Thinkpad Edge E430 Owners Thread

It seems that the E-Series is like the forgotten step-child. Andrew and I can't possibly be the only ones on this forum that has this!

Its a great system, heavy, thick and sturdy! I transport it to and from work in my work back and noticeable difference in weight compared to my DM1z I used to transport.

I picked up my laptop during the labor day sale for 893 to my door.



I've seen invested in it and it is now truly faster and walks my desktop thats running an intel q8200

I have put in a MydigitalSSD (Rebranded Adata SX300) smart series 128GB mSATA in place of the stock Sandisk U100. I have replaced the stock 500GB with a samsung 1TB which is used for storage and downloads. I also added a 8GB stick of ram so I now have 12GB of ram. 11.6 Available (rest is to HD4000). I have another 8GB that should be delivered tomorrow for a total of 16GB of ram.

contrary to what Lenovo says... more then 8GB of ram can be put in the system. Now I can't say anything for the sandybridge as I opted for the I7 3612QM quad-core. but the i7 supports lots of ram :-D. page file disabled and awaiting additional 4GB ram .

also contrary to what Lenovo says... the msata port is indeed SATA2. the sales people that I have talked to (several) have all said that msata is SATA3. the sandisk card is yes but the actual port it connects to is SATA2.

 

Could you post some benchmark results (3DMark06/11)?
How hot and loud does it get?

 

Whats the battery life with quad core on this ?

 

I about ready to buy this laptop. Can you tell me what kind of 8GB RAM you bought? Thanks.

 

Here are benchmarks of the Mydigitalssd Smart series/Adata SX300 msata 128GB as an OS drive. the write speeds are MUCH slower when its an OS drive for some reason but still faster then standard Hard drives. when i had it as a separate drive It was getting 250+ write speeds.

As you requested... here's the benchmarks. I have no idea what these mean but I can tell you, you can play call of duty on max settings LoL. so 2003 games are playable on max . obviously the newer the game the more demanding. so don't know bout newer ones but I'm sure these benchmarks will tell the tale.

Here's the PC Mark Vantage




Here's 3D Marks 06






Here's the 3D Marks 11








This thing doesn't get hot at all. most of the time, the fan speed is running so low you can't even hear it. at times I think the fan is completely off and have to put my ears next to it to actually hear it! Once has the fan went to full speed. so it is Majorly quiet compared to my HP Dm1z which the fan pretty much runs on high all the time.

can't even tell its on. maybe once since I've had it had it gone to max fan speed where it was definitely noticeable.

compared to my previous laptop/netbook which was the dm1z this thing is whisper quiet.

My battery Life was alot better with lenovos factory windows install. with a clean install with power options set at balanced. I never kept eye but would say 3-4 hours

Whatever ram you get just make sure its 1.5v


here a shot of the ram installed. 2x8GB Gskill

 

Thanks a bunch. Could you also take a closeup photo of the WWAN/mSATA bay? I'm thinking of sticking one of these there PE4L V2.1 ( PCIe Adapter ) to add an external graphics card.

I wonder if any of the Lenovo software could be installed to bring the battery life back to what it was?

 

Anytime!

I don't know where they'd hide the settings for the power options. the SWTOOLS has a bunch of stuff in it. still shuffling through it trying to find it myself.

here's the msata port with the smart series installed

that bay as you see in the benchmarks is sata2 NOT sata3 like lenovo sales people claim it to be. The intel chipset supports 2 sata3 ports. one is on the HDD and I assume the other is on the optical drive.

 

Thanks again. I just hope the mPCIe slot there supports PCIe 2.0 and not just 1.0.

 

What's the battery life like? and the quality of the display?

I'm seriously contemplating buying one of these It seems like a good mix of portability + power.

 

Actually, it would be great if you could download an run the Trial version of AIDA64 Extreme Edition from Downloads | AIDA64
and report back what it says under the Motherboard/Chipset node in the PCI Express Controller field. Alternatively you could Save and upload the Report from AIDA64, which would have all the system info.

 

Battery life is ALOT better with a factory image windows vs a clean version of windows. I've installed the lenovo vantage tools, the small business suite, and couple others and none is giving me the power options that comes stock . I've never timed it. but a factory install I can get 5+hrs of battery time. bout 5 1/2 Hours. on a clean install I get 3-4 hrs depends on what I'm doing. I have since lowered the brightness of the screen from full brightness so should get a little more.

in all honesty I can't tell the difference between the fancy higher resolution displays except for the smaller lettering and pictures. the viewing angle however is better on my dm1z over this. I did get the matte display and my dm1z has a glossy display so don't know if that plays a part in it.

there's rumors bout a security film in place on the thinkpads so don't know if that has anything to do with anything. I'm new to Lenovo so its all new to me. the processing power is amazing! the 3612QM is ranked 59 in terms of score/power! Now I don't know bout the sandybridges but the i7-3612qm supports lots of ram. I disabled my page file. 13150+mb cached 12800+mb free

Here are my passmark Scores. Mind you I do have an SSD and 16GB ram which gives me a higher overall score

is this what you looking for?

 

Yes, the middle screenshot indicates that the four x1 PCIe ports support v2.0. Interesting that I do not see your SSD drive there.

In the last shot you are in the Report screen where you could save the hardware report into a file and then attach the whole file in this forum. It may help people looking for other E430 HW details.

 

Thanks for starting the lounge. I think it'll pick up in popularity, a lot of students will be interested due to the price and quality you get for a portable laptop. As back to school buying begins it's going to get more attention.

I got 6 hours and 25 mins with the following (not very realistic) settings:
the screen brightness set to 1/3 level
wireless on
browser open that refreshed every 60 seconds

You can probably expect 4.5 - 5 hours under normal work usage such as office tasks. Playing videos with screen brightness all the way up will drain the battery in 3 - 4 hours I'd think.

 

Is that with the extended battery or the default option?

