T430 Owner's Thread

Yea I ordered a t420 display and cable that was compatitble. I found it on ebay and it should be here the 19th. I just examed heat sink and I think the t420 dual pipeline heatsink might work for t430 so I can try that i7 3612qm!! Yea the t430 uses 7mm. If by rail your refering to the rubber guards on side that still wont work . I tried to get the 9mm ssd I had to go in without any caddy or anything and it is impossible unless u want to take off palmrest and remove metale above harddrive.

 

Could you please take a picture of the drive and rails that came in the primary drive bay of your T430?

 

1600x900 matte? and it's not one of the models lenovo used themselves? i'd probably accept glossy if it had better viewing angles.

 

The screen is 1600x900 .

NEW Lenovo FRU 93P5693 Laptop LCD Screen 14.0" WXGA+ LED T420 T420S and others | eBay

I dont have a camera to take a pic of them unfortunately but its just a simple 7mm harddrive and a normal caddy which adds no size to it at all so thats not a problem and the rails are just 2 rubber pieces that come off of side of caddy. Just imaged a 7mm drive with the sides protected with semi cylindrical rubber guards on each end. Its simple design but hope that helps.

 

Can anyone tell me why the some of the t420 heat sinks have a dual pipeline and a gpu pipe line for heat sink???/ Here is the links of one I found on ebay. I need to know before I can upgrade to the quad. Does the i7 3520 processor upgrade come with dual heat pipes to cpu???This is seriously the key to determining how well the quad iwll work and I need to know but can find nothing online

FRU 04W0417 04W0416 Genuine Lenovo Thermal Heat Sink Fan NEW Thinkpad T420 T420S | eBay

 

that's the same screen that already comes with it though, isn't it?

 

9270... thats a higher score than the 550m according to notebookcheck... much higher than the 540m, which has the same core. If it has a lower clock spd, shouldnt it be a LOWER score?

 

+1 For the Sammy too. Really surprised Lenovo have gone down this route for the main hard drive bay, made me glad I have a T420 instead which accepts 9.5mm drives.

 

same. i'm waiting for the 830 in msata form to use as a boot drive, although i read that the power consumption is a bit high in either format. my HDD is the 1TB samsung, and i won't get a laptop that can't facilitate that capacity drive.

i'm sure i read that people were finding ways to put 9mm drives into thinkpads designed for 7mm, not sure if it was the x220 or the t420s, but it sounds like that isn't even possible now?

 

SEC is the Samsung panel, only the AUO and Samsung HD+ panels are taken over from the previous T420/T420s respectively. The LG HD+ Panel however has a new part number, the previous part number for the LG LP140WD2 (TL)(B1) panel is 93P5689 so maybe they allocated a brand new (maybe better) panel for the T430?

 

Sadly, thats not the Display in the X1 Carbon:
X1 Carbon Display LP140WD2(TL)E2, FRU 04W6859 (LG)
T430s Display 04W331 (LG)

 

blah...was hoping i could cram my spare 120GB SSD in there. went ahead and got a Samsung 830 256GB...$270...plus the $300 for 16GB RAM and a 60GB m-sata and ultra-bay adapter....yikes...

gonna have to take a break from the consumer market for a while guys

 

I just bought the samsung 830 to fit in there and returned my vertex 4. I also will be upgrading to a 1600x900 display once I get home from work. Lastly I just purchased the i7 3612qm to put in the laptop and see how well it runs. I wanted to try the 3610qm because everyone keeps saying it runs at the same temps as the 3612qm.... Is this true because Id love to see true facts and numbers on this. I thought 35w TDP meant it would run cooler then the 45W 3610 but literally all the forums I am reading say otherwise. Hopefully this isnt true because I could have gotten more for my money...

 

Like I said I have never done any benchmarks before but all I did was download trial and run as is. Was i suppose to tweak some settings or something????

