Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

[ukieandrew]

Whew! That explains the Intel 510 vs. OCZ Vertex 3 benchmarks!

Reminds me how I used to overtake Porsches with my Toyota in city traffic just by going a steady speed and timing the traffic lights correctly.

7 reasons I have decided to go with Intel:
1. Faster in real-life benchmarks (PCMarkVantage)
2. Does not freeze with the HDD LED light on.
3. Fits in the W520 drive caddy.
4. Likely to be the SSD SATA III choice by Lenovo in the future.
5. Intel's corporate reputation
6. Comes with Intel's SSD Toolbox
7. Intel SSD reliability history

Now if Lenovo can only fix the 30 second warm-boot (Advanced Protection Sensor diagnostics) startup delay for SSDs ...

Well, I was thinking about Intel as well, and then decided go with Vertex. In this review they test 240GB drives. Those of you, who want buy 120GB drive need to remember, that Intel 120GB and 240GB have big difference in Write speeds. Also couple of days ago Vertex put on the market its new MAX IOPS drives that are much faster in random read/write then regular one that was put on test in review mentioned above. So, just keep it in mind.

[mikeatgeekrepublic]

I have a W520 on order that should arrive this next Monday.

After wading through this thread, I'm starting to question my purchase of the Vertex 3 120 GB Max IOPS drive. It's still wrapped up and in the box, but I am debating between keeping it and hawking it on eBay then buying an Intel 510 instead.

I suppose I'm looking for a few comments/personal experiences specifically related to the W520 to push me one way or the other. Any takers?

I also thought I had read somewhere (perhaps even in this thread) that if I bought the Ultrabay HDD adapter from Lenovo, that it is only capable of handling a 5400 RPM drive. I wanted to confirm that limitation before I pick up a WD Blue vs. the Scorpio Black drive. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance, this thread has been quite helpful so far.

[wesmain]

I also thought I had read somewhere (perhaps even in this thread) that if I bought the Ultrabay HDD adapter from Lenovo, that it is only capable of handling a 5400 RPM drive. I wanted to confirm that limitation before I pick up a WD Blue vs. the Scorpio Black drive. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance, this thread has been quite helpful so far.

The ultrabay adapter absolutely is NOT limited to 5400rpm drives. Even my 5 year old x60 ultrabase adapter accepts sata SSD's and 7200rpm drives, albeit at pata speeds. Rest assured, a new ultrabay adapter will accept any sata drive - the one for my t400/t510 certainly does, as does the x60.

I.e., the physical port on the adapter is sata; it will accept any sata drive (and will fit in the w520 if it is under, I believe, 12.7mm in height); the ultrabay itself accepts sata III >> result >> you're good to go!

[wesmain]

I would also add, however, that you might still consider getting the 1tb WD Blue drive. When you use an ssd as your main drive, you get used to a silent and vibration-free laptop. Personally, I get annoyed sometimes with the noise/vibration my Scorpio Black 500gb drive generates when it spools up in the ultrabay, and wonder sometimes if a quieter Blue drive would be better. It sounds crazy to get a lower-performance drive on a thoroughbred like a w520, but if you don't need crazy transfer speeds for your ultrabay drive, you might consider something quieter...

[ukieandrew]

I have a W520 on order that should arrive this next Monday.

After wading through this thread, I'm starting to question my purchase of the Vertex 3 120 GB Max IOPS drive. It's still wrapped up and in the box, but I am debating between keeping it and hawking it on eBay then buying an Intel 510 instead.

I suppose I'm looking for a few comments/personal experiences specifically related to the W520 to push me one way or the other. Any takers?

I also thought I had read somewhere (perhaps even in this thread) that if I bought the Ultrabay HDD adapter from Lenovo, that it is only capable of handling a 5400 RPM drive. I wanted to confirm that limitation before I pick up a WD Blue vs. the Scorpio Black drive. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance, this thread has been quite helpful so far.