That's pretty good. I'm wondering whether some BIOS and P-state fiddling and an SSD can bump that up another hour or so.

 

Standard 6-cell battery option, yes.

 

It is werid that the SSD drive is not there. but listed in the disk drive section.

The hardware report has a bunch of personal info like MAC address and serial numbers. pages long. so I just posted the first part


--------[ AIDA64 Extreme Edition ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version AIDA64 v2.50.2000
Benchmark Module 2.7.421-x64
Homepage AIDA64 | PC Benchmark | System Diagnostics | Stability Test .
Report Type Report Wizard [ TRIAL VERSION ]
Computer LENOVO
Generator LENOVO
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 6.1.7601 (Win7 RTM)
Date 2012-07-04
Time 10:47


--------[ Summary ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer:
Computer Type ACPI x64-based PC (Mobile)
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
OS Service Pack [ TRIAL VERSION ]
Internet Explorer 8.0.7601.17514
DirectX DirectX 11.0
Computer Name LENOVO
User Name LENOVO
Logon Domain LENOVO
Date / Time 2012-07-04 / 10:47

Motherboard:
CPU Type Mobile QuadCore Intel Core i7-3612QM, 2300 MHz (23 x 100)
Motherboard Name Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E430
Motherboard Chipset Intel Panther Point HM77, Intel Ivy Bridge
System Memory [ TRIAL VERSION ]
DIMM1: G Skill F3-1600C11-8GSQ 8 GB DDR3-1600 DDR3 SDRAM (10-10-10-27 @ 761 MHz) (9-9-9-24 @ 685 MHz) (8-8-8-22 @ 609 MHz) (7-7-7-19 @ 533 MHz) (6-6-6-16 @ 457 MHz) (5-5-5-14 @ 380 MHz)
DIMM3: G Skill F3-1600C11-8GSQ [ TRIAL VERSION ]
BIOS Type Phoenix (05/08/2012)

Display:
Video Adapter Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 (2112 MB)
Video Adapter Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 (2112 MB)
Video Adapter Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 (2112 MB)
3D Accelerator Intel HD Graphics 4000
Monitor ThinkPad Display 1366x768 [NoDB]

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Conexant Cx20590 @ Intel Panther Point PCH - High Definition Audio Controller [C-1]
Audio Adapter Intel Panther Point HDMI @ Intel Panther Point PCH - High Definition Audio Controller [C-1]

Storage:
IDE Controller Intel(R) 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller - 1E03
IDE Controller Realtek PCIE CardReader
Storage Controller AARPU7W0 IDE Controller
Disk Drive ADATA SX300 ATA Device (119 GB, IDE)
Disk Drive SAMSUNG HN-M101MBB ATA Device (1000 GB, 5400 RPM, SATA-II)
Optical Drive DKXUJIH VC9IVWT6B SCSI CdRom Device
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) [ TRIAL VERSION ]
D: (NTFS) 931.5 GB (LENOVO free)
Total Size [ TRIAL VERSION ]

Input:
Keyboard Standard PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse ThinkPad UltraNav Pointing Device

Network:
Primary IP Address LENOVO
Primary MAC Address LENOVO
Network Adapter 2x2 11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN PCI Express Half Mini Card Adapter (LENOVO)
Network Adapter Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
Network Adapter Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter
Network Adapter Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller

Peripherals:
Printer Fax
Printer Microsoft XPS Document Writer
USB2 Controller Intel Panther Point PCH - USB 2.0 EHCI Controller #1 [C-1]
USB2 Controller Intel Panther Point PCH - USB 2.0 EHCI Controller #2 [C-1]
USB3 Controller Intel Panther Point PCH - USB 3.0 xHCI Controller [C-1]
USB Device Broadcom Bluetooth 4.0
USB Device Generic USB Hub
USB Device Generic USB Hub
USB Device Integrated Camera
USB Device TouchStrip Fingerprint Sensor (WBF advanced mode)
USB Device USB Composite Device
Battery Microsoft AC Adapter
Battery Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery
Battery Microsoft Composite Battery

DMI:
DMI BIOS Vendor LENOVO
DMI BIOS Version H0ET30WW (1.12 )
DMI System Manufacturer LENOVO
DMI System Product 3254CTO
DMI System Version ThinkPad Edge E430
DMI System Serial Number LENOVO
DMI System UUID LENOVO
DMI Motherboard Manufacturer LENOVO
DMI Motherboard Product 3254CTO
DMI Motherboard Version Not Available
DMI Motherboard Serial Number LENOVO
DMI Chassis Manufacturer LENOVO
DMI Chassis Version Not Available
DMI Chassis Serial Number LENOVO
DMI Chassis Asset Tag LENOVO
DMI Chassis Type Notebook


--------[ DMI ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ BIOS ]

BIOS Properties:
Vendor LENOVO
Version H0ET30WW (1.12 )
Release Date 05/08/2012
Size 4096 KB
Boot Devices Floppy Disk, Hard Disk, CD-ROM
Capabilities Flash BIOS, Shadow BIOS, Selectable Boot, EDD, BBS
Supported Standards DMI, ACPI, PnP
Expansion Capabilities PCI, USB

BIOS Manufacturer:
Company Name Lenovo
Product Information Laptops, Tablet PCs, Netbooks, Desktops, PCs, Computers, Products by Lenovo (US)
BIOS Upgrades BiosAgentPlus.com - Extend your PC's life with a BIOS update

[ System ]

System Properties:
Manufacturer LENOVO
Product 3254CTO
Version ThinkPad Edge E430
Serial Number LENOVO
SKU# SKU
Family ThinkPad Edge E430
Universal Unique ID LENOVO
Wake-Up Type Power Switch

[ Motherboard ]

Motherboard Properties:
Manufacturer LENOVO
Product 3254CTO
Version Not Available
Serial Number LENOVO

