Questions Regarding T430

Hey guys,

I'm looking to purchase the T430 this week and had a few questions:

first off I was looking to purchase the laptop with the included 1DIMM 4GB RAM and upgrade it with this RAM afterwards:

Canada Computers | Memory | G.SKILL SQ Series DDR3 1333MHz (PC3-10666) 16GB (2x8GB) SODIMM Memory (F3-10666CL9D-16GBSQ)

What do you guys think of this RAM?

Also, I was wondering is the SSD really worth the extra money, or should I be good with the 500GB 7200rpm hard drive (this upgrade is free)

When comparing the i5 vs i7, I am very confused about which processor to pick here. What is the marginal improvement of the i7 vs the i5, and would it worth paying $150 more to upgrade from a 2.5ghz i5, to a 2.8ghz i5?

With regards to which GPU to get, I don't really plan on doing any video editing, nor a crazy amount of gaming, so would I just be better off with the intel graphics card, or should I upgrade to the 1gb Nvidia video card in case I want to do some moderate gaming

 

You probably need the 1600MHz version of the RAMs but G Skill RAMs should be fine. Since the system have 1x 4GB SODIMM already just get one more 4GB SODIMM, you don't really need a 8GB kit since one of the modules would be wasted in the end. As for the drives I would advise getting the 500GB HDD upgrade, Lenovo tends to put a hefty price premium on their SSD's and you can always get a higher capacity version for much cheaper elsewhere.

As for the processor you probably won't notice the small increase in clock speeds in real terms, the Dual Core i7's don't have that much of a performance advantage compared to their i5 sibling to justify the huge price difference. I stick with the base Core i5 unless you happen to use extreme CPU intensive applications.

For the GPU it depends your usage, the Intel HD 4000 GPU is quite respectable given that it's an integrated graphics chip, if you don't plan to do some serious high end gaming then it is more than enough. Otherwise if you want to play some of the latest titles then it's probably wise to step up to the discrete GPU's as long you don't insist on playing things on the highest detail, remember ThinkPads are primarily made for business rather than being a gaming rig! Though of course you can always go for an eGPU setup via the Expresscard if you really want to step it up on gaming front.

 

Would this RAM work:

Canada Computers | Memory | G.SKILL SQ Series DDR3 1600MHz (PC3-12800) 4GB (1x4GB) SODIMM Memory (F3-12800CL9S-4GBSQ)

I realized it would be smarter to just add another 4GB stick, and upgrade RAM in the future if necessary.

 

Yeah that one should be fine in the T430.