X230(t) Owner's Thread

Thanks for the information.

 

You can get the X230 starting at $594 right now, which is a pretty good deal if you're looking for one now: Lenovo Thinkpad x230 | i5-3210M | 4GB RAM | 320GB HDD - $615.30 AC @ Lenovo Barnes & Noble - Slickdeals.net

 

Just ordered by x230!! anything I need to know? tips, tricks, suggestions... because i'll be a first time lenovo user

 

Get at least a 128GB msata ssd from crucial.com, or a Samsung 256GB 2.5" 7mm height drive for about $195 to replace the hdd.
Also, if you are thinking to add more ram, get a 4GB stick of DDR3L (low voltage). The one stick that came in my X230T was micron 1600 ddr3L.

 

Any idea what brand Lenovo SSDs are? It was marked down to $40 (A $201 discount) so I tacked it on. Will also upgrade Windows 7 Home Premium to Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate.

Bought a X230T today,

• Intel Core i5-3320M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.30 GHz)
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
• 12.5" Multitouch HD (1366x768) LED Backlit Display, Mobile Broadband Ready, 2x2 Antenna
• Intel® HD Graphics 4000
• 4 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (1 DIMM)
• Keyboard Backlit - US English
• UltraNav™ with TrackPoint® and buttonless multi-touchpad
• Fingerprint Reader
• 720p HD Camera
• 128GB Solid State Drive, SATA3
• Gemplus 54mm ExpressCard Smart Card Reader from Lenovo
• 6 Cell ThinkPad Battery X67+
• 65W AC Adapter - ANZ
• Bluetooth 4.0 with Antenna
• Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN

AU$1,496.06 Inc.GST

 

Is 1.5v good? Or does it need to be 1.35v?

 

Doesn't have to be 1.5V, but just to take advantage of lower power usage, and if they are similar in price. At least get a 1600 speed ram.

 

i've been using my X230T with Reason for music production and haven't had any issues with sound quality. in fact, i can pile effects on and processing handles it in stride so i'm extra happy with the audio end of things.

speakers are terrible. no volume, no range. my old HP was waaay better in that department.

i can't get audio to sync via bluetooth. there's nearly a second of latency, and spotty glitchy dropouts. very annoying but probably not sound card related.

 

thanks for the tips! i might replace the whole hdd but am not sure yet. any advantages on keeping the hdd and adding a msata ssd, instead of replacing the hdd with a ssd?

 

It's all about space and performance per cost. The crucial m4 128GB msata costs $118 which is a good deal, and by having both ssd and hdd, you can install windows and programs in ssd, and keep all the music and movies in the hdd. If your budget is the sky you can just install a 512GB ssd, and maybe even add another 256GB msata ssd.

I like keeping a Paragon backup image of the C: drive, and now since I have so much space left over, I can keep several images in the hdd. Heck, I can backup the whole ssd to the hdd now. With 500GB space in the hdd, I don't think I'll need to carry an external hdd any more.

Another good thing about having two drives is that you can press F12 when booting, and select which drive you want to boot from. It's much cleaner than having something like GRUB or Windows boot selector. I have my Windows7 on the ssd, and on the first partition of the hdd, I set 1GB for Paragon hard drive manager WindowsPE environment. You can even put something like Norton Ghost, or Linux on the hdd's first partition and be able to choose which drive you want to boot from.

 

i think that's a great idea... keeping the hdd as basically a storage. how much harder is it to install the msata ssd as compared to an ssd?

 

It's only about 10 screws, but make sure you read the manual on how to take off the keyboard and palm rest. If you don't, there is a small chance that you might snap the tiny connector from the palm rest. Also be careful with some of those plastic tabs on the front edge of the palm rest.

 

thanks a lot man, you've been a great help!

 

Has anyone bought the X230 with the 128GB SSD from Lenovo? It's pretty cheap at the moment on the NZ store, and I'm wondering if it's worth getting or not.

 

So is it recommended to reformat the x230T when you get it and install a fresh copy of Windows?

 

No. Why should it?

 

So... I just got my X230! I'm really liking it, and am super glad that there are no defects. The one interesting thing is that unlike how many of the reviews have mentioned, my usb 3.0 ports actually are blue. haha

If you have any questions on what I think about the X230 then ask. I'm just in the process of cleaning off the useless software and installing all the good stuff.

 

What do you think of the touchpad? This will be my first Thinkpad, and I've never really experienced any touchpad I found annoying to use among many brands (Dell, HP, Toshiba).

 

When I first started using it I found the touchpad to be exactly how I heard if it to be. It's glitchy, not textured greatly, and isn't that reactive.
But just a minute ago I installed the latest touchpad drivers from Lenovo. It no longer jumps and doesn't glitch out as much. It also is more responsive. So other than the small size, I find it perfectly usable. But I am must say I am glad that I have the pointer as well.

 

That's a relief! It was the only thing I was really concerned of, despite Thinkpad's supposed 'reputation' with their touchpads.

 

Order Status says will be ready to ship next Thursday, ugh I want mine right now!

