T430 Owner's Thread

do you think it is a bad idea to just turn on integrated graphics in bios until I actually decide to use a game (lower temps and better battery life) and then put it on optimus if I do play one? I know this may sound crazy but it seems like my temps are a bit lower when i enable os detection. Yea i know that probably sounds stupid because as you stated windows 7 supports optimus but I have repeatidly gone back and forth with it off then on and temps are lower. Maybe i am just losing it but give it a try and test then to let me know what you determine.

 

Regarding the intel turbo boost, will it throttle automatically if the CPU's temp is not cooled fast enough? I noticed that there is a feature called Lenovo Turbo boost. When it is enabled, the fan is turned on at max and sounds like a hair-dryer (very loud). Is this so in order to help sustain the Intel's turbo boost? (IE, to avoid throttling by CPU temp?)

 

You can certainly set it to iGPU if you don't mind do a restart to set it before gaming, I think it will help with both temperature and battery life. Alternatively you can go into Nvidia Control Panel, and under 3D Settings you can choose the preferred GPU.

That's absolutely correct, the turbo boost is limited by temperature, the max turbo mode will force the fan to 100% to delay the CPU from reaching throttling temp. Personally I don't use it simply because I rarely use any software that requires the CPU to sustain in turbo mode.

 

So when using optimus and the nvidia gpu is not in use is it still drawing power or is it completely turned off? I mean since it has a temperature of 50 C i would think that its still drawing a good amount of power if its generating that much heat. When switching to integrated gpu in bios , does that completely shut off gpu and stops all power to the gpu unlike optimus? If this is so then hell it would just be stupid to use optimus because right when you turn your computer on you already have predetermined if your going to game or cad it up...

 

I believe that with Optimus, the discrete GPU is completely turned off or at least stays in some sort of low-power standby mode when not in use.

For the record, the Ivy Bridge CPUs are generating much more heat than their Sandy Bridge predecessors (because of the 3D transistors and/or the fact that the soldering is different, I don't really remember why).

On idle, my i7 + HD4000 T430s temp is around 48*C, I believe that this is perfectly normal. It's only the internal temp, though, it doesn't get warm on the outside unless your start stressing the CPU.

 

I believe if using Optimus the dGPU will stays in a low power standby mode ready to switch on at any moment without user input, if you turn it off in BIOS then it shouldn't draw any power. Note the dGPU shares the same radiator (different heat pipe) with the CPU so some of the temperature you saw is transferred back from the CPU, when you switch off dGPU in the BIOS don't expect to see room temperature displayed on the dGPU. Also the NVS 5400M is not only used for games and CAD, in Optimus it also turns on to assist other graphics intensive tasks such as flash/silverlight video, or even momentarily help rendering Google Earth images. It's not stupid to use Optimus because it would bother most people to do a restart and change BIOS setting just to use the dGPU, I'd rather have a seamless transition between the two. The left palm rest stays cool when Optimus sets the 5400M to sleep, and when I tested it seems that disabling it all together only yielded minimum battery life gain (~15 minutes of so).

 

Hey Guys,

Just bought a T430 with a ivy bridge i5 3210 and nvdia NVS5400M. Been using a t61 for the past 4 years and decided to get an upgrade when I saw the barnes and noble sale for a T430. Anyways, i had a few question about the laptop. Does anyone know what the CAS latency of the stock RAM? I am looking to add an additional 4gb and would like to know what ram i should get. Does it even matter if the CAS matches? My other question is if there is a way to add an additional harddrive aside from an optical caddy. I'm looking to replace the original HD with an SSD, but I was hoping to use the stock HD as extra storage.

 

This stick will work.

You can keep both the stock HDD (for storage) and the optical drive (no caddy adapter) by adding a boot/OS/apps mSATA SSD in the WWAN PCIe slot. This one is worth considering. Although a 64GB provide ample room for Windows and applications (mine only uses 42GB), you may want to buy a 128GB SSD as prices are quite attractive now.

 

What about using the older generation PC3 10600 DDR modules? Will they work? I have a bunch of Crucial PC 3 10600 modules sitting around and am wondering if they can be used on a T430 that I just ordered.

 

Cannot be older than DDR3, though. 204-pin DDR3 1333MHz (PC3 10600) will work, but the stock RAM stick will operate at 1333MHz instead of 1600MHz. Some people care about this, some people don't.

(Side note: I would give HD 4000 integrated graphics the fastest and largest RAM I can afford. )

 

Thanks. Will try one of my modules in the T430 and see what happens. If it works, the $20 saved on a 1600mhz module can be applied to a Crucial mSATA

 

Wise decision.

 

Hey all. I removed my optical drive in place of an extra HDD. How can I use the optical drive externally? Do I just need a USB to USB cord or is there a caddy I have to buy?

 

I strongly recommend this slimSATA-USB adapter for your removed optical drive. The included pouch is very handy.

