W530 Owner's Thread

Just so you know. I bought a $15 bay adapter (caddy) from ebay and while it worked the vendor had forgotten to drill holes in the base. It came with 4 screws but no holes in the base to attach my 7500 rpm drive to. I used a velcro kit to secure the drive to the caddy. OK, it wasn't one of the smartest things I've ever done. Entire computer would vibrate when the drive spun up fast. LOL Just got my NewModeUS caddy and it came with the required 4 screws and the holes to match. Nice not having a vibrating computer any longer.

Craig

 

No, they haven't forgotten anything.

With such caddy adapters, you don't secure the drive with four screws on the bottom, but on two sides. You attach two screws on each side of the drive, then slide the drive in, with the screws entering the tracks. With the SATA connection secured, you snap down the plastic piece at the opposite end of the connector.

 

Thanks for the detailed response Flipster. I'm almost on the verge of placing the order. I get $1244.36 w/tax for the below configuration. I couldn't get below than this even after talking to the sales reps. Is this a good value for money or should I wait for more discounts that may come during Christmas?

Intel Core i7-3720QM Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz)
Windows 8 Pro 64
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
NVIDIA Quadro K1000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory
8 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (2 DIMM)
UltraNav with Fingerprint Reader
500GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD Recordable 8x Max, Dual Layer, Ultrabay Enhanced w/ SW Royalty for Windows 8
9 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70++
Bluetooth 4.0 with Antenna
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN
Mobile Broadband upgradable
1 Year Depot/Express Warranty

 

Considering that the W530 starts at $1200, and the 1080p upgrade is typically $250, plus whatever the quad core cost, $1244 is a very good price for what you're getting.

 

It's not necessary a good thing to have a high gamut screen when working w/ photos though...they look great, but even calibrated, the colors look a lot more saturated when the same image is viewed on a non-high-gamut IPS screen (both screens calibrated w/ same tool).

The W530's default screen is a bit cold/blueish if it's not calibrated...at least under Windows7. Windows8 seems less cold by default...

 

Yes the W530 FHD screen is way to cool in colour temperature by default. I posted a .icc profile that should resolve this for most people.

I have to disagree about the color gamut. Working with a screen that can produce 100% of the adobe color gamut is exactly what most photo professional want. Look at the HP dream display that they charge an arm and a leg for on their elite book workstations. It's a good high gamut IPS display.

Same goes for all the other top end professional displays they almost all show 95+ % of the adobe RGB gamut. In saying this gamut is not the only important factor when looking at professional displays, things like having 10 or 12-bit internal processing for smoother greyscale gradients is just as important so is contrast ratio and IPS etc. Color gamut is just one of the many specs to look for in a display used for serious photography.

The FHD display on the W530 is not what I would call a professional grade graphics display but it's still a good display.

If you have a correctly calibrated Adobe RGB gamut display, you will be able to view a larger range of colors which is very important and your photos will look how they should on a good display. If you have a crap display, nothing will make images look great on it.

 

Lads just a quick question, I was wondering if anyone with the K2000M or even K1000M GPU and the current latest drivers from Lenovo (ForceWare 296.88) - Show in GPU Z, could please run GPU Z and tell me if at the bottom where it has ticks for what features the GPU supports, do you have a tick next to CUDA and Physx?

I know CUDA is apparently working on my system but I have no tick on CUDA or Physx. Would be interested to see what other people with the same drivers are getting. If you have something different please let me know the driver version and version of GPU Z you are using. Thanks.

 

When I was using the 296.80 drivers, I had all the bottom boxes checked. Now, for some reason, I do not have CUDA or DirectCompute 5.0 checked for the K2000M (although DirectCompute 5.0 is checked for the Intel 4000). OpenCL & PhysX boxes are checked. I'm running the 305.93 driver from Nvidia and PhysX version 9.12.0613, also downloaded direct from Nvidia. This is from the latest version of GPU-Z (0.6.6).

 

Thanks for the reply.

Those results are in line with what I have seen on the net. People with 296.80 had all boxes ticked but the latest driver version only shows the one boxed ticked in GPU-Z, unless you install the separate PhysX driver from Nvidia, as you have done. However CUDA should be ticked by default and I believe so should DirectCompute. I get the same results as you for the intel GPU.

