T430 Owner's Thread

what was the starting price on your t430? today(7/27) the price without any upgrades is basically your final price... maybe I should've been there on the 0721 week?

 

Ordered mine on the 18th and UPS shows it'll deliver on Monday.

Yes it uses mini display port with audio, you can purchase a mini display port to HDMI adapter on eBay really cheap.

I'm curious why did you pick a slower RAM, the laptop comes with a single PC3-12800 DDR3 1600Mhz stick, if you install two 1333Mhz sticks performance will be reduced. I personally picked a single 4GB 1600Mhz 9-9-9-28 timing stick here

$584.25 at Barnes and Noble Gold

 

^THANK YOU. I'm still very confused on all this affinity site stuff, but I'm so glad you pointed it out the B&N offer! I was looking around normal lenovo.com with its inferior prices.

 

My T430 arrived yesterday. Just did a clean install.

Anyone have any info regarding the 32GB mSATA used as cache? I have searched the forums and elsewhere but couldn't find anything that points in the right direction. How do I enable the SSD caching after a clean install?

 

I formatted windows in the t430 but now the power manager is missing the energy saver profile. How do i get it back?

 

I'm having a few problems with my new T430. First off the "hot" usb port on the back doesn't seem to be hot. It only works with the laptop powered on. Assuming this must be some setting I'm missing.

Worse though is, at my friend's house I can connect to his wireless network but it's EXTREMELY slow and sometimes drops the connection entirely. His laptop and xbox are working fine so it must be a problem on my end. I have the Centrino 2200-N card. Any ideas? his router is a Linksys WRT160N.

 

There is a setting in the BIOS in which you can configure the always on USB port.

 

Yup, finally figured that out. The network problem was solved by disabling 802.11n mode in device manager.

 

Wait, don't these have the thinklight anymore?

---

update: I found that they still have the thinklight and i love that. If you were suggesting that I add th ebacklit keyboard because it is free, it is not free anymore ($40). When the thinklight is in there, I don't see the value.

 

I checked my exact config on 7.27 and it looked about $60 higher at B&N than when I purchased. I think the 30% off became a 25% off which explains the diff.

 

Not a factory option from Lenovo so I am not sure how it will work but for those systems Lenovo does support they use software called express-cache. http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/expresscache_setup_64.exe
Not the best rated software cache solution on the market but pretty much all the software is only sold to OEMs alas.

I'm assuming you did install the cache yourself or is the cache an option in other markets?

 

I believe you have to configure the mSATA cache using the Intel Rapid Storage Technology utility.

 

Here in Singapore there is no option to customize. Only select preconfigured models are offered. Take it or leave it. And in the initial T430 lineup, all models seem to include the 32GB msata drive. And they advertize it as being able to "Boost HDD performance up to 5X compared to 5400rpm drive."

So, on mine, it came pre-configured from Lenovo (2349-AN8). The part number is SAMSUNG MZMPC032HBCD-000.

But in the factory image, all I saw was the drive partitioned into 2, a single 8GB partition to enable quick Sleep mode and the remainder as a normal partition visible in windows for normal data.

Thanks for the link. In all my googling, the link never came up. All i saw was a couple if Lenovo Community Forum threads when instead posting the link, lenovo staff were asking users to PM them to get the download link. Lol. What's with that?

Anyone have done it? I read something about it but mostly related to the Z68 chipset. Is this available on T430? I checked the bios but didn't see any hint of it. Do i have to enable the RAID mode before it will become visible? Mine is in AHCI(default).


Actually, I already ordered a Crucial m4 mSATA 256GB module. But in the meantime I just felt like testing out if the ssd cache thing really does work. Not a deal breaker.

 

Managed to get the expresscache setup. Making a note here if others are also interested.

If you have a small (20 to 32GB) msata SSD installed ( either by yourself or came preinstalled) and you've just done a clean install, chances are this drive is now left unused. This drive is meant to be a cache for your main HDD. There are two ways to get this done, ExpressCache or Intel Rapid Storage Technology. I've not tried the latter, so I'll only describe getting ExpressCache up on Win7x64 .