As I mentioned just above, if you want buy Intel then go with 240GB drive, not 120. Then difference will not be that noticable. 120GB has pure performance as for me. I had Vertex 2 and Intel X-25M and without any tests I could tell that Vertex was much faster in everyday operations. I did not have any issues with any of those. Intel's 510 120GB IOPS are pretty low compare to Vertex 3 120GB MAX IOPS. I bought Vertex 3 (120GB version) for myself. But, if I could spend $550-$600 for SSD then I would consider Intel 510 240GB.

[schreibman]

I am driving 2 external monitors and the notebook display concurrently with the dock.

Ditto, I just installed Mini Dock Plus Series 3 - 170W , and have the laptop display (1920x1080) and two dell u2410's (1920*1280):

The Nvidia software is a bit flaky, but it eventually worked.

[kimocal]

Ditto, I just installed Mini Dock Plus Series 3 - 170W , and have the laptop display (1920x1080) and two dell u2410's (1920*1280):

The Nvidia software is a bit flaky, but it eventually worked.

How are the external monitors hooked up? DVI, VGA, DP...

[mikeatgeekrepublic]

I would also add, however, that you might still consider getting the 1tb WD Blue drive. When you use an ssd as your main drive, you get used to a silent and vibration-free laptop. Personally, I get annoyed sometimes with the noise/vibration my Scorpio Black 500gb drive generates when it spools up in the ultrabay, and wonder sometimes if a quieter Blue drive would be better. It sounds crazy to get a lower-performance drive on a thoroughbred like a w520, but if you don't need crazy transfer speeds for your ultrabay drive, you might consider something quieter...

Thank you for the info regarding the UltraBay port as well as your experience with the Scorpio Black drive. At the end of the day I don't necessarily *need* Black speeds since the drive will mainly be used for bulk storage of images/video/etc. Any real work (video transcoding and the like) will be done on the SSD - after which, the material will be moved to the UltraBay drive. I guess a WD Blue it is!

I honestly can't even remember where I read that little tidbit about 5400 rpm vs 7200 - but the person making the claim was mentioning something about insufficient power on the SATA connection there. I'm glad to know he was wrong.

As I mentioned just above, if you want buy Intel then go with 240GB drive, not 120. Then difference will not be that noticable. 120GB has pure performance as for me. I had Vertex 2 and Intel X-25M and without any tests I could tell that Vertex was much faster in everyday operations. I did not have any issues with any of those. Intel's 510 120GB IOPS are pretty low compare to Vertex 3 120GB MAX IOPS. I bought Vertex 3 (120GB version) for myself. But, if I could spend $550-$600 for SSD then I would consider Intel 510 240GB.

Having never owned an SSD in the past, anything will be a step up as far as performance is concerned. The 250 GB drive from Intel is outside the budget at the moment, so I would have to go for the 120 GB model. I have had so/so luck with OCZ memory in the past, and I suppose my main concern is reliability. Then again, one of the main reasons I decided to ask was this part of Anandtech's review of the regular Vertex 3 drive regarding TRIM performance:

The OCZ Vertex 3 Review (120GB) - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

While I understand that this is the worst case scenario, the drive will be used to manage a decent amount of incompressible data. I won't be doing it all the time, but the computer will definitely be used for manipulating/resizing images from my D5000 as well as converting full 1080p camcorder video to share with the family.

I'm sure I will be happy - it's just one of those things that gets in your head, making you question whether or not you just blew $320!

[wolfindersteppe]

Well, i got my w520 and my rep was wrong and it didn't come with a modem. I asked her about it and she said the W520 and most of their new models dont come with a modem. Only the laptops manufactured for their business partners have that option. The commercial ones don't.

Anyways I was offered a $50 credit. I'm contemplating if i should take it or not.... not that i have many other options :\

The statement about delivering modem only for the business partner might be true. I have ordered my model by German reseller notebooksandmore.de - premium equipment (Model NY423GE / 428223G) and got it with modem, I did not even ask for it...

[hrana]

The statement about delivering modem only for the business partner might be true. I have ordered my model by German reseller notebooksandmore.de - premium equipment (Model NY423GE / 428223G) and got it with modem, I did not even ask for it...

I ended up ordering 60Y3207 (modem daughter card) last night. I think I may need to order screws but it looks like it comes with everything else (see attached picture from reseller). Hopefully there is a connector on the laptop motherboard on non-modem equipped machines.