You may also notice that with the latest GPU-Z (0.6.6) if you go to the Sensor TAB, even with the graphics test running, the memory speed is reporting as 450Mhz when in the older 0.6.4 version it's reporting the correct 900Mhz.

Not sure if it's just a reporting issue with GPU-Z... but I wanted to double check with other W530 users who had the same latest version drivers.

Edit: Thought I would also add, has anyone updated Lenovo Solution Center to the new version? - I did this a few days ago and noticed it was no longer displaying the number of days I have left on my warranty, this would normally show at the bottom of the software window. It would say it can't contact the server. I since reverted to the old version by going back to an earlier clone of my SSD because even un-installing and re-installing the older version wouldn't resolve the issue.

 

That's it: the server is dead or very slow, like many Lenovo servers at various times during the day or week. You could check warranty with a browser and get the same "Huh?" page.

Lenovo should be awarded the top prize of an IT-manufacturing company having the worst IT infrastructure.

This thing? Control Panel > Uninstall Programs. I even remove SWTOOLS (4GB or so) from C: drive.

 

Hi all,

My wife and I just bought two w530 thinkpads. We were replacing her 6 year old Toshiba, and my 6 year old Macbook Pro. So far, we really like the machines. Both were bought as referbs from two different eBay sellers. They both have 3720 processors, hers has the k1000/180g ssd and only 4gb ram (for now), and mine the k2000,32gb ram 256 msata and 500gb hitichi, as I will be using it for video editing. I have a few questions.

1. The basic view of the power manager is showing what I can only assume is NOT total system wattage being used, as it has gone from "0" to a max of 34 watts? What is this trying to show?

2. Mine came with just the basic Intel 11/b/g/n wifi card. I would like to upgrade it to a faster card, and I have seen them on ebay. Any issues I should know about upgrading it to the 6200? Could I do the 6300, if I installed another antenna lead? What lead, and has anyone done this?

3. I did not catch that mine came with the 6-cell battery - I would like the 9-cell. My mistake - I was looking at some many online that I screwed up. Are the ebay non-lenovo 9-cells any good?

4. Anyone want to sell a 4gb stick or two cheap, to install in my wife's w530?

Chris

 

The basic view of power manager does tell you total system wattage being used. Mine goes up to 58 watts when running MSI Kombustor (a GPU stress test). Maximum total power use is 130-150 watts, but that's unlikely to happen in practical situations.

You can install the Intel 6200, but you need the version with a Lenovo SKU number in order to ensure the BIOS recognizes it. It is possible to install a third antenna for the 6300 (which is also a valid wifi option with a Lenovo SKU), but doing so requires taking apart a large portion of the system. If you are comfortable enough technically to do so, Lenovo provides instructions in their system maintenance guide.

The W530 comes with a battery authentication chip which means it will run with 3rd party batteries, but it won't charge them. You need to buy a Lenovo battery in order to use it more than once with the system.

I may still have the 4GB module from when I upgraded the memory in my system. If I find it, I'll send you a PM.

 

I joined the happy owners' club of Lenovo Thinkpad W530 and I am absolutely in love with it. Since then, I started the fun part of upgrading the computer on my own and improving its performance.

I had the original 4GB RAM and I bought some days ago 2 sticks 2 x 8GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3.
I did some Geekbench tests after that, but I am quite disappointed with the results: 5834
compared to the average 10000, 11000 and 14000 points of users with exactly the same technology.

Compare results:

5834: LENOVO 2438CTO - Geekbench Browser (mine)
10728: LENOVO 2438CTO - Geekbench Browser
14914: LENOVO 2438CTO - Geekbench Browser

My question is, why am I getting such performance?

Thank you.

 

Thanks for the quick response. Since I don't want to mess with taking apart the screen, I think I will go with the 6200. Can I assume that the bluetooth in these is a separate install? - ie I don't want to swap cards and find out that I removed the BT radio as well.

I'll take your word on the power manager - but I am also going to take it to our boat (we are full-time live-aboards, but are in an apartment right now for a bit) and plug into the inverter. There, I can see the amps used, which will include the conversion by the power brick.

It seems like Lenovo is doing their best to make sure we buy their parts - I don't blame them though.

Let me know about the 4gb module.


Chris
Sailing Alchemy : Chris and Gretchen

 

That's pretty vague. Is it the Centrino Wireless-N 2200?

Lenovo uses two separate cards, one for WLAN and another for BT. You meant the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205?

