W530 Owner's Thread

You must be happy indeed. I'm getting more or less the same run time even with a 9-Cell battery :-(

 

I'm a little surprised people are toting a W530 from class to class.

I have run battery tests with my W530 and have exceeded 10 hours. I haven't run any in a few months so it might be interesting to see how it's doing now, especially with the new BIOS.

 

Why would that be surprising? It's a capable computer that's light for its class and has excellent battery life (as you mentioned).

 

not only is it light, it's also rugged, durable, and an absolute powerhouse. We do a lot of VMware work, often having 3 or 4 VMs running at a time. I wanted something that I could upgrade the processor on purchase, and has lots of room for extra RAM. The W530, for the price, was the only real option. My 6-cell battery life leaves a little to be desired though(not like I'm running VMs on battery).

 

Agreed. There are a few devices on the market from Dell and HP, but the ThinkPad W530 is still the perfect workhorse for my needs. The Retina MacBook Pro 15" I used to have was a nice machine, but being limited to 16GB RAM was a show stopper for a work VM machine.

I am really hoping Lenovo trims the profile of the W series ever so slightly with the Haswell chipset. Shaving off .25" and a pound would be nice.

 

T540s is coming, so a W540s like MBP Retina?

 

I found that HP didn't have configuration options in Canada, so they were out. Dell's offerings are nice, but they're expensive and heavy. MBP was my first choice, but my wallet started crying.

 

hi guys,

i have this problem with my W520, but I guessed there's more traffic in this thread.
per the photo below, I have some kind of gunk stuck between what I'm guessing are two layers of the lcd panel (no idea how it could have gotten in there). any chance of getting it out? it covers around 10 pixels and is really annoying. thanks

 

you won't able to get the gunk out. If that is what you are wondering.

 

Unbelievable... great.

Had to work outdoors and we had plenty of mosquitoes and small critters
I believe that is one such thing right there.

So new panel? Where to source it from?

is this the same high gamut one?

 

It says "COMPATIBLE" in the listing, which probably means that it's not quite the panel. The original ones I've seen had a big white sticker at the back, with H/W version, barcode etc, like

15.6"LCD SCREEN AUO B156HW01 V.4 LED Exact WUXGA 1080P NEW Grade A+ | eBay

 

small print says B156HW01 V.5

 

"Compatible" panel may come from any manufacturer, not necessarily an AUO V.something. The term to aim for is "GENUINE."

The one that is identical to V.4 in terms of quality is V.7, the only difference being the V.4 is matte whereas the V.7 is glossy. (I like the V.7. Its "glossiness" is subtle and the colors are a bit more vibrant.)

 

all right, thanks for all the replies.

 

Hi Guys,

I'm considering a new purchase soon, take a look here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/what-notebook-should-i-buy/723605-need-advice-new-machine.html

So I'm thinking W530 or dell m4700.
Any advises? Insights or experiences in similar to mine needs, situation?

Thanks a lot in advance,

 

Either system will do what you want. The W530 has the advantage of being lighter and costing less (at least it was less when I bought mine). I went a similar route with upgrades: I bought the minimum default hard drive and RAM configuration, then upgraded to 32GB RAM and an SSD (now 2 SSDs) afterwards.

When on battery power, both systems throttle components to save power, but they throttle different components. The M4700 throttles the graphics card, which cannot be un-throttled without a vBIOS edit, as far as I know. The W530 throttles the CPU on battery to 1.2 Ghz, which can be un-throttled with Throttlestop.

The M4700 has better connectivity options, adding eSATA, an extra USB, and HDMI.

The W530 has a better screen - it's brighter and covers more of the color space, according to reviews by Notebook Check.

The W530 runs quieter, especially with the recent BIOS updates that lower the idle fan speed. According to Notebook Check, the W530 also runs cooler and distributes heat primarily by the exhaust port and away from critical areas like the keyboard. The M4700 also keeps the keyboard cool, but the middle of the bottom heats up quite a lot.

Basically, it seems the Dell has an advantage if you need more connectivity, and either the systems are tied or the Lenovo has an advantage in just about everything else.

 

Thanks a lot for honest and decent reply

 

Probably a dumb question, but you don't have to upgrade RAM in pairs anymore do you? I was going to buy this machine with 8gb in one dim, and keep adding 8's as budget allows for 32gb as the goal.

 

Would you trust a refurbished machine from Lenovo's outlet?

 

YES, with no reservations!