Motherboard Manufacturer:
Company Name Lenovo
Product Information Laptops, Tablet PCs, Netbooks, Desktops, PCs, Computers, Products by Lenovo (US)
BIOS Download Lenovo Support - Home (US)
Driver Update DriverAgent - Device Driver Downloads, Updates, and Scans
BIOS Upgrades BiosAgentPlus.com - Extend your PC's life with a BIOS update

[ Chassis ]

Chassis Properties:
Manufacturer LENOVO
Version Not Available
Serial Number LENOVO
Asset Tag LENOVO
Chassis Type Notebook

[ Processors / Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz ]

Processor Properties:
Manufacturer Intel(R) Corporation
Version Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz
Serial Number None
Asset Tag None
Part Number None
External Clock 100 MHz
Maximum Clock 2100 MHz
Current Clock 2100 MHz
Type Central Processor
Voltage 0.9 V
Status Enabled
Socket Designation CPU Socket - U3E1
HTT / CMP Units 2 / 4

CPU Manufacturer:
Company Name Intel Corporation
Product Information Search Core i7-3612QM
Driver Update DriverAgent - Device Driver Downloads, Updates, and Scans

[ Caches / L1-Cache ]

Cache Properties:
Type Internal
Status Enabled
Operational Mode Write-Through
Associativity 8-way Set-Associative
Maximum Size 32 KB
Installed Size 32 KB
Error Correction Parity
Socket Designation L1-Cache

[ Caches / L1-Cache ]

Cache Properties:
Type Internal
Status Enabled
Operational Mode Write-Through
Associativity 8-way Set-Associative
Maximum Size 32 KB
Installed Size 32 KB
Error Correction Parity
Socket Designation L1-Cache

[ Caches / L2-Cache ]

Cache Properties:
Type Internal
Status Enabled
Operational Mode Write-Through
Associativity 8-way Set-Associative
Maximum Size 256 KB
Installed Size 256 KB
Error Correction Multi-bit ECC
Socket Designation L2-Cache

[ Caches / L3-Cache ]

Cache Properties:
Type Internal
Status Enabled
Operational Mode Write-Back
Maximum Size 6144 KB
Installed Size 6144 KB
Error Correction Multi-bit ECC
Socket Designation L3-Cache

[ Memory Devices / ChannelA-DIMM0 ]

Memory Device Properties:
Form Factor SODIMM
Type Detail Synchronous
Size 8192 MB
Speed 1600 MHz
Total Width 64-bit
Data Width 64-bit
Device Locator ChannelA-DIMM0
Bank Locator BANK 0
Manufacturer 04CD
Serial Number 00000000
Asset Tag None
Part Number F3-1600C11-8GSQ

[ Memory Devices / ChannelB-DIMM0 ]

Memory Device Properties:
Form Factor SODIMM
Type Detail Synchronous
Size 8192 MB
Speed 1600 MHz
Total Width 64-bit
Data Width 64-bit
Device Locator ChannelB-DIMM0
Bank Locator BANK 2
Manufacturer 04CD
Serial Number 00000000
Asset Tag None
Part Number F3-1600C11-8GSQ

[ System Slots / ExpressCard Slot ]

System Slot Properties:
Slot Designation ExpressCard Slot
Type PCI-E x1
Usage Empty
Data Bus Width x1

[ System Slots / Media Card Slot ]

System Slot Properties:
Slot Designation Media Card Slot
Usage Empty

[ Port Connectors / External Monitor ]

Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Video Port
Internal Reference Designator Not Available
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator External Monitor
External Connector Type DB-15 pin female

[ Port Connectors / Mini DisplayPort ]

Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Video Port
Internal Reference Designator Not Available
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator Mini DisplayPort

[ Port Connectors / Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack ]

Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Audio Port
Internal Reference Designator Not Available
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack
External Connector Type Mini-jack (headphones)

[ Port Connectors / Ethernet ]

Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Network Port
Internal Reference Designator Not Available
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator Ethernet
External Connector Type RJ-45

[ Port Connectors / USB 1 ]

Port Connector Properties:
Port Type USB
Internal Reference Designator Not Available
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator USB 1
External Connector Type USB

[ Port Connectors / USB 2 ]

Port Connector Properties:
Port Type USB
Internal Reference Designator Not Available
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator USB 2
External Connector Type USB

[ Port Connectors / USB 3 ]

Port Connector Properties:
Port Type USB
Internal Reference Designator Not Available
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator USB 3
External Connector Type USB

[ Port Connectors / USB 4 ]

Port Connector Properties:
Port Type USB
Internal Reference Designator Not Available
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator USB 4
External Connector Type USB

[ On-Board Devices / IBM Embedded Security hardware ]

On-Board Device Properties:
Description IBM Embedded Security hardware
Status Disabled

[ Intel AMT ]

Intel AMT Properties:
Intel AMT Not Supported
IDE Redirection Disabled
SOL Disabled
AMT Network Interface Enabled


--------[ Overclock ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CPU Properties:
CPU Type Mobile QuadCore Intel Core i7-3612QM
CPU Alias Ivy Bridge-MB
CPU Stepping E1/L1/N0/P0
Engineering Sample No
CPUID CPU Name Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz
CPUID Revision 000306A9h
CPU VID 0.9957 V

CPU Speed:
CPU Clock 2793.9 MHz (original: [ TRIAL VERSION ] MHz, overclock: 33%)
CPU Multiplier 28x
CPU FSB 99.8 MHz (original: 100 MHz)
Memory Bus 798.2 MHz
DRAM:FSB Ratio 24:3

CPU Cache:
L1 Code Cache 32 KB per core
L1 Data Cache [ TRIAL VERSION ]
L2 Cache 256 KB per core (On-Die, ECC, Full-Speed)
L3 Cache 6 MB (On-Die, ECC, Full-Speed)

Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID <DMI>
Motherboard Name Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E430

