X220 Upgrades

I'm getting my refurbished X220 delivered on Monday.

Once I check the laptop is ok, I'm purchasing 8GB of RAM.

I am also considering doing some other upgrades. I'm still unsure about some things so would love some feedback from existing X220 owners.

Here are the upgrades I am considering:

Replace TN Screen With IPS Screen

From the comments I've read online, the IPS screen is nothing short of amazing. I spoke to the seller about this today.

He advised that they can't change the screen as it voids the Lenovo warranty. I believe the screen can be purchased for around £75-£100. If what he says is right, Lenovo won't perform this upgrade for me, I need to do it myself.

If I do this upgrade, my warranty will be void. My question is - would my whole warranty be void or just my screen. A quick look at the upgrade manual shows that in order to take the screen out I need to disconnect other cables and remove the keyboard etc. I imagine that if any problems arise with other parts, Lenovo will not honour the warranty as they could say I caused it when upgrading the screen.

Does anyone know how warranty is specifically affected with screen replacements?

Also, is the IPS screen really worth it? I've used regular screens all my life so I don't know if this upgrade is worth it. I'm just going by what everyone says about it online.

Replace WWAN Chip With mSata SSD Module

How useful is the WWAN chip?

95% of the time, I will be connecting to the net using wi-fi.
Being able to connect to the internet whilst on the move would be useful on certain occasions though.

The thing is, I've connected to 3G in the past using USB sticks. Is there any benefit to connecting to the internet using the WWAN over simply using a standard USB 3G modem.

I don't know much about WWAN modules though it seems to me that the only benefit to having one in a laptop is that you don't have to have a USB modem sticking out of your laptop. If that is the only benefit, I will probably replace it with a msata SSD and use it as the boot drive, as it would give my laptop a huge performance boost.

Replace 7200RPM HDD With Samsung 830 256GB SSD

This upgrade depends on what I do with the WWAN chip. I want a speed boost but I'd like storage space for music, films and files too. So I'd like to keep the main hard drive bay for storage. I'd be happy to keep the 320GB drive in there until terabyte hybrid drives or 512GB SSD's come down in price.

If I decide to keep the WWAN chip, I will probably replace the 320GB with the 256GB SSD drive and boot from there.


I'm still undecided on what to put in the expresscard 54 slot but at the moment I'm swinging towards one which adds two USB 3.0 slots.

Any other upgrades that you would recommend?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

IPS screen: This would certainly be a good upgrade, but yes, it will void the warranty on your laptop (there's no warranty tied to individual parts of the laptop).

mSATA/WWAN: Yes, that's pretty much the only benefit: if you already use a USB 3G modem, you could easily replace the WWAN card (actually, are you sure your laptop even comes with the WWAN card? It's not standard equipment and often the slot is empty to begin with).

HDD: Personally, I would keep this as a conventional HDD for data storage, and just run the OS and programs off the mSATA.

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

I'm really not sure what to do about the screen. Seems like a good upgrade but could be risky voiding the warranty.

Yeah the seller through ebay has been really good with answering questions and confirmed that it comes with the WWAN module (it said so on the listing too).

There doesn't seem to be many choices for msata. OCZ seems like a common make. Is 280 mb/s read and 260mb/s write good for an msata SSD : OCZ 120GB Nocti SSD - mSATA SATA-II - Read 280MB/s.. | Ebuyer.com

In comparison, the SSD that fits in the 2.5 drive gets 6GB/s. That's a huge difference.

Also, with regards to the expresscard slot, I assume something like this won't hang out of the slot i.e. it fits in flush.

 

I will go out on a limb here and say that the IPS screen is the only real reason to get the x220.
It is a great screen, and the lappy is awesome. If I had more $$$ I would get msata make that the boot drive and keep the HDD.

 

They have LED panels on fleabay. This one is £71.

NEW LENOVO X220 12.5" LED SCREEN 04W1545 SU6C-12W04AU-01X NOT IPS *PANEL* ONLY | eBay

New IBM Lenovo ThinkPad X220 12.5" SLIM LED LAPTOP SCREEN | eBay

Will try and see if I can find an IPS panel somewhere online

Out of all the upgrades I am planning, the screen is probably the one to do first, as I can replace those ones at any time (I'm off travelling in two weeks time and would rather change the screen before I go so that the old TN screen is still at home).

 

Update: Can't seem to get it in the UK directly. Only seem to come from the states or China.

New/Orig Lenovo X220 12.5" HD LED IPS LCD Panel 93P5675 | eBay

Will contact the shop I bought the x220 from as the owner mentioned usually having IPS screens but just not having them in stock.

 

With regards to upgrading the hard disk. I was fairly impressed with the times some hybrid drives are getting.

 

I don't feel the IPS screen is "nothing short of amazing" quite honestly. It's nice, but if you want amazing, look at the Asus Zenbook Prime's 13" 1080p IPS screen.

That is amazing. Too bad the machine itself is riddled with faults. I returned mine and got a Lenovo X230 tablet. The IPS is nice, but the low resolution really kills the usability. Oh well, it's the Lenovo way apparently.

 

The Momentus XT won't fit in the X220. The 165+ pixel density for the Asus would give me second thoughts about getting one. I think it's too high for most users. At least that's my experience.

 

I tried the old ux21 and ux31 last year in the shops. I was close to buying one as it dropped in price in Colombia. I really didn't like the keyboard though. I believe that's something they've improved in this version.

Perhaps the screen, amazing as it is, isn't worth losing a a warranty over (as it runs until 2014). I'm 50/50 on upgrading g the screen because of this warranty issue.