 

So my Ultrabay finally got here.
I'm going to stick the 500gb HDD that came with the machine into it.
I just have a few question before I go ahead and plug it in.
Can these things be hotplugged?
How should I format the old HDD (it still has the OS on it. No files, I swapped it out almost immediately)

 

Yes. As soon as you snap it in, Windows will recognize it as an "ejectable device" just like a USB external drive. Before you physically pull it out, do the proper Windows action of "removing the device" (in the notification area on the right side of the taskbar) to insure all file operations are finalized.

Go into Disk Management (click the Windows orb, type "disk management" without quotes, select the "Create and manage hard disk partitions" menu item). Delete the "recovery" partition on the right. Extend the "system" partition on the left to absorb the rest of the space. Now, format that large partition. You can assign a drive letter to it, such as D.

 

^:thumbsup:

Gotcha. Thanks for the help!

 

I got my T430 last week overall performance is great but temps are worrying especially when playing games. Skyrim runs really well 1600x900 but cpu temp gets up to 100 °C and exhaust air is really hot so hot its really uncomfortable keeping your hand next to the laptop.
Is this normal?

 

Quite normal. Get a gaming desktop system with proper GPU and water cooling.

 

That's completely normal, I've done something extreme once and temp is still hovering around 80C. What I did is leave the HDD bay empty and open, eject the ultrabay DVDRW, open the RAM/SSD hatch, put fan in max turbo mode, put the laptop on a cooling pad.

 

Boy, talking about bending over backwards. (You forgot to remove the palmrest and the keyboard.)

 

The Lenovo Brand has just as bad as cooling as HP. I used to have my T420 get up to 90C for the GPU and CPU but I switched to a Clevo W110ER and now I don't see temps higher than 80 when both are active. I would figure the T430 would have some beefier cooling under the hood but apparently all they care about is cool idle temps versus cool load temps.

 

Well, just bought a my first Lenovo! I got the T430 through student pricing. $960 including shipping and tax. I'm excited to move away from Dell finally to something that has a great reputation for reliability. Dell definitely lost money on me as a customer because of all the issues they had to fix under warranty. The 3 year warranty was priced very well at $85 so I'll love that peace of mind for the next 3 years. I should get it in 1 week!

My configuration is:
Intel i5-3210M
1600x900 screen
Nvidia graphics card
4GB RAM
Fingerprint reader
DVD Reader
320 GB hard drive (will likely get an SSD on my own)
Bluetooth
Thinkpad wi-fi
3-year depot warranty

 

Don't be silly, removing the keyboard means I won't be able to game on it, and removing the palmrest will ruin my warranty. j/k

I only did it to see how much cooler the system can run, normally when I game I don't do those since I'm okay with 90C+ temperature. My HDD and Ultrabay are empty though, since I use mSATA SSD and a weight saver in the Ultrabay.

 

This can come in handy:

 

Hey all, just took delivery of a T430 to replace my x220 as acting DTR, and I thought I'd share my thoughts.

Overall pretty impressed with the machine considering how little I paid - $482 pre-tax once my price match goes through - the machine feels sturdy, and I saw a lot of metal in the chassis when I peeked under the keyboard, which is always nice. My configuration was also lighter than the Lenovo site's quoted weight of 4.77 - I measured 4.68 on a cooking scale and down to 4.38 with an old optical drive blank. It could be a little thinner, but that doesn't really matter to me as I'm not going to move it.

With the 2328m the unit runs cool enough such that I can run it passively almost 100% of the time (using tpfc of course) without the temps cracking 55C even with my dual external displays. Undocked and on battery, minimum idle power was about 5.5W. Load temps under prime95 topped out at about 70C, which is much, much better than the 90C I was getting in the x220. Unfortunately the fan control doesn't seem to have much granularity: fan speed 1 in tpfc is already 3000 RPM, which is definitely not quiet.

USB 3 support was one of the reasons I did this swap and it was definitely worth it. I'm now typically limited by the 80MB/s sequential write speed on my relatively old Intel G2 SSDs, rather than the 20MB/s bus limit of USB 2. That being said, the port layout could be a little better: I'm not really wild about the two USB 3 ports being both recessed and immediately next to each other, while the two USB 2 ports are way out in the boonies.

The screen is okay, and the keyboard is okay.

I was also impressed by their use of little plastic clips to guide the WIFI cables. Instead of tape.

 

^ how in the BALLS did you get it down to $480?

 

Last week when the sale was running you can get the following specs to $437 pre tax, downgrade the standard processor to a Sandy i3-2328M takes something like $140 off.

Intel Core i3-2328M Processor (2.20GHz, 3MB Cache, 1333MHz) with Intel HD Graphics 3000
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
14.0" HD (1366 x 768) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
Intel HD Graphics 4000
4 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (1 DIMM)
Keyboard - US English
No Camera, with Microphone
320GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD Recordable
Express Card Slot & 4-in-1 Card Reader
6 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70+
65W AC Adapter - US (2pin)
ThinkPad 1x1 b/g/n
Mobile Broadband upgradable

 

Yeah, Barnes and Noble gold ftw. I think I lucked out since the -$140 2328m option doesn't seem to be available anymore.