Chipset Properties:
Motherboard Chipset Intel Panther Point HM77, Intel Ivy Bridge
Memory Timings 11-11-11-28 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
Command Rate (CR) [ TRIAL VERSION ]
DIMM1: G Skill F3-1600C11-8GSQ 8 GB DDR3-1600 DDR3 SDRAM (10-10-10-27 @ 761 MHz) (9-9-9-24 @ 685 MHz) (8-8-8-22 @ 609 MHz) (7-7-7-19 @ 533 MHz) (6-6-6-16 @ 457 MHz) (5-5-5-14 @ 380 MHz)
DIMM3: G Skill F3-1600C11-8GSQ [ TRIAL VERSION ]

BIOS Properties:
System BIOS Date 05/08/2012
Video BIOS Date 12/23/11
DMI BIOS Version H0ET30WW (1.12 )

Graphics Processor Properties:
Video Adapter Intel Ivy Bridge-MB - Integrated Graphics Controller (MB GT2)
GPU Code Name Ivy Bridge-MB GT2 (Integrated 8086 / 0166, Rev 09)
GPU Clock 350 MHz


--------[ Power Management ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Power Management Properties:
Current Power Source AC Line
Battery Status 100 % (High Level)
Full Battery Lifetime Unknown
Remaining Battery Lifetime Unknown

Battery Properties:
Device Name 45N1051
Manufacturer SANYO
Serial Number LENOVO
Unique ID LENOVO
Battery Type Rechargeable Li-Ion
Designed Capacity 62160 mWh
Fully Charged Capacity 64140 mWh
Current Capacity 64140 mWh (100 %)
Battery Voltage 12.807 V
Wear Level 0 %
Power State AC Line


--------[ Portable Computer ]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Centrino (Carmel) Platform Compliancy:
CPU: Intel Pentium M (Banias/Dothan) No (Mobile Intel Core i7-3612QM)
Chipset: Intel i855GM/PM No (Intel Panther Point HM77, Intel Ivy Bridge)
WLAN: Intel PRO/Wireless No
System: Centrino Compliant No

Centrino (Sonoma) Platform Compliancy:
CPU: Intel Pentium M (Dothan) No (Mobile Intel Core i7-3612QM)
Chipset: Intel i915GM/PM No (Intel Panther Point HM77, Intel Ivy Bridge)
WLAN: Intel PRO/Wireless No
System: Centrino Compliant No

Centrino (Napa) Platform Compliancy:
CPU: Intel Core (Yonah) / Core 2 (Merom) No (Mobile Intel Core i7-3612QM)
Chipset: Intel i945GM/PM No (Intel Panther Point HM77, Intel Ivy Bridge)
WLAN: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 No
System: Centrino Compliant No

Centrino (Santa Rosa) Platform Compliancy:
CPU: Intel Core 2 (Merom/Penryn) No (Mobile Intel Core i7-3612QM)
Chipset: Intel GM965/PM965 No (Intel Panther Point HM77, Intel Ivy Bridge)
WLAN: Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965 No
System: Centrino Compliant No

Centrino 2 (Montevina) Platform Compliancy:
CPU: Intel Core 2 (Penryn) No (Mobile Intel Core i7-3612QM)
Chipset: Mobile Intel 4 Series No (Intel Panther Point HM77, Intel Ivy Bridge)
WLAN: Intel WiFi Link 5000 Series No
System: Centrino 2 Compliant No

Centrino (Calpella) Platform Compliancy:
CPU: Intel Core i3/i5/i7 (Arrandale/Clarksfield) No (Mobile Intel Core i7-3612QM)
Chipset: Mobile Intel 5 Series No (Intel Panther Point HM77, Intel Ivy Bridge)
WLAN: Intel WiFi Link 1000/WiMAX 6000 Series No
System: Centrino Compliant No

Centrino (Huron River) Platform Compliancy:
CPU: Intel Core i3/i5/i7 (Sandy Bridge-MB) No (Mobile Intel Core i7-3612QM)
Chipset: Mobile Intel 6 Series No (Intel Panther Point HM77, Intel Ivy Bridge)
WLAN: Intel Centrino Advanced-N / Ultimate-N / Wireless-NNo
System: Centrino Compliant No


--------[ Sensor ]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sensor Properties:
Sensor Type ThinkPad EC (ISA 66h)

Temperatures:
CPU 30 °C (86 °F)
CPU Package 55 °C (131 °F)
CPU IA Cores 55 °C (131 °F)
CPU GT Cores 54 °C (129 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #1 52 °C (126 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #2 48 °C (118 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #3 53 °C (127 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #4 55 °C (131 °F)
ADATA SX300 [ TRIAL VERSION ]
SAMSUNG HN-M101MBB [ TRIAL VERSION ]

Voltage Values:
CPU Core 0.991 V
Battery 12.807 V

Power Values:
Battery Charge Rate AC Line


--------[ CPU ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CPU Properties:
CPU Type Mobile QuadCore Intel Core i7-3612QM, 2300 MHz (23 x 100)
CPU Alias Ivy Bridge-MB
CPU Stepping E1/L1/N0/P0
Instruction Set x86, x86-64, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, AVX
Original Clock [ TRIAL VERSION ]
Min / Max CPU Multiplier 12x / 21x
Engineering Sample No
L1 Code Cache 32 KB per core
L1 Data Cache [ TRIAL VERSION ]
L2 Cache 256 KB per core (On-Die, ECC, Full-Speed)
L3 Cache 6 MB (On-Die, ECC, Full-Speed)

Multi CPU:
CPU #1 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz, 2095 MHz
CPU #2 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz, 2095 MHz
CPU #3 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz, 2095 MHz
CPU #4 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz, 2095 MHz
CPU #5 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz, 2095 MHz
CPU #6 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz, 2095 MHz
CPU #7 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz, 2095 MHz
CPU #8 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz, 2095 MHz

CPU Physical Info:
Package Type 988 Pin rPGA
Package Size 37.5 mm x 37.5 mm
Transistors [ TRIAL VERSION ] million
Process Technology 22 nm, CMOS, Cu, High-K + Metal Gate
Die Size [ TRIAL VERSION ] mm2

