T430 Owner's Thread

This is one design aspect that I really don't understand, if they intend the mSATA to be a "speed booster" then it should have the other SATAIII so people can use it to host the SSD while the standard 2.5" battery bay used for storage. By putting a SSD in the ultrabay we essentially wasted the mSATA port, and loss the flexibility of a DVDRW, or even weight reduction by putting in a place holder. I assume a placeholder is available for the T430's ultrabay?

My original plan is to use my existing SSD, then I discovered now it's 7mm so I decided to buy that 128GB Crucial mSATA SSD for $118 and keep the OEM HDD for storage, now I know the mSATA is 3Gbps I'm pretty much stuck with buying another 7mm SSD.

 

^^^ Lenovo assigns a 6Gbit/s SATA port to the UltraBay because it wants to sell UltraBay HDD as a configuration option (in lieu of the optical drive). Lenovo does not intend the mSATA to be a "speed booster." In certain markets, WWAN is a requirement, and that PCIe slot is not "wasted."

 

If I already have plenty of Windows 7 pro keys is their any reason I would want to get the "ThinkPad T430 Laptop with Fast Processing" as opposed to the base model and electing for the same i5-3210M?

I assume pretty much any processor will be more than enough for basic productivity apps and games.

While we are on the topic am I best doing a clean install on to an SSD off a windows install disk or is there a compelling reason use the Lenovo recovery system?

 

Is the mSATA interface at SATA II 3Gb/s rate?

If so, will it be the bottleneck or the R/W of the mSATA SSD?

 

Yes. 3Gbit/s.

 

The crucial's website seems to suggest that the mSATA SSD is not compatible with T430.

That mSATA SSD is spec'ed at SATA III, while T430 mSATA is SATA II.

 

SATA II does limit the drive to an extent, particularly on large file transfers but SATA III is backwards compatible with SATA II.

Regardless of the SATA interface the difference between a spinning disk drive is night and day. If you look over the posts someone posted an article comparing the benefits of SATA II vs SATA III. The moral of the story was a marginal difference in most use cases, but to go with SATA III when possible.

Upgrade Advice: Does Your Fast SSD Really Need SATA 6Gb/s? : Should You Feel Bad That Your Board Only Supports SATA 3Gb/s?

 

It seems SATA II is good enough for most SSD.

The Crucial mSATA SSD is spec'ed with sequential read of up to 500 MB/s. This translates to about 4 gbps which is i gbps less than that of T430's mSATA. For random read access, the rate is well within that of SATA II.

Did I do my math right?

 

Hey guys! I am about to purchase this laptop, but I have a few questions. Is this configuration good? I want a SSD, but man the price is high! Can I buy one separately and install it? Also the same for the RAM? Also is it easy to install it?


Price:$2,030.00
Web price:$1,254.00
After eCoupon:$1,103.52
You save:

System components
Intel Core i5-3360M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional (64 bit)
14.0" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
NVIDIA NVS 5400M Graphics with Optimus Technology, 1GB DDR3 Memory
4 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (1 DIMM)
Keyboard Backlit - US English
UltraNav with Fingerprint Reader
720p HD Camera with Microphone
320GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD Recordable
Express Card Slot & 4-in-1 Card Reader & Smart Card Reader
9 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70++
90W AC Adapter - US (2pin)
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN
Mobile Broadband upgradable

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I'm very close to finally purchasing this but need to know a few things first..

- How hot/loud does it get when running normally/on full power?
- I've seen the trackpad looks fairly small, is this a problem for anyone?
- Are there any build faults? (Keyboard flex, etc etc)
- Finally, how is the screen with the 1600 x 900. I keep hearing that there's bad contrast etc

I would really appreciate any answers.

 

Yes you can purchase the RAMs and SSD elsewhere for much less and fit it in yourself easily. As a guide Lenovo generally ships 1600MHz (PC3-12800) rated RAMs for the T430, also make sure the SSD drive is 7mm in height as any bigger won't fit inside the drive bay unless you have an Ultrabay Caddy on hand.

 

It should be 1Gbps more than what the T430's mSATA interface can handle.

I agree that even at 3Gbps the speed should be sufficient for normal use except transferring large files, it's not ideal but doable. What I want to do now is put in a 128GB mSATA SSD and take out the stock HDD, as well as replace the ultrabay DVDRW with a place holder. Hopefully this will greatly reduce the overall weight.

 

I see they have a sale on at the moment. Do you think they will still have the sale in like 2 weeks?

Also I hear about student discounts? Where can I go to get the discounts.


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I can't comment on the sales since I don't work with Lenovo nor do I live in the US. Though for student discounts you could look at the Lenovo Barnes & Noble website for deals.

