Lenovo ThinkPad E520--Need advice

D

Davis Goertzen

New Member
Hello all,

I'm shopping for a new laptop, and the ThinkPad E520 is looking pretty good. It'll be used for internet browsing and word processing, and some powerpoint; also some light movie watching and pictures. So, the applications aren't likely to be too intensive, but there could easily be a dozen items on the taskbar at a time. (BTW, if it makes any difference, I'm shopping from Canada).

Anyway I just had some questions:

1. Are the Intel HD 3000 graphics strong enough to handle powerpoint presentations, as well as some youtube and movie watching, smoothly?

2. Is the i3-2310m (the baseline processor) good enough for what I want, or will it struggle/get old in a hurry? For $50 more, I can get an i5-2410m; for $105 more, an i5-2520m; for $155, an i5-2540m; for $295 more, an i7-2620m. (All prices are CAD, taken from the Lenovo site.) I did a little bit of googling, and it looks like either the i3-2310m or the i5-2410m would work, but I want your guys' input.

3. The E520 comes with 4Gb of RAM baseline, but I'd like to expand this to 6Gb or 8Gb. On the Lenovo site, this costs me $80 or $160 respectively. I thought of buying laptop RAM from Newegg and installing it, but I don't know whether Lenovo uses 200-pin RAM or 204-pin RAM. Any input on this one?

Thanks in advance guys.

Davis
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
the HD3000 will do fine for you.

The I3 is plenty. It is HyperThreaded (HT), so will give you 4 threads. The i5 will have a turbo, but that is not needed for what you wish to do.

It uses 204 Pin DDR3. I would suggest 1333MHz ram, as it is the fastest supported by the onboard memory controller.
 
D

Davis Goertzen

New Member
Thanks guys, that helps me out. I was sort of coming to the same conclusions about the graphics and processor, but you helped confirm that.

About the memory, the laptop we're replacing was at least 3 years old and had 3 Gb of RAM, so we thought it would be just as well to upgrade to a higher amount, because programs are constantly getting more advanced and requiring more resources. And when I saw that I can get a 4Gb chip (DDR 1333) for $23.49 at Newegg, it wasn't hard to see that as an advantage over $160!!

Anyway, thanks for the replies. Am also currently checking out Dell's Inspiron R line. Must sign off and do more research. :D
 
D

Davis Goertzen

New Member
I can get a Dell Inspiron R for $499, similarly spec'd to the ThinkPad Edge E520 for $599. The only differences I can see are that the Dell comes with an i3-2330m vs i3-2310 for the ThinkPad, and the HDD on the Dell is 5400 rpm whereas the ThinkPad's HDD is 7200 (both 500 Gb).

Is the Lenovo worth more by virtue of being a better brand, or is Dell not as good quality?

EDIT: Sorry, posted without refreshing to see your reply.
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
wolfeking-albums-common-links-picture599-17nov09compach0qw83.jpg


I hope this worked. If not, I can pull it up on another site. It shows the difference in the brands by quality.
 
jonnyp11

jonnyp11

New Member
i didn't think lenovo would be that low, dang, bt they are normally considered better i though, maybe it's the warranties?
 
D

Davis Goertzen

New Member
i looked on their site and it has the e520 for 500
Click to expand...

Yes, but with a 320 Gb HDD instead of 500. Oh just a minute, I just realized I can get the 500 Gb for $540 when I use the eCoupon. That's not bad.

Would you care to elaborate on why the ThinkPad lineup is better than Dell? Not challenging you, just want to know what you're thinking.

Davis
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
the thinkpad lineup has a better build quality than the dells. Basically, they are put together better. They also have way better (personal as well as timely service) support than the dell has ever dreamt of.

think of it like this. The Sears tower is made of steel based reinforcement bars. This is your RAM, CPU, HDD, LCD, and DVD drive. These parts do not change. Going on this, Lenovo TIG welds theirs together, where Dell uses Elmers wood glue to stick it together. You wouldnt buy an office floor on a building held together with elmers, would you?
 
DMGrier

DMGrier

VIP Member
Lenovo thinkpads are really nice computers, I will say they are a little expensive for my taste but it depends on the person, if you know you are the type of person who spills things on your computer or drop your computer then they are perfect. I personally like Sony Vaio's, they build all there models well unlike Lenovo were it is only the thinkpads.

