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    help with my choice please

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by antskip, May 25, 2011.

  1. antskip

    antskip Notebook Deity

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    After lots of reading reviews and some wonderful help on this forum (thank you!), I have to choose between two machines, for similar price. My present system is a W500 with WUXGA, SSD, and runs quickly and silently. My only real problem with it is a not very bright screen, a problem the new FHD 1080i screen should fix. This is my once every two years update. I do not play games, and do not do CAD or very taxing programmes, but I do like extra grunt on hand if I need it - but not at the cost of significantly more heat, power, and fan noise. Any comments are very welcome on the two options (forget about price):

    1) W520 with quad-core i7-2720QM, Quadro 1000M, 8GB ram, 500HD (to be replaced by third-party SSD), Wifi 6205, 3yr warranty.

    2) T520 with dual-core i7-2620M, Nvidia NVS 4200M, 8GB ram, 128GB SSD, Wifi 6300, 1yr warranty.

    Both have the 1080i screen, camera, bluetooth, etc etc. My requirement is silence and immediacy of operation for an average array of business and recreational computer operations (not games). :)

    A couple of questions that I have yet to have an answer to as yet:

    1) In normal non-demanding use, will the quad-core (2.2Ghz) run at around the same or less or more heat as the dual-core (2.7GHz), and will there be any significant speed difference? (I am aware the TDP of the quad-core is 45W compared to 35W of the dual-core, but mostly power use should be way below the TDP ceiling)

    2) Is the 6300 Wifi significantly better than the 6205?

    3) I imagine the dedicated gpu on the W520 might be both an asset and a liability compared to the one on the T520, as it uses 35W compared to around 10W? Or maybe they will run on the Intel 3000 gpu automatically most of the time? (My present dedicated gpu is equivalent to the NVS 4200M, and I run it all the time, with no heat problems, compared to the integrated Intel gpu)

    PS the size of the power brick is of no matter to me, as I have another very light notebook for travel.

    So: downsides and upsides of each, for normal business/recreational use? :) I look forward to any comments at all that might shed light on the issues... :)
     
    antskip, May 25, 2011
    #1