W530 Owner's Thread

[49ersmylife]

i'd get bluetooth just in case. Also probably windows 7 pro.

Bluetooth sure, but there's no reason to go for Win7Pro unless he wants to add more than 16GB of RAM.

I didn't get Windows 7 pro because I will upgrade to Windows 8 Pro in October. Whether you get Home Premium edition or Windows 7 Pro - you get an upgrade for Windows 8 pro...so I figured I'll save $40.

I decided not to get bluetooth...and save money to replace my HDD with 256GB SSD. Waiting for a deal on Samsung 830 or Sandisk (which was on $159) few days back.

I'm excited...can't wait. Keyboard better not disappoint, but I trust the opinion of several readers here.

[QuantumMech]

Anyone here know how/if I can set up hardware-level encryption with my W530 and my Samsung 830 SSD? Or is it only possible with the HD I originally got with the machine?

[esotericdesignstudio]

Quantum, check the Hardware forum. There's a lot of helpful stuff in there, it helped me with setting up my ssd

[esotericdesignstudio]

All right, here are my specs:

i7-3820QM CPU
2GB K2000M GPU
20GB of RAM (4GB factory, 2x8GB of Carsair Vengeance Added)
500 GB HDD (5 partitions)
320 GB HDD (In ultrabay, 3 Partitions)
32 GB mSata SDD (Added to WWAN spot aftermarket, partitioned for OS cache and for some programs)
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N Wireless Card
Bluetooth 4.0
FHD Screen
Backlit Keyboard
9 Cell Battery
Colour Sensor
Fingerprint Scanner
720p Camera

[49ersmylife]

That depends. Is this going to replace your current W520? The performance gain will be very narrow.

(you have errors in that signature; it's not 1900x1200, but 1920x1080)

Btw just curious - why do you think performance gain will be very narrow? Isn't ivy-bridge faster and more efficient than sandy-bridge?

[del_psi]

10% faster in most cases.

[esotericdesignstudio]

Still, that 10% can make a difference if you constantly use demanding programs.

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

Btw just curious - why do you think performance gain will be very narrow? Isn't ivy-bridge faster and more efficient than sandy-bridge?

I don't just think it, I am sure of it. Look at reviews and benchmarks of the W520 and W530. The German website Notebook Test, Laptop Test und News - Notebookcheck.com has very nice reviews of both. The performance gain is very narrow. The biggest gain is in energy consumption under load. On all other battery life tests the W520 even slightly outperforms the W530.

That is equal to the desktop Ivy Bridge CPU's; idle energy consumption didn't drop an hair.

The price premium on the W530 is bigger than the performance increase (at least in Europe at the moment). I wasn't willing to pay ~=>20% more for 10% performance increase with a crappy 6-row keyboard.

Also; when you spend a part of the price premium on an SSD you get a W520 that's much faster in a lot of scenarios than a W530 with a HDD.

At the bottom line though it was the keyboard that made the real difference for me. Getting used to 6-row would be a complete mess and one giant frustration to me. Not to mention the time lost might at times be more than 10%

[49ersmylife]

I don't just think it, I am sure of it. Look at reviews and benchmarks of the W520 and W530. The German website Notebook Test, Laptop Test und News - Notebookcheck.com has very nice reviews of both. The performance gain is very narrow. The biggest gain is in energy consumption under load. On all other battery life tests the W520 even slightly outperforms the W530.

That is equal to the desktop Ivy Bridge CPU's; idle energy consumption didn't drop an hair.

The price premium on the W530 is bigger than the performance increase (at least in Europe at the moment). I wasn't willing to pay ~=>20% more for 10% performance increase with a crappy 6-row keyboard.

Also; when you spend a part of the price premium on an SSD you get a W520 that's much faster in a lot of scenarios than a W530 with a HDD.

At the bottom line though it was the keyboard that made the real difference for me. Getting used to 6-row would be a complete mess and one giant frustration to me. Not to mention the time lost might at times be more than 10%

Fair enough. But, I sold my W520 for $1150 (bought it for $1250 last summer - kept it in great condition, and sold it on cragislist). So, for addition $60 - I was able to get a refreshed model, with Ivy-bridge, better graphics card, and 2 year warranty and lost 9-cell battery (which I didn't want anymore) and bluetooth (which I didn't use once on W520).

Also, I sold my W520 with only 4GB in it, so I'll be able to upgrade my memory in W530 to 16GB without making addition purchases. I already have a 128GB SSD though I'll look to upgrade that.

In my case, I feel it was totally worth it even if I don't gain anything in performance.

[Kaso]

Also, I sold my W520 with only 4GB in it, so I'll be able to upgrade my memory in W530 to 16GB without making addition purchases.

1333MHz RAM for a CPU that can take 1600MHz RAM?