If you currently have the 2200, it is actually pretty good. It supports dual stream, single band. The 6205 supports dual stream, dual band. (I don't see a strong reason for upgrade.)

 

Is the system plugged in? Lenovo locks the CPU frequency on battery power, which will make your Geekbench score much lower than it should be. If you got that score with the system plugged in, then you might want to check if there were any other CPU-intensive programs running at the time, like Windows Updates.

 

I cannot tell which one it is - it is listed in the device manager as "1x1 b/g/n Wireless LAN PCI Express half Card Adapter" is this the 2200??

I installed Windows 8 Pro, and I just installed the intel software listed for the 2200, but the other package, which I think is the drivers, just starts, thinks for a bit, and then disappears.


Chris

 

You probably have the basic Lenovo wireless card. It is not (to the best of my knowledge) made by Intel. The "1x1" means it has 1 antenna and cannot benefit from the MIMO (multiple in, multiple out) features of 802.11n routers. As a result, the notebook is limited to a maximum wireless transfer speed of 150 Mbps, even if your router supports a faster transfer speed.

 

If you had read my earlier reply carefully, you would know that the 2200 is 2x2, dual stream, single band.

What you have is the RealTek (not Intel) 1x1, single stream, single band card. Do a Properties on that device and you can know a bit more.

If I were you, I wouldn't try to open up the notebook and install cards myself, let alone adding a third antenna.

Are you installing drivers willy-nilly? You should know what device you have before you can install the right driver for it.

Did you have Windows 7 on the notebook you bought? Why are you moving to Windows 8? Do you really have to?

 

I have never used geekbench, but when you have a performance variance of 10.7k vs 14.9k with the same hardware, it doesn't give me the greatest confidence. Like others have said it could be the laptop was running on battery and not mains power or had other high load processes running in the background.

I would use some of the more trusted benchmarks like 3D Mark11 or Unigene_Heaven for the GPU and if you want a whole system test you can try PassMark.

I personally use a GPU test by farbrausch, it uses some of the latest directX effects, has good music and is great to watch. You can get it here: fr-043: rove by farbrausch

For the CPU I use a x264 video encoding benchmark which is known to really work the CPU, from here: Tech ARP - x264 HD Benchmark Ver. 5.0.1

My results for the farbrausch GPU test are:
On Intel integrated GPU: 14000
Nvidia K200M GPU: 17018
Res: 1920x1080

When you start the software just use the benchmark default settings, tick the "benchmark" box then press the demo button and let it run, takes about 7min. Good thing is you don't even need to install it. Just runs of the one .exe.
------


My results for the CPU x264 encoding:
Pass 1
------
encoded 11812 frames, 64.02 fps, 7754.14 kb/s
encoded 11812 frames, 63.60 fps, 7754.11 kb/s
encoded 11812 frames, 64.33 fps, 7754.33 kb/s
encoded 11812 frames, 63.32 fps, 7754.08 kb/s

Pass 2
------
encoded 11812 frames, 13.27 fps, 8002.15 kb/s
encoded 11812 frames, 13.29 fps, 8002.22 kb/s
encoded 11812 frames, 13.30 fps, 8002.17 kb/s
encoded 11812 frames, 13.29 fps, 8002.21 kb/s

System Specs:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3820QM CPU @ 2.70GHz
Total physical memory 16.00 GB
Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA Quadro K2000M

 

Sorry, I am not up on the nomenclature of wireless - I did not realize that 1x1 meant single stream, and 2x2 meant dual. I am not installing any old drivers - well, except for these, which did not install at all. I went to windows 8, since this was a new laptop, and I was starting fresh. I had already installed it on another machine, with good results, so I wanted to start with the latest OS that would not need changing for a few years at least.

Thanks,
Chris

 

Get a hold of the product/hardware identification of your WLAN device (something like RTL8187, for example) and look up the Windows 8 driver for it.

You may want to "start fresh," but not all device manufacturers have updated their drivers for Windows 8.

"The latest OS that would not need changing for a few years at least"? That applies to Windows 7 SP1. Nothing outdated about it.

 

pfff.. Thanks Djembe you were absolutely right. I plugged the charger and got a score 14899
LENOVO 2438CTO - Geekbench Browser
I almost can't believe that this factor change the results so much.