On the subject of multitasking, 4 GB of memory is more then enough, on the computer in my signature I can run power point, banshee media player, chrome web browser with 4 or 5 tabs open that will be running mini games like angry birds and youtube and a IM chat client and I am only using 880 MB of memory so 4 GB is more then enough.

Yes a Dell in many ways can be as good as a Lenovo but not the ones that are under $600. Dells usually come from three different manufactures, under $600 are very poorly built and will only last about 3 years if lucky. $600-1000 are built decently and if well taken care could last a very long time and any over $1000 are just as good as the Apple, Asus or even a Sony.

Lenovo are nice but I will stick with the Vaio cause all there models are higher end and you don't worry about which ones to buy,
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
that is only counting the consumer grade laptops. The T series and R series (defunct) have 10X the reliability of the average Lenovo lappy.

Same as the HP. Probook kicks ass, but everything else (laptop that is) is worthless. Plus, that little graph is a couple of years old, so... could be different now.
 
DMGrier

DMGrier

VIP Member
wolfeking said:
that is only counting the consumer grade laptops. The T series and R series (defunct) have 10X the reliability of the average Lenovo lappy.

Same as the HP. Probook kicks ass, but everything else (laptop that is) is worthless. Plus, that little graph is a couple of years old, so... could be different now.
Click to expand...

I am not saying that the Thinkpads reliability is poor, I will admit they are amazing, What I am saying is my issue with Lenovo is how they have amazing computers like the Thinkpads and then they give the world garbage in there non business class computers.

Like people generally do not like Hp or Dell but no one has anything bad to say about there business series computers.
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
DMGrier said:
I am only using 880 MB of memory so 4 GB is more then enough.
Click to expand...
Welcome to Linux buddy.
I am running 1.6 GB at idle on windows 7-64. Just over 3GB with Netflix running. A lighter OS helps the memory footprint, but that doesnt mean that because you dont use much that everyone uses that much.

Its like saying that because I can run Windows 2K pro on a 2 GB HDD, that now all people need is a 2 GB ATA66 HDD. apples to oranges to bannannas. memory is different from OS to OS.
 
DMGrier

DMGrier

VIP Member
wolfeking said:
Welcome to Linux buddy.
I am running 1.6 GB at idle on windows 7-64. Just over 3GB with Netflix running. A lighter OS helps the memory footprint, but that doesnt mean that because you dont use much that everyone uses that much.

Its like saying that because I can run Windows 2K pro on a 2 GB HDD, that now all people need is a 2 GB ATA66 HDD. apples to oranges to bannannas. memory is different from OS to OS.
Click to expand...

I am not new to Linux and if you are running 1.6 GB on Windows at idle I would check your msconfig, sounds like you got a lot running in the backround cause I have ran Windows 7 64 Bit before and never use anymore then 1 GB at idle and no more then 4-500 MB per program. I know Ubuntu uses less and even when mutli-tasking is still lighter and maybe I am going to recommend a Lenovo laptop running Ubuntu being it is a easy install, light and end user friendly while being just as advance when using terminal.
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
somewhere between 4-800 MB is dedicated to the Igpu. Otherwise, thats still over double the idle memory usage of Ubuntu witch is a rather heavy Linux.

And I wasnt trying to say your new to it. I was more intending to say "Thats linux, not windows".
 
D

Davis Goertzen

New Member
jonnyp11 said:
i didn't think lenovo would be that low, dang, bt they are normally considered better i though, maybe it's the warranties?
Click to expand...

You may be thinking of the ThinkPad T series or W series; those are definitely more expensive. The laptop I'm looking at is the ThinkPad Edge series. You can find more info on the Lenovo website.

About the RAM, I guess if I do decide to purchase this machine, I'll just make sure that it some with a single 4 Gb chip, and if I need more, I'll buy it elsewhere. There shouldn't be any incompatibility issues with second-party RAM, eh?

Thanks all.

Davis
 
Last edited:
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
the edge is not a very good system at all. It is just a consumer grade machine, but still better than dell.

The T and W series are some of the best on the market. (as were the A and R IBMs back in the day)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top