that the Witcher 2 can be pretty tough to run. I've heard that the 2000m is roughly equivalent to a 555m in terms of gaming performance, and some people seem to have had some success getting decent fps in lower settings, so hopefully the 2000m could do the same. Has anyone tried running either game with the 2000m and if so how did it do?

 

All the things you listed come stock. =X
What drive did you get? The stock 320GB or what? And, is that the price after taxes? Because with 13% taxes, $1660.25 is what it would be after taxes.

 

I bought a W520 over a T520 not because I need the extra performance now, but because I expect to be keeping it for 5 years.

I bought a T61 instead of a T61p almost 5 years ago, and it didn't make it 5 years, largely because of the GPU. The Quadro NVS 140M had only 128 MB of VRAM, and that couldn't cope with having Aero enabled and trying to accelerate HD Flash video simultaneously. I got higher framerates on YouTube if I disabled hardware acceleration. The T61p with its 256 MB of VRAM wouldn't have had that issue, so if I had bought that model I would probably not have upgraded to the W520 now.

Since laptops are not as upgradable as desktops, if you plan on keeping your laptop for a long time, get the best GPU that you can. Don't skimp on the CPU, either. That doesn't mean you should buy the 2920XM, because it really doesn't get you much over the 2720QM. But it does make a lot of sense to get the 2720QM over the 2620M. And in addition to having two more cores, the quad-core model gets you four RAM slots. The ability to upgrade to 32 GB down the road is very valuable to me.

If you want to save money, skimp on the hard drive and the RAM. Those are easily upgradable in the future, both will be cheaper, and hard drives will be bigger and faster as well.

 

I agree. I bought the t61p around the same time and if my wife's a31p hadn't died i would have just put an ssd in the t61p and waited another year or so. Of course the screen on the w520 is so much better than the t61p that i would have been miserable until i upgraded anyway. lol

 

I don't believe in future proofing, and I have yet to keep a machine for even 3 years (fell 2 weeks short). Though, on that same token, I've yet to keep a machine for less than 2.5 years. In 5 years, a current computer would be terribly outdated. So, I just buy something (or parts to assemble something) for the needs that I have now, and when it no longer meets my requirements, I'll replace it with something more powerful. It's worked well for me so far.

 

Does anyone had success using pantone color calibration with windows server 2008 r2? Mine reports "error setting laptop to calibration mode" when I try that.

As the side note - there is a way to set BT under windows server 2008 r2. It works with BlueSoleil stack (which is not free). Tricky part - you have to have usb BT driver and plug it in after you install BlueSoleil. This is one time action - after BlueSoleil recognizes it, you can remove USB driver and update driver for internal BT with BlueSoleil Broadcomm one. And it works..

Credit goes to kmonchamp from lenovo community forums

 

I have had my W520 about 8 weeks and have been installing some software in that time. Yesterday I tried to install 32 bit Java V6 update 26 but it failed with what google shows is a common problem. I then tried the 64 bit version and then V7 and V5, none of which fully installed. I was able to install the default version in an XP VM system.

I am wondering if anyone with a fairly new system is able to install Java -- as far as I can tell no version is installed on a new system, so the general advice about removing old versions to fix these issues does not apply.

 

I have a very recent W520 with mSata main drive (500GB second drive).

I was able to install Java 6 Update 26 (see attachments). I checked from the Java page ( Link) that it is indeed working (see second attachment)

 

I have noticed while gaming that my CPU reaches 80C maximum, while the computer normally idles at 45C. Is that what everyone else is experiencing?

 

@kuksul08 I think that's pretty normal. My CPU is idling at 53C with about 10 programs open. When I compile the Dolphin Wii Emulator using 8 threads, the temperature goes up to around 71C. When I run the Dolphin Wii Emulator at 1080p (using a ton of CPU and GPU power), the temperature goes up to around 85C.

 

Any idea if cpu throttling occurs at these higher temps?

 

Intel turbo boost technology monitor reported that my 2920xm ran at 3.2GHz at 95 C.

 

Guys
I don't know if this is just me but just started using my W520 from being on the T61 for 2 years. I love it but somehow looking at the screen, it seems to have a purple tint on it. It doesn't matter which window i'm seeing (folder, browser, calculator, command prompt), I always seem to notice a purple layer on top.

Both my T61 and desktop machine, a white color appears fully white but on the w520, it's different with a purple tint

Anybody else seeing this? Is there a settings change or is this just the screen type?

Thanks

 

I believe that the screen is suppose to have an overall blue-ish tint to it, but I've never noticed it in mine.

 

I believe all LED lit monitors have a bluish tint. It might be made more apparent if the older monitor is yellowing.