I did some test before with the original 4GB ram + the new 16GB = 20GB but it was recognized as 20GB DDR3 SDRAM 444Mhz instead of 799.
Unplugged the 4gb stick and the system is running at 16GB DDR3 SDRAM 799Mhz. Another of those things..

Thanks for the reply

 

799Mhz is the correct speed for DDR 1600Mhz, it reports at half the speed but is double pumped so it's true speed is double what you are seeing reported which means the speed is correct.

The 4GB factory stick was probably only 1333Mhz ram, the speed mismatch may of made the system run even slower. I would never recommend running two different speed memory sticks. I even try to avoid using memory from different manufactures, though that is not such a big issue if the speed including latency is the same, just reduces the chance of compatibility issues.

For some reason there is people that seem to think that increasing from say 8GB of ram to 16GB or 16GB to 32GB is going to give them much better benchmark results... the only way you will get better benchmark results by increasing the amount of RAM on your system is if the benchmark is being bottlenecked by the amount of RAM on your system, which will hardly ever be the case if you are running 8GB or more of RAM.

Majority of these benchmarks are not there to rate your system based on how much memory you have, unless it's an extreme case like 512MB of ram. They are there to rate the speed of all the sub systems. Like your GPU, CPU, HDD and Memory. These things do not change regardless of the system having 8GB or 32GB of RAM, when it comes to memory system throughput, read/write speed etc 8GB 1600Mhz RAM (1x8GB) is the same as 32GB 1600Mhz RAM (4x8GB) - if both are the same spec modules, they are both running at 1600Mhz and that's what these benchmarks are testing.

So as long as you meet the recommended memory requirements to run the benchmark program, going from 8GB of RAM to 32GB will almost never mean better scores, it's the speed of the RAM that matters.

Obviously going from 8GB to 32GB on a large SQL database system, high load Photoshop system, Exchange 2010 server etc will make a noticeable difference but that is for different reasons to what these benchmarks are testing.

 

Edited to add notes after list entries.

I opened up the laptop, and found the card is a RTL8188CE, so it is a realtek. I then checked the FRU parts list for the w530, the list is below. Pretty cryptic list. What I find interesting is that they don't list the 6200, but only the 6250, which has wimax built in. Would that card be ok?

Chris

60Y3195 FRU 6250 WiMax
60Y3233 FRU 6300 WLAN
60Y3247 FRU FXC 11WLAN <<< This is the one I have now.
60Y3249 FRU LTN 11WLAN <<< This is the 6205
60Y3253 FRU TP 22 WLAN <<< Also 6205???
60Y3257 FRU Gobi3 WWAN
60Y3295 FRU Marble Peak
60Y3297 FRU H5321w
60Y3303 FRU Foxconn Hygie
60Y3305 FRU Liteon Hygie BATTERIE

 

60Y3233 - Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300
60Y3247 - RealTek RTL8188CE (resold as "ThinkPad b/g/n Wireless")
60Y3249 - RealTek RTL8188CE (labeled as "REALTEK RTL8188CE")
60Y3253 - Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205

This is likely what you have now:


You would want the last one: 60Y3253. However, you may want to read this. BIOS whitelist only allows certain cards with specific internal ID codes to be used.

 

Well, I took a $15.00 gamble and ordered a 6205 from eBay. I chose a selling in the US, that has a good return policy.
I am doing this as I would like to try out the wireless display functionality if I can find a cheap adapter.

Chris

 

Wireless Display depends on the Intel graphics and software and on a compatible hardware receiver. I don't believe it depends on the wireless card used.

 

Intel Wireless Display requires a number of components, one of which is an Intel Centrino Wireless-N, Advanced-N or Ultimate-N card. The Advanced-N 6205 is one of such cards.

 

By cheap adapter, I mean one that I can hook up to our TV.

Chris

 

Not sure if there is a big price difference but I hear the Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 wireless is much better performance wise than the Advanced-N, so if the $ difference is not large it may be worth getting that card.

 

The price difference would not be much of an issue, I originally wanted to go with the 6300. What turned me away was that I would have to source, and then install a third antenna lead into the LCD frame, taking apart much of the computer in the process. I did not want to do that.

