Thinkpad Edge 420s

Yeah those are in stock. Not yet in stock locally here but that should be soon as well since they are just making their way through in the coming days.

This week and/or next week should see more shipment of the premade ones.

Lenovo isn't direct selling them for the time being however they are out at various resellers.

The designs for the notebook are ready and initial shipments have been made of i5 model in limited quantities and mass production of the i3 models.

 

How thick is this machine??? i thought lenevo said 1" but every where has it at 1.2" thick can any one confirm

 

13.74" x 9.29" x 0.91-1.23"

The thickest point is about 1.23

 

i have my self lol maybe a e220s is in my future

 

i3's are plentiful of the e420s with supplies deep in the distribution chain at local regional facilities.

i5s were sold out of completely and the ETAs on new product is actually deep into May at the distribution warehouses.

So the Lenovo website could very well be delayed till May or even June.

Those i5's that were available were really good machines since many people won't even need discrete video on a notebook pc.

I was tempted but I didn't want a first batch and prefer to see what options are offered later on.

The wait may be awhile yet.

 

I think his major problem with e420s is that it is too thick.

 

My problem is no i5's with virtualization (those weren't on the spec sheets) or even the i7 2620M offering and lack of the AMD 6630M GPU.

If someone wants these with i3 and integrated video, plenty available.

 

Looked at all the models available now through sellers and they are all listed as coming with a 4 cell battery... what's up with that? I imagine it can't get close to 7 hours battery with just a 4 cell.

 

It has a built in battery pack.

Unclear how it performs till reviews come out eventually.

 

Not all cell are created equal, this battery on the E420s is rated at 48.8whr, which store more energy than the 6 cell on the T420s(44whr).

 

Lenovo in China apparently just recently showed off the e420s at an event where other people gave their laptops to weigh against the e420s.

I saw the event on youtube. The e420s is very nice indeed from everything I know.

I guess later this month or perhaps next month we will see these in nice supply with nice configurations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT5uphMN4-o (from April 10th with the e420s in China)

Kudos to Lenovo engineers for making a fine product. They should do very well on the e420s.

As soon as supplies come in. Also those who want the old Edge models should be able to get them for nice prices as they are being closed out.

 

Think there will be any other battery options besides the standard 4 cell? Probably a slice battery option for 179$ again I assume, which is where they get there 7 hour battery life prediction as it says on the site. Wonder if there will be a bigger 6 cell or 9 cell higher than 48.8 wH.

Screen options are going to be interesting too. I'm assuming all the i3 and i5 units that are available for sale right now through provantage, buy.com, etc. have glossy screens that aren't great. Here's hoping i'm wrong... but matte will probably be an option. Might take till may though which I'm not sure I want to wait till.

 

The battery on the e420s series is not removable.

The 7 hours is with the stock battery. It is 4 cell but more output than larger 6 cell batteries.

After awhile everyone on these units sounds alike from the General Managers to the amazing Lenovo engineers who designed the products.

Just gotta be patient. When its ready, its ready.

The current displays are shown in the PSREF. It is an infinity glass display with antiglare technology.

Last year you had matte and glossy displays. The Matte had the anti glare technology. The vibrantview had the glossy display.

This year you have an infinity glass with anti glare technology. People keep referring to it as glossy. But anti glare does not imply glossy.

It is a new screen type as opposed to last years models. Originally I incorrectly assumed it was glossy because everyone kept saying that.

But last year you had 2 distinct panel options, a Vibrantview glossy and a Matte with anti glare technology.

This year you have a Infinity Glass display with anti glare technology. Less nits and less contrast ratio apparently.

Unclear how good the screen is yet because I haven't seen any reviews on the screen to date and its unclear if they will provide any other screen resolutions or upgrade choices.

 

Woah good catch - yah i just assumed it was a glossy display from what I was hearing on these boards (and infinity glass display with antiglare just sounded in my head like some marketing bs for a glossy display).

So there will just be the standard 48.8 wH 4 cell, but i bet there will also be a slice battery option because that's what the 7 hours is advertised with right now.

I can't make up my mind if it's a good thing or a bad thing that the battery is not removable... hrmm.

 

"So there will just be the standard 48.8 wH 4 cell, but i bet there will also be a slice battery option because that's what the 7 hours is advertised with right now."

No, 7 hours is with the stock battery based on their own testing. Slice is not an optional battery. It is the one it comes with.