 

Guys,

I am about to pull the trigger on the Lenovo 530. I am a residential architect. I currently use Autocad, but will be getting into Revit. A few questions, first,

1.) Do you think for 3d rendering of things like large homes, the k2000m is a must have over the k1000m?

2.) I am getting a 256 ssd for main drive and then a 500gb 7200 or 1000gb 5400 drive in the ultrabay for data. I store cad files and pictures on it. Would you opt for lower speed and greater capacity, or will the 7200 drive make a difference accessing large files? Or.....do I put the CAD files as well on the ssd (probably 50gb) and use the second drive for pics, music, etc.?

3.) Is the color calibrator worth it? I have seen some people happy with using profiles in here. I use a Dell IPS screen unless I am not at my desk.

4.) Which operating system would you get. I have read this entire thread and still don't know. I am only running one computer with 7 pro currently. I was thinking of switching to 8 as it handles some things faster, better dual monitor control, and like it or not, Microsoft ain't going back. I just don't know if the $50 for pro is worth it for a one computer operation.

5.)Oh, and the big one. I was planning on getting the cheapest/ lowest processor, as I am not sure how much an upgrade will speed anything up. Which choice would you pick out of what they are offering?

 

I just have a few random comments:

I got a system with 2 hard drives and no optical drive. I replaced both of the standard, lowest end, 500GB 5400s - 1)base 512GB SSD and 2)Hitachi 1TB (7200, BTW) in the Ultrabay. I got a USB enclosure for an optical Blu ray for about $80 total. If I had it to do over again, I might have taken a standard DVD in the optical and replaced it with a hard drive on my own (the HD caddy is pretty cheap). I'm sure, though, that I saved $ by getting the SSD on my own instead of buying it from Lenovo.

As far as the Processor, there are varying levels of power support based on the CPU that you choose. I'm still anticipating trying to move from my 3720QM to the 3920XM once the price comes down. But for now the 3720QM seemed to be the best price point for me.

And finally, I have a Win 8 upgrade that I got for $40 earlier this year so I went for the Win 7 Pro and I'm glad I'm still running Win 7. I don't think the Lenovo Power Manager (which I like) works in Win 8 and I'm happy to be using my upgraded system and getting to know my way around thoroughly without having to also get to know my way around the OS and heading into a whole new learning curve. . .

Hope that helps a bit?

 

My processor choices right now are the 3630qm, 3520m for and extra $50, 3740qm for $85, 3840 for $285, 3940xm for $835 (yeah, that's out no matter what)

 

Personally, I'd go for a quad core if anything you do is CPU intensive. The 3740qm has extra features that are interesting if you're running VMs, since it's going to be your own machine, the 3630qm is going to be fine.

 

My replies are above in bold.

Also remember that the Lenovo system actually gives you a larger discount the more you spend. It was actually cheaper for me to get the 3820QM than the 3720QM, even though the 3820 is normally over $200 more expensive, the extra cost put me in a higher % discount bracket, making the total cost less so configure you whole system first and then look at the total cost of each.

Enjoy.

 

Has anyone tried this? Are you able to open the top lid of W530 without holding the base? I vaguely remember doing it but now I'm no longer able to do so. Also the screen wobbles a lot when I slightly shake it with both hands on the sides of the panel. Recently my mobo was replaced and I strongly feel that they forgot to put some screws back. Not sure if it's directly related to it.

Another question on Warranty. I recently upgraded my warranty to ThinkPlus onsite next business day. My Warranty expires around March next year. When I try to extend it for one more year it's simply not allowing me to do so. When I called Lenovo they said that they allow warranty upgrades only once per laptop and if I have any issues in the future after expiration of my Warranty period it seems that I'll have to pay for it. Is this true?

 

Yes, you can upgrade your warranty only once total, so it's important to select the type and length of warranty at that time. If you selected a one-year ThinkPlus warranty and did not extend it to a longer coverage period, you cannot extend it now.

As to your other questions, I can open the top lid without holding the base, however the hinge action is not smooth if I do so. And although there is some play in the lid if you twist it, my screen does not wobble at all.

 

Echoed! My W530 behaves much the same as indicated by djembe, and I learned the one upgrade rule some time ago fortunately it was before I purchased the warranty.

 

I'm kinda confused. I called Lenovo support today and another agent told me that I can upgrade my warranty just before a week of my expiration of my current warranty. Just don't know whom to believe.

 

Unfortunately, that agent was wrong barring a very recent policy change.

 

My W530 screen also behaves the same as aadadams and djembe, some side to side flex at the top of the screen but no wobble at the hinges.