Chris

 

I am ordering the Lenovo W530. I want to use a 256GB Crucial M4 mini-PCIe SSD (part no. CT256M4SSD3) in the mSATA/WWAN slot as the OS boot drive and for apps. I will put a Samsung 830 256GB SSD in the hard drive bay for data. I understand the mini-PCIe port is only SATA II whereas the hard drive bay is SATA III so, maybe I should swap those around; however, I figured more writing would be done to the data drive than the OS/Apps drive. Is there any reason the Crucial M4 would not work in the mSATA slot? In configuring the W530, I see Lenovo only offers a 16GB cache drive for that slot, but, reading this forum indicates that others have installed larger SSDs as OS/boot drives there with no problem.

Interestingly, I checked the Crucial site and they say the M4 mSATA drive is not compatible with the W530. Other brands of mSATA/min PCIe SSDs say they are compatible, but, they only come in 128GB capacity. I really want a 256GB drive in that slot if possible and the Crucial M4 looks like a good choice as it is currently only $169 on Newegg.com. Has anyone tried this mSATA SSD with the W530?

 

I've been using Crucial M4 mSATA SSDs and 2.5" SATA SSDs in various notebooks, including T and W ThinkPads.

You can definitely use the Crucial M4 mSATA 256GB SSD with your new W530. Whether the mSATA or the 2.5" serves as your boot/OS/apps drive is your preference/decision. Certain users may argue that the mSATA/WWAN slot only supports the "slow" 3Gbit/s transfer rate, but I personally don't consider it my topmost concern.

If you can afford an all-flash storage arrangement, I applaud you, as the mechanical drives can be noisy. My mind celebrates very time my spinner in the UltraBay turns off.

Just a pragmatic question: Do you need that big a drive for boot/OS/apps?

PS. Welcome to the forum, and enjoy your new W530 when it arrives.

 

@hoopster - believe it or not it is your OS drive that will normally receive the largest amount of read/writes hence I would always consider putting your OS on the fastest drive, it will also help to reduce boot time further.

Also 256GB is not much for storage. Unless you can afford a 500GB+ SSD for storage I would highly recommend an arrangement of a 256GB SSD for OS and Applications, than a 500GB+ HDD for common files like, videos, music, documents etc.

256GB is normally plenty for the OS and Applications. If you reserve say 50-60GB for the OS that leaves you close to 200GB for Applications. Apps are not normally that large, most are under 2GB and many are less than 500MB. Normally the apps that take up plenty of space are games, so unless you plan of putting all your games on the SSD, you should have plenty of space.

On the other hand video and music files can easily take up 100s of GB meaning 256GB normally won't last that long if used as a general storage drive. Just a thought.

 

I have the same SSD combination as Hoopster, although the opposite configuration (Samsung 830 for OS & apps, Crucial m4 for data), and it's working well for me. As to Flickster's concern of running out of space, I find that I do not regularly use more storage space than is in the computer. I initially had just the Samsung 830 and became a little concerned with possibly running low on space when I noted how much space my Steam folder was taking (yes, Flickster, I did put all my games on the SSD). Adding the Crucial m4 relieved my space concerns. If I decide at some point to be storing a lot of videos or other high-storage content, I'll likely keep most on an external hard drive or a hard drive that I can swap in the Ultrabay.

 

I have tried the suggested method of putting all the high-storage content on an external USB drive, truth be known once I place the content on an external USB HDD I rarely use it, maybe that is just me but i normally use external HDD's for backing up my files, I find them too large to be convenient enough to constantly carry around with me, this makes them of little use for keeping frequently accessed files. The only external devices I use for frequently accessed data is USB flash drives which are small and can even be placed on a keyring.

I think people need to think about what the real advantages of using an SSD are, especially when you consider the still relatively high per GB cost. SSD's are best used with applications that are frequently read/writing to the disk. For example there is very little benefit in storing your videos and music files on a SSD, in my opinion this is just a waste of premium storage. Sure if you have spare money to waste why not, but even then I would still recommend buying a large 750GB or even 1TB drive to use for all your storage and a quick 256GB SSD for the OS and Applications.

That configuration gives you the added convenience of having 1TB of your data on your laptop and accessible whenever you need it, meaning you don't have to worry about carrying external USB HDD drive and you will probably still see 90% of the speed benefits of a non raid duel SSD system. Mainly because as mentioned earlier, much of the high-storage content hardly receives a noticeable to the end user performance gain by being on a SSD.

 

Great, glad to hear the Crucial M4 mSATA SSD works in the W530 despite Crucial's claim otherwise. I could not see why it would not work and figured that might be a mistake.