Caution! : Following these steps will wipe your msata ssd drive. So if you have any data there, move it out somewhere safe.

ExpressCache (Win7x64) method:

1. Download and install ExpressCache(Thanks, firemandan9). Upon installation, it will complain that no suitable partition was found and that for the driver to take effect a reboot is required. Just close it and proceed to next step.

2. In this step you have to decide weather to assign a dedicated hibernate partition on your SSD cache drive or use the entire drive for caching only. Go to this link and follow the steps there. For example, I first ran the clean_msata.vbs and then the msata_iffscache.vbs. This created a 8GB hibernation partition and another 20+GB partition for caching.

3. Once the above is done, reboot.

4. Now run an elevated cmd (Run cmd.exe with administrator rights (start->all programs->accessories->command prompt)). And type

​

eccmd -info

If all went well, you should see some statistics about your cache drive.

 

Hey guys.

Would it be possible to do a straight upgrade from the Centrino-N 2200 to the Ultimate-N 6300? My thinkpad only has two antennas so I don't know how much of an impact that will cause >.<

Edit: I can also do the 6200 series (2x2). They are not that expensive off of ebay.

 

I would be interested in any comments you have on the cache experience. I have decided to go the dedicated SSD route with a 128 GB Crucial M4 on the computer I should be receiving Wednesday.

When you reinstalled windows what Lenovo options does everyone like, that you choose to add back in?

 

I think it might be abit early to say how good the caching works. But after about 3 or 4 restart cycles (each time I opened both IE and Firefox and Diablo3 on one occasion), I do feel like the shutdown and bootup a bit zippy now. In fact on one boot, it was so fast to get to Login screen that it stated the Fingerprint scanner is not available/missing, lol. But this could also be something entirely unrelated to the caching. But after about 5 to 10 seconds, the scanner did light up green and I was able to get in with a swipe. When launching Firefox(mine is set to remember the tabs from last time), I feel as though it comes up faster and even tabs feel as though they are loading the instant I click on them(this usually take a few seconds depending on the page itself). Overall, i do think the caching is doing something tangible.

Are you getting a SATA or mSATA drive? Either way I think you should keep your OS and program files on it. Hopefully you don't have too many heavy programs. 128GB is going to fill up fast otherwise. I'm getting a mSATA as I want use the HDD for storage and backup. I ordered mine today from Crucial.com and it is supposed to ship FedEx Priority 1. I'd probably get it either Wed/Thu, fingers crossed.

For clean install, I followed "Hearst's Guide to Clean Installing Windows 7 on the ThinkPad". Basically, have at the minimum your network drivers (either WLAN or LAN, whichever you use to connect to your network) and ThinkVantage System Update. Then post windows install, install the network driver and System Update. Run System Update. The simplicity of System Update is unbelievable. All manufacturers should provide a tool like this! This is my first ThinkPad, this is the first time I've used the System Update. Coming from the Dell, i dread downloading and renaming cryptic looking drivers/apps each time want to resintall windows!

I installed all that System Update(it does not suggest any unnecessary stuff, great!) suggested except TV Access Connections, TV Communications Utility and Intel WiDi Driver. You'll have to run System Update multiple times(most of the time it will restart windows and relaunch itself if you chose to install multiple package). The most annoying were the 4 or 5 Windows patches Lenovo had, each of these required separate restarts and they took quite a bit of time. If like me you decide to install all but those I mentioned, be prepared to download close to 1GB of files!

 

An mSATA drive. I have setup two other non-lenovo systems this summer and 120 GB seems to be more than enough so long as you relink all your documents to the traditional hard drive and keep big applications like games to the traditional HDD. I have tried running off a 64 GB drive before and just for a core installation that becomes cozy. At 256 GB you could easily keep everything exclusively on the SSD.

 

Thanks for your advice! I ordered a Samsung 256 SSD. How would I setup caching? Or is that something that comes with an option from Lenovo? I also will be following hearsts guide.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

I second that install. Windows 7, LAN/WIFI drivers, and System Update are all you need for a clean install.

