Which lenovo to buy?

I am looking to buy a order a laptop today and was wondering which one would best suit my needs.. Wow i did not notice there are two different version to the x220 ( tablet and non tablet). I would like to make my purchase today... i have decided on a lenovo but not sure which one. i want to get the best i can with $1300 lol. Battery life has to be about 8hours size no bigger than 13 inch. Is the x220 the best option for me? I want to be able to run all electrical engineering software, Hd anime and light gaming. Screen beuty would be a plus... Please and thanks. Will the x220 laptop have trouble with engineering software? Please need to order today since it is the only day i can access my father credit card..

 

Are your engineering programs GPU-intensive (like AutoCAD, etc)? If you can get away with using Intel graphics, then yes, the X220 will do just fine. I would get one with the i7 processor and the IPS display ("Prenium" option).

If you need a professional GPU, you'll need something like thw W520 (which will bump up on your $1300 budget; the lowest-power config of the W520 retails at $1299). Though, if you're using this in an engineering program at a college, the classroom should have access to a computer lab with all the required hardware/software.

I can PM you my rep's info, since he got me a good discount using the Barnes and Noble discount, plus an extra ~10% when I haggled with him.

To be honest though, the Lenovo call center is about to close up for tonight (6pm-ish), so you probably should have posted this thread earlier . If at all possible, try to keep your dad's credit card for another day to order tomorrow.

 

Yes Auto cad must be used. Should i get the tablet version or normal X220 and Is the X1 any good over the X220 Plz and thanks.

 

X1 is 13inch while x220 is 12.5. Haven't looked at the x1, though I imagine that the x220 would be better. Tablet or not depends on if you want to use something like OneNote to write notes and equations, etc.

If you must use AutoCAD on your own computer as opposed to a college computer lab, I'd get a W520 dual core with the Quadro 1000M and at least a 1600x900 display, which is $50 on top of the $1299 base price. This is retail pricing though, and you can get a better deal through the Lenovo Barnes and Noble or the Lenovo Student discount.

 

how is the battery life on the W520? is there any known problems on the x220... How would the alien ware m11x hold up in cad?

 

X220 does CAD work fine. Skip the i7 and go for the i5-2520 or i5-2540. To begin with, the i7 (when it's running properly) isn't that much more powerful than the i5, but it costs a lot more. When you consider that Lenovo has yet to be able to resolve the issue of it throttling to 800mhz, it makes no sense to pay a lot more to walk into that issue knowingly.

If you don't need tablet functionality, skip it. It's again another of paying more for for a lot of drawbacks. The tablet uses more power, is significantly larger, heavier and currently only the multi-touch screen if offered. If it's anything like other multi-touch screens, that touchscreen layer adds a lot of grain. Aside from that, imo 16:9 ratio is just too narrow to make the tablet functionality useful imo.

 

Thank you very much, now should i get 3x3 attena or 2x2?

 

Depends on whether or not you are ordering with the camera (camera and 3x3 are mutually exclusive).

I chose to get the camera and 2x2 since I'm not ever in areas where traffic is so congested or signal is so weak that the 3x3 would benefit; and I don't need 450mbps network speed (for which you'd also have to buy an expensive router). I don't use the camera much, but it's nice to have it when you need it and it definitely helps resale these days.

 

I'd recommend that you get the T520 for the FHD 15" screen (maximize space to do work) and the NVS 4200M that can power 4 displays at a time (do even more work w/ more space for applications). The X220's i7 will throttle you to the depths of hell, you can read it on this forum.

 

weird i do not get the camera option also i am a little worreied how fast is the i5-2520? Is it comparable to my pc intel core i5 cpu [email protected]? It just i do alot of encoding.... how much battery life does the T520 have? and can it game? its just if i do some how afford that, i want to be able to game on a screen like that lol

 

The i5-2520 will work for you just fine. Battery life on the T520 is anywhere between 7-10 hours on a full charge. It can do modern gaming at medium or low settings, and it will play older games pretty well; just remember that this machine isn't a Sager or Alienware laptop. What games were you thinking of playing on the new laptop?

 

Any modern game thats coming out don`t care for graphic quality as long as i can play it.... Idk why but i keep looking towards a macbook lol. Anyways whats the best configuration i can get for the T520 for the best bang for my buck lol. I need this laptop to last me at least three years

 

Suggest you start reading. All the information you're looking for is readily available.

 

Is it possiable to have two hardrives in the T520? If so do i go about doing that?

 

You would have to buy an unofficial Ultrabay Adapter from eBay, take out the DVD drive, and add a second hard drive or SSD into the caddy before adding it to the place where the DVD drive use to be.

 

You could have three hard drives in a machine that normally comes with an optical drive. mSATA ssd, primary bay, ultrabay.

 

Lenovo part number: 43N3412 - ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter III



ThinkPad T420, T420s, T520 Top Options (page 4)

ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter III @ Lenovo.com

ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter III @ Amazon.com

 

Final question lol... Currently the ideapad y560 is on sale, will it sastify my needs? Best deal and coupon Lenovo IdeaPad Y560p and Y560 15.6-inch Core i7 Quad-core Laptop - LogicBUY

looking to make purchase now

 

To be honest, the IdeaPad Y560p will satisfy your needs probably more than any other laptop (minus the W520) as it has higher specs. However, you'll have to live with the glossy-ness of it, which is the one thing that I absolutely loathe in electronics (why bother making it glossy when it's more expensive and less usable?). Also, the IdeaPad's battery life is probably not that great (maybe 4hrs or something).