Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

[kirayamato26]

Thanks!
What can you tell me about turbo boost?
In the windows performance panel I have only 4,6 for the cpu and 4,2 for the graphic part :O How can it be?

Sounds like you are suffering from throttling. Is your battery in?

[Mylbee]

Hi!

First of all I have to say this forum has given me a lot especially when considering buying this machine so thank you about that!

I finally received my W520 last Friday. It has been a great laptop this far, just like I expected. I've read many posts considering the throttling issue, but haven't yet figured out if I'm somehow able to check if I'm affected by this problem?

I got worried when I saw my "Windows system classification". CPU got the worst score by 4,6 points which I'm quite surprised cause I have Intel i7-2820QM on board. My old PC with some AMD 4 core processor scored way more, so I think this CPU should have the same and even more to give.

So I rerun the test. Made sure that all settings in "Tinkvantage Power manager" were set to "max". I also triggered the "Lenovo Turbo Boost+". On top of it it says "Intel Turbo Boost Technology support active". On BIOS (ver. 1.25) I've set all properties to "max", I think. Despite all the changes the score remained the same.

Is there something I may have missed? Is there something I could do, check, try, or do I have to wait calmly for a new BIOS update release?

(Some of the text are in quotes because I live in Finland and have my UI in my own language so the translation may not be exactly correct.)

-Aleksi

[kirayamato26]

Hi!

First of all I have to say this forum has given me a lot especially when considering buying this machine so thank you about that!

I finally received my W520 last Friday. It has been a great laptop this far, just like I expected. I've read many posts considering the throttling issue, but haven't yet figured out if I'm somehow able to check if I'm affected by this problem?

I got worried when I saw my "Windows system classification". CPU got the worst score by 4,6 points which I'm quite surprised cause I have Intel i7-2820QM on board. My old PC with some AMD 4 core processor scored way more, so I think this CPU should have the same and even more to give.

So I rerun the test. Made sure that all settings in "Tinkvantage Power manager" were set to "max". I also triggered the "Lenovo Turbo Boost+". On top of it it says "Intel Turbo Boost Technology support active". On BIOS (ver. 1.25) I've set all properties to "max", I think. Despite all the changes the score remained the same.

Is there something I may have missed? Is there something I could do, check, try, or do I have to wait calmly for a new BIOS update release?

(Some of the text are in quotes because I live in Finland and have my UI in my own language so the translation may not be exactly correct.)

-Aleksi

Make sure your battery is in, and if it is, wait for it to finish charging. Use HWInfo64 or CPU-Z to monitor your CPU clock. If it is under, well, the stock speed, it is throttling.

[sgt_deacon]

Does anyone have any backpack recommendations for this laptop?

I've been looking at this one:
Newegg.com - Wenger Blue COBALT 15.6" Computer Backpack Model GA-7343-06F00

But I am open to first hand accounts / opinions.

[kirayamato26]

Oh, by the way, Lenovo released the official 1.26 BIOS here.

As for bags, I'm personally looking for a bag that can fit 17.3" laptops, so there is a good amount of room for a 15.6" laptop to sit in and not rub against anything.

[Mylbee]

Make sure your battery is in, and if it is, wait for it to finish charging. Use HWInfo64 or CPU-Z to monitor your CPU clock. If it is under, well, the stock speed, it is throttling.

Okay! Thanks for the tip! I really was surprised of this thing cause earlier today I was doing some really heavy video rendering with Premiere Pro and it acted out like a charm!
My battery is actually charging for now so we'll see...

Does anyone have any backpack recommendations for this laptop?

Bought yesterday a Wenger Synergy backpack and by far it seems perfect for my purposes.
I'm going to use it primarily on school and it seems large enough for my W520, some cables, power BRICK and probably will carry also my books without a problem!

I had a chance to compare it in store to Cobalt. In my opinion Cobalt seemed also a good backpack but comparing to Synergy it seemed like a cheap copy of it to me. All the materials and so on didn't feel even close as tough in Cobalt compared to Synergy. Synergy is also little larger than Cobalt. Might be a good or not so good thing depending on your needs.
Synergy is a little more expensive but I suggest you to get it if you can afford it!

[sgt_deacon]

As for bags, I'm personally looking for a bag that can fit 17.3" laptops, so there is a good amount of room for a 15.6" laptop to sit in and not rub against anything.

This is another thing I was thinking, is it better to go for a bag meant for 17" laptops or a 15.6" bag?

I'm also considering this bag:

Newegg.com - Wenger 17" PEGASUS Computer Backpack Model GA-7306-06F00

It doesn't seem over bearingly big and a bit of extra room may be nice. thoughts?

Bought yesterday a Wenger Synergy backpack and by far it seems perfect for my purposes.
I'm going to use it primarily on school and it seems large enough for my W520, some cables, power BRICK and probably will carry also my books without a problem!

I had a chance to compare it in store to Cobalt. In my opinion Cobalt seemed also a good backpack but comparing to Synergy it seemed like a cheap copy of it to me. All the materials and so on didn't feel even close as tough in Cobalt compared to Synergy. Synergy is also little larger than Cobalt. Might be a good or not so good thing depending on your needs.
Synergy is a little more expensive but I suggest you to get it if you can afford it!

Did you find a 15.6 Synergy or did you go for the 15.4 Synergy? I've only been able to find the 15.4 model.

[mkehen]

Ahh. Who has the best deal on a W520 with FHD right now?

[Mylbee]

Did you find a 15.6 Synergy or did you go for the 15.4 Synergy? I've only been able to find the 15.4 model.

Well actually the shop I got it from said 15,4" size on their website, but when I got to store they had the 15,6" size there at the same price.
Thought that maybe Wenger updated it's size to 15,6"? Don't know, and that guess isn't based on any hard evidence.

-Aleksi

[sgt_deacon]

Well actually the shop I got it from said 15,4" size on their website, but when I got to store they had the 15,6" size there at the same price.
Thought that maybe Wenger updated it's size to 15,6"? Don't know, and that guess isn't based on any hard evidence.

-Aleksi

Alright I'll see if I can find a 15.6 version. I may just go ahead and grab the 17" version that I linked to so I have more room for books/notebooks though.