 

So the screen replacement went well. I will be even happier once the cpu gets here

 

awesome! really interested in seeing what kind of results you get. temps along with battery life measurements would be really cool to see.

i was really hoping to get a quad-core but seems i would've had to settle for a hulking beast or a non-thinkpad and in the end i just couldn't make that compromise, but if i can pop one in eventually...

keep in mind that people are gonna be eager to justify their cost-savings. i would imagine the temp differences to become noticeable at prolonged periods maxing out all cores. in any case, the 3612qm is the only option for me since it's the only low-voltage quad that still has VT-D enabled, which i need for some of the work i'm gonna be doing on mine... though i guess that's more of a justification for myself than it is for you glad you're giving it a shot though, good luck!

 

hey guys, im trying to upgrade the memory and HD on my incoming T430

so i was thinking about:
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Elect...&qid=1340081553&sr=8-1&keywords=samsung+12800

would this be a good match for the Lenovo 4gb stick? Do I really need to get 2 Samsung to avoid timing mismatch and how problematic are these mismatches?

Also do we know if the interface in the ultrabay port and HDD bay is SATA III?

Thanks for the help!

 

They are a perfect match and Samsung is a nice brand. I actually think that Lenovo is using Samsung.

I do not know about any problem with different brandsa as long as it is the same speed.

Yes, the interface for both is SATA III

 

Im pretty sure you could just change the latency and voltage if there is any mismatch to ensure dual channel. I just bought 8gb G. Skill kit to make sure there was no problem.

Has anyone else gotten their t430 any benchmarked the 5400m? I am curious to see if the 2gb version differs from the 1gb and whether or not my benchmarks were flawed for some reason. If it scored higher then the gt550 as someone stated that would be awesome lol. I was able to play Cod4 mw1 with no lag and maxed out specs.

 

You won't ever have RAM that will simultaneously run at different speeds. The BIOS will read the RAM's SPD settings and take the slowest of the two and go from there (usually).

 

Yea it will go at the slowest of the two but I was always under the assumption if the latency and voltage werent the dual channels might not be in use.

If anyone wants to purchase the 4gb of whatever is in the t430 now I am willing to sell through paypal invoice so we have buyer and seller protection!! Its 1 chip running at 1600mhz , not sure of latency or voltage but its most likely the same thats in all of them hopefully???

 

I have had one problem though that I am conscerned with. Earlier in this thread I asked the benefits of the the 3x3 wireless adaptor and I was given the benefits of it . Well i ordered that Intel Centrino N6205 Integrated Wifi with my t430 and for some reason whenever I boot up the wireless device will not automatically configure/connect and it fails to connect to the router untill I turned off the adaptor then turn it back on, then try to connect again to router. This happened at both my house and my girlfriends house so I figure its the laptops settings. Is there something I should be aware of since I purchased this adaptor?

 

Did you uninstall "Access Connections"? It always causes problems like that and more and it has more harms than benefits

 

Before replacing the lcd screen I noticed the lvds cable sits on the heat sink pipes. Could this lead to problems because those heatpipes become hot to the touch. I have my new lvds cable for the hd+ screen sitting on it as well and it just seems to me that could cause problems down the road . Is that possible or am I just paranoid haha

 

What are the benefits of upgrading the T430 to 8gb? I just ordered one and am thinking about going to 8gb, but I'm not sure how significant the performance increase would be. Does it help a lot with gaming?

 

Not really with gaming, most games won't benefit from more than 4GB of RAM, not that it would hurt.

You'll probably see a slight increase in overall performance, but unless you know you need more than 4GB for a specific reason, there isn't much need for it.

I, on the other hand, am probably one of three who will be putting 16gb of RAM in mine (from newegg of course, not paying Lenovo 1k for RAM, haha). In my case, I do a lot of virtualization work, running linux and specialty OS's a lot, so I need the extra RAM.

 

Cool thanks, that's about what I figured.

 

Do you think lenovo will ever get the 2gb nvs 5400m back in stock???

 

At some point I think they will. I just hope that the one I ordered comes with the 2GB and that wasn't a SKU fail on Lenovo's part...