 

Is it possible to use the mSATA SSD in the WWAN PCIe slot for storage instead of for boot and applications? I would prefer to have the boot files, Windows and apps on a main SSD of larger size and use the mSATA SSD in the WWAN PCIe slot as additional file storage. And possibly use the mSATA drive for the Windows pagefile.

 

Is it possible to use any drive for storage? Just insert an mSATA SSD into the right PCIe slot, initialize it, format it, and you have a storage drive.

As long as you don't "prep" it as a boot drive (install Windows, set the boot order in BIOS), it isn't treated as a Windows bootable drive.

 

Just received a T420 ultrabay blank (weight saver) in the mail, popped it in and it fits perfectly. I use mSATA SSD so I leave both HDD bay and ultrabay empty (with covers on, of course), and my total weight is 4.39lbs. A friend of mine has a very basic T430 config, with i3-3110, single stick 4GB RAM, no BT, no FPR, no Webcam, no backlit keyboard, no NVS5400M, and using a 64GB mSATA SSD, the weight is even lighter at only 4.1lbs, that's almost in T430s' weight range. Overall I think it's a laptop very easy to carry around, feels light yet sturdy in your hand. Having said that, your overall travel weight is about the same because in my bag I still carry the DVDRW and the original HDD in an external enclosure.

 

Still a step behind the fruit that has all flash and no mechanical devices. You see the advantage in your own upgrades, but imagine how most "buyers" would react if a ThinkPad had only a sizeable mSATA SSD.

(Optical drives are rarely used. Factory restore discs are useless. Factory restore partition is questionable. Get rid of them. Make intelligent use of USB 3.0 and removable devices. Use imaging for full system backup. On and on...)

 

I was wondering if anyone from this forum has had used windows server 2008 in vmware on their t430. I have a perfectly good desktop at home that i was going to install windows server 2008 sp1 on it and run remotefx so i could access my desktop from my t430. Well to test out the setup I was just going to run a virtual machine under win server 2008 and run another vm as xp . Well in order to get remotefx working you need hyper-v and for some reason when i add that role in my vm for ws 2008 it says processor doesnt support hyper-v . Why doesnt the 3612qm support this in vmware? Any help would be greatly appreciated and i figure since many of us that use this owner's thread have just been repeating topics this might be a good change of pace. thanks

 

Enable virtualization in BIOS?

 

Has anyone installed a Blu-Ray player? If so, is there a Lenovo part number that would work? I see a lot on Ebay, but none specific to the T42/3 series. What size should I be looking at?

 

The UltraBay is a plain old SATA bay. Any SATA drive of the appropriate height will work (although the faceplate may need to be switched, depending on the design.)

No need to get an official Lenovo part.

 

Hi everyone, sorry if this is a dumb question, as I am new to opening up and upgrading laptops.

If I were to get the Intel HD Graphics 4000 only, is it possible to buy and install my won NVIDIA graphics card in the laptop, in the space that the 5400m would have taken up? Thanks.

 

No.
Most of not all laptops cannot be upgraded graphics wise. Some companies such as sagar /clevo etc offer mxm module upgrades for mobile graphics but otherwise ordinarily you can't upgrade.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

http://ark.intel.com/products/67356/Intel-Core-i7-3612QM-Processor-(6M-Cache-up-to-3_10-GHz)-rPGA
3612QM only supports VT-x, not VT-d

 

Yes I enabled virtualization in bios but i was not aware of the difference between vt-x and vt-d so thanks OCM . The next thing I have been thinking about tinkering with on my t430 is windows multipoint server. I want to get my t430 to act as more than one computer basically so my girlfriend can hook my 25ft hdmi cable up to my tv and a usb mouse and keyboard up and were good to go. Anyone familiar with that or tried doing it?

 

Anyone else experiencing intermittent long boot times after sticking an HDD in the Ultrabay?
I removed the ultrabay from the boot order, but it still seems to take a good long while to boot the first time in a day.

 

Hi; I am about to order a T430 in the 1600x900 resolution. For those of you who have this resolution how pleased are you with the results? Thanks.

 

I mean, as far as TN panels go, it's alright. Nothing special, but not terrible either. Of course your mileage may vary depending on panel manufacturer, etc.

 

Thanks for the reply. I just cannot stand the 1366x768 so if the display is of decent quality I should be okay.

 

It's decent, and the HD+ resolution is a must for this size of laptop, they are all TN panels but my MBP's seems better, however the 1280x800 resolution is simply too low compare with the T430's 1600x900.

 

+2 on the HD+ setup.
You absolutely need 1600x900 on a 14.1".
I recently saw a friend's 15.6" which was running 1366x768. I wanted to stab my eyes out.

 

I can believe it! That's why I ordered the 1600x900 matte screen on my son's Sagar 15.6" college/gaming laptop.

My wife and daughter's Thinkpad Edges (1st generation) only came in the 1366x768 and they have no issue with it at all (and solid machines as well) but after seeing it for myself I said "No way."

By the way, pulled the trigger on my new T430 last night.

 

Do you know what height? Is their an official Lenovo part that would fit? I would prefer to stay Lenovo as I love the support.

 

I finally got my T430 yesterday

Question....how can you edit the trackpad settings? or is it possible?....