Regarding the warranty, I had no idea you could only extend it once, nor does Lenovo care ever mention this, I think that is a serious fault.

I was actually told I would be able to extend my warranty a second time while I was on the phone to a consultant, this was about 9mths ago, information that clearly seems to be wrong. Lucky for me I extended my warranty for a total cover of 24mths on-site, next business day. I normally look at upgrading my laptop every 2-3yrs so at worst it means 12mths with no cover which is not too bad.

So who is right... is the lenovo consultant talking rubbish when he says you can extended as long as it's done before the warranty expires?

 

Just to check if they changed something from last year, I looked up my system on Lenovo's website. It identifies the base warranty (1 year depot) and my purchased warranty upgrade (3 year ThinkPlus Onsite Next Business Day), both of which are still active, and states no warranty upgrades are available for my system. Now, if they had changed their policy so warranties could be upgraded/extended more than once, I should have an option to purchase a 4- or 5-year warranty to supersede the 3-year warranty I already purchased. Since that option does not exist, it can be assumed that the policy remains only one warranty upgrade per system.

 

That's bad. Lenovo didn't even warn me about this policy change when I upgraded from Basic Depot warranty to ThinkPlus Onsite. After having spent around $2000 for the base machine, if something terribly goes wrong after the warranty period I probably have to throw the system off. That's really bad.

 

For a little bit of good news, if something does go wrong where you have to fix it, at least Lenovo provides one of the most detailed disassembly guides I've seen, so there isn't much guesswork in replacing components.

 

The question is not about failure of replaceable components like hdd/ssd, memory etc. The question is about problems with motherboards and it's integrated components My mobo was replaced recently and didn't have to pay a penny since the machine was under warranty. But if I have to do the same when the machine goes out of warranty, I'd have to spend nearly half the price of the laptop which is what worries me.

 

Agreed.

Normally I would like 3 yrs warranty on a personal laptop, as after that period of time technology has normally advanced so much that a better model is almost the same cost as buying extra warranty. Apart from that I also like to keep up with technology and 3yrs is a long time in the computer world.

Unfortunately I only got 2yrs warranty on my current W530 but seeing that I get to claim one laptop per yr for work, I can't see me not buying another laptop in the next 24months.

 

I understand the frustration of not being able to extend your warranty after an upgrade. My post was meant to offer the small comfort that if something serious did occur to the computer out of warranty, there are detailed instructions that enable you to replace the faulty component (even up to the motherboard) yourself and thus pay considerably less for the repair compared to sending the system to Lenovo to fix.

 

Lenovo ThinkPad W530 Motherboard 04X1547 - Notebookparts.com

Random search. $499 for new mb - likely price will keep coming down. How much is the warranty?

 

Hey guys, I'm looking at two machines right now........

Lenovo W530
3rd Gen Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7-3840QM
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready with color calibration sensor
NVIDIA Quadro K2000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory
16 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz
256GB Solid State Drive, SATA3
500GB HDD, 7200rpm

Asus G750JX
4th Gen Intel Haswell Core i7-4700HQ
17.3" 16:9 1920X1080 Full HD LED backlight Ultra Bright, 90% NTSC Color Gamut, Glossy
nVidia GeForce GTX 770M 3GB GDDR5
16GB DDR3 - 1600MHz
256GB Solid State SATA III
500GB HDD 7200rpm
Thunderbolt Port

This machine will be used for photo/video editing with programs such as Cinema 4D, Photoshop, Premiere, After effects etc. I also use FL Studio a lot.



Any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

W530.

For the tasks you're doing, Quadro K2000M is a lot faster.

 

Thanks for the reply. The more I research the harder it seems to gets. lol
I've heard that the Quadro will shine at things like 3D render but the GeForce would be faster when taking advantage of the Mercury Play Back engine in Premiere. Also read that Cinema 4D doesn't use gpu acceleration, so it wouldn't even matter what gpu I had.

 

I'm pretty sure that the MPE will take advantage of CUDA, which will mean that you're going to go for the Quadro as the current GeForces are just garbage at anything *but* gaming. I'd second the W530 over the Asus, not to mention that W530's better build quality.

 

I wonder why? 770M has 2.5 times the pipelines and higher clocks so, if supported by the software, it should be faster ( both, of course, support CUDA: https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus ).

 

There's quite a lot of difference between "supporting" and "doing well". There are of course different drivers, but iirc nVidia also changed up some of the hardware starting from the 6xxM. But the end results is that GeForces (and Radeons, but somewhat less so) are crap for anything professional: http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...call-benchmarks-cad-opencl-3.html#post9207007








Note that the 680M is about on par with the 770M. In summary, even the "lowly" K2000M whips the 680M/770M easily in anything that's GPU-bound.

