Ordering a new laptop, some questions on specs

C

CoolRabbit

New Member
I am deciding between two laptops - A Lenovo ThinkPad W540 and a Dell Precision M4800 Workstation. It will be used for intensive graphic and video work, along with other business software. I have a question on a few differences in the machines, and which would be better.

The Lenovo will come with a 1TB hard drive along with a 16GB M.2 solid state drive double. The Dell comes with an 8GB SSD Flash. Any opinion on either of these? I am not completely sure what the benefits are of the sold state drives, or what I should be looking for.

Both have 16GB DDR3L (4 DIMM), I could get the 2DIMM for $120 more - seems pricey, is this necessary or will the 4 DIMM work? I am not sure what this all means.

Both have either a Windows 7 pro or Windows 8.1 pro option. I have only worked with Windows 7, never worked with 8...but which will serve me best in the long run?

The Lenovo comes with an i7-4900MQ Processor (8MB cache, up to 3.80GHz), and the Dell has an i7-4910MQ (2.90GHz, 3.90GHz turbo, 8MB 47W. Are there any real differences between these two processors?

Is there anything else I should be looking at? Forgot to mention - both have the NVIDIA Quadro K2100M 2GB graphics card. Thanks for your opinions and input!
 
Alright. When I bought my ThinkPad L540 I bought a 1TB SSHD for it with an 8GB flash, like what you'd get with the Dell. It was a good drive - quick at booting Windows but otherwise it ran like a normal 5400 RPM HDD, so most programs ran a bit slowly for my liking. I ended up replacing it with a 250GB Samsung 840 SSD which is much, much faster. Over five times as quick in sequential read and write tests. I'm not sure how the m.2 SSD in the W540 will perform or if it'll be quicker than the SSHD in the Dell, but if you're after speed forget both and just get a 250GB or 500GB (or if you're made of money 1TB) SSD and get the real deal. You cannot beat an SSD on speed but you do sacrifice storage space.

4 DIMM means it will come with 4 sticks of RAM - it will be 16GB made up of 4 4GB sticks. These machines can probably take up to 32GB of RAM but with 4 sticks already pre-installed, you won't be able to add any more RAM without removing some of the sticks because there's only 4 RAM bays. If you get 2x8GB then you can easily upgrade to 32GB in the future by throwing another 2 8GB sticks in there.

If you think 16GB will be enough and you won't be upgrading then 4 DIMM is fine, otherwise get 2 DIMM. It's $120 more... seems a lot. I'd be tempted to stick with 4 DIMM to be honest. 16GB will be enough.

Go for Windows 8/8.1 Pro. My ThinkPad L540 came with 8. You'll want to upgrade this to 8.1 (for free!) through the Windows Store. 8.1 is the newest Microsoft OS and is really nice, fast and stable. A lot of these machines still ship with Windows 8 as opposed to 8.1 but as I said you can upgrade for free.

There's barely any difference between the CPUs at all. I suspect one has a slightly stock frequency or something. I wouldn't let that sway your decision at all because they are literally the same CPU.

I can't speak for the Dell but I love my ThinkPad. It's well-built and there's only a few things about it that annoy me. For example the lack of status indicators is one and the lack of any HDMI output is another, but on the whole it is an excellent machine. I am not sure relevant you'll find this with the L540 being a mid-range model, but if you want you can take a read of my L540 review here: http://www.computerforum.com/229171-lenovo-thinkpad-l540-notebook-review-part-no-20avcto1ww.html that goes over just about every aspect of the laptop and also includes information on the SSHD like you'd be getting in the Dell. :)
 
Last edited:
Spirit seems to have covered all the big points, but the Dell CPU is .1 GHz faster. However, this wont make a difference at all. Also, an m.2 SSD is faster than a SATA 3 ssd, and it maybe a good idea to just buy the cheapest hard drive and swap it for an ssd
 
Thank you so much! Both of you gave me very good information, I appreciate it! Although I've had Dells for years and have loved them, I think I will go with the Lenovo this time. It looks like I am getting more computer for the money with that one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top