As to my storage strategy, I plan to use the M4 mSATA and Samsung SSDs because I can. I have a new 256 GB Samsung 830 sitting around that I picked up relatively cheaply when I thought I was going with a different notebook and I figure I might as well use the mSATA slot for storage. However, that other notebook I was considering (Sager NP6350) was more gaming focused and I am not a gamer. Running VMs and video rendering performance is more important to me than gaming performance. I do some video/photo editing although the W530 will not be my primary video/photo storage location. I have a 13TB unRAID NAS I built for long-term storage. I also have a 500GB 7200 RPM Hitachi HDD sitting around after the death of my T61P earlier this year. If I really need to expand storage, I can put this drive in an adapter in the Ultrabay if it turns out I don't use the optical drive much. I will also have the 320GB HDD that comes with the W530. Anyone need an HDD?

I agree that 256GB is probably a bit large for just the OS and Apps so, of course, some data will be stored there as well. I was just looking at maximizing the storage and the jump in price from a 128GB mSATA SSD ($110) to the $256GB mSATA SSD ($169) was not that large. I don't really want to shell out the big bucks for a 512GB SSD although I wish I could.

Based on all the great comments, it appears I would be better served by using the Samsung 830 in the drive bay as the OS/Apps drive and the mSATA SSD for data storage. Thanks for all the great feedback.

BTW, here's the W530 configuration I will purchase:

In addition to the standard features such as 720p webcam, backlit KB, 320 GB HD, 8GB RAM, card reader, optical drive, etc, I have added these upgrades:

i7 3720QM quad-core processor (2.6 GHz with turbo boost to 3.6GHz)
1920x1080 FHD 95% color gamut display with color sensor
K2000M video card with 2 GB RAM
Intel Centrino 6300 (3x3) WLAN card (I have a 450 Mbps dual-band router at home and I travel a lot and use a lot of public/private WiFi)

Cost after discount: ~$1500 (Is this a good deal or am I missing out on some discounts somewhere?)

I'll just go with the default OS (Window 8 64 although I am sure I will be installing Win 7 Ultimate on the boot SSD)

The 320 GB 7200 RPM hard drive will be replaced by Samsung 830 SSD
The RAM will be upgraded to at least 16GB (2 x8GB) Crucial or Corsair RAM
The Crucial M4 mSATA SSD will be installed in the WWAN/Mini PCIe slot
Ultrabay adapter and 500 GB HDD will be added if needed

Look good or am I missing something?

 

That will be a great notebook. $1500 for i7-QM, K200M and FHD sounds fair to me.

If you don't care for Windows 8, opt for Windows 7 to avoid the tweaking hassles when installing Windows 7 Ultimate yourself.

 

$50 extra for Windows 7 Pro. If Windows 8 is so great why do they charge more for Windows 7? Actually, Windows 8 Pro is also $50 more so Win 7 Pro and Win 8 Pro are the same price. I am not sold on Win 8 based on reviews unless someone (other than Microsoft) can tell me why I can't live without it.

The default OS must be the "home premium" equivalent of Windows 8. I have a Win 7 Ultimate license from my dead T61P, but, yes, I will have to download the drivers and reinstall everything rather than just imaging the SSD with a copy of the included hard drive.

 

That's not my point.

If you have your own Windows 7 Ultimate license, why wonder about the "Windows 7 Home Premium" configuration option? I suggested you opt for it in your CTO to help you avoid the tweaking hassles of installing Windows 7 "on top of" Windows 8. (You misunderstood me in my last post.)

If you ordered the "Windows 7 Home Premium" option, all your Windows 7 drivers and Lenovo applications would all be in the C:\SWTOOLS folder on the stock HDD. No need to download anything. Just save that folder to a USB flash drive and point to it when you walk down the list of unresolved drivers after installing Ultimate. (This is another reason why I recommended you opt for "Windows 7 Home Premium" in my last post.)

Neither am I.

 

Very good point, I'll just order it with the "no cost" Windows 7 Home Premium.

 

Thanks for understanding what I was trying to tell you.

Not only that being a convenience in terms of drivers, a lot of users have to jump through hoops to install Windows 7 on top of (i.e. replacing) Windows 8 that comes with their computers. Why waste time with such krap?

 

I finally ordered my W530 and gearing up myself to get the beast shipped. I have a few questions regarding how I want to setup my OS.