 

I would also like clarification on this statement.

Both the K2000M and 770M are kelper based GPUs which is worse than Fermi for running Adobe MPE. Adobes Mercury Play Back engine can be easily hacked via a text file to run on GeForce cards so if both cards are Kelper designs but the 770M has over twice the number of Cuda cores clocked at about the same Mhz, Why would the 770M be worse?

I would of thought the 770M would be faster for majority of video/photo editing apps than the k2000m and way faster for games.

 

Jarhead, correct me if I am wrong but you seem to be talking about CAD related performance, I imagine the reason behind most of those results is down to driver support/optimization. lathebrightman is asking about video/photo editing and Adobe MPE seems to have little issue supporting Geforce cards and getting good performance out of them.

 

I'm just going by the professional benchmarks for those cards. But note that "more CUDA cores" doesn't necessarily translate to "better"; NotebookCheck says that the 680M has 1344 CUDA cores ( NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M - NotebookCheck.net Tech) and the K2000M has a mere 384 CUDA cores ( http://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/product-comparison/Product-Comparison-Quadro-mobile-series.pdf) (NotebookCheck calls them shader cores, so I went to nVidia to double-check), and yet take a look at those benchmarks. And considering that the 770M has 768 CUDA cores ( NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M - NotebookCheck.net Tech), it'll probably perform on par or lower than the 680M (couldn't find any benchmarks for the 770M in professional applications).

Don't know anything about modified drivers for the 6xxM or 7xxM; I'm just going to go by what the stock (and overclocked) cards do. KCETech1 probably has more info on why current GeForces are no good for professional stuff since she works on this sort of stuff every day (Adobe MPE included). Though I also see that the Asus is 90% NTSC color gamut while the W530 has 95% NTSC color gamut, so that's another reason to go for it imo.

@OP: I'd also only get the RAM and SSD aftermarket, as it'll be cheaper than buying it through either Lenovo or Asus. RAM is RAM is RAM, and so long as you have the speed and timings right it should work. But for SSDs, I'd recommend only Crucial, Plextor, Samsung, or Intel only.

 

That would be the smart thing to do. I know it's somewhat easy but I have no experience. The difference in price is about $250. Do you know what ssd the W530 ships with?

 

Agreed, the clock speed of the CUDA cores and all kinds of technical specs beyond my understanding makes a difference on how good a given architecture is for certain tasks, hence why Nvidia Fermi cards with half the number of CUDA cores are still faster than many Kelper based cards. However seeing that both the k2000m and 770m are based on Kelper architecture, it made me wonder why the k2000m would be better in application using Adobe MPE. In this comparison, I would of thought a card (770M) with more cores of the same architecture, clocked at faster speeds would be as good or better.

That obviously won't always be the case, not when talking about software heavily optimized for Quadro drivers i.e. CAD applications. However, I would be interested in seeing results on Adobe MPE as it seems to work OK with Geforce cards once a simple hack is performed.

In saying all this, if the laptop is not for gaming but mainly for video/photo editing, I also say go the W530. Better build quality, solid as a tank, higher gamut screen and when talking video/photo apps, I imagine the GPU performance difference probably won't be great either way.

I think for VMs, video/multi media and photo work, you can't go wrong with a W530. Strongly agree with Jarhead regarding the RAM and SSD. Spec the machine with the least amount of ram from Lenovo and no SSD then go get yourself a Samsung or Intel SSD, I find them to be best and some decent brand RAM (Crucial, Corsair, Kingston) - cheap ram can be OK, I've just had bad experiences with GeIL RAM.

Then just clone your factory HDD onto a SSD - many here use Acronis True Image 2013, install SSD in primary drive bay and if you want get a HDD caddy for the ultrabay and away you go. The cloning is a few clicks and takes about 10min.

 

Basically, any recognizable RAM brand should work just fine. Never had any experience with GeIL, though my W520 has both the factory Samsung and aftermarket Mushkin RAM and doing fine, and my desktop has PNY RAM and that's fine too.

VMs are more CPU-bound than anything else, and basically any laptop with a good quad-core with extra VM support like VT-x and VT-d (like the i7-3720QM, for example) would work just fine for that. But for no gaming, photo/video editing, screen, and build quality, I'd go for the W530 as well. OR even the Dell Precision M4700 (though iirc, the FirePRo version doesn't have switching graphics, though I might be wrong on this).