T430 Owner's Thread

From what I heard, the T430 batteries have chips in them. Without the chip, the battery cannot charge.

 

Yea I heard that as well but I was wondering if anyone has the t420 9 cell and could test it out. I would really appreciate it . thanks

 

Looks like NBR has posted their own review of the T430. They are reporting 15 hours of battery life in their test 0_o

 

They got the model without the high-res screen and also (more importantly) without the discrete GPU.

 

ok forreals - i am curiously interested in seeing if the Core i7 3612QM will work in in the T430... Has anyone looked into this beyond Intel's 35w thermal spec envelope? I know there has been chattering on it, but I want to see some more details on the technicalities behind this idea, if available

 

My i7 3612qm will be here Friday so when I put it in I will let you know how it goes. There shouldnt be any problems with it. Getting to the cpu is pretty easy as well. Just take off keyboard, palm bezel and remove speaker and walah. Basically same as a cpu switch for the t420.

 

If you want to get as much information out of me as possible give me step by step instructions what you would like me to do after I put it in. I have the nvidia gpu as well so use that as comparison for your model. I will be using MX-4 thermal paste , I have arctic silver as well but its 3 years old and that makes me worry. I will be using a new clean copy of windows 7 and a 128gb samsung 830 ssd. Not that the ssd will improve heat that much but I am sure it will help slightly.

 

oh hot damn, you already ordered it. rock on! taking apart laptops is nothing new to me, and I re-pasted the TIM on my T420 last summer, so I have a decent idea of what goes on.

I think I already pointed you in the direction of IntelBurnTest and/or LinX for generating thermal load on the processor. That's going to give you the most extreme environment to test the cooling capabilities with the quad.

I'd definitely run that for an extended period of time prior to installation just to verify that the stock setup can handle it though

 

are you sure running those programs wont hurt the computer at all?? Give me worst case scenerios as well from runnning it and the heat getting to be to much??? that is the last thing I want to do is break it haha. I want to make sure its stable as well though

 

If CPU or GPU gets too hot it will throttle down. A few years ago you could really get your CPU to burn literally. But today you shouldn't be able to dmg your CPU with heat caused by load. Especially if you do it only for a short time for testing.

 

Heh, came here specifically to check on the quad-core testing status, glad to see there's already been some updates

agreed on dual/quad temps with intel burn test. idle temps as well. if it's too hot the cpu will throttle or shutdown and the swap just wasn't meant to be.

and overnight run of Orthos Prime would be nice too.

Also, if the GPU shares the CPUs heatpipe, it may make sense to incorporate a similar set of runs with the GPU being stressed.

I'm interested in the quad for so fairly heavy/constant compiling and VM-based testing so long term impacts on stability would be my major concern. Some if that VM-testing may involve GPU-passthrough of the discrete graphics card as well so having that in the mix would be great.

With 16GB, SSD, discrete graphics, IOMMU, AND a quad core with something comparable to the ~7 hours battery life i've been getting with light usage, this would such a perfect perfect machine for me.

 

I just ran 45 minutes of LinX on my T430, and it's max temps were between 82°C and 87°C between each cores. the fan was hardly on as well...

 

Just wanted to chime in here and tease the fact that by end of day tomorrow I should have both the T430 and T430s and can do a side by side comparison and compare the screens. I have the T430 with 1366 x 768 screen right now and it's pretty much as bad as the NBR review states. Do yourself a favor and get the 1600 x 900 screen. See attached images for viewing angles on the T430.

 

Just about to order a t430 and looking ahead...

When next years Haswell CPU's are released, will they work with t430, Ivy Bridge and Haswell are both 22nm???

Only asking because if HD5000 integrated graphics are good, the Nvidia 5400M will probably become redundant, with the non removable GPU if you upgrade, with exception of VRAM.

So I'm thinking ill leave the Nvidai 5400M out and use that money to install Haswell when it comes, just need some confirmation if Haswell is compatible.


ALSO: Any news how much the Nvidia 54000M kills battery life..

 

As far as I know, it will be a different pinout/socket, so no. Even if it's the same socket I doubt it will work, same problem as with Sandy->Ivy: Incompatible chipset

 

Hmm. Sandy to Ivy was the same architecture, but the size shrunk. The size should be the same in Ivy to Haswell.

But Haswell will be a new architecture. Not sure if that will make it incompatible or not.

 

I read Haswell will have different socket, so no upgrade from Ivy.