Check the PSREF sheet. As far as battery options, the PSREF shows no battery options available for the e420s as an accessory. Former models had multiple battery choices available.

http://www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/slbook.pdf

PSREF says up to 7 hours. Whether it is a typo on the main site or slice is the actual battery in the unit I don't know but the stock battery is 7 hours and there appears to be no battery options available for this unit at this time.

Slice usually does imply an additional battery but 7 hours is the rated time on the stock battery.

Remember this has sandy bridge and a more powerful 4 cell battery which should indeed give it around 7 hours.

A slice battery on this would be around 14 hours give or take depending if they even had one. Not a measly 7 hours of time which is right on the money based on the power reductions of the sandy bridge chip along with the included battery. That doesn't mean it will run 7 hours under every condition however. Its just their rated time based on the tests as conducted (which is mentioned in the PSREF)

 

I will make the list (not trying to be snob or something, its late, and as usual insomnia struck)


1) This is a Li polymer battery, the cells are different from the usual fare.

2) The vaio SB has the same type of battery and reports 6 hours of usual work, wi fi on and some reduced level of brightness (around 65% to 50%)

3) There is no possibility of slice battery with the current chassis and mobo. There are no connections, actually the bottom has only a few vents.

4) you can take a glossy screen just like the vaio S, SB, Z and apply some measure of anti glare coating, it works fairly well, it would work better if the display on those cases (aside the vaio Z) had brightness to it. There are other models with that same type of screen, macbooks, samsungs, and it goes on.

PS: I actually like that its got that coating

PPS: sorry if I offended you in any way.

 

If my tasks are simply non cpu-intensive (web-surfing & typing), then is it correct to say that my voltage usage on i5 would be roughly the same as on i5 ulv?

 

Lenovo's youtube channel says 5.5 hours of battery life for the built in batery.
YouTube - First Look: Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E220s and E420s

 

It was a first look. The official specs have UP TO 7. That perfectly makes sense. Stop looking too much into things that aren't relevant.

On that note, more units have come in today of the e420s but Lenovo isn't allowing direct ordering yet.

Shouldn't be long especially if they are shipping out premade units now.

The only 3 models listed in the PSREF are :

4401-27U
4401-28U
4401-29U

27U + 28U have Intel 1000 wireless with Bluetooth along with i5 2410M.

27U has Windows 7 Home Premium
28U has Windows 7 Professional

29U has the i3 with Windows 7 Professional, no bluetooth and B/G/N wireless.

All models feature Intel 3000 graphics and fingerprint reader.

28U and 29U were in stock. 27U may have stock or its should be in soon if not already.

When direct ordering is allowed and/or the PSREF sheet changes, we will know.

28U is the best of the models available and has limited stock but got more units in.

Enjoy your e420s. Integrated is going to be plenty for the vast majority of users with this system.

The i5 2410M is a really nice mainstream system if you don't need hardware virtualization and don't need discrete video and don't need the upgraded wireless and there are plenty of folks who only need these specifications.

28U is the best one and pretty good for the vast majority of user needs.

Ok that wraps up the e420s for now.

We need some reviews now that more units have come on the market.

Peace out ya'all. The rest of you can do the talking now.

 

Oops. I saw the new Tecra R840 Toshiba. It has the TPM chip. It has more battery life, weighs .1 lbs more than the E420s and has expresscard slot AND USB 3.0 to boot. However it has a different AMD Video card than the 6630M which I need to compare.

The specs on the Toshiba are just that much more competitive however. USB 3.0 and TPM chip and expressport allow that much more flexibility and upgradability of the unit itself.

And they come with the i5 with virtualization technology and the price is only $1250 MSRP retail to boot with discrete video.

I realize the e420s isnt out yet but unless they change the specs and offer something comparable, I think I am going with Toshiba.

I would prefer Lenovo if they matched the specs however but Toshiba Tecra seems to add that much more to make it more competitive at a really nice price point.

I will miss the Lenovo Fast boot however. But upgradability and security are in my own mind more important.

I did not realize Toshiba's weight would be that much better with a more powerful battery to boot.

I am not buying now however, but if the e420s is the best Lenovo has based on the current known specs (missing expressport, lack of usb 3.0, no TPM Chip) and a long time wait on the discrete graphics offering, then the Toshiba to me is the much better way to go.

Will see if Lenovo has something up their sleeve though.

