W510 - Dual or Quad Core?

I'm leaning towards the dual core version (it's slightly cheaper and the 560M is much faster than the 720QM in most situations), but I just learned that it has 2 SODIMM sockets disabled. Besides that, are there any other drawbacks to the dual core version that I should be aware of before I take the plunge?

 

not disabled, but rather lacks 2 dimm slots.

Well, do you need the RAID, FX 880M GPU, usb 3.0 slots etc? otherwise why not get the T510 instead?

 

It's 20% the better GPU, 5% the USB 3.0 support, and 75% the fact that I need a $1500+ Thinkpad in order to qualify for a 40% discount.

So I figured that instead of trying to soup up a T510 with a bunch of features that I don't really want just in order to meet the minimum price limit, I might as well go with a better base system. The only trade-off that I'm aware of with T510 vs W510 is that the T510 has Optimus, whereas the W510 is permanently stuck on the FX 880M.

 

yes the optimus does allow support for up to 4 LCD.

If you don't need a laptop i would just wait for the Jan and Feb next year, when Lenovo releases the next round of new Thinkpads. I am sure you would get better discounts then.

 

+1 what lead_org said, if you dont need it NOW then you could wait and see whether to get better discount or refreshed ThinkPad

 

I will consider waiting, thank you to both of you for the prompt answers.

 

What..the W510's just came out didn't it? They are already making new models? Lol..

 

Well there's gotta be new models when Sandy Bridge comes out in January...

 

Jan should be the announcement time, Feb and Mar should be the release dates for Lenovo thinkpad laptops.

 

I doubt W5xx (or other models with dedicated GPUs) will be refreshed right away. It seems ideapads, some T and some X models will go first.