Read more:
Mainstream desktop CPUs future evolution - more performance or just more integration? by VR-Zone.com

 

I will run all of these tests once the cpu comes in. I was also curious as to the discrete gpu, I have always been cheap and opted for integrated until this time. Should I apply the mx-4 thermal paste to the gpu as well > I feel like the gpu doesnt usually have thermal paste for newer laptops and instead a little rubber squishy square lol. Should I just remove that and apply thermal paste? Or maybe I am crazy and not remembering correctly last time I took it apart

 

It should be OK, you could consider adding a Copper Shim on it to make up the similar thickness of the Thermal Pad. I added a Copper Shim on my T420 and with the Arctic Silver 5 paste it knocked off an extra 2-3c off my CPU temps compared to Thermal Paste alone.

 

Alright so my lenovo t430 has an ssd, 8gb of ram(enough for me) , nvidia gpu, soon to be quad core, 6300agn wireless card, hd+ screen, backlit keyboard, 9 cell battery, 9 cell slice.

What else is there I can do to finish upgrading this laptop other than harddrive caddy or media bay battery. My ssd is only 128gb ssd so I was curious about more memory upgrades without using that caddy. I do not like anything sticking out of the laptop other than the slice battery.

 

So your saying I shouldnt add to any thermal paste to gpu? Well I was hoping I wouldnt have to add to the heatsink itself. I have been doing research on it to see any improvements I could make but hopefully stock will do. I wanted to add another pipeline by using the lenovo t430s heat sink but there is screw holes for the gpu section on it.

 

I said you can add Thermal Paste to the GPU in place of the Thermal Pad, but I mentioned that you could use Copper Shims on top of the CPU/GPU to aid surface contact of the die to the heatsink along with the paste.

 

Alright I misunderstood. Hopefully there is not a gap and there is not a thermal pad, otherwise you might be right to ad the shims. for your t420 modification how did you attach the shims ? did you just sit it on gpu and hope that force of the gpu heatsink connector would keep it in place?

 

Well in my scenario I put paste on the CPU, then place the copper shim on top and applied pressure to even out the paste. Then I pasted the top of the shim and applied the heatsink after and secured it in. Now my T420 idles around 39-41c compared to 43-45c before on a Core i5-2520M, under full load it maxed around 69-71c when I last tested it.

 

Ive been reading this thread for while now and you guys are missing the point. The viewing angles situation on the t430 is actually a security feature to prevent other people from spying on your screen while you do important work.

 

Horizontal viewing angles are actually pretty good on these screens... so your argument is invalid.

 

Have you ever seen a spy? They come down from the ceiling.

 

You should be in Marketing. Oh wait, you're the devil. You ARE in Marketing !!!

 

Sometimes the BS is so good it deserves a rep.

+rep

 

I figured I could add my 2 cents about this screen controversy. I just got my T430 today with the HD+ (1600x900) screen, and to me it looks absolutely fine.

Now, I haven't been spoiled by IPS and 1080p laptop screens, so maybe that changes my perspective, but for me, being used to your typical Dell TFT LCD Monitors, and HP/Dell standard laptop screens, I see no issues with it. Yes, if I tilt it forward or backward a significant amount, there is a lot of artifacting. That being said, I can set the screen at a position that is comfortable to see, me being fairly tall (6'3") it is tilted back a little ways. Then if I lean back in my chair, or stand up, I can still see the screen and read text just fine, with little to no artifacting. If I tilt it back flat with my desk, obviously the screen is unusable, same if I tilt it extremely forward, but I don't see the reason I would ever need to do such things.

In other aspects, I find the brightness at its highest level very good, I tried it out in the sun today, and it wasn't the greatest thing in the world, but readable. The non-glare coating helps a ton. I also appreciate how there are 16 (0-15) levels of brightness, allowing for lots of granularity in the setting.

Having a 14.1" 1600x900 screen is also a huge bonus for productivity. I would definitely recommend the HD+ upgrade.

 

Andrew, did you get the T430s 1600 x 900 for comparison. This is exactly the comparison I want to see, because I looked at an E430 today at a local retail store, and I think it may have the same display as the T430 with 1366 x 768, and I really couldn't stand it.

I really want to know how much better the 1600 x 900 is by comparison.

 

I have to agree with Andrew here.

Received my T430 HD+ yesterday. The display is nothing to complain about. You loose details when viewing at a wrong angle, but nothing worse than on any other business laptop in this segment.

This was one of the things i was most afraid of before bying. But it was really relief when i got it home and ran some tv shows on it.