CPU Manufacturer:
Company Name Intel Corporation
Product Information Search Core i7-3612QM
Driver Update DriverAgent - Device Driver Downloads, Updates, and Scans

CPU Utilization:
CPU #1 / Core #1 / HTT Unit #1 0 %
CPU #1 / Core #1 / HTT Unit #2 0 %
CPU #1 / Core #2 / HTT Unit #1 50 %
CPU #1 / Core #2 / HTT Unit #2 0 %
CPU #1 / Core #3 / HTT Unit #1 0 %
CPU #1 / Core #3 / HTT Unit #2 0 %
CPU #1 / Core #4 / HTT Unit #1 0 %
CPU #1 / Core #4 / HTT Unit #2 0 %


--------[ CPUID ]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CPUID Properties:
CPUID Manufacturer GenuineIntel
CPUID CPU Name Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz
CPUID Revision 000306A9h
IA Brand ID 00h (Unknown)
Platform ID 28h / MC 10h (rPGA988B)
Microcode Update Revision 12
HTT / CMP Units 2 / 4
Tjmax Temperature 105 °C (221 °F)
Max Turbo Boost Multipliers 1C: 31x, 2C: 30x, 3C: 28x, 4C: 28x

Instruction Set:
64-bit x86 Extension (AMD64, Intel64) Supported
AMD 3DNow! Not Supported
AMD 3DNow! Professional Not Supported
AMD 3DNowPrefetch Not Supported
AMD Enhanced 3DNow! Not Supported
AMD Extended MMX Not Supported
AMD FMA4 Not Supported
AMD MisAligned SSE Not Supported
AMD SSE4A Not Supported
AMD XOP Not Supported
Cyrix Extended MMX Not Supported
Enhanced REP MOVSB/STOSB Supported
Float-16 Conversion Instructions Supported, Enabled
IA-64 Not Supported
IA BMI1 Not Supported
IA BMI2 Not Supported
IA MMX Supported
IA SSE Supported
IA SSE2 Supported
IA SSE3 Supported
IA Supplemental SSE3 Supported
IA SSE4.1 Supported
IA SSE4.2 Supported
IA AVX Supported, Enabled
IA AVX2 Not Supported
IA FMA Not Supported
IA AES Extensions Supported
VIA Alternate Instruction Set Not Supported
CLFLUSH Instruction Supported
CMPXCHG8B Instruction Supported
CMPXCHG16B Instruction Supported
Conditional Move Instruction Supported
INVPCID Instruction Not Supported
LZCNT Instruction Not Supported
MONITOR / MWAIT Instruction Supported
MOVBE Instruction Not Supported
PCLMULQDQ Instruction Supported
POPCNT Instruction Supported
RDFSBASE / RDGSBASE / WRFSBASE / WRGSBASE InstructionSupported
RDRAND Instruction Supported
RDTSCP Instruction Supported
SKINIT / STGI Instruction Not Supported
SYSCALL / SYSRET Instruction Not Supported
SYSENTER / SYSEXIT Instruction Supported
Trailing Bit Manipulation Instructions Not Supported
VIA FEMMS Instruction Not Supported

Security Features:
Advanced Cryptography Engine (ACE) Not Supported
Advanced Cryptography Engine 2 (ACE2) Not Supported
Data Execution Prevention (DEP, NX, EDB) Supported
Hardware Random Number Generator (RNG) Not Supported
Hardware Random Number Generator 2 (RNG2) Not Supported
PadLock Hash Engine (PHE) Not Supported
PadLock Hash Engine 2 (PHE2) Not Supported
PadLock Montgomery Multiplier (PMM) Not Supported
PadLock Montgomery Multiplier 2 (PMM2) Not Supported
Processor Serial Number (PSN) Not Supported

Power Management Features:
Application Power Management (APM) Not Supported
Automatic Clock Control Supported
Core C6 State (CC6) Not Supported
Digital Thermometer Supported
Dynamic FSB Frequency Switching Not Supported
Enhanced Halt State (C1E) Supported, Enabled
Enhanced SpeedStep Technology (EIST, ESS) Supported, Enabled
Frequency ID Control Not Supported
Hardware P-State Control Not Supported
LongRun Not Supported
LongRun Table Interface Not Supported
Overstress Not Supported
Package C6 State (PC6) Not Supported
Parallax Not Supported
PowerSaver 1.0 Not Supported
PowerSaver 2.0 Not Supported
PowerSaver 3.0 Not Supported
Processor Duty Cycle Control Supported
Software Thermal Control Not Supported
Temperature Sensing Diode Not Supported
Thermal Monitor 1 Supported
Thermal Monitor 2 Supported
Thermal Monitor 3 Not Supported
Thermal Monitoring Not Supported
Thermal Trip Not Supported
Voltage ID Control Not Supported

CPUID Features:
1 GB Page Size Not Supported
36-bit Page Size Extension Supported
Address Region Registers (ARR) Not Supported
Core Performance Boost (CPB) Not Supported
CPL Qualified Debug Store Supported
Debug Trace Store Supported
Debugging Extension Supported
Direct Cache Access Not Supported
Dynamic Acceleration Technology (IDA) Not Supported
Fast Save & Restore Supported
Hardware Lock Elision Not Supported
Hyper-Threading Technology (HTT) Supported, Enabled
Hypervisor Not Present
Instruction Based Sampling Not Supported
Invariant Time Stamp Counter Supported
L1 Context ID Not Supported
Lightweight Profiling Not Supported
Local APIC On Chip Supported
Machine Check Architecture (MCA) Supported
Machine Check Exception (MCE) Supported
Memory Configuration Registers (MCR) Not Supported
Memory Type Range Registers (MTRR) Supported
Model Specific Registers (MSR) Supported
Nested Paging Not Supported
Page Attribute Table (PAT) Supported
Page Global Extension Supported
Page Size Extension (PSE) Supported
Pending Break Event Supported
Physical Address Extension (PAE) Supported
Restricted Transactional Memory Not Supported
Safer Mode Extensions (SMX) Not Supported
Secure Virtual Machine Extensions (Pacifica) Not Supported
Self-Snoop Supported
Supervisor Mode Execution Protection (SMEP) Supported
Time Stamp Counter (TSC) Supported
Turbo Boost Supported, Enabled
Virtual Machine Extensions (Vanderpool) Supported
Virtual Mode Extension Supported
Watchdog Timer Not Supported
x2APIC Supported
XGETBV / XSETBV OS Enabled Supported
XSAVE / XRSTOR / XSETBV / XGETBV Extended States Supported