I ordered my laptop with Windows 8 PRO. I believe it will come pre-installed on the 500GB HDD.

1. I'm planning to buy an SSD for OS. Should I go with an msata drive or a full fledged SSD? Will that make any difference for the OS since the msata is SATA II? Going with msata for the OS will allow me to keep the 500GB in for my data and additional an 256GB SSD for my VMs, which is why i'm asking

2. If I go with SSD option for OS and my VMs, how far is it reliable? I'll primarily use it for heavy testing/dev and customer presentations/roadshows etc. Reliability is extremely important for me. When I see in the forums where people discuss about SSD failures, in a short span of time it's causing nightmares to me.

3. If reliability is utmost concern which SSD would you recommend? Samsung/Intel/Crucial/Kingston?

4. Which one of the below ultrabay caddys would you recommend? The ebay one is pretty cheap and i'm planning to buy two.

2nd SSD HDD Hard Drive Caddy for Lenovo ThinkPad T430 W530 T530 | eBay

or

2nd HDD or SSD Caddy Lenovo ThinkPad W510, W520,W530, W700,W710 [TP-W510-T510] - $46.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

 

@Hoopster

Seems like you use your W530 for the same primary reason I do; VMs, video rendering (video encoding for me) and some photography. Looking at your last post, I think you have a well thought out storage strategy and in the end that's what matters, that you think about your needs and have a storage strategy that works well for you.

I agree that it would be best if you use the 830 SSD as your primary and place the OS/Apps on it and the mSATA for storage, if you need more space pop a large HDD in the UltraBay. I recommend purchasing the UltraBay caddy now if you can, saves you having to wait for one if you decide you want the extra space and it's always good having the ability to simply slide in X GB's of extra storage to your laptop. This is where I purchased my caddy from: 2nd HDD or SSD Caddy Lenovo ThinkPad W510, W520,W530, W700,W710 [TP-W510-T510] - $46.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks.

If you do buy a caddy just make sure to get a slimSATA to USB3.0 cable, I got one from the same place I ordered the caddy, that way if you ever need to use the internal ODD, just plug it in like an external USB drive, can even buy a case if you want.

 

1) You can get whichever one you want; the main motivation for mSATA (imo) is so that you can keep both the mechanical drive and the optical drive in the W530. SATAII vs SATAIII is mostly irrelevant for daily use, and only matters if you're transferring large files between a SSD to another (HDD or ODD will just bottleneck). I had both the Intel 320 (SATAII) and 330 (SATAIII) as the main drive in my W520, and I rarely see any differences between them other than the extra 20GB of the latter.

2) Some of the first SSDs weren't exactly a shining star of reliability, but that's true for any first-gen product, period. Today, SSDs are more reliable than their mechanical counterparts and even the most unreliable SSDs (like OCZ) are at least within range of mechanical HDD failures. You only need to worry about data recovery, since if the SSD poops out (as in bricking), there's no way to recover data off the drive iirc (in contrast, you can take a mechanical to a HDD specialist to recover off the platters). However, keeping a good backup is both pretty much common sense and renders this a moot point.

3) I usually recommend Crucial, Plextor, Intel, or Samsung. Not particularly fond of Intel right now as they never gave me my mail-in rebate for the 330, but that's a different issue. The rest of the drives out there tend to have Sandforce controllers on Sandforce firmware (the 330 uses Intel firmware for its controller) and while the SF-2281 is doing well right now, it doesn't touch the reliability record for the mentioned brands. That, and/or the companies themselves are unpleasant to deal with (OCZ, mainly).

4) I never shop at eBay, mainly because I don't want to do business with PayPal. I bought the NewmodeUS caddy for my W520 and it's pretty flawless. Even comes with a HDD indicator light, which is a nice bonus. Best thing about it is that it's full-height, so there's no unsightly gap between the top of the caddy's faceplate and the rest of the laptop.