 

My apologies, thank you for catching that ...

I am considering installing an mSATA SSD and use it as the system/boot device. I will keep the stock HDD and use it as extra storage. I will also keep the DVDRW just in case I need to read or write DVDs.

I am also considering getting an 8G RAM to be installed in the remaining empty slot, this giving me a total of 12G. I am not 100% sure whether this is a good idea, but someone did say it should be fine to combine differing RAM sizes as long as the timing of the 2 sticks matches, is this true? (Just want to be doubly sure ...)

 

Ok thanks. Is there a big difference in the i5's they have listed? Is it worth upgrading to the • Intel Core i5-3360M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz)?


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You'll be fine as long as the RAMs' SPEED match, that is you install another stick of DDR3-12800 1600Mhz RAM, it's probably best practice to install a RAM of the same timing, in this case probably a 11-11-11-28. Sizes don't matter, but personally I don't think anything beyond another 4GB (total 8GB) is necessary.

Among those choices (3210M, 3320M, 3360M) their performance difference is not very significant, however the 3210M lacks Vt-d and Txt, so if you value those functions get a 3320M and save some money.

 

Firemandan9, have you been able to install the crucial M4 mSATA SSD on your T430?

I am about to place the order and just want to make sure it is compatible with T430. Thanks!

 

God damn it. I have to pay 1000$ more for the specs you Americans get at 800$... that means 1800$ for a non-maxed T430.

Is the Intel Core i5 3210M 2,5 GHz "good"? I'm not able to afford better, but if there's a huge difference between, say, this processor and that other i7 one I'm gonna gave to get something else than Lenovo. Which would suck, seeing as Asus has no quality control whatsoever these days...

EDIT:

Is the screen of the T530 much better than the T430 one? Given that both have resolutions of 1600X900.

Thanks

 

Everything I read implied it should, I have everything ordered as of Sunday night now I just have to wait along with everyone else. I will report back when I get everything together. My dock already shipped and the laptop is Released to Manufacturing so maybe sometime next week? At sub=$700 for the base of what I got the system is quite the bargin.


Intel Core i5-3210M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) (to be upgraded to Pro)
14.0" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
NVIDIA NVS 5400M Graphics with Optimus Technology, 1GB DDR3
4 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (1 DIMM)(to be upgraded to 8 GB)
Keyboard - US English
720p HD Camera with Microphone
500GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
DVD Recordable
Express Card Slot & 4-in-1 Card Reader
6 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70+
90W AC Adapter - US (2pin)
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN
Mobile Broadband upgradable

45K5985 3YR Onsite + 3YR ThinkPad Protection

433615W Port Replicator Series 3 with USB 3.0

From Crucial 128 GB mSATA m4 SSD ($118)

 

So I've been searching on eBay for a Ultrabay blank placeholder but there is none specific for the T430, would a T420 one work? Am I correct to assume the T430 has the same 12.7mm Ultrabay?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/679052-crucial-msata-w520-installation-problems.html

Some other forum users have decent reports on a W520 which also appears to be SATAII.

 

Same 12.7mm UltraBay HDD/SSD caddy adapter for T420 and T430. Something like this will work.

 

The reason I consider upgrading to 12G is that I plan to run some guest OS's along with the host OS. Possible guests are Windows XP, Windows 7, and Ubuntu Linux. I figure that if I assign 2G,4G and 2G, respectively to the guest OS's, plus 4G for the host OS running a few Apps like IE9, firefox, outlook, onenote, word, visio, excel, framemaker, Visual Studio, a total of around 12G would be nice to have. I am not sure if this is the correct way to estimate RAM requirement, any idea?

 

Thanks, I'll pick up a standard T420 placeholder on ebay for $9 then, I already have a HDD caddy but am looking for the plastic blank to reduce weight.

I assume you running virtual machine? I thought it can dynamically allocate memory to each OS? If you think you need the RAM then there is no disadvantage to put in that 8GB stick, as long as it's PC3-12800 1600Mhz.

 

OK I'm about to purchase mine. When you guys install the SSD, would you have to install windows on the SSD to make with does boot from there?

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Hi All,

I finally received my T430s. Ordered on July 6th, shipped off on 16th, missed three delivery attempts - a kind of long story but I want to share it here so you guys could avoid being fxcked back and forth by UPS like I was, and receive your dream laptop as soon as possible.