 

if you want the 6450m, you can go and get the hp P line, they have the 6470m in there. Its a entry line class card, it has basically almost the same power as the intel integrated gpu, being it a little bit faster only.

 

I wanted the 6630M. Unfortunately Toshiba makes an awesome laptop but doesn't have a 6630M option or better.

Thats why I havent bought yet. If it had the 6630M on the Toshiba I would have been interested and probably ordered one already.

I don't know why vendors are mixing up their components across all the models and aren't including the most ideal component choices, instead one brand or model has this and that, then the other brand or model is missing that.

You just can't win. It seems rediculous they would use a class 3 GPU on those units unless they have a class 2 model coming out later on.

On the horizon is also Samsung Series 6 (14") but I don't know the actual weights yet.

After all the competition is out I will compare and evaluate the models but it doesn't seem like they are making it easy for me to get the ideal laptop I want.

I want 6630M equivalent (gpu appropriately matched up systemwise), expressport, usb 3.0, 4.2 lbs or less, TPM if possible, bluetooth, fingerprint reader, 6250 wireless with a brand with a good reputation.

I need the touchpoint in the keyboard (thinkpad has it, samsung and toshiba also have it in tecra).

The e420s was the frontrunner for awhile but then I saw the Tecra which was so close except for the GPU option.

Considering e420s is not officially out yet, and Toshiba just introduced the Tecra R840, other models still have yet to come out.

I can't say who I will wind up getting but it does look like I will be waiting till at least May/June at a minimum before I decide.

Expressport allows that much greater configurability with the unit however along with USB 3.0. T420s I believe has expressport. e420s does not.

Spoke to Toshiba, they said it won't come with the 6630M option. Makes no sense, it would generate a lot more sales if they had the 6630M as an option.

Hard to imagine whats in peoples minds when they develop these.

So I am just going to continue to wait.

 

the edge actually looks pretty good nowadays

 

Just boggles the mind as to why they would include certain GPUs on them and not others.

In the desktop pc world you can use whatever video card you want. With the notebook PC world, they can make cards with the video card they want but vendors seem to be keen on tying in with certain cards while others are using different cards and from what I know there are not any engineering design challenges that differ between including one card or the other. They are just choosing to use specific gpus on certain models.

The problem is cards are soldered on the boards themselves so its really hard or impossible to change.

 

they are that is basically cost + different line ups

 

Tecra is the Business class lineup. Instead of the NVS4200M which is a better card and a business class gpu they decide to use AMD 6450M which is much weaker if they at least wanted to keep it consistent with business class.

Makes no sense why they would put a 6450M on it and at least offer the AMD 6630M as an upgrade at a minimum.

Hard to understand why people do things.

Samsung Series 6 is due in May and is another competitor. So Im holding out even further waiting for all the competition and will see which to get.

See the way I look at technology is this:

I want the best hardware with the best specs at a decent price point. I don't want slower GPUs or worse lcd panels or whatnot.

Design a nice casing with nice materials and a good user interface. Provide the best hardware you can get whether it be GPU or whatnot and charge a good price on it that could get you a nice profit and also be beneficial to the users.

It sort of boggles the mind that a vendor wouldn't use the premium gpus but rather the cheaper line and Im wondering if it was due to engineering considerations like battery life or something else or whatnot. Just doesn't make sense on the surface because other models are including such GPU on it but are more consumer oriented even though they have some business features.

 

The NVS4200 is based on the gt415m which is now the gt 520m, they are terrible cards, and offer lesser performance than even the gt 320m, so they are on par with the 6470m and 6490m

But I agree the 6630m would make perfect sense, but it probably would have hit the TDP threshold of the system. Or it would be too noisy to be in a business class notebook.

Indeed

its the way I see it too. But here is the deal the pcs right now are getting cheaper every year, and we are still hoping that they pack more power, there are going to be some trade offs. I do consider the minimum price of a good pc, something around the 1500, the problem is that the only ones available at that price range are enterprise class and some lesser premium models. The jump from good pcs to mainstream pcs is too great. And the enterprise class dont offer what I want, hence the edge being a good trade off

Its an incognito, we will never know what is up with the design teams, but we can always subtract the idea of what is the planned insertion of the product

 

YouTube - Lenovo EE 2.0 boot challenge vs. MacBook Air
beats a mac book airs quite impressive

 

Toshiba also has a fast sleep mode as well. Nothing unusual or unique here though so its not that big of a deal as a feature. Each manufacturer can tweak their systems the way they want.