 

Anytime! for the price I paid... I couldn't find anything that can compare. the CLOSEST I found was the DVT-7000 Quad Core edition with the 3610QM but that was 15.6" and 899/999+ tax when it was on sale

I wanted a quad core for encoding speed. I've encoded full dvds in under 40 Min vs 24hrs+ on my dm1z! I love it!

 

Cheers for the report. I only assume that the bay is a true mPCIe slot supporting the PCIe 2.0 x1 standard and that it somehow switches into the mSATA mode when an mSATA SSD is present (maybe that's why it is only SATA 2 and not SATA 3) but I may be wrong. It would be great if someone could confirm this.

 

Do you encode into h264 or DivX/Xvid? I wonder if Intel's improved Quick Sync technology can somehow be leveraged to speed things up?

 

Your very welcome

LoL 40min. not fast enough? and that was encoded and ISOed.
though the Xilisoft/imtoo DVD Creator creates better video quality at the same encoding bits then the roxio dvd creator does which is weird cause they both were encoded at 3mbit

I encode Divx/Xvid to MPEG2 (DVD). there's actually only a handful of encoding apps that supports quick sync tech. don't quote me on it but I think the latest roxio dvd creator does. intel lists roxio as one of the ones that has quick sync support.


here's the list


Put Intel® Quick Sync Video to the test

Many independent software vendors (ISVs) have begun optimizing their products for this new technology, including:

Arcsoft MediaConverter*
Arcsoft ShowBiz*
Arcsoft TotatMedia Theater*
Badaboom Media Converter*
Corel Digital Studio
Cyberlink Media Espresso*
Cyberlink MediaShow*
Cyberlink PowerDirector*
Cyberlink YouCam*
Daum Pot Encoder
Gom Video Converter*
GoPro Cineform Studio*
Magix*
MainConcept*
Nero*
Roxio
Tencent QQ*

 

Hey I'm seriously looking at this computer. How do you like the weight and size? Its between this and a Ideapad U400, which is a little lighter and smaller. Do you have a lenovo warranty for it? I was looking at the 2 yr onsite + 2 yr adp?

 

I thought you were encoding the other way round. I encode my BluRay disks into mkvs and store them in my HTPC as it is more convenient to play them from there. It usually takes a few hours as I compress them to save some space. So I was hoping there would be applications/codecs making a better use of Quick Sync.

One way or another the i7-3612QM looks impressive, considering its 35W TDP. I ordered the i5-3320M since the i7 was quite costly here.

 

The E430's WWAN/mSATA slot has no pci-e pins, si it's no good for eGPUs. The only slot that has pci-e is the wifi slot. There you'd be juggling the slot for eGPU/wifi purposes unless you went a dedicated USB wifi instead.

May I'd suggest look at a competitor machine with an expresscard slot, eg: Dell Vostro 3460.

 

Too late for me, I have already ordered mine
May I ask how you found out about the missing pci-e pins? EDIT: My source (lenovo community evangelist) told me: "it is a full featured and full height mPCIe/mSATA slot, however there maybe whitelist restrictions on what type of cards can be used in the slot."

 

.. because pin 23,25,31,33 of a mPCIe socket will either be pci-e (wifi) or SATA (mSATA). It can't be both. You want it to be pci-e for eGPU use which only the wifi slot will provide. There you may encounter whitelisting issues where the bios disconnects the port if no wifi card is detected on boot (need Setup 1.x to overcome; or boot with wifi, halt Win7 load with F8 and swap in PM3N used for eGPU).

I'd suggest look at expresscard equipped Dell Vostro 3460 or Thinkpad T430 for a more convenient DIY eGPU implementation.

 

Thanks for great review. It is really helpful and it is not easy to find review for E430 right now.

I order last week and it should be arrived in a couple of days. Now I have a few questions to get it ready.

1. I plan to use a second bay caddy to add a HDD there. I did this for my HP and it works great. My question is how thick the optical drive in this E430 - 12.7mm or 9.5 mm? My HP takes 9.5mm and I found the DVD in my Edge (420?) is thicker. I need to find this info before I order a caddy.

2. Can this support multiple display? In my HP DM4, I can connect 2 monitors through VGA and HDMI port. Not sure about how this E430 can do. to do this in HP, I have to close the lid, so I won't got 3 display. . It is OK.

3. Will mSata faster than normal SSD? I ordered a 128 GB SSD and plan to use it as main OS drive and put the HDD coming with it in optical bay.
Thanks a lot.

 

my 2yrs old E420 actually boots up more quickly than my brand new X220, probably because the latter has more bloatware.

As for cooling system, my E420 is cooler than my Dell latitude E6410 at work. But it is hotter than X220 when watching 1080p video.

 

No, unless you buy a mSATA3 drive. The optional mSATA drives through manufacturers are almost always SATA2 and therefore a SATA3 SSD will be faster. If you're going to be buying an aftermarket SSD then there really is no benefit to the mSATA drive.

mSATA drives tend to be more expensive, less reliable and slower. While this all sounds bad, they're actually very good but only when used as cache drives to speed up an otherwise slow HDD platter drive.

 

Thanks Soccrstar for starting the thread and all the info.