On the other point, I would be interested to see the difference in performance between the msata caching + hdd option and strait up SSD. I am currently using the Mushkin 60GB msata for my boot OS and the 500GB 7.2K as a data drive. As other's noted, I am quite snug on this boot drive with about 10GB free. The hdd has the swap as well as all movable components of the user directory to conserve space. Boot time is between 7-10 cold, and longer from hibernation (obviously due to hdd). My benchmarks on 3D mark 06 and Vantage were phenomenal (see earlier post); however, they were installed on the msata disk. Obviously, this will not be the case with my games/VM's as they will reside on the hdd. The 16GB of installed ram will alleviate some swapping, but I am curious to know how well the caching works.

My overall preference is to go with a single drive for my OS and all my data rather than the current butchered state. This makes imaging and backups easier in my environment. With my current image hovering at right about 420GB, hdd is my only option for single disk solution without taking out a second mortgage on the house for an SSD of the same capacity. Even if it were not so expensive, I would still want a 512GB msata which is not available as of yet. This would allow me to use the 512GB hdd as a backup without having to take up the cdrom slot (which will soon be a Bluray drive ).

If anyone has any other suggestions than what I just proposed, it would be appreciated.

 

Careful about installing the 6200 as it's most likely not on the BIOS' whitelist, better choose the 6205.

Why would you still need caching when your SSD is faster than the mSATA cache drive?

 

Thanks for the recommendation. Would it be much of an improvement to go from the 2200 to the 6205?

 

If you already have a full-blown SSD you don't need the SSD caching. The SSD caching is a poor man's solution to keep the cost down while getting a performance boost. I would install everything on the 256GB drive, atleast for now.

I doubt the hdd + ssd caching can trump the Full SSD(msata or SATA) performance. Simple, the caching is done via software. The caching is only copying files you access frequently, like apps and OS files. Even these have restrictions as the caching tries to avoid large sequential data, so some apps or files that can really boost performance may never be cached. I would assume stuff like Windows' %temp% folder, Browser "Temporary Internet Files", and many more frequently used but change almost as frequently, are not going to be in the SSD cache while they will be if you installed your OS on a Full SSD. These are the things that can affect an overall user experience.

 

Hello all, I am considering getting the T430/530 and have a couple of questions regarding compatible SSDs and RAM.

1)I have available for purchase, a T430 with 4 gb, 1600 mhz (1 DIMM). Does this mean that the machine only ships with one slot or that Lenovo only 'installs' one stick of RAM? Basically, does this mean to upgrade to 8 GB, I need to stick with the 1 DIMM config, or could I get a 2 DIMM (2x4 GB) setup?

2) For any owners who have upgraded to 8 GB themselves, any recommendations on some good RAM options?

3) Am going to install an msata SSD when I do buy the laptop and am considering either a 120 or 128 GB setup. Are there any recommendations from owners as to some good options? Would like something around the 150$ mark. Newegg for example has a Mushkin Enhanced for around 130$. Anyone using that?

Apologies for the random questions!

 

1. T430 has two slots. Lenovo will install a single 4GB stick in one of the slots (the one under the keyboard), if you want to upgrade to 8GB you can just buy a single 4GB stick in put it in the empty slot (bottom of the laptop).
2. Any PC3-12800 DDR3 1600mhz RAM will do, Newegg has some good selection, brands I've used and trust include Gskill, Corsair, Samsung, and Patriot.
3. Right now the most recommended mSATA drive is the Crucial M4 directly from Crucial for $118 plus tax. CT128M4SSD3 - 128GB, mSATA Solid State Drive , from Crucial.com

 

Thanks for the info hmmwv! Final question, won't there be incompatibility between the lenovo RAM module and the one I buy which could cause errors? Though your post seems to indicate this should be possible, just wanted to double check on this.

Thanks again, especially for the 'crucial' link.

 

Stick to the name brand RAMs and PC3-12800 DDR3 1600mhz. There shouldn't be any issues. Mushkin, Micron/Crucial, Corsair, Samsung, Hynix, etc.....


If you are going to get the 128GB mSATA from Crucial, why not get this along with it:
4GB, 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800

 

Glad to know that works out. Will check out the corsair module. Thanks for all the info!