Bootup is only done one singular time. Toshiba has a fast resume from sleep mode.

Lenovo EE 2.0 is nice, but other aspects are much more important.

I'll check out the store @ JR.COM in June and see what they have. They carry all the good models unlike Bestbuy and have a huge selection and all the brands sans Dell or some isolated notebook custom vendors or the like. Dell is still build to order direct model. Dell eliminated their Dell Stores a long long time ago.

I can't buy a notebook pc sight unseen. Will do the research in June to see which one comes closest to what I want.

I think Im leaning the Toshiba even with the worse graphics and heres why:

The expressport slot is essentially a slot akin to a graphics slot whereby it gives direct access to the system itself.

http://www.magma.com/expressbox1.asp sells a solution that can work with a regular video card and expressport so I can add whatever graphics adapter I want to the system.

It seems to be the closest I'll find plus on the go, quite frankly any discrete video card will eat up juice.

On second thought:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/497206-REG/Magma_EB1H_ExpressBox1_ExpressCard_34_to_1x.html

The device costs close to $800.

I dunno what I'll do.

4.2lbs is the most I'll go. Toshiba Tecra is competitive though.

 

No offence but lol @ the idea of buying a laptop solely for an expresscard slot on the basis of some ridiculous PCI-E adapter.

 

actually its not all stupid.

I would go for a lighter option if you are going for vidock. Those laptops If Im not mistaken use Express port 1.0 not the 2.0 which would actually double the performance. since its x2 pcie interface, not a x1.1

But for whatever its worth the macbook pro 13'' is a great buy, since they have the thunderbolt port, which is a x4 pcie port, thus giving even more performance.

why all this talk about pcie ports? well, here is the deal, since that the desktop cards (which is that vidock that you saw) use a x16 pcie 2.0 port, they are going to be bandwidth starved, thus not enjoying the power that they have.

What you can do, and Im also considering is to buy the macbook pro or the x220, and go for the DIY vidock (basically you go and buy an adapter, a PSU, and a desktop card, external monitor needed in some cases, most of them) and hook it up and be portable and still have the power of the dedicated gpu, actually much more power. Basically if you go and buy a 6870 and hook it up on to a DIY vidock you get the power of gaming behemoth like the m17xR3 or the Sager NP8150, which all weight beyond 3.5KG.

the thunderbolt is the better buy, since it would give much more bandwidth, however there are no adapters for it yet, although they are already making one, at least thats the word from the people that do these adapters.

Check the Vidock thread at the gaming section and see that it works.

 

Apple is the only thunderbolt player in the game right now. Thats another thing holding me back.

I really don't know what to do. The Apple is way too heavy on the Mac Book Pro 13 which is 4.5lbs.

I want a min of 14" at 4.2 lbs.

Tecra has the expressport slot with the ExpressCard/34 standard. It is not ExpressCard 2.0 and ExpressCard seems to have been superceeded by USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt.

e420s does not have usb 3.0 or expressport for that matter. It will not have usb 3.0 till Ivy Bridge in all likelyhood.

Believe me Im not buying a laptop solely for an expresscard slot. If that were true I could buy a refurb laptop with it for cheap.

The Toshiba Tecra R840 met my specifications as did the Lenovo E420s. It has a larger battery life and a bigger battery than the Lenovo and the Protege version got excellent reviews sans the poor wireless reception.

Choosing the Tecra R840 wasn't stupid, in fact it wouldn't have been had it had the AMD 6630M GPU since it had the usb 3.0, a battery life that was better and was well designed. But you are right the attachment to hook up the external video card along with the lack of performance of expressport means that it doesn't pay.

So as to what I'll do, I don't know.

X220 is too small. That is 12.5" correct?

Its USB 3.0 and ExpressCard 54. Nothing special and the weight is kind of chunky. 3.6 lbs on a 12.5".

Will see what the next models come in at.

 

well the new vaio Z is a 13'' that will have thunderbolt too. although its going to cost a pretty penny. and it comes already with an external gpu.

Sincerely if you arent in a dare need, just wait for something that meets your specs.

Since Im in the afore mentioned case, I wont buy something until I see that it fits what I want.