 

What screen do you have? I'm not sure about the other ones but I have the 1920x1080 screen and it does seem to have a sort of purplish tint compared to my desktop monitor. I'm not sure if its because the FHD screen displays 95% color gamut or because of the anti-glare coating on the screen or maybe just a weird color profile. I also noticed that after staring at my laptop screen for a while it seems normal and when I go back to my desktop monitor it seems washed out with a blue tinge to it.

I don't know which one is right but I guess since I don't do anything photo related and my eyes get used to either one, it doesn't matter.

 

seems like I just missed the 10% B&N discount, guess I have to wait. Anybody know how often do we get B&N discounts?. The other (logicbuy) discounts are not as good as B&N.

 

Hi, has anyone installed this new driver from nvidia?

Verde 280.26 Driver

NVIDIA DRIVERS 280.26 WHQL

Any problems? Thanks.

 

i ran them but when i did a re-image the old drivers were on the image so i didn't upgrade. for what i do i didn't notice a difference.

 

Hi guys, could I check with those who have the FHD 95% wide gamut screen upgrade to see if they are suffering from ghosting issues? Apparently the Sager/Clevo laptops with the exact same screen model AUO B156HW01 V4 are experiencing significant ghosting issues which are very evident when a high contrast image such as a bright red toolbar is dragged or scrolled across a totally black background. I am wondering how widespread this issue is with other manufactures or whether it is unique to just the Sager laptops. Thanks!

 

Do you mean the BN Gold Discount? I didn't think it was supposed to run out. Well if it has and you have a Visa card, you can get the same discount using your Visa.

Haven't noticed any ghosting on my FHD 95 gamut.

 

When I go through B&N link, it doesn't show any additional coupons for W520, they have additional coupons for some T series. I was under under impression that they had additional coupon for W520 earlier(last week?) which has expired now.

 

Any of you guys want a new or near new 4 gig stick that comes with the w520 stock? Only 25 bucks..pm me..I got a kit so don't need this one

 

The don't give out coupons usually. It's just an automatically reduced price. Look at the prices. BN is $1274.15 for the base config on the more expensive W520 while the regular Lenovo price is $1499.

 

I installed that version 2 days ago and I have not encountered any problems.

 

Absolutely no problems with my FHD display. I sometimes download things overnight (terribly slow 1.5Mbps DSL connection. Not very friendly to Linux ISOs), thus leaving my display on at around 5 brightness active, 0 inactive (I don't shut my screen off since I have problems sleeping, and I will sometimes check on a download just because).

 

Hey guys,
I'm looking at a W520 right now and it would be pretty much my main machine on-the-go. I would take all my programming projects with me and it also seems to have great battery life. Since I am a programmer, I need a high resolution. The 15.6" form-factor with the FHD 1920x1080 screen seems perfect and the quad-core i7 seems like it'd be great for compiling.

I was wondering if the following link is a good deal?
LENOVO THINKPAD W520 i7-2720QM, 1920 x 1080, FHD, 2000M | eBay

Also, can someone point out the $300 price difference between these two (except the 1000M vs 2000M GPU's - only $250 difference on lenovo's site and should be less on ebay)?
LENOVO THINKPAD W520 i7-2720QM, FHD, 8GB, 500GB 7.2K | eBay

The cheaper one also seems to have a fingerprint reader while the more expensive one doesn't. What gives? Are these deals better than haggling with lenovo?

Should I go for the Quadro 2000M instead of the 1000M? I play games but I'm planning to build a Sandy Bridge desktop with an i5 2500k, 16gb of ram, and a gtx 570. If I upgrade the GPU, it could allow me to take some of my games on-the-go (yes, I realize I have an Alienware M17x R2, but not for long...).

Should I go for the color calibrator? I won't be doing any professional photo editing or anything. I might make YouTube videos or something with it, but it won't be something that I will do for a living. Does the screen look bad if you don't calibrate it?

Thanks for your opinions.

 

Why are you buying from Ebay? btw are you located in USA or Canada? the price depends on the country..

 

First I think your right about the fhd screen, for a 15.6" screen its just perfect if you have decent eyes.

Depending on what games you play the 1000m is a decent gpu, I'm running sc2 on mine at high settings and it doesn't break a sweat. Ok it sweats a little in the form of a wind that feels like a heat gun and greatly decreased battery life, but performance wise it loves it.

If your in Canada the ones on ebay seem like a decent deal for the three year warranty, although if you wait around for the right coupon you could do better from their site (except for the three year warranty, its only 1 year standard in Canada and 3 years is an expensive upgrade).

If your in the USA I don't know what to tell you, its probably still a decent deal if you want it ASAP, but could be beat if you have time to wait for the right coupon.

I opted not to spend the $70 for the color sensor and the screen looks fine. I think the true to life colors only matter if your being paid to produce things that look a certain way, or photo editing is a serious hobby of yours. For general laptop use it doesn't matter, unless you just have an extra $70 lying around and want a neat thing on your laptop. To be honest if I had the extra $70 I probably would have gotten one on mine just because its neat, but I can't say I miss not having it.