 

I know right?? Mine's shipping the 31st, it better get here fast :|

 

I already got mine but it was an order I cancelled and they shipped out . I want to open the box but I'll wait since they shipped out my actual order and it's in Anchorage.

 

Did you get a order cancellation email with subject "Cancellation notification: Lenovo order xxxxxxxxxx"? I made an order with wrong wifi card so I had to cancel it. I called right away and got the cancellation email after couple hours.

 

I did not and that should have told me that it wasn't cancelled. The Sales person I dealt with said she would cancel it first then process my new order but did not. I received the express shipping labels to return it so I am okay.

BTW, the laptop is in Kentucky now!

 

Hope you get your X230 soon JAmerican! It sucks that Lenovo is slow with customer service. lol

I love my X230 so far. Literally the only thing I don't like is the 1 minute boot time with the standard drive. That's why I'm going to put in an mSATA SSD + 8GB as soon as I can. Then this machine will be perfect for me. <3

 

When I had a Vaio T, I was able to achieve a 15 second boot time (to the login screen) with a Mushkin 60GB mSATA III SSD. The Vaio T has a mSATA III port though, which was nice. It was 7 seconds to shut down.

 

Now I'm a little worried. I placed my order on thursday night, but got the wrong configuration. I called the next morning to cancel and I ordered another one but I did not receive a cancellation email yet. Now I have two laptops on order. I'll be really upset if they sent both.

 

Anybody have any experience with price adjusting? I talked to a rep (after 45 minutes of holding...) and he said that he'd price adjust to the lower price if I sent him an email with the screenshots of the lower price in the cart, and again after it ships.

Also, such a bummer that the mSATA is SATA II. Is it just not possible for both to be SATA III?

 

You will be sent both. That's how Lenovo rolls. They send the order to production instantly when you order it. Once it's there, there is nothing you can do to stop it. I called 12 hours after placing my order to cancel (X230t) because I made a small mistake in the config. The lady told me she sent a request, but if it shipped, just call them once I receive it. I never got a cancellation confirmation and it's in production. I'm 100% sure it will ship.

Annoying, but I guess they have to find a balance between quickly building the machine from the ground up vs. waiting a day or two in case you need to cancel. So now I have two on the way.

Sucks that $2k is tied up on my credit card and I will accrue interest on that extra $1k. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it. Just should be more careful next time I order.

 

Yeah I'm really ticked off about that. I'm going to call them again today if they're open. Will they compensate you for shipping it back? Or can you just sent it to a dealer here in the US?

 

They send you a prepaid UPS label. No cost to you whatsoever (but you do have to drive it to a UPS store or pay for pickup).

 

Oh alright, that's not bad. I just got off the phone with some guy and he said to call back Monday because it takes ~48 hours for a cancellation to go through. But I saw another guy post here that he got his ordered cancelled within a few hours. Oh well hopefully it gets cancelled so I don't have to go through all the hassle.

 

Ivy Bridge only supports two SATA III ports with the SATA controller. What Lenovo did is used one SATA III internally for the HDD and one in the Ultrabase for the integrated drive in that base. That leaves any remaining SATA connectors as SATA II. I am annoyed because I don't see myself getting or even needing SATA III in an external unit.

 

Sorry to throw a curve ball, but do we know what manufacturers are making which of the keyboards yet?

 

Hi everybody, I'm in the market for a new laptop, this model has me the most interested so far.
There is only one thing though, i need it to be able to play quake3/quakelive at a solid 125fps with all the eye candy turned on. Not sure if anybody here plays or not?????
I know these hd4000 gpu's are suppose to be pretty good but???

 

Is the touchscreen actually that inaccurate and frustrating to use? I just read a negative review but unsure if maybe the review came before any patch(es) were released by Lenovo?

If the touchscreen is unusable like HotHardware claims, I'll be returning and getting a refund within 14 days of me receiving it.

 

The review by hothardware is the worst, I've ever seen!
Touchscreen (pen and finger input) is very good for me - no problems here.

 

Try the edges...

Also you may want to compare it to the Fujitsu Lifebook T5010/T900 /T901 or the HP Elitebook tablets.

 

I very much doubt it....

If Ivy Bridge can only muster ~55fps in world of warcraft, i just don't see 125fps in Quake3, even if it is an older game. Seems impossible

 

Thanks for the reply. I have played both those games on the same system(toshiba a200 laptop with either a ati hd2400 or 2600 gpu). I dont remember excactly the fps in WOW but is was somehting around the 55 you mentioned or perhaps even a little less(at medium to low settings, i don't remember exactly). While it would play Quake3 perfectly. In any case this is not definitive for me, I need to know for sure. I best go over to the Quakelive forum and post there to i suppose.

 

I suppose I could download the quake 3 demo--it's been a long time...I remember you bring up the console and type something to display the FPS, right?