The thing is, Lenovo requires the shipping address has to be the same as billing address, which is normally our home address(they say you can contact your bank and add a temporary address though, I wanted to play safe so didn't really try that). But Lenovo is using UPS as courier, which only arranges delivery on WORK HOURS, and WON'T indicate accurately which period of the day are they gonna knock on your door. Don't trust "by the end of the day" on their tracking page. My three delivery attempts happened on 4pm, 2pm, 11am. If you look at all these things separately, not a big problem at all. But if they happen all at once, this basically means you as normal person with a normal job, have to STAY AT HOME DURING WORK HOURS ALL THE TIME.

After I missed all the three delivery attempts, I felt really frustrated. I tried live chat immediately, but apart from pay for a re-delivery(about 5 bucks) or pick up by myself, there is not much option left. At last I talked to the supervisor, he put me on hold and contacted the local UPS center and they contacted the bus driver that was having my laptop. Since he was still in my area, a free re-delivery was arranged. 10 minutes after the call with UPS supervisor, I signed my package. So anyone misses his package and feels frustrated, definitely try this.

So I just started to feel my new T430s. I noticed that there are a ton of pre-installed softwares on the laptop. Does anyone happen to know which are useful which are useless and should be removed? Thank you so much in advance!

 

Anyone know how to clean the touchpad? I let my nephew use my laptop to play his games and my touchpad has like dirt/grime/grease all over it. I tried a microfiber cloth with water, but nope.

 

Sign up for UPS My Choice for free and then you can authorize shipment release without signature, works great if you know your area is safe and you are not too far away from home.

 

Yes, I will be running some VMs. I am not sure how RAM is assigned, but when creating the VMs, RAM needs to be assigned. So I suspect it is no dynamically allocated. I may be wrong. Furthermore, it would be extremely slow if the host OS needs to use the pagefile.

 

Hi guys.

For those of you that ordered the T430 with the base 4 gigs of ram who have opened up the ram slots,

A) What is the voltage on this ram?
B) What is the brand of this ram?

Help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

Finally gave in on the mSATA SSD, ordered the 128GB Curcial M4 mSATA from CostCentral for $110 after the HP Touchpad apologizing giftcard.

 

Any other reactions/reviews about the HD caddy from nimitz? (Link: 2nd hard drive Caddy F Lenovo Thinkpad T420 W520 T520 | eBay)

Any difference (performance/appearance/reliability/durability) between this one and the one that Lenovo sells for 60 dollars?

I'm leaning towards getting the third-party one but I'm always skeptical about third-party stuff.

 

^^^ I've never used the Lenovo UltraBay caddy adapter parts. Many forum members (including me) have purchased the nimitz part and have no problems with it.

 

Hi,

Seems like my T430s battery won't charge. Up to now I just used the battery for several minutes. It stays on 97% no matter how long I put it on charge. Does anyone have an idea why? Should I charge it completely before the first time I use it? Thanks.

 

The T400 and up have a SATA UltraBay, which means that the SATA drive caddies are completely passive. Since they have no active electronics in them, there's really not anything for a third party caddy to get wrong. There are no chips, transistors, etc. It's literally just a dumb pin-to-pin adapter.

 

So long as it stays in the slot really is just a holder. I imagine there might be a small difference in how much some of them weigh.

 

I'm just glad they used the standard 12.7mm ultrabay, which means I can continue to use my old caddy, wish they use the 9.5mm primary drive bay though.

 

The 10% coupon just became available! Time to order..However I'm confused by the warranty, can someone help me out?

There are 3 options:

ThinkPlus Warranty Upgrade from 3 years Customer Carry-in Repair to 3 years Customer Carry-in Repair with Accidental Damage Protection [£61.56]

ThinkPlus Warranty Upgrade from 3 years Customer Carry-in Repair to 3 years Courier Collect Service with Accidental Damage Protection [£63.84]

ThinkPlus Warranty Upgrade from 3 years Customer Carry-in Repair to 3 years On-site Next Business Day Service for ThinkPad [£70.68]

Does the third one cover accidental damage like the first two? Which one should I get? I'm really confused. If it doesn't cover accidental damage, would the second one be the best one?

 

I got my Lenovo T430 a couple of hours ago and it's awesome! The screen isn't that big of a problem. I ordered the 1600 x 900 and I can look at it fine from an angle after adjusting it. I mean, the contrast will look pretty bad if you look at the computer from the sides and up and down, but when you're on a computer I don't think you'll be looking around too much.
This is my first Lenovo and the keyboard is pretty awesome, so there's that. I was also surprised at the weight. I was expecting 4ish pounds to be sort of heavy, but after moving the laptop a couple of times it's not bad.
Overall I'm satisfied, and I'll see about games after I'm done downloading Team Fortress 2. 10 gig monster is going to take some time to download, haha.

