W510 to drive Dell wfp2007 at 2560x1600 resolution

Hi All,

I am looking at purchasing a W510. I have a Dell wfp2007 30" monitor that I would like to drive off of the W510, at the full 2560x1600 resolution.

The wfp2007 only has a Dual-Link Dvi - and the W510 comes with a DisplayPort. It would seem I need a DisplayPort to Dual Dvi cable to make this work.

My questions to you:

(1) Anyone have any experience getting 2560x1600 resolution with a w510 and a wfp2007?

(2) Would I need to get the dock (even though the laptop itself has a DisplayPort - because of the power supply?)

(3) Any other reccommendations for driving the wfp2007 with the w510 at 2560x1600?

Thank you very much for your help!!

Meera

 

I think you mean the 3007wfp. the first two numbers for dell screen are the screen size.

You don't need to get a dock to get 2560x1600 resolution out of the w510. Although it may be a cheaper/better investment to get a dock. Active dp to dual dvi costs around $100, and sometimes you can find the docks on ebay for that price or cheaper.

 

Looks like you need something like DELL DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI Adapter for OptiPlex / Latitude / Alienware Laptops / Precision/ Precision Mobile Workstations : Desktop Accessories | Dell

 

You don't need the dock, but you will need a Displayport to dual link DVI adapter (like what's posted by halobox). They use a USB port for power so you'll need to be able to spare a USB port for the adapter. It might end up better getting the dock so you won't need to disconnect and reconnect so much.

 

Thanks - this is helpful. An expensive system and I really hope its worth it. Your point about the dock, jaakobi, is well-taken, it would be much better to not have to disconnect constantly.

It looks like the DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI Adapter for OptiPlex recc'd by halobox has been endorsed by Dell for the 3007wfp. There is also one by Accell.

Any final thoughts before I pull the trigger on the W510?

Here are the specs for the w510 I'm looking at (this will be for small business use, lots of microsoft office applications):


Intel Core i7-820QM Processor (8M Cache, 1.73 GHz)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64
Windows XP Mode: Microsoft Windows 7 XP Mode - English
15.6" FHD Display (95% Gamut, 270nit) with LED Backlight
NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M Graphics with 1GB DDR3 memory
8 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
500 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Optical device: Multi Recorder Optical Drive (12.7mm)
Express Card Slot & 5 in 1 Card Reader
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)
Integrated Mobile Broadband

ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 for Mobile Workstations

Meera

 

If it satisfies your needs, then go for it. keep in mind too that there are new Intel Sandy Bridge processors coming out too (no Thinkpad W series announced with them yet though, but probably coming out within the next couple months). If that laptop is meant for heavy hitting processing and/or lots of battery usage, then the new processors would be tremendously beneficial: battery life is far better with the quad cores now thanks to integrated graphics and whatever power saving trickery Intel came up with, and the performance has been upped considerably.
performance:
Intel?s Sandy Bridge i7-2820QM: Upheaval in the Mobile Landscape - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

battery life:
Intel?s Sandy Bridge i7-2820QM: Upheaval in the Mobile Landscape - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Basically you have the power of a current desktop Core i7 but it can give you battery life of a lower end dual Core i7. If these things are important to you, then I would wait.

 

Thanks Jaacobi. Although longer battery life would be nice, I need the computer right away. Would you know why there is no Ultrabay battery option for the W510?

 

They removed the power pins from the Ultrabay, so it doesn't accept Ultrabay batteries. This was done probably to save on development costs, and my guess is that those Ultrabay batteries sold slowly. Regardless, you don't get much energy out of those, at most you get something like 22 Watt-hours, which is only a fraction of the usual 94 Watt-hours from a 9 cell battery. They're also plagued with an issue that the Thinkpad always drains the Ultrabay battery to 0% before switching to the main battery, which shortens the lifespan of the battery. I'm guessing many people knew about this issue and didn't buy one as a result.

 

Why buy a W510 if you are looking for battery life? It isn't really designed for unplugged use.

Just curious, but what are you using the 30" Dell LCD panel for? The W510 will certainly be a good partner but depending on what you actually do, it might not be the best fit, especially if you need more that 3 hours of battery life and travel a lot.

