T430: is this a good idea?

Hi all! It's my first post on this forum, but I might eventually start participating more as I'll spend more time in here.

I was wondering, I'd like to buy a T430, but I was considering a few things, because I hesitated between a T430 and a W530. My budget is tight, so here's was I was thinking to do:

-Buy a basic Thinkpad T430 with the less expensive processor available with the NVS 5400M graphics and the bigger resolution screen and the minimum amount of RAM.
-Add a 256GB mSATA SSD.
-When I have more money and the prices dropped, buy a quad core processor and install 16 gb RAM sticks when they come out.
-Still when I have more money, invest in building a DIY e-GPU setup for faster calculations.

Now, I'd be very grateful is someone could tell me if I'll still be able to use the NVS 5400M after installing a quad core processor? I'm planning on having a triple boot with two different Linux distros and Windows. I know the Nvidia Optimus graphics might not be supported very well by Linux, in which case I'll just deactivate it and use Intel's HD 4000, even tought it's kinda annoying. Also, I was wondering, will the laptop support 16GB RAM sticks when they're out? Cause its max RAM is 16GB, which is plenty... for today's use. For me, the main interest of buying a Thinkpad is being able to update a solid and durable machine to use it intensively for many years.

The reasons I tought of buying a W530: bigger screen resolution, 4 RAM slots and 100% supported quad core processor.

The reasons why I consider buying a T430 instead: I can accomodate a smaller screen resolution, even thought the 1920x1080 screen has a much better definition and quality (I really wish they had that quality of screen on the T430). I can still install a quad core and pay a lot less money. I can still just wait for bigger RAM sticks to be more available, for now 8 GB is enough. The internal graphics don't matter that much since I want to build myself an e-GPU anyway, and since according to benchmarks the Quadro K2000M doesn't justify paying 200 extra dollars. And finally, the battery life of this laptop seems to be excellent. For sure, it wouldn't be as good with a quad processor, but oh well, it's not that big of a deal either.

And finally, the laptop I want to replace is a Macbook 2007. Here's what I don't like about it: I can't change the processor for a better one, my battery is inflated, the screen isn't bright enough and the speakers aren't loud enough either, I hate what OS X is becoming, there's no video software that support my configuration is OS X because according to Apple my hardware is too old (so I use video editing software under Linux instead, which is slow as hell cause of my configuration but still gets the job done), and above all, it's a real pain in the butt to install Linux on my system since Mac can't USB boot on "Legacy OSes". Man, I had to make a partition on my hard drive to boot from, install to a USB device, copy the files to the partition I wanted to use at first, then reinstall GRUB or repair it.

So here's what I'm going to do with this laptop: creating big (200 pages/500 high-resolution photos) documents with OpenOffice, edit full HD videos (maybe even 4k in the future?), do 3D rendering with Blender, image manipulation with various solutions and occasionally some programmation. I might also sometimes play games on Windows just for fun. The places where I'll do that will vary, because I move around a lot, but when I'll be at home I'll have more power at my disposal because of the e-GPU solution.

Do you guys think buying a T430 instead of a W530 to save money is a good solution for me? Thanks for your answer, and I'm really looking forward to get a Thinkpad.


Edit: Oh, and one last thing. I already own a Travelstar 7k750 (750 GB hard drive), it's 9.5mm thick I think. I'm not sure it fits into a T430, but I remember reading somewhere that somebody succeeded fitting a 9.5mm drive into his T430 or T420. Would fitting a bigger drive like that be a bad idea, especially since it could disrupt the airflow, which could be very bad with a quad core processor? Thanks again to anyone who knows the answers!

 

The only thing i can answer you about is that the HDD that you have will definitely not fit in the HDD compartment of the T430. . Not sure about the optical bay caddy though.

 

You're right, I checked again and it seems like some people had to modify either the case or the bumper to make it fit, but they also say it probably fits in the caddy drive. Stupid question: when they write "DVD Recordable 8x Max, Dual Layer, Ultrabay Enhanced" in the specs, does it mean I can just make the hard drive fit in the DVD drive caddy without needing an extra caddy? Like, I just have to extract the caddy, unscrew and unplug the DVD drive, then plug and screw the HDD? I've never opened a recent laptop containing a switchable bay, last time I've seen one like that it was an old Powerbook G3 that had a CD drive or a bay battery.

Edit: I'm now pretty sure it'll need an adapter.

 

There is no "caddy" for the DVD drive. You will need to buy a caddy, take out the DVD drive, put the HDD in the caddy, and then put the caddy with the HDD back into the now empty DVD bay.

 

The T430 UltraBay accepts either an optical drive (as an integral, plug-in module) or a HDD caddy adapter (as another integral, plug-in module). If you want to put a HDD in the UltraBay, you have to remove the optical drive and replace it with a HDD caddy adapter that contains an actual HDD. You must purchase a compatible UltraBay HDD caddy adapter, like this one.

Download and read the ThinkPad T430 Hardware Maintenance Manual PDF (google for it) for well-illustrated instructions.

 

Sounds good, thank you guys!

 

So after all, I ended up buying the W530, using the boxing day special. The screen, quad-core processor (cheaper to buy a W530 on sale with a quad-core than buying a quad-core and installing it in the T430), 4 dimm slots, and can handle thicker hard drives. And I still want to build an eGPU. Thank you to those who responded to this post, and thanks to all the people who wrote the various threads I used to take my decisions.