Actually I want a 13'', but since the vostro 3030 is basically out (no more 6630m option) and I cant get the vaio SB shipped to me (no retailers have it)
and the e420s is still out (with a probable relaunch date of 19th) Im beginning to ask myself if there is a need to buy something now, off course its a hassle to lug around a 16'', but its not that heavy, and with the notebook + psu, the maximum weight is 2.8kg, hell when I was in the 2nd year of college (2006) I got myself a lenovo that weighted 3.2kg, and that was light as hell (for the time) it was a 14''

 

I'll check out the available models later on and decide. Nothing is really out yet anyways.

Maybe I won't buy at all.

 

what's relevant to me may not be relevant to you If 5.5 hr is only their first look, then somebody is not doing his job on updating the info on their march 31 video!

 

Improvements and optimizations on computer hardware happen all the time after first looks and this has been consistent across the board.

All credible technology journalists fully understand this, and that is why even journalists often have a first look of a product then a full review afterwards.

Lenovo doesn't have to update anything. The Video was just an initial marketting video which is now outdated which remains in the "Cloud" so to speak.

Lenovo gives out the specifications to those who buy the notebook on their own website and others and people fully are aware it is 7 hours.

Anyways, just oodles of competition fighting for business but the competition to date seems lackluster at this point in time.

Samsung Series 6 will come out with yet another 14" in May supposedly. Models are trickling in slowly so eventually in the near future the journalists will review all the models and then give a comparison of which are the best.

Integrated video is probably not so horrible on the Intel 4000 however considering the GPU is much improved and shares the same bus. But you still wind up using the slower System memory and need to add memory to compensate and since the systems generally are capped at 8GB ram, its not too good.

 

1. I'm not a 'credible tech journalist' but an ordinary consumer who relies on multimedia, including Lenovo's official youtube channel, to make my purchasing decision. Therefore it's well confusing to have found different info on specs.

2. Websites are not updated regularly, meaning products are often out in the market before we can find any info on the official websites. At least in my region this is the case.

 

well here is the deal when someone launches a notebook, they put a battery life claim, that is not what you are going to get. You are going to get something lesser, I always go for the minus 1-2 hours philosophy

nothing is updated regularly, but the lenovo site as of now, is.

 

I always do minus 1-2hrs too! But I was just saying that I got confused as I found 5.5hrs battery life claim on Lenovo youtube channel (posted in March) and UP to 7 on the officialsite specs. The e420s' already out here but hasn't been listed on Leneno website in the country I'm in. Anyway, there's no point going about on the battery life until the test result's out.

 

adamj i think you might be looking for

Village Instruments : ViDock

Theres also a DIY vidock page, but DIY is needed.

Its about $250. Desktop cards are stupidly more powerful than notebook cards, so you can just get a cheap card and be in a winning position.

I am looking for pretty much what you are looking for, except I dont care about trackpoint, I will just get a mouse. The closest Ive found so far is the Vostro 3450, but that has unknown build quality, and is quite heavy I think. Still...

 

ViDock is cheaper than Magma which essentially does the same thing. The viDock 3 is smaller.

But that doesn't take into account the reduced speeds of ExpressCard.

So I am just waiting now till better products come out as Im not liking anything Im seeing just yet.

 

Intel announced this week that it will ship silicon that will support both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt in 2012. According to CNet, Kirk Skaugen, vice president at Intel's Architecture Group, said he believes the two technologies are "complementary."

Ok since Ivy Bridge will add USB 3.0 and thunderbolt now, an improved integrated GPU to boot, it seems as though Ivy Bridge eliminates all the limitations and all the problems I am having deciding.

An integrated video model with Ivy Bridge is all one should need and then I can pick from amongst the best notebooks on the market at that time. Though if there is one with a discrete option I may consider it as well but the graphics will be a lot less important.

So I guess in the end I wound up also waiting for Ivy Bridge. Expresscard and USB 2.0 is just too slow. Looks like all models will have usb and thunderbolt standard rather than a small few adding controller chips.

So on to Ivy Bridge. Skipping this current generation of models.

 

Sincerely I give up also. I was trying to wait for the envy refresh, but as it looks like, its going to take a long time to come out. The launch for SB was a mess, I never saw something so slow, so uncoordinated, such a mess!

You know the funny thing? even if intel made a pretty good poop in the middle of the table while everyone was having dinner, the OEMS had 6 months to design their line up, with the added 2 months due to the correction disaster to actually do something, and they didnt.