What batterytime are you getting? I have the 6cell, and after 2.5-3 hours im down on 10%. This is with mostly webbrowsing (wifi), brightness on 10.
The NBR review that got 15hours on a 9cell was one of the reasons for choosing this one over the t430S. But with 2.5hours i could just aswell have bought the S.

 

Yes, I think that Lenovo should have marketed their notebook as having those '3m privacy filter' builtin.

 

Lenovo marketing plant.

 

Morbus, do you have an integrated video card or Nvidia card?

 

A slightly different version of this joke is that it will prevent your boss from watching what you are doing.

In reality many employers do not care about the screen quality at all. In my company most people are issued a dell latitude with 800p and one or two 21" external monitors which are not FHD but still very bright.

 

Yea, and for the incremental cost of that 21" external monitor, they could have a fabulous screen on their notebook.

 

You guys are seriously incredibly salty over this display.

It is NOT by any means unusable.

It is also NOT by any means "fantastic", "fabulous", "awe-inspiring", "resolutionary" or whatever buzzword you're expecting. It's just a screen.

If you want IPS, retina, FHD, or whatever else, go find a product that offers that.

The screen certainly isn't a highlight of this model, but it is also not a reason to reject it. If you buy a T430, you know what you're getting into. If you want something else, go buy something else instead of continually beating a dead horse.

 

See, that's the beauty of the internet. You can beat dead horses 24x7 365.

On a serious note, customer feedback is why the X1 Carbon has a better screen this year.

A lot of people would like to see the ThinkPad line as the premier example of design, innovation and quality. That includes the bread and butter T series.

Your userid fits you like a glove.

 

Why do you think the new macs have such nice screens? Because nobody really does any serious work on a mac thus mac users don't really need that extra layer of protection that thinkpad users do.

 

I have the Nvidia 5400 card. But that one is deactived whilst on battery..

 

Hi, yes I now have the ThinkPad T430s 1600 x 900 screen to compare. I broke it out into a separate post:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/674015-thinkpad-t430-t430s-picture-video-comparison.html

Video and pictures are there. It's about the same viewing angles, little to no noticeable difference. I'd still take the 1600 x 900 screen over the 1366 x 768 for the better resolution, but it is no better in terms of color and viewing angle quality.

 

An easy solution is to get an ips external monitor for $200-400.

 

So I am using the i7 3612qm right now, havent done any tests but speed fan and it is running cooler then the i3 2370 thats for sure. At idle right now gpu is at 40c hdo 34c temp1 44c core 0 is 28c , core 1 20c core 2 23c and core 3 27c. The 2370 was running at about 40c each core. Before I do anything I really need to get this wireless card thing worked out. I cant connect to my router until like 10 connects and disconnects and hitting the switch on wireless signal. I did a fresh install of windows 7 and installed the wireless drivers for centrino ultimate 6300 .

 

that is better and bigger then any notebook screen in the world.

 

Ordered a T430 with 4GB RAM, looking to purchase another 4GB stick, which one on newegg is good with lenovo? There will be a free slot right?

 

I went with this: Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model F3-12800CL11S-4GBSQ

Lifetime warranty, free shipping and no tax. I still haven't been able to put it into my x230 yet. Yes, there will be another slot to put the new RAM into.

Lenovo charging $160 for a 4Gb stick of RAM is a sick joke....

 

I've written a quick and rough list of considerations when installing Archlinux on a T430.

As for the complaints about the screen: I'll simply agree with what those have said that actually have the laptop. The 1600x900 display is precisely what I expected. Horizontal viewing angles are quite good whereas vertical viewing angles aren't so much. But given that I'm not in a constant state of movement when using my laptop, this isn't a problem.

It's a standard screen. Not amazing but not sub-standard.

Also, for those wondering about battery life on a 9 cell (with Linux)... I'm getting roughly 8 hours with 66% brightness (no nvidia and an SSD) on typical usage. (I can definitely see how NBR would get 15 hours with their "test".) It drops down to about 5-6 hours on 100% brightness. I'm extremely happy with this.

 

thanks for the update. Sounds promising so far though. Did you use a copper shim at all?

 

In your guide you said "I have all of the tweaks suggested by powertop enabled for the exception of SATA link power management (because I am using an SSD)."

I think you may be somewhat confused about link power management. It's not the same as hard drive spin-down or the power-management settings that you can specify via hdparm.

That's just a minor niggle though -- otherwise that's a pretty nice overview!