 

Does Crucial have the same RAM with 1x8G module?

I am looking to upgrade to 12G.

Thanks!

 

Yeah but the price is crazy.
CT102464BF160B - 8GB, 204-pin SODIMM , DDR3 PC3-12800 from Crucial.com

 

If I were to purchase a 4GB stick with the same speed and timings as the lenovo ram, would that enable dual channel?

 

Yes, timing is actually not that important, speed is.

 

So just received my T430, really happy with the performance, especially the 900p screen is a lot better than I expected, almost seems to be better than the T420's 900p screen. Keyboard is superb too, typing is joy on it. But holy design flaw Batman! I don't know how could Lenovo screw up such a classic design, I prefer chiclet keyboard but why didn't they retain the 7 row layout and blue enter key? Integrating the USB 3.0 ports into the HDD cover is another fail, why not retain T420's design and there are plenty of room to do so, that way we will get a proper 9.5mm HDD tray. Lastly the lack of port selection is appalling, no full size Displayport (minor issue), no eSATA, no Firewire, less ports than Ideapad is simply unacceptable. I understand that USB 3.0 will fully replace eSATA but we are not there yet, the T series used to be so flexible but now it's just an empty shell. Of course I'm fully aware of those flaws when I made the purchase, but I'm just venting here because I have the T410, 420, and 430 side by side in front of me and all the sudden I really miss the older ones. T series is not what they used to be, so is its price so it's not really that bad, at least now we can afford to upgrade more often, but I'm fully prepared to welcome an even worse T440 next year.

 

Firewire isn't used much outside of the Mac world, so I can see why it'd get the axe.

eSATA didn't really take off, although it has seen a fair bit of adoption. I suppose you could get an ExpressCard->eSATA adapter if you need it.

As far as DisplayPort is concerned: eh. After many years I've come to the conclusion that no matter what video output port a laptop includes, it's gonna tick off somebody. I'd generally assume that if you deal with multiple generations of monitors regularly that you're gonna need to get a dongle or a dock no matter which laptop you buy. I have monitors that use DisplayPort, VGA, and DVI, and a home theatre that uses HDMI, and I use them with multiple generations of ThinkPad. That means that I can pick pretty much any arbitrary combination of display and laptop and odds are I'll have to deal with at least one adapter. So I've kinda given up that fight...

 

Yeah I agree that I should get rid of my Firewire external HDD anyway, and buy new HDD docks that supports USB3.0, it's a change for the better as USB3.0 will soon become the standard storage interface.

I installed the Crucial M4 mSATA SSD and removed the stock HDD, the machine flies now, boots up in 18 seconds and left palm rest is icy cold. CPU temp can get a little high idling though I don't know why, hovering around 52-53C.

WEI
7.1
7.5
6.5
6.5
7.8

 

Okay so I have a graphical problem with my t430. I did a clean install of windows 7 professional and installed nvidia optimus drivers from lenovo's website (maybe I should have gone through nvidia website) and for some reason my fps is capped at 31 for Cod4:mw1 despite the changes I make in game and vertical sync of ingame. Call of duty 1 my fps isnt cap so no problems. I dont understand if I am missing something but my nvidia control panel has everything set to let application decide and even if I change that to manual and force vsync off I still have my fps capped at 31. Its not the game or the configuration of the game but instead a setting for nvidia I am missing. Any ideas?

 

Also on the nvidia site I see a variety of drivers for the nvs 5400m. Performance driver , ODE graphics driver, quadro partner certified driver,.. etc. Which do I choose if its best to reinstall the drivers to get rid of the lenovo t430 website drivers???

 

Is the RAM's voltage important?

I have ordered this g.skill 8G RAM module. It has a voltage spec of 1.5v.

I hope it will be compatible.

Could you tell us what the voltage of the stock RAM module? Thanks!

(I am still waiting for mine, scheduled to be deliver Aug 3/2012!)

 

^^ Apparently the OEM sticks are different depends on shipment batches, some got Samsung I got Hynix, they should all be 1.5V.

 

Awesome news. Is there any update on the idle temps? Are others getting this as well?