Yeah I couldn't find any 7mm hybrid drives. Seagate thingates are 7mmbt can't see them for sale. That's something I'd be doing much later. I'd rather put a msata in first.

 

The "6 GB/s" refers to the SATA III interface's bandwidth, which current SSDs do not come close to saturating. The mSATA interface is SATA II, but you will not notice the difference whatsoever. Out of the currently-available mSATA SSDs, I think the best pick would be the Crucial M4 mSATA 128GB, which is available direct from Crucial for between $110-120.

Also, if you're using an mSATA, you will not see the benefits of a hybrid HDD, so I'd just stick to a conventional HDD.

 

Ahh thanks for that. I wasn't sure what that referred to.

The read and write speeds for the m4 do look a lot better. The price is much more in the UK but should still be worth it. It's around £83 in the UK for 128GB.

 

I'm reading some articles now about msata SSD vs 2.5 SSD. 7mm SSD's do seem a lot quicker.

I am not sure what's better...a 60 or 120 GB msata for booting with a regular drive for storage...or a 256 2.5 SSD that is used for booting and storage.

I assume the latter gives better performance.

 

The latter will undoubtedly give you better performance numbers, but you won't notice the difference in daily use. In my book, the mSATA + HDD option is a far better choice for the money, as you get much more storage space per dollar.

 

Ok. Thanks.

What size of boot drive do you recommend. Is 60gb sufficient or would the system benefit from more storage (I don't foresee me using more than 20gb in program's. 30gb tops).

 

There is an important misconception in this thread that needs to be addressed: Performing an after-market display upgrade effectively does not void your warranty, provided that you do not damage anything, because it is always possible for you to swap your old display back in. You need not be concerned about your warranty if you are careful in the process, and if you keep the old display.

 

So essentially, the warranty is only voided if I break something when I'm putting it back together?

 

Any time you open the case or LCD housing that doesn't have a CRU, you've violated the terms of the warranty. If you do a good job, they may never notice, but if they want to make an issue of it, they can. It's a more risky proposition.

 

If you want an IPS X220, sell your non IPS and buy an IPS X220. On eBay, alot of buyers don't really care if it's cheap.

 

I don't have the time to do all that. I'm leaving the uk in a few weeks so my time is limited. Sounds like I'll have to just stick with the tn.

 

Unless you REALLY move your laptop screen around, IMO it's not that huge of a loss. Alot of people just directly sit in front of the laptop, so having an IPS panel didn't do diddly. You can argue, contrast ratio, color gamut, blah blah but in the end, it's still a low grade 720p panel in a ultraportable, nothing uncommon these days. Now it is understandable for a tablet, but Lenovo and IBM AFAIK have used IPS panels from the start in X-series tablets. My XGA panel in my X61 tablet was IPS, while the SXGA+ is a wider viewing angle IPS panel.

 

I would disagree on several fronts. Try watching a movie on the TN panel. Because it doesn't have enough contrast, it grays out frequently. That alone is worth the $50. Now whether you to void you warranty to swap the panel is another matter. I like the HD resolution on my X220i as it means I can read the screen without eyestrain.

 

A 64GB drive would be sufficient and give you ample room for the OS and programs, if you store your data on the HDD. Given the affordability of SSDs nowadays, though, it may be worth it just going with a 128GB mSATA. That's your call, though.

Of course, since Lenovo does not use warranty-void stickers, you can technically do that. If they do notice anything amiss, though, you are running a risk of them refusing warranty service. Frankly, it may be easier just to wait until your one-year warranty expires before doing a display swap.

Agreed. Although the IPS screen does provide better viewing angles, I'd say the main benefit is the huge increase in contrast and more vibrant colors. That makes a great difference in daily use: even without placing the two laptops side by side, it's immediately clear that my dad's X220 has the regular TN display and my brother's X230 has an IPS display.

 

This might be useful when considering RAM upgrade options.

 

Thanks. Seems to be different views on this subject. It's good to hear both sides. I'll wait to see what the screen is like. It arrives tomorrow. It might be good. It's more for working anyway and will probably not watch films directly on it as I have an iPad (will be hooking the laptopup to tvs etc).

I ended up buying this:

Crucial 256GB m4 SATA 6Gb/s mSATA Solid State Drive (CT256M4SSD3) - dabs.com

Picked it up for £100 from eBay. 256 GB should be more than enough.

Does anyone know how to install windows 7 on the msata without the windows cd. I have a USB DVD writer but have an eom version of windows. Can it be downloaded from Microsoft if you have the oem code?

Thanks

 

You may download Windows 7 here.

 

Thanks for that

 

Yep. Easiest no-hassle way would be to download the appropriate version, burn to a DVD, and save your activation information using ABR. After installing by booting off your USB DVD drive, you can restore your activation hassle-free.

 

Thanks. Seems pretty straight forward.

I've read that installing windows fresh on the SSD is better. I assume that most/all relevant drivers can be downloaded and installed from Lenovo afterwards.

All I need to do now is decide on whether I get 1600 or 1866 ram

 

Yes, it is better to clean-install on an SSD for alignment purposes. The easiest way to get all the drivers would be to manually download the appropriate WiFi driver, install that, and then get Lenovo's ThinkVantage System Update utility. Then, use that to easily grab and install all the drivers and utilities that you want (you may not need all of them, ie Access Connections).

As for RAM, unless you'll be gaming on your X220 and need to squeeze every last FPS, you'll notice no difference between the two.

 

I'll be doing a little gaming, mostly games through steam such as counter strike. I use photoshop every day as well.