As for the expensive one not having a fingerprint reader that's weird, on
their Canadian site you can't even get a W520 without the fingerprint reader.

 

Looks interesting:

"Installs HD Audio driver version 1.2.23.3
Installs PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0514
Supports the new GPU-accelerated features in Adobe Creative Suite 5 including Photoshop CS5.
Supports GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with Adobe Flash."

Did you notice any improvements?

 

I do not use any of those programs so did not notice any improvements. I figure if things still work as before I am doing okay.

 

If you're in US, you could get much better deals from Lenovo direct via B&N gold. 3 weeks ago I bought DOS i7-2720/FHD/RAID/Color Sensor/6300N via B&N. They had 10% off coupon those time and one year warranty option was $1390 before tax. If you have Amex, you can get extra 1 year of warranty + there is active $150 off $999 on Lenovo promotion till end of August.

I'd suggest to monitor B&N gold promotion till end of month checking if coupon appears (they post new deals every wednesday) but even without coupon, you'd get much better deal with Amex discount.

And, as developer, you need SSD

 

Hi Guys, how are you guys effected by the speedstep/turboboost problem with the new BIOS update? Is it a big problem? I read earlier somebody (kevinlau?) saying BIOS 1.26 fixed this problem? but according to this:

W520: Speedstep not working properly (on battery)!... - Lenovo Community

the problem still exist for majority of the users.

I am wondering because i am deciding between the W520 or T520, I configured both systems almost identical the only difference is the GPU. If this problem remains, I might just go with T520, plus it supports 1 more external monitors.........

Just wondering what you guys think! Thanks!

 

W520 (in quad core configuration) has 4 memory slots - e.g. supports 16Gb. It also supports RAID (you should buy it configured with RAID if you need it). If neither of those factors are critical for you, T520 is the good choice.

 

The Quadro 1000M should be way more powerful than the NVS4200M.

 

Yeah, I'm going with an after-market SSD. Maybe an mSATA one. I'm in the US. These are some great prices for brand new.

 

you might want to read this first.

Lenovo ThinkPad W520 - mini review - Keith Combs' Blahg - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

 

Trust me, I read it

T520 could be configured slightly cheaper than W520. There are 3 reasons to pay premium for W520:
1. Better graphics
2. 4 memory slots
3. RAID

If neither of those factors are important, there is no particular reasons to pay premium for W520

 

For my config both of w20 and T520 are almost same price...
OS doesn't matter for me as I have access to MSDN, T520 will get you onsite warranty but you loose 4 RAM slots, which is more important for me.

EDIT:My bad, T520 has additional $120 coupon so the difference is about $160 between the two machines.

 

Well, hard choice

I'd suggest to bump pu to 2720QM if you ever consider to deal with virtualization.

If you have Amex, there is $150 statement credit promotion via facebook

 

thought only difference between 2630QM and 2720QM is clock speed, I always have atleast one virtualbox environment running on my laptop and definitely need any additional benefit that CPU can provide, what feature am I missing on 2630QM?. <<< nevermind, I found on google that 2720 has "Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O", will read more about it to see if it really helps for my requirements. Thanks.

I do have Amex, I couldn't see $150 credit on facebook, they were showing me some clothes/restaurant coupons, I read people using "show more" button but I don't see it. is there any trick to see the $150 coupon?.

Thanks.

 

2630 does not support Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d). It also does not support Trusted Execution Technology which (I can be wrong) would kill this CPU for Hyper-V.

As for $150 - Check https://www.facebook.com/americanexpress?v=app_216352075054740 this program - you'll need to search through the offers but it should be there

 

oh my god, just found out that 2630QM only supports 8GB memory, that's a big deal breaker for me. Seems like the PC-DOS ordering flow on affinity site has a issue, they show 16GB option with 2630QM, they probably never found the bug because nobody ordered that config.

regarding VT-d, I did some reading, virtualbox, parallels and even VMware don't support consumer hardware, they only have it certified for certain server hardware, so only some specific BIOS, CPU and PCI-e hardware combinations are certified. VirtualBox which I personally use, seems to have stopped working on VT-d for the last couple of years.

 

Doubt that the 2630Q only supports max 8GB, since memory can't be limited by the CPU but is usually done by the chipset or BIOS setting. Though someone should confirm to verify this.

 

It's 8GB as per intel website, Compare Intel® Products. I bet this is the reason why regular lenovo web ordering flow(non-afinity) doesn't show 6230QM.

 

Just because it's on the Intel website, doesn't make it fact. They have been known to not update their spec sheets once newer products come out and hence they might not be tested but it doesn't explicitly mean it won't work.

 

hmm, hard to believe. I checked Dell precision series and they also don't have 2630QM with 16GB, 16GB starts with 2720QM.

System76 does have 16GB for 2630QM though, very weird.