 

so whats the huge benefit gains from that extra 1gb of vram. I mean isnt the true bottleneck going to be the gpu itself? I have a gtx 280 with 1gb of ram and it would outperform the nvs 5400 2gb vram. I mean the gtx 280 is larger and more heat but what I am trying to figure out is how important is that extra 1gb of vram. And dont get me wrong the extra 30 dollars for the 1gb of vram is worth it to me just to max out specs after spending 250 on the gpu already haha. Just stinks the option is no longer available

 

I think you shouldn 't really notice this 1GB. They would have done better to use GDDR5 as Dell does.

More VRAM is usefull for some situations but for most of them you would probably rather by a pc or notebook with a better graphics card.

But Maybe one of the peoble who bought the 2GB version can say us why he needs it.

 

More vRAM allows the GPU to do less memory transfer work over the course of a cycle(s), and in turn gives the GPU more time to do the rendering rather than waiting on the vRAM system to move the necessary data to and fro. Having more vRAM also allows the GPU to complete more complex renderings given that the resolution of the rendering remains the same. We call this "eye" candy, and it comes in the form of Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering.

All in all, for our uses, vRAM is ideally matched to normal 3D operating resolution when everything else is left the same. If you were going to plug in a 30" monitor with 2560 x 1440 resolution, you're generally going to want more than 1GB of vRAM for CAD/3D renderings done at that size. However, 1600 x 900 is definitely well-matched with the 1GB offering.

Don't LOL at me, but I opted for the 2GB version because it was $30 more, and I was all over the future-proofing of this notebook when I purchased it. However, I don't currently plan on connecting a super-high res monitor to it, which is why I opted for the HD+ display

 

Yea brinox I wanted to future proof this laptop as well but lenovo took away that away. I mean I maxed out the specs on my laptop in every way possible except ram and software and 30 dollars wouldnt have broke me. I just sold my new t430 to make some profit so I had to re order yesterday and the option still wasnt available.

with my luck the 2gb version might be re-available in a week.

 

Hey I was hoping to hook my t430 up to the 1080p TV. I have a 25ft hdmi cable but unfortunately there is no hdmi port. Does anyone know a good displayport to hdmi adaptor that will allow video and audio to stream? If possible Id rather buy it on ebay so if you could post a link it would be appreciated and I dont know if this is asking to much but under 10 dollars. Thanks if anyone can help

 

Have a read of this thread for compatible Displayport to HDMI adapters. Personally I use the NEET Displayport to HDMI adapter and both audio and video worked straight away on my Sony TV.

 

Can one of you owners try running a game on this to see how well it does? Dirt3 or something with a built in benchmark would be fine. That 3dMark score seems abnormally high.

 

If your insisting I lied , I didnt. Maybe I used it wrong but like I said I downloaded 3dmark06 free trial and just hit go and there were a series of tests that came on the screen and this is the scores that came up afterwards. The overall score was combined score with gpu and cpu? which one is just the gpu because I wasnt sure . Also, the trial doesnt let you tinker with the settings at all.

I have never done benchmarks before but it seemed pretty straight forward to me. How do you test just the gpu alone. Maybe that was the problem

 

I'm not accusing you of falsifying your score or anything. It seems like you ran the benchmark correctly; I think we were just expecting a lower score given the GDDR3 and how it is supposed to be the same chip as that is found in the 540m.

Do you have any games you can run?

 

I tested call of duty 4 modern warfare 1 on it and it ran perfectly. with a default config and anti aliasing on max and extra detail had averaged about 70fps. With details on low and everything off the fps never dropped below 125fps. If I had other games I would have tested them.

 

Is the "default" config with everything maxed (textures, AF, etc)? Thanks for bearing with me. I'm considering getting one of these for college later in the fall.