 

I don't think the third one has accidental damage protection, but I'm not 100% sure. Note the second option is ideal if you don't necessarily need the computer right away since they will take the computer away for repair, option 3 will make Lenovo send a technician to your place and repair it in front of you.

Can't wait to get mine! BTW what's your configuration? The T430 should handle TF2 with ease even if you choose the HD4000.

 

Specs:

-Intel Core i5-3320M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.30 GHz)
-14.0" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband -Ready
-NVIDIA NVS 5400M Graphics with Optimus Technology, 1GB DDR3 Memory
-8 gigs with RAM from Newegg. Yeah I'm not paying 400 dollars for 8 gigs. I can get 16 gigs for 50 dollars lol
-Camera
-320 Gig 7200rpm

Actually, I got one small complain, which is the trackpad. I've got sweaty hands, which seems to be a problem because movement is pretty rough. Doesn't matter though, I'm planning on using a USB mouse for most of my use.

And I guess the Nvidia card will handle Tf2 well. When does your T430 arrive?

 

Dude you are making me jealous! Lol I'm waiting on mine. But I can't wait. What's your configuration? Mine will be shipping on the 28th.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

 

I posted my configuration right above your post. Yeah, the wait killed me, I feel for you man. I ordered my laptop on the 17th and it said on the checkout screen that my laptop would arrive on the 23rd. It turned out that they needed more time and that the laptop would arrive on the 26th

I'm playing through Europa Universalis 3: Divine Wind, and so far no hic ups aside from some minor issues (quitting the game took forever on the 1st try). I'm playing at the max res. 1600x900 @ 50hz. The fan is not loud at all, which was one of my major concerns. The game is smooth, and I can't wait to try out TF2.


Edit:
I just tried out TF2 and it played as I expected. I played a round of 2fort and played at 1600x900 (max) with no AA + generally low settings. I played at a 32 man server and the FPS hovered around 20-50 fps. When things got hectic on screen I got 20-30 fps, but generally stayed around 40ish.
There were times when the game got stuck and kept repeating the sounds over and over again, but it happened like 3-5 times in an hour of play time.
Other than that, the game was very playable.

I hope this helps some of you guys out.

 

Anyone else experiencing volume controls stop working randomly? This is the 2nd t430 that I see having this problem.

 

Oh I have the same configuration. Except I bought a Samsung 830 SSD 256GB that I will be adding to it and the RAM. If you already got the RAM can you show me the link from newegg? How is the screen quality? I will be watching a lot of TV shows on mine. Is there a lot of bloat?

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I've read all 50 pages here. whew! Ordered mine on 7/23 before stumbling on this thread. Expected ship date is 7/30. I bought a T60 in Dec 2006 with a Core 2 duo 7250 which works really well even today, so I don't have an excuse to buy. I have hence decided to live vicariously through buying for others. I bought this for my sister in India, to be delivered when I go home in September, but I get the first two months of fun (kind of like getting to lease a new car for 2 months for the expertise in selecting a good car and breaking it in).

Got the config below for $622.3 plus taxes which I think is ridiculously low, but don't tell Lenovo.

Processor

Intel Core i5-3210M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz)

Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)

Operating system language Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 - English

Display type 14.0" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready

System graphics Intel HD Graphics 4000

Total memory 4 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (1 DIMM)

Keyboard Keyboard - US English

Camera 720p HD Camera with Microphone

Hard drive 320GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm

Ultrabay DVD Recordable

System expansion slots Express Card Slot & 4-in-1 Card Reader

Battery 6 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70+

Power cord 65W AC Adapter - US (2pin)

Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2200 (2x2 BGN)

Integrated mobile broadband Mobile Broadband upgradable

Language pack Publication - US English

Shipping & Handling: $0.00
Tax: $26.29
[USXWEEK0721]: -$266.70
Total: $648.59

 

you probably want to add a backlit key board.

 

Literally ordering now..but just realised I forgot about something.

I'm going to connect my T430 to a 22" external monitor. The T430 has a mini display port so I'd need a 'mini display port to HDMI dongle'? Am I right? What type of one would I need though?

 

RAM: Newegg.com - Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 Laptop Memory Model KVR1333D3SOK2/8GR

Screen is fine if you're looking directly at the screen. If you're looking from above the screen gets lighter. From above and side to side, the screen gets very contrasted. I dunno, are you planning on lying down while watching TV because I think getting the angle just right is going to be a pain in the butt.
Bloat is there but it isn't as bad as Sony. At least it didn't come with Norton in it, but it did come with the Norton Internet Security. There's some Lenovo software that I'll keep because it doesn't seem to be slowing down the computer.