 

Battery life isn't as much of an issue for me as speed, capacity and ease of use. Generally, I'm pretty good at finding power sources when I need them. My main priority is that this next system is a solid, reliable machine to execute (really quickly) whatever I'm doing (mainly low-tech business use - microsoft office etc.)

Though the software I'm using is not intensive, I really want the system to be fast. My work is all basically MS office files. I have huge files and I want to be able to work in multiple files, across multiple applications at the same time, without freezing. I mention this because it has been an issue in the past. I've had a couple of different Dell laptops (business use models) as well as a custom-built desktop that was supposed to be incredibly powerful, all of which froze and / or worked excruciatingly slowly.

I bought the custom-built desktop from IBuyPower and it drove the 3007wfp for 1.5 years before it started overheating and shutting down when I ran movies or photography. After a while, it just refused to be turned on for more than 10 minutes, before over-heating and shutting down.

I'm trying to avoid these issues with the W510.

There may be no difference between the T and W in terms of business software use. I think the main reason I've zero'd in on the W510 over a T510 is because I want to be able to use 3007wfp. I also assume (perhaps wrongly) that it's some extra guarantee that I will get a fast machine that won't freeze up and that will allow me to be productive instead of _waiting_.

I am open to suggestions, though. I really have no idea and have just come to the W510 conclusion from my research - would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Thanks,
Meera

 

Are you sure you need quad cores? Sometimes a dual core is faster than a quad core when your application isn't sufficiently multithreaded. How about the screen? And will you use the GPU? Office applications don't typically utilize the GPU. Those are the main differences between the W510 and T510. If you want a Thinkpad and you need the power, I would say it is worth it, but then again, keep in mind that you're going to see lower prices for the same machine when the Sandy Bridge models come out.

Also, if speed is important, then consider buying a solid state drive, they can really speed up many disk-limited tasks. They tend to make computers feel much faster because things load much quicker. But, read up on which SSD to buy, you can get better drives than what Lenovo offers

 

I'd say buy the W510 with confidence. A lot of people here have. They've been out a year now and from all practical appearances the build quality is solid, drivers are stable, and are fast and flexible. If you want to use SSD later, you can always add a SSD drive to the Ultrabay with the Ultrabay Hard Drive adaptor.

I would highly recommend testing the machine you receive fully and thoroughly in the first week or so. I have seen a few W510 lemons reported but it’s usually apparent pretty quickly.

Don’t hesitate to return a machine during the return period window if it shows signs of a defect. After the return period, it’s yours and you are then stuck on the warranty repair process which can be great or ugly.

 

Thanks guys, your points are really well taken. I gave it some thought and finally decided to go ahead and purchase the system. Hopefully it is all I'm hoping for.

I think the W510 GPU is the only one stated to run at 2560x1600 - and although the screen on the laptop does not go that high, the cable recc'd here has been cited to drive the 3007wfp at full resolution by at least one user out there (an amazon review..).

I agree on the SSD - have decided to wait to see how the system runs with the HDD before replacing it with an open-market SSD. Unfortunately I can't wait for the Sandy Bridge timing, though that would be really nice. Dying here using a netbook ever since my Dell died. Killing my ability to get anything done.

But I will definitely test the w510 system as much as I can in the first week of getting it. I will probably need to troll this site a bit to figure out how to test it, as I have no clue. Halobox, if you can point me to the nearest resource for "testing w510 for dummies" that would be great.

Thanks again!! You guys are really great for all this help, much appreciated.

 

I believe any GPU that has Displayport can output 2560x1600, I'm pretty sure even the Macbook Air can do that with the 320M.

By the way, I just looked up the dock specs, it doesn't have dual link DVI, so if you planned on getting the dock, then you will need the Displayport to dual link DVI adapter. So you would need that expensive adapter regardless of whether you have the dock or not.

Also, Windows 7 equipped Thinkpads have Thinkvantage software that you can test all the hardware. I don't know if it's the best sort of diagnostic but it's built in to Thinkpads.

 

By test, I mean test all of your applications and hardware. For instance, if you have a camera or something that uses Firewire, be sure to test it.

Install the apps you use. Install the printer drivers. Basically do a shakedown cruise on everything you can, as quickly as you can.

Return periods are short so if you find something that simply doesn't work, it will be decision time.