 

I have Windows 8 on a couple of machines and a VM. I have Windows 7 on most of my machines. And I have a Mac running OS X of course. The delta between Windows 7 and Windows 8 is actually quite small for me right now. Here are the two or three things I do like:

1. Hyper-V - like many of you, I use virtualization of some sort daily. I like that Hyper-V is now part of the Windows 8 Pro OS. I no longer need to dual boot to run Hyper-V and I probably won't buy any more VMWare Workstation upgrades.
2. Windows Store and Start Screen - most people about the start screen but I rather like the experience. I especially like it on my 27" monitor for some applications. Most of my apps are legacy Windows 7 apps, so I spend a lot of time on the traditional desktop, but the "modern" desktop is fine for me and some of the apps. The story will get stronger as developers ship new cool stuff.
3. Speed - most people cite boot speed improvements when they are talking about speed and that is pretty cool, but I like file copy performance and the improvements to the UI for the copy dialog boxes. I spend a lot of time creating and moving around big blobs of data (VMs, video, etc.) so improvements in the speed and reliability of the file system and the UI that supports it was a positive step for me.

I still prefer Windows 7 at the moment because it is so familiar, but I don't hate Windows 8 either. The dirt cheap upgrade prices help.

Eventually I'll have a Windows 8 touch device of some sort. I suppose that will make things more interesting but for now I'm strictly just using a keyboard and mouse.

 

1 - If your going to use a caddy you will still have the option of using a 256GB SSD for your OS and VM's and the 500GB UltraBay caddy for data. I recommend a full SATA SSD, the mSATA slot is slower, not that you will probably notice much of a difference but there is a difference and I think a SATA SSD is a better investment, it can be used on more devices without having to buy mSATA adapter cards. In saying all that there is nothing wrong with a good mSATA drive.

2 - A good SSD is very reliable. You will always hear about the horror stories on the forums but you don't hear about the thousands of users who have zero problems, these are the majority of users.

3 - Intel have a very good reliability record on their drives and their current firmware is very solid. Samsung and Crucial also make solid drives. I believe them three options are better than Kingston. If you do go Intel, I recommend the 520 Series, it's one of the fastest consumer SSD's and has good IOP performance, so does the Samsung 830. If you want the highest performance 2.5" consumer SSD, the Samsung 840PRO is your drive, it comes with a 5 year warranty but I would read the below snip from Anand Tech before deciding:

<snip> (Source: AnandTech - Samsung SSD 840 Pro (256GB) Review )
Samsung's SSD 840 Pro are as close to perfect as we've seen from any drive this generation. In all but a handful of benchmarks, the 840 Pro is the fastest consumer SSD we've ever tested. Even more important than its industry leading performance is the fact that the 840 Pro delivers great performance while remaining one of the lowest power SSDs to make it through our labs. Assuming the premature death of our review sample was a fluke and not indicative of a bigger issue, the 840 Pro could be the first drive in quite a while to offer the absolute best performance at power consumption levels that are notebook friendly. Update: Our replacement 840 Pro also died prematurely, I'd recommend holding off any purchases until we hear back from Samsung as to the cause of death. Update 2: It looks like this may have been a firmware issue. Retail drives should ship with fixed firmware.<snip>

- Based on the early reliability concerns, Intel 520 or Samsung 830 are my recommendation, however the Samsung 840 may now be very solid, just more of a gamble.

4 - Both will work just fine in your W530 but if you are after the best quality, I would go the NewmodeUS caddy, that's what I purchased. It fits perfect, no gaps, matching finish, indicator light and in the end I believe you get what you pay for.

@Thors.Hammer - Mate can you tell me a little more about this: " Windows 8 Hyper-V implementation.

I use VMware ESX everyday at work, so I am used to using bare metal hypervisors. Obviously most consumers use type 2 hosted VMs so I am interested in this Windows 8 Hyper-V implementation you speak of. Is it a true bare metal hypervisor implementation or are you still required to boot into Windows before launching the VM?

If it is a bare metal hypervisor, how do you manage your VM's, like adding,removing, settings, resources etc? Do you press F8 on boot and select to launch the Hyper-V... Cheers.</snip></snip>

 

The 330 and 520 performance are basically the same. Only practical difference between them is warranty (3yrs vs 5yrs) and the 330 technically uses lower-endurance NAND, but realistically it's still going to last a long, long time (most SSDs are rated for 20GB of writes per day for 5 years, which is an insane amount of I/O for a typical person).

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2275467

 

Didn't know the performance gap was that small but there is still a gap there: AnandTech - The Intel SSD 330 Review (60GB, 120GB, 180GB) - However I doubt many people would notice it.

The main issue for me would be storage size, you can't get a 256GB 330 Series. The largest drive in that series is 180GB and I prefer having a bit more space available on my SSD.