And the other problem is that the more that it gets near the end of the year, the more that it looses the value of what you bought, and with the promise of such increased connectivity the face value is going down the drains.

BTW sony and apple got an exclusivity due to their participation on the development of the lightpeak, so they are the only ones that are going to ship the tech for sometime (I think its a 6 month period), sincerely stupid on their part, its going to slow down the adoption rate, however there is the cool factor for that they are in the apple system, sony is a nothing in this game, only a pc rep, just that

 

There are millions of notebook pc's on the market right now used, new and refurbished. Each an evolutionary upgrade since the previous one.

However, Thunderbolt moreso than USB 3.0 (but USB 3.0 is needed because a lot of people still have USB Devices) is faster than PCI Express 3.

Ivy Bridge if they do release thunderbolt with it, fixes all the issues with Sandy bridge. With Ivy Bridge the need for a discrete built in graphics card especially if it has ivy bridge in it becomes much lessl. However with the thunderbolt connector one could add any devices they want to the unit externally at a faster interface speed.

If they do still have discrete models with Ivy Bridge, hopefully they will be a lot more powerful than the low end GPUs they are including right now.

With Ivy Bridge, I won't be as picky on GPUs but hopefully there is a discrete version in a business class unit with good performance that is on par with what the AMD 6630M is getting. Doesn't have to be better, just on par with the AMD 6630M model in terms of performance which is a high end class 2 GPU. I don't expect Class 1 GPU's unless one did a vidock or other type device (like using thunderbolt) on the notebooks around 4.2 lbs or less for 14" models.

The huge problem though is waiting a full 8 months for such unit to come out which is an awful lot of time (or more). Those who do need right away who want the best available will be buying Sandy Bridge models.

But for Sandy Bridge, the MacBook pro because of the thunderbolt does make it the best unit on the market if you can live with the hardware and the weight.

Thunderbolt will also get scaled up to 100GB/second as well.

 

Thunderbolt is not chipset dependent, its basically a connection between a PCIe interface and a I/O, a amd notebook can have thunderbolt.

you dont pay royalties, only the cost of the product itself.

I sincerely dont understand the hype behind USB3, thunderbolt is miles and miles ahead of it. The good thing about ivy is the support for USB3 however we dont know how many ports they are going to put there

 

Yeah I dunno myself.

Thunderbolt with the pcie means more expensive devices though than internal desktop devices.

With a desktop PC you can add anything you want internally for a much lower price point than a computer requiring external devices.

And remember PCI Express still will be faster. I thought Thunderbolt was but pci express has the x16 so in reality pci express cards still reign supreme in speed.

I still remember the primitive XT and ISA buses.

I had a dedicated AGP and VESA Local bus graphics card on my systems and the truth is PCI Express is good enough even with Thunderbolt as long as the devices are priced appropriately.

 

The first gpu that I got was in this current notebook all the other were basically integrated. I remember pretty well my 386, all that was lovely, I learned DOS the hard way with it.

As I said the PCIe bandwidth that we are dealing with thunderbolt is a x4 connection, the usual PC fare is x16, or usually when using multiple cards X8. There was a talk about ivy bridge chipsets supporting PCIe express 3.0 and that would lead to more power consuming higher end gpus, the current maximum power consumption is 300w per card we already have reached that.

However a PCIe X4 is already fast enough for most things, just take a look at the OCZ revodrive its a sandforce controller SF 1222 sandwiched together and consequently a PCIe to SATA converter in the middle, and this thing screams speed.

The natural PCIe interface of notebooks is X8

 

okay guys your crazy off topic lol
but for a fast port
try eSata/usb combo its faster than usb 3.0 and not only dose this thinkpad have it but all last years to
Maximum PC | eSATA is Still Faster Than USB 3.0

also if you guys are going to wait for sandy bridge its risky 1. becuase its more than a Full Year away, and 2. ivy bridge is intels tick after ivy bridge is the Tock (the big preformance gain) Haswell which is a whole new design
Intel Tick-Tock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

my friends welcome to technology in phones its worse products are only current for 6-8 months instead of the 12-18 months pc's are

also id suggest buying it now and enjoying then next dec. selling

 

And to get the part for the thunderbolt, you have to go to Intel to buy their controller. You can't even shop around for a cheaper controller, only Intel make them and that is why Intel is pushing Lightpeak.

 

Skymont 11nm then

I'll wait for 2016 nah too long....