 

Yes. there is a yitch3 config that alot of cod players used back in the day and I tried it on there and was getting over 200fps but that is the lowest crappiest settings .Id say the t430 is a good mix for work and school. I am a grad student and I think its worth the money. Use your school discount on it . I got every hardware upgrade they had minus cpu and ram(ill put my own in) and the cost came to 1050 after tax. I have a i7 3612qm and 8gb of ram on the way so for quad 14 inch I spend about 1300 for everything.

 

I may potentially be switching from my T61p to the T430. It strikes almost the perfect balance minus the QC CPU and 1080p screen. I have no problem upgrading if it works and I am not the guinea pig . I upgraded my T61P's CPU and used a modified bios to upgrade the RAM to 8GB so I am eager to see your results.

Does anyone else know if the SATA HDD caddy's from the T60/T61 days would fit into a T420/T430?

 

No they won't work since the T60/T61 Ultrabay Caddies uses the PATA interface while the T420/T430 Ultrabay Caddies uses the SATA interface instead. Also the bezel are much larger on the T420/T430 than the T60/T61.

 

Im almost positive it will accept the cpu and the heat will be managable. The t420 handled the i7 2720qm so well so why wouldnt this handle a 3612qm. I will use mx-4 as the cpu thermal compound. Even if your not doing a cpu upgrade I would recommend re applying the thermal paste with something new. Couldnt hurt and it wont void warranty if your not to obvious about taking it apart and breaking something

 

I bable about this every other post. Sorry for the redundancy.

 

Yep, now I remember; the groaning about how the caddy accepted a SATA HDD, but the interconnect was PATA. Oh well, can always sell them. Now the bigger question is, will the T420/T430 caddy accept the larger 9.5mm drives? Otherwise, I am up sh!7 creak with all my disks. Thought I read in this thread it would, but am not sure.

It is all good. Frankly I am pretty excited to see if it can be done. I can live with the 1600x900 resolution at 14", but no QC is frankly uncalled for. Hell, both Maingear and Origin are offering them in their 11" notebooks! If it were not for Lenovo's superb support, I would have sprung for the Maingear Pulse 11!

Anyway, I just hope the CPU upgrade does not create the nightmare issue it did with the T61p going from analogue to digital temp sensors. Bios would generate a thermal error on post and you had to hit ESC to get past it. That is, until a non-Lenovo genius hacked the bios to get around it!

 

Has anyone tried to connect the T430 to a DVI dual link monitor? I have an Apple Cinema HD 30" with 2560x1600 resolution dual link DVI.

Apple Cinema Display (20-, 23-, and 30-inch DVI) - Technical Specifications

I know that the specs (tabook.pdf) say that the T430 supports 2560x1600 DisplayPort and 1920x1200 single link DVI. But that seems to contradict this driver information:

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/g5de28ww.txt

I guess what I'd like to know is whether the NVIDIA upgrade would make any difference. Do the docking stations provide dual link DVI at 2560x1600?

I'd ask Lenova, but their sales people aren't very good. Thanks in advance!

Travis

 

Has anyone tried to connect the T430 to a DVI dual link monitor? I have an Apple Cinema HD 30" with 2560x1600 resolution dual link DVI.

Apple Cinema Display (20-, 23-, and 30-inch DVI) - Technical Specifications

I know that the specs (tabook.pdf) say that the T430 supports 2560x1600 DisplayPort and 1920x1200 single link DVI. But that seems to contradict this driver information:

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/g5de28ww.txt

I guess what I'd like to know is whether the NVIDIA upgrade would make any difference. Do the docking stations provide dual link DVI at 2560x1600?

I'd ask Lenova, but their sales people aren't very good. Thanks in advance!

Travis

 

AFAIR, unless you can connect the monitor with DisplayPort, your only option is DisplayPort->DVI dual link adapter. It's NOT a bunch of cables, and will costs around $100: DELL Display Port to Dual Link DVI Adapter : Desktop Accessories | Dell

 

@power7: Thanks for the reply. You are probably right that an adapter would work. I'd really like to know if someone has tried it before I buy the T430 so I could avoid the restocking fee if it fails. Driving the 30" is a must have for me...