Some advice on different W520 configurations

I am a to-be college student looking to buy the W520.

The two options I'm comparing are

(1) A pre-configured W520 offered by my school: Laptops | Carolina Computing Initiative | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

After taxes and mandatory theft and fire insurance, the price for this model is a few dollars short of $2K.

(2) Buy.com - Lenovo ThinkPad W520 427637U 15.6" LED Notebook - Core i7 i7-2720QM 2.2GHz - 1920 x 1080 HD 1080 Display - 8 GB RAM - 500 GB HDD - DVD-Writer - Intel GMA HD 3000, nVIDIA Quadro 1000M - Bluetooth - Webcam - Finger Print Reader - Windows 7 Pr

I am drawn to this model because of the FHD 1080p screen (useful when I have several documents open or compiling, or side-by-side note-taking on .pdfs; currently I use a 1080p external monitor). It also offers eight gigabytes of RAM as opposed to six. It has the 1000M instead of the 2000M, but I am not a gamer and don't otherwise expect to run highly graphics-intensive programs. The price should also be about $450 lower.

However, I would be foregoing a few warranties and potential on-site hardware repair. I am extremely careful with laptops and so would not expect any inflicted hardware damage. The school (and particularly the dorm) I will be entering is quite safe.

What are your recommendations about the durability of these laptops for four years of (careful) college use and the necessity of multiple warranties?

Thanks.

 

welcome to the forum!

no matter how careful you are in college, others may not be -- particularly in dorms.   however, nothing is stopping you from buying whatever model you want and upgrading to an on-site warranty with accidental damage protection if desired.   simply call the lenovo sales department and they'll gladly sell you whatever warranty upgrade you want.

if this were my system, i'd go FHD.   unless your eyesight can't take the high resolution there's little reason to get a workstation without the best display offered.

both models you've linked are quad-core and can (eventually) accept up to 32GB of memory.   if this were my purchase i'd get the one from buy.com.   it doesn't sound like you'd benefit from the Q2000M's extra features.

 

I'd go with the Buy.com one as well.

As Erik mentioned, you can upgrade to an on-site warranty after the fact. Due to some of the inconsistency in the quality of depot repairs, I would highly recommend adding the onsite warranty.

I'd also make sure I had renter's insurance on your dorm room. I was able to get this back in college quite reasonably. It should protect against accident or theft (something the accidental damage warranty doesn't cover); you pay the deductible, and get your system replaced.