Planning on buying x220. Help me what's worth upgrading

CPU
i3-2310M
i5-2410M
i5-2520M

I won't be doing anything TOO intensive on this laptop, but I like the idea of having the processing head room and especially that I don't plan on upgrading my laptop in a long long while. Going from the 1st option to the 2nd option is pretty minimal. 200mhz base clock increase and 800mhz turbo increase. Going from the 2nd option to 3rd I'd get some more goodies. Another 200mhz base clock increase and an additional 300mhz turbo increase. I also get things like vt-d, and aes extensions. Probably wouldn't get much use from those now... but maybe in the future... who knows.

My biggest concern with these better processors is how it effects battery life. Even though they all use similar voltages probably, and intel rates these all at 35w TDP, do getting the higher clock chips increase power consumption, and decrease battery life?

OS
Home premium vs Pro.

Now, looking online and checking wikipedia's list of changes between these editions... for my uses I really see no reason for the need of Pro. I do, however, have a copy of 7 Pro x64 already that I'm not using. Does anyone know how easy it would be to upgrade to this version? Or would it be useless regardless?

Wireless
Centrino Wireless-N 1000
Thinkpad b/g/n
Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (2x2 AGN)

I'm assuming the 6205 would be the best choice of these 3, but has anyone noticed much of a difference? Does the 6205 find more networks? have better strength and stability once connected?

And finally... a simple question...
If you get the x220i... does the model name on the laptop say x220 or x220i? Is the "i" something used only online or do they print it on the small model name logo below the screen too?




Just a fyi. I plan on buying 2x4GB ram later and possibly an intel 310 SSD. I'll buy those when I got the money available.

 

Colinstu,

I would recommend the i7 if you intend oin keeping the machine a long time. The little bit of extra performance can mean quite a lot when you are nearing the end of your computer's life cycle.

Before you take the plunge, however, you should be aware that many x220 owners are experiencing problems with the fan and throttle system. Lenovo is working on fixing it but you may wish to wait until they actually do.

See the discussion here at the Lenovo Forums.

X220 - fan constantly on / revving up and down - Lenovo Community

Good luck with your decision. The x220 will be a great machine when they iron out the bugs.

 

It does say X220i on the screen bezel.

You could easily use the windows license you're not using on this one. If you buy the x220 without windows you might be able to get a bit cheaper too.

 

That's debatable. Typical notebook usage like Office, Media and Internet for example is not particularly hard on the CPU. Unless you push your system frequently, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the i3 and i7. For those reason I think the i3 offers better value. That's how I spent my money. Battery life difference between the CPUs should be negligible.

I think the only real reason to get W7P is if you use your notebook at school or work and they require you to log into a NT Domain Controller to get access to network resources like printers or network drives, which some do. W7HP can't do this while W7P can. If this sounds like your situation you may wish to ask if W7P is required. You can of course upgrade your machine, but it'll probably mess up your recovery partition if you care. You could of course do a clean install if you prefer, then download and install all the drivers/applications.

I went with the Thinkpad card, which is a Realtek card, and the 2x2 antenna setup. I mostly use my notebook at home and work. I have not encountered any issues with it, but I mostly just use it for Internet. If you're in a situation where there's multiple networks in close proximity, then perhaps on of the Intel cards or the 3x3 antenna setup, which may improve reception, might be worth the extra cash. I don't know much about the differences between the cards You might want to poke around the Networking Forum. Maybe someone there has a better answer.

Yes, it does say X220i on the screen bezel, but that's OK. It's just alerting everyone you made the smart buy. That's how I spent my money. Oh, good luck finding one of the 80GB 310 SSDs. They're hard little suckers to find right now. I got lucky on mine, but hopefully down the road, they'll become more plentiful.

 

I agree with you here. Yes, the better processor is "better", but that comes at a cost. Too big of a cost IMO. The small $50-55 upgrade from the i3 to i5 is barely worth it, but the additional bump with the extra features is as far as I would go. i7 you pay considerably more for and all you're getting is a little more clock, and USB3... which I wouldn't use.