 

I've a T530 NVS5400 1gb. I did a clean install and found out I had to boot up in discrete graphics mode (BIOS) to get the nvidia (non lenovo) verde drivers to install, as of today there are no WHQL certified drivers for this card, the latest drivers available straight from nvidia are 304.79 Beta which I have found to be quite stable even when overclocked (with nvidia system tools). As far as your CoD cap goes, that is likely an issue with CoD and not with your machine (my best guess)

 

Are you able to use optimus or are you always using the NVS card?

 

Optimus works great once you have the drivers installed. Install them in discrete mode, reboot in Optimus mode and windows will detect new hardware, wait for it to finish installing everything and reboot again, should be it

 

Hi everybody, I hope you can help me.

I want to buy a T430 custumized from the Lenovo Shop, but I'm from México, so a friend of mine will go a week to USA and i need to calculate with how much time of anticipation to do the order. So my doubt is how long it took the whole process and how trustworthy the dates they gave you were for you?

thanks so much for the help!

 

So after watching it for a while I have determined that the high idle temperature is caused by the CPU constantly jumping to full speed (2.5Ghz) and even turbo to 2.9Ghz sometimes when the machine is completely idling. When I force the computer to idle (cap CPU to 50%) the temp will stay at around 40-43C. I kind of like the feature which you can turn the fan to 100% to allow max turbo though, it sure helps in gaming (I know GPU is the bottleneck) as I was able to get an average of 50 FPS (minimum 39FPS) out of Dirt 3 (900p all high setting). However during gaming the GPU heats up dramatically as the left palm rest becomes uncomfortable, now I'm really glad I got the mSATA SSD as I would not be comfortable knowing my HDD is in that space bear that much heat the whole time.

Here is a pic of my SSD and the 4GB 9-9-9-28 RAM with heatsink.


Update: In CDM the SSD got 272/191 in Seq read/write, which is lower than I expected even for a SATAII bottlenecked disk.

 

Hi guys, I have a few questions about upgrading from the T420 to the T430:

1. I bought a 4GB stick of RAM for my T420 about two months ago and have used it since then. Can I remove it and use it in my T430, or are there different specifications needed for the T430?

2. I'm thinking of buying a 128GB Samsung 830 SSD with the nimitz adapter. The bulk of data on my T420 is music; is it possible to (and if so, how do I) set the SSD as the primary drive where all the Windows files/program files and whatnot go and use the HDD solely to store my music? Also, if I do that, would it make sense to upgrade from the 320GB, 7200RPM HDD to the 500GB, 5400RPM HDD for an extra $10? Would the slower speed matter if I only kept music and some movies on it?

Thanks

___

It took my T420 about three weeks after ordering it to arrive.

 

Thanks for the info!

In your previous post you said you overclocked the card. How much of an overclock were you able to gain?

 

It will work, but I'd rather spend about $20 for a 4GB stick of 1600MHz (like this one) to match the one you're having in the T430. One can argue that performance increase is negligible going from 1333MHz to 1600MHz, but you don't want to penalize dual-channel operation.

For your usage intent, that $10 upgrade to 500GB 5400rpm is an easy decision.

To replace the stock boot HDD with a SSD, you can either "factory restore" onto the SSD or do a fresh Windows 7 installation. (This is not difficult. Check the Hearst guide.) Once you've done that, the default boot order in BIOS will pick up the SSD in primary bay automatically.

Remove the stock HDD when you do the above. Once the system is up and running okay with the SSD, you can turn it off and re-install the stock HDD via the UltraBay caddy adapter. Reboot. Now, you can format the HDD, create new folders as you wish, and copy your personal files to the HDD. 5400rpm won't hurt your playing of music and movies, not at all.

 

In fact in that case a 5400rpm HDD is preferred as it runs slightly cooler and easier on battery.

 

Two questions about this notebook

1- I'm actutually using an i7 2670QM. Will I notice too much difference in performance using the ™ i7-3520M ???
I use my notebook for cad, photoshop, illustrator and sometimes heavy 3d.


2- Any store(link) to buy the Ultrabay cady adapter?? Want to check prices/availability


Thanks!