 

So... I got the X230 (non-tablet)! ...and messed up, missed out on the webcam from the 3x3 antenna. My biggest complaint was customer support, something I thought Lenovo was renowned for. During the ordering process, I asked questions from the online rep called Tim, and after a couple of questions such as why did the 16 GB RAM cost over $1000, all he kept saying was, let me take over your cart, I'll get you a deal!!, which I let him do (regretfully). And when I finally placed the order, he had the wrong wifi adapter selected. I noticed it on the order confirmation email, called them, was told Tim would call me back, which he never did. I emailed the support email and stressed that they corrected the order. Next day, I got a shipment confirmation email, with the wrong adapter. Long story short, Tim never mentioned anything about the webcam vs. antenna conflict and they f-ed up my adapter and refused to do anything to help me short of having me ship it back to Lenovo and then build a new X230 which would have set everything back by 3 weeks or so, and I needed it "yesterday". Pissed me off, since I alerted them in time and I still got the end of the stick. Not even a refund on the difference. So I hung on to it.

Anyways - I got it with the i7-3520m, and installed 8 GB DDR3-1600 memory and a Samsung 830 SSD, did a fresh Win 7 install from external DVD drive (no problems) and it's booting in a blink - very impressive! Faster than my Desktop which has 2x Crucial M4 SSDs in Raid0!

Performance is great BUT the CPU is running HOT! I played World of Tanks for a few, had Core Temp logging in the background and maxed out over 90 deg C on both cores. Is this normal?
What temps are you guys getting? Is Core Temp giving me false readings? Did they mess up when pasting the CPU? Or is gaming simply not feasible?

I'd love to hear what temps you guys get when gaming on the i7-3520m.

Thanks!

 

^My X230 only has the i5-3210m. My temp at idle is about 55* C, and it never even gets to 70* C when doing some light gaming(minecraft, TF2). I would hope that the i7 doesn't actually run that much hotter, considering the performance difference is less than the temp difference.

 

90 deg C, that 10 deg below boiling!!! I have the i7, and it does get very hot - I always put a board on top of my bed on top of which I put my tablet when I play hardware-intense games, and even then it gets very hot. I've never tried measuring it with a tool like that (and I can't really now, because it's in for warranty repairs), but gaming does seem feasible - basically, as long as it doesn't serve me roast cardboard, I'm fine with it (oh, and as long as the computer survives...).
@menac3 - there's always the possibility of an eGPU - the processor is definitely powerful enough - 7.3 for the i7 in the WEI - that's 0.1 under my dad's 2.+ Ghz (I think it's something like 2.5, he overclocked it) hex-core processor, and an eGPU will definitely give you a good boost if you don't think the HD4000 graphics are enough. If you run on full high performance, you won't get much battery life anyway, so I wouldn't worry about being tethered to an outlet because of the eGPU. That being said the HD4000 graphics performance is actually almost a whole point better in the WEI than the 512MB graphics card on my dad's hex-core computer, and that's without adding more memory on mine (I've read that adding memory to the X230/t makes quite the difference when it comes to graphics performance). Once I get my X230T back from repairs, maybe I can try out a Quake3 demo and report back (although I'm not very good at FPS games).
As to screen protectors (way back somewhere in the thread), I've gotten the photodon, and when it comes to touch sensitivity, I'm a bit disappointed - I can't use the tip of my index finger any more - it just doesn't recognize it, unless I press fairly hard - so I have to lay my finger flat on the touch screen to get it to work. JesseBAndersen said that it doesn't reduce sensitivity, but then I had a conversation with him, in which he said that he barely used touch anyway, and that he was even considering turning it off entirely. I'm even considering getting a different screen protector because it's just kind of ridiculous (it makes me look like a lady while using the touch screen)
On a side note, before I sent mine to warranty I've been experimenting with some more casual gaming with the touchscreen, and although touch support usually isn't 100% on (because the programs weren't designed with touch in mind), it's still fun. Probably the biggest problem is that when the screen's aspect ratio changes and you set the screen to keep the aspect ratio and not set it to wide screen, the calibration still thinks you're full screen - I'm still looking for a solution on that one. Anybody remember DXBall, though? After you get over the quirks (you can leave it stretched, it's not too horrible like that), it's a lot of fun on the touch screen.

 

I find the Exim screen protector a bit better with touch compared to Photodon. Not as good as naked, but it works well enough for me. The tips of my fingers work on my screen with the Exim attached.

 

Good to know. The other option I was looking at back then was a Steinheil, but that seems to be unavailable now, and now there's a lexerd in amazon, although that's very expensive for a screen protector. (What's with the escalation here, I'm saying I look like a lady, and you're already talking about naked )

 

What is your ambient temperature? That seems pretty high for idle temperature.

 

QUAKE LIVE

This is the easiest way if you can be bothered. Free to join and about 400 mg download(not quite sure), all works from within your browser too. Should be all in teh settings menus these days these days. Otherwsie it use to be /cg_drawfps, although in quakelive they dont use cg, cant remeber. Thanks heaps if you want to try this, and hey who knows perhaps you can have some fun with old games in new packages;-)

 

Thanks for the reply
The egpu is a pretty cool idea but i wouldnt buy this laptop if i needed to do that to play q3/qlive. I want ot be able to play good quake where ever i take my laptop with out lugging xtras around...... I would be looking at the 3320 i5 not that that is important.....
As i said before if somebody wants to try it out for me that would be great.;-)