Yeah. That's the main difference that I'm already aware of. It's a personal laptop and I don't ever see myself with the need to log into AD. There might be the off-chance I'd need to cisco VPN into somewhere which would require the mstsc.exe client that lets me log into stuff like that... which Pro would provide.

Is it worth all the work to start with a clean slate? I kind of want to do that, but slipstreaming etc sounds like way too much hassle. And honestly, I feel that's the reason behind why some people are having issues with their fan speeds or clock speeds.

I have to get the 2x2 antenna because I'm getting the 720p webcam.

I'm not sure whether I'd get the 40 or 80gb (unless there is a speed difference... which there might be if I remember correctly. in that case I'd want the 80gb). Regardless, that would be an upgrade much further down the line than my current plan to get 2x4GB of ram. $80 for that upgrade is totally worth it.

Kind of sucks to get the x220i badge instead, oh well. Looks like lenovo is having a 72hour sale right now which is better than the LOGICBUY10 whatever code. Might bump up to the cheap i5 or the one slightly above it... we'll see.

Thanks for the replies all so far! Keep em coming.

 

There are more msata ssd:s coming out so if you can wait I'm guessing the prices will come down pretty fast. Like these or these.

 

What I like to do is do a clean install with the drivers, updates and tweaks, then make an image of that with True Image, which takes like a minute to put back. I'll use that image the rest of the time I own the PC. If I want to redo my PC, I can throw the image back on, update anything I want, then my applications. It saves a ton of time.

You can always upgrade the OS or WiFi card down the road if need be.

 

If you are going to go i5, get at least the 2520M. You won't notice the processor speed in any case, but the extensions might be useful. (AES for instance will mean an encrypted hard drive can be done with no speed penalty. And if you are using a VPN to get somewhere it would make a major difference in how much processor is being used.)

Battery life between the different chips can be a toss-up: It depends more on your use pattern than anything. If you keep the CPU stressed, the faster CPUs will eat more battery, through TurboBoost. If you keep it idle, they all spin down to the same level. In between, well, the slower CPUs won't hit the high power usages, but the faster ones might be able to spin back down quicker. So, hard to tell.

Intel's 80GB mSATA, structurally, is built like two of their 40GB mSATA's on the same board. Which cuts some read/write times in half.

Personally, I'd avoid the standard Thinkpad wireless, but then I don't run Windows. The Intel cards work well and are well supported by all the various Open-Source OS's. The Thinkpad cards aren't. (Manufacturer decisions: Intel puts out their specs, allowing drivers to be written. Realtek doesn't, so any drivers are reverse-engineered.)

 

I can't believe nobody's mentioned this yet: The IPS display is the first thing you'll want to upgrade. It's branded "Premium" and the quality of the IPS screen is the reason many people buy the X220

Reading this thread I can't tell if it's been brought up already or not.

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/4316/x220.png

 

If you wanted to keep your machine for awhile, I would go for at least an i5. i5 you get Turbo Boost, and will help in single threaded applications. x series processors are not upgradable, they are BGA soldered onto the motherboard so you have to buy the CPU's up front.

 

My suggestions:

• i5-2410M (1)
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• HD Premium ("IPS") display (2)
• Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (3)
• 2GB one-DIMM (4)
• 320GB 7200rpm HDD (5)
• 9-cell battery (6)

1. if you selected i3, "X220i" would be shown below the screen
2. definitely!
3. select the Intel Wireless-N 1000 if you really have to save some bucks
4. get another 2GB stick (to make 4GB), or 4GB stick (to make 6GB), or 2x4GB sticks (to replace the 2GB stick), yourself
5. if you kept this, it would be fast enough; if you added mSATA drive (and it worked!), this would be your "data" drive; if you replaced it with an SSD (7mm high!), you could sell it
6. if you don't mind the minor extra weight; this will last all day, and more, for "wall-free" mobility

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Nice little machine. Good luck!

EDIT: If you live in Canada, check this: Up to 25% off Lenovo ThinkPads + 8% Cashback

 

Hell yeah. that is the first thing I change. Including going for the 29++ battery too.