The E430 is on my short list but I'm a bit concerned about the screen brightness and colours. How do you find the screen brightness and colors for everyday use? Is it suitable for outside use? Anything else you can tell me about the screen would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

Your very welcome

ahh my previous laptop screens have all been 1366x768 so in terms of screen quality I honestly don't care for it so long I can read web pages, watch movies, and its wide screen. To ME the screen is bright but I have it on one of the lowest brightness settings to save battery life though even on plug mode its set to same brightness. I don't like super bright.

I've never used it outside so I can't say for sure. I did get the matte finish so should be better to read and less glare outside then the glossy.

If they offered an upgrade for the screen would I jump on it? sure why not. its a 50 dollar upgrade on the T series, just so I can see what the hype is about when it comes to fancy pixels and whatnot.

I lug the laptop back and forth to work in my back pack and compared to my dm1z there is a very noticeable weight increase. the way I see it thats free exercise :-D.

Size wise. I love it. I moved up from a 11.6" netbook. 15.6" IMO is too big for portability and more for a desktop replacement. 14" is the best of both worlds IMO.

You comparing apples to oranges there. The ideapad is geared more towards consumers, heck you can't even configure them to your liking! it all depends on what you want. You cant get discreet graphics with the e430. You have to step up to the T series for that. Ultimately depends on what you want to get out of a laptop.

the Edge is .19" thicker and 0.38 pounds heavier then the u400

What software do you use to encode? I can some encoding benches if you like. I can try and see if there's any demo versions of some encoders though I can't do blu-ray encodes as I don't have a blu-ray player.

Oh WOW. I'm looking at lenovos website and the i7-3612QM Dropped down in price. I paid an additional 185 to get that processor. its now 135! I'd so save up and get the i7! You don't want to regret not getting it down the road! especially if you do encoding!

Not at all. You can always cancel your order.

1) instead of going that route... why don't you just get a large mSATA drive (I personally have a 128GB) and use that as your OS and have the stock HDD has a storage unit?

2) Yes it does support multiple displays though I forgot how many. don't know why 3 is coming up in my head but DON'T quote me on that.

3) normal SSD will be faster if you get a SATA3 SSD because the HDD port is a SATA3 port where as the mSATA port is SATA2 so even if you stick a SATA3 mSATA in there you still only going to get SATA2 speeds

my e430 definitely runs much cooler then my DM1z.

haha the e430 boots up in 20 seconds :-D

the mSATA Drive lenovo provides is SATA3 just that the port is SATA2. Lenovo provides the Sandisk U100 mSATA

 

I see. You are assuming those pins are wired for SATA only. You may be right, especially since the WWAN cards often use the USB pins 36 & 38. (BTW, in your pin list above you may be missing pin 23 and you can delete pin 27).

I was hoping they might have been advanced enough to wire that slot through a multiplexer to make it switchable between the PCIe controller and SATA controller by using pin 43 to indicate mSATA is in (ref: SATA-IO ECN #45). I think it could work fine for PCIe 2.0 x1 and SATA 2 speeds if they dealt with the insertion loss and trace length properly.

 

Here in Australia you can get the GT630M 40nm discrete graphics.

I used MakeMKV+XviD4PSP or AnyDVD+RipBot264.

I don't do that much encoding to justify a 20-30% laptop price increase. And if Quick Sync gets used one day, then it will be no issue.

Here, once it is in production and you change your mind, they would ask you to pay some restocking fee. So I've heard.

I read the HD 4000 on the E430 can only drive 2 extended desktop displays (2 external or 1 internal and 1 external). This is a pity as Intel advertised 3 display support for HD 4000. Not sure about the discrete graphics option though.

 

It is the 12.7mm one.

 

Hi,
Thanks for posting your review of the E430. Am thinking of getting one myself this month for college and was looking for some real user reviews when I came across this.

could you let me know if carrying this laptop around is uncomfortable or not an issue when compared to other 14" laptops?

 

You folks are lucky then. If it was an option I think I would've sprung for the discrete graphics.

ahh well I downloaded the trial softwares that intel stated that supported quick sync. I've narrowed it down to two... cyberlink mediashow 6 and arcsoft showbiz. the mediashow doesn't support all video formats where showbiz accepted everything I threw at it thus far (which wasn't much but enough to pull it ahead of mediashow).

for Me... Quick Sync cuts encoding by half. Encoded to dvd in 20min vs 40min for most titles. I'm just trying to justify the cost of spending 80 bucks on an encoder. course the thinkpad e430 comes with a dvd creator but quality of the encodes is lacking.

oh? that sucks. have you tried? I've heard that they will waive it if you purchase another lenovo laptop on the spot

LoL there's Only one way to find out

I fail to see the point of that when you can get a nice size mSATA SSD and keep the hdd as a storage unit and still have your dvd drive. but to each their own.

This is my first 14" laptop so I have nothing to compare it to. my last "laptop" was a 11.6" netbook and the e430 is noticeably heavier on my back but I just see it as a nice workout.

 

The US site doesn't offer a dGPU as far as I can tell.

BTW is there anyway to remove the DVD drive and close up that bay (to reduce some weight )?

 

I had the same idea; in fact I tried using the hard drive caddy I originally purchased for my Edge 14 in my brand new Edge 430 and no dice. It turns out that while both the caddy and the dvd drive share the same external dimensions the msata connector is slightly off by maybe 1 - 2 mm.

Which means I am going to have to get a very expensive mSata drive.

 

The E430 is middle of the road in terms of weight for a 14" at 4.7lbs, it's perfectly reasonable for putting in a backpack and carrying around campus. I think a lot of students will be interested in this machine as it's a reasonable price, well built and portable.

 

I installed the hard drive caddy successfully here are some pictures.

 

I ran some 3DMark benchmarks with the i5-3320M and HD 4000:
[NOTE] This initial test was done with a single memory module, which hinders the performance by decreasing the memory bus width to 64bit. Significant gains can be had when using two memory modules to enable the dual channel mode.

