T510 noise and heat - difference between integrated/discrete graphics

Hi!

Could anybody tell me if there's a big difference in noise and heat emissions between T510 with integrated and T510 with discrete graphics card?
Maybe some of you have heard both units, can compare them and could write some conclusions? I'd be really grateful.

I want to buy a new T510 for my father who will not play games and probably won't ever use discrete's graphics card advantages - he normally uses laptop in the office (word, excel) and for Internet, music, movies and photographs at home ...

Honestly, I can't find any benefit of choosing discrete graphics card in this situation - moreover, I suppose the discrete graphics card heats up the laptop's case and changes it's volume.

I can buy new T510 with nVidia much cheaper than T510 with Intel HD Graphics - but the noise emission is quite important for us - that's why I'm not sure what to do ...
I have two options:

• I configure the laptop by myself on lenovo.com (saving 10% on Lenovo CPP discount) :
  Thinkpad T510, Intel Core i5-520M Processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L3, 1066MHz FSB), Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64, 15.6" HD+ Anti-Glare Display with LED Backlight and WWAN Antenna, Intel HD Graphics with Always On USB, 4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM), UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader, Camera, 2.0 MP, 250 GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm, Multi Recorder Optical Drive (12.7mm), Express Card Slot & 5 in 1 Card Reader & Smart Card Slot, 6 cell 2.6Ah Li-Ion Battery - Dual Mode, Country Pack North America with Line cord & 65W AC adapter, Bluetooth w/ antenna , Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250, Integrated Mobile Broadband (Gobi 2000 3G with GPS), Open SIM Card for Verizon: USA, 3Yr Basic Warranty Extension
  and pay more or less 1875 USD with taxes, duties, shipping, etc.
• I buy a quite similar laptop (..., NVIDIA® Quadro® NVS3100M, PCI Express® x16, 512MB memory, 2 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory, 320GB8 (7200 rpm) / SATA 3.0Gb/s, Express Card Slot & 5 in 1 Card Reader, Lithium Ion 9-cell, up to 7.8 hr, 11a/b/g/n wireless4, PCIe Half Mini Card, Intel Centrino® Advanced-N 6200, 2x2 ), then add 2 GB of RAM and the second, non-original, 6-cell battery
  and pay more or less 1685 USD (while buying it from Lenovo reseller, who import laptops from USA and sells them much cheaper than Lenovo here in Europe).

I pay almost 200 USD less for better graphics, bigger, faster and louder hard disk, worse wireless card (without WiMAX) and two batteries (6-cell and 9-cell) instead of one 6-cell battery.
Faster HDD and better graphics card are not really important for the user, I can say nothing about WiMAX now (he'll use broadband 3G modem, so it can be useless) and the battery is not something very important here neither - the computer will be plugged in almost all the time ...
The system noise is quite important though ...

Regards!

 

The discrete gpu used on the T510 is not that powerful, and the thermal heat emission is quite low by discrete GPU standards. So either of them would be fine on the heat emission front.

 

The T510 has a very robust cooling system, and the discrete-GPU model has three heat pipes, if I remember correctly. It'll handle the heat just fine, and should stay very quiet. If you do not need a discrete GPU, though, realize that battery life will be lower than with the integrated GPU model (although you do say it will be plugged in most of the time).

 

To follow up on this,

Does anyone know the difference in operating life hours between a discrete and integrated card other than the integrated sucking less juice? I can get a system configured with a discrete card more cheaply than integrated, but I don't need the graphics capability, but DO need the extra battery life. Trying to do the trade-off between Paying more for a less capable graphics card would depend on how much more power I gain. Is it possible to switch out the discrete card for an integrated card?

Thanks.

 

You cannot switch out the discrete GPU for integrated if you get the former.

 

Thanks sgogeta4 for the answer. So what is the experience of user's with their T510 batt life with integrated graphics vs discrete graphics? How many hours just doing idle surfing?

 

the Nvidia GPU on the T510 and T410 is not a battery hog, from using my friend's laptops (he got two T510 from the States, with exactly the same spec, one had the Nvidia GPU and the other is the Intel GPU, i think he had optioned the i5-520m CPU), there seems to be a 10% to 15% per cent difference in battery life when under performance mode.

This is a lot better than the Nvidia GPU in the T61/R61.

P.S. Wished there was a hack to allow users to switch between discrete and integrated GPU on the T410, T510, since the i5 and i7 Dual core CPU includes the integrated GPU.