3DMark06: 4802/1525/2025/3586 (Score/SM2/SM3/CPU)
3DMarkVantage: P3103/2540/9260 (Score/GPU/CPU)
3DMark11: P614/531/3384/587 (Score/GPU/Physics/Combined)

This was on Maximum Performance power settings. All other settings were default with no overclocking. Original Lenovo Windows 7 64bit. The video driver version was 8.15.10.2639.

These results are disappointing when compared to yours (soccrstar) of the i7-3612QM. I understand the quad core had better CPU scores but I expected the GPU scores to be a little better on the dual core (not 30-40% worse) since the GPU is clocked higher due to the TDP room.

 

ahh you got your laptop! How do you like it so far?

dam that sucks I guess when it comes to graphics rendering the load gets put on the CPU as well when it comes to the onboard graphics. Its just like encoding these days, the load gets put on the GPU as well.

 

Actually I suspect the GPU issue may be caused by me only having one 4GB RAM stick in. Could you maybe confirm that in the GPU-Z you currently have 128 bit memory Bus Width and if you remove one memory stick, does it go down to 64 bit?
[EDIT] Don't worry, I've managed to get 2 sticks from my old laptop and I can confirm that as expected the HD 4000 memory bus width has gone up to 128 bit.

First impressions (my first lenovo laptop, previous laptop: HP DV6-3016ax):
Build quality: 2.1kg, solid, a bit bulky and thick, the flex is managed well for this price range, only the bottom right keyboard area and the screen are flexing noticeably. The L/R screen bezel is thinner than most laptops but not as good as Samsung's.
Finish: understated elegant rubberised matt finish, this is not a flashy consumer laptop. There is a red LED on the palm rest and the back of the screen indicating the power-on status but I miss an HDD activity led.
Battery: 6-7 hours of conservative use
Keyboard: great action, however a few keys could have been repositioned – Fn and Ctrl keys swapped, Fn labels instead of F1-12. These can be changed in BIOS though. I would prefer PgUp&PgDn swapped with Home&End or have one more column of keys on the right added.
Clickpad: textured grid finish (I prefer smooth). Although I am used to buttonless touchpads, the click action on the E430 is too pronounced and the pad feels "loose", like a camera shutter button that you can press half way down.
Trackpoint: good quality, makes up for the issues with the clickpad
Display: 1366x768 fits a 14" well. Matt finish to miminise reflections. The panel quality is average, vertical viewing angles are limited. Sufficiently bright. Blacks could be better though.
Speakers: underwhelming, but still usable for movies/TV, sufficient volume, lower frequencies cut off at about 500Hz so very little bass. To un-muffle the headphone output, turn off the 3D Headphone mode.
Noise: definitely audible at idle, not sure exactly how much of it is the 7200rpm HDD and how much is the fan. After some time the fan speeds up and slows down every couple seconds. E530 - pulsing/whiny fan @ no/low load - Lenovo Community
Heat: running cool after hours of office-type use

 

my E420 only lasts 4 hours when in battery, and this is a definitely an improvement

 

@soccrstar, could you comment on the pulsing fan issue when idle: E530 - pulsing/whiny fan @ no/low load - Lenovo Community

The issue seems common on a lot of Edge models. You've mentioned yours is really quiet so I am wondering why it may be so.

 

interesting.The fan on my E420 is very quiet under normal usage, much more than the Dell latitude at work.

 

I'm not having any problems with my fan in regards to pulsing/whiny. I don't know if they use different fan components for the i7 vs the i5 but mine only kicks up when I encode or do anything CPU intensive. Then it comes down to low but not silent. But it never pulses.



This is the GPU usage when Encoding using a software that supports Intels Quick Sync. the encoding software itself is using 12-20% CPU cycles. It is currently not using all of systems resources to the encoding. 100% the GPU and CPU and that 40min encode can be dropped down to like 5min or less. currently drops a 40min encode to 20min. I probably should've taken a screenshot of it cool before the encode but went backwards.


Heres the GPU pretty much cooled down


GPU specs

 

-------------

 

Do you have an I5 in there? I'm beginning to think that the I7 don't suffer from the fan problem that the I5s do. Perhaps there's a bios option in there? I will take a picture of my fan and cooling hardware to see if it's the same as the I5s. If someone with an I5 can do the same that'll be great :-D


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

 

I don't think it is the i5 only. The guy who opened the thread on the lenovo community website has an i7. The i7 has the same TDP as the i5.

My i5 heated up to over 90C yesterday running a 12W load! It must have been an anomaly because when I put it to sleep and then tried again it was running the same task at about 50C.

 

Hmm...


Here's a Screen shot with my CPU 100%. This encoder doesn't support Quick Sync so loaded up the CPU. Temp chills around 80C. The Fan does Kick up to Medium Speed. After the load drops it kicks back to low speed.

There is a slight pulse in fan where it changes sound for bout 3 seconds that changes back down 3 seconds then back up 3 seconds, etc?... I have to actually pay attention and listen for it to hear it

From my understanding since owning the E430. the Fan has several Modes.

1) Silent Mode. As long as I never really Load the CPU the fan never gets out of the mode. during the week at work I don't encode so it stays silent. Also once I load it, it doesn't come back down to silent

1) Low fan Mode: I never experienced this mode until I accidentally put my laptop in my bag and went to work forgetting I had it set for always on. so got fuggered I guess. but anways this is where it steps down to and stays UNTIL I put the laptop in sleep mode after it gets loaded. there is a slight pulse sound but I have to listen for it.

Reminder... I am coming from a HP Dm1Z e-350 netbook and that fan is on HIGH 100% of the time so Im used to fan noise.

2) Medium Fan Mode: Kicks up to this when I load up the system and stays here

3) High fan Mode: I've heard it go up to this mode for a split second a few times the first week or two of ownership. never heard it since.

CPU Temps never go above 90C