Aside from that iBook I mentioned in my other post, I am getting a thinkpad for my birthday. The only thinkpads I own are a 600X and a transnote and they're awesome. However, I now have the opportunity of getting a new laptop that will do what I need a laptop to do (Which is CSS, RCT3, some kdenlive, and be portable battery power). The choices are:
Thinkpad T520: i7 2620 w/ HD3000 4-8GB Ram (DDR3) Quadro NVS 4xxx something or another
Thinkpad L520: i5 3xxx w/ HD4000 4 GB ram (can go to 8) Optional AMD v6b (a 4670) if I can find one
The T520 is 1600x900 where as the L520 is 1366x768, though the only res's I'm actually picky about are in 4:3. Other than those differences spec wise, I like the L520 KB a lot more and the T520 has a really fucked up and worn down wrist pad.
I'm leaning towards the L for a nicer keyboard. It also happens to have displayport on it for some reason (xd).
I think I'm going to do the L520. Its a lot nicer than the T just by wear and tear. Its like it was never ever used. I was hoping someone would have a compelling argument as to why each or the other but I guess not lol.
If you are looking for a cheap laptop that will present a fun/interesting computing experience, why not save up a bit more and go for a used chromebook and throw linux on it.
You could get a much nicer 1080p screen and still do your CSS work on it.
From what I understand you already have a laptop that you have that can do RCT3 and Kdenlive, so why not get something super portable like a chrome book for the times you just want to get out of the house and travel light?
But at the same time web devel would be nice to get back onto as well lol.
While true, I'm really trying to get rid of machines, and in turn I have to replace them because they all have purposes. While my G50VT does editing work and gaming for me, its pretty slow at both. Its really only good for DX9 titles and it has shit battery life. At that, its my modding project now, so if I kill it there goes a whole bunch of other stuff I was doing with it too. I just need an update, really. I basically have a fleet that one machine that is up to date that I can repair easily can do all at once. L520 is all of what I need minus Altivec and big endian math.
I was mostly hoping someone would say "Well this is why a T version is better" or "This is why the L version is better".
Edit: you are in the process of answering these questions already.
Lol.
I guess I am trying to figure this out.
If you already have a laptop that can do everything you want, why not diversify your portfolio so to speak. Why are you trying to double down on stuff that sounds very similar to what you already have?
Well the thing is that I'm admittedly behind. I'm after a nice keyboard, good battery, compact enough (15 and under) and somewhat enough power to drive the games I want to play. I play most of my stuff on my desktop so its not like I need a giant holy fuck machine.
With my G50V, yeah ok nice keyboard, clear enough screen, but I'll be damned if I ever have a fast enough GPU to do anything with in it. At that, even if I buy a C2Q CPU for it with 12MB cache it will still load slow as shit compared to an i7 because the bus is slow as shit. I need something that is snappy-er, so to say. G50VT also has 4 minutes of battery life and an hour and a half if I get a new one.
Also, funny thing, G50V weight a shit ton where a new Lenovo is like 4 pounds 3:!
Even if its used, get something from 2016, instead of 2012. Something that will actually do the job you want it to do. You only suffer if you have something that's barely good enough to get the job done and you will always feel like wanting more.
You say you have a fleet of laptops? People just throw there old tech at me because they know I'm a nerd, but if you purchased that fleet by yourself, unless you got them for peanuts, that money could've been saved for something great.
Now I'm not trying to demean you, just help you get what you want so you will feel satisfied. I get the feeling you are not happy with your current setup anywhere.
As far as this goes, I found this article which explains what the different naming conventions mean.
Oh wow neat. Ok. Well that certainly is a helpful article!
As it is I get what I can. Because of my current situation most of my purchases are opportunistic in nature. I can't really buy much online at the moment and I'm just looking at what works. Yeah, I would get a new like 2016 model, but if I'm going to do that I might as well save up long enough to get a System76 machine that would be nice and specced out
Theres also a lot for me in buying physical hardware. Being able to hold it and rate it in my hands is nice. Really nice, actually.
Lol well its less tinkering more I know what I'm buying. Its the same with the food we buy. I want to know where it came from. If we buy hay for our horses I want to see the field.
I honestly hate buying shit online. It burns me half the time and I follow all the signs that something would be a good deal or is worth it. Anything I bought in person that I had time to compare and really dig into I still have useable. Most of what I have bought online was DOA and sent back or is dead now. Theres no sense of quality anymore and it pisses me off.
I used to like Lenovo laptops. I got a T420s a little over a year ago. It was an alright laptop for the most part, but I found a few things about it that I didn't like. I work very frequently with quite a few models of Lenovo laptops, as well, so I have seen pretty much all the issues they have to offer.
First, the hinges became loose. Almost all Lenovo laptops have this problem, especially from this era. I went through several sets, and they all developed this problem. Second, the case is very brittle. Same for the palm and screen bezel plastic. I dropped my T420s on its corner and it blew out, making a sizable hole in the magnesium case. The screens are almost universally bad quality. Only the W520 / W530 1080p screen and a couple of the IPS screens from the X-series are nice.
Personally I would steer clear of the low resolution high screen size models. 1366x768 on a 15.6 inch screen is very uncomfortable. 1600x900 is even a bit small. I did a mod on my 14 inch T420s to give it a 1080p screen, and it was awesome.
I would def recommend the L520 over the T520. That AMD GPU will run better with Linux in conjuction with the Intel iGPU. And the newer i5 3xxx series will be far nicer in terms of power consumption than the prior gen i7 with the Quadro Card. So yeah L520, you already picked pretty much.
For an old laptop i5 3xxx /i7 26xx is anyhow not a big deal.
As for the CPU if it's using a PPGA988/b socket you can probably upgrade it with some bargain ebay I7-3632QM
Haha well I don't exactly care about res's. On a laptop I'm, at most, doing 3 or 4 things at once and to be honest, if I have a 1080p laptop at any time I want a bigger screen. Its harder for me to read tiny text and most OS's I've played with have awful DPi changes. At that, my Y40-70 that is just losing things one after another has a 1080p screen. Good angles and colors, but fuck me if I have to use the dawn thing for anything. Its just going to be a server from now on and its 1080p screen is of perfect use for game server toolboxes.
I don't wanna be a dick about it, but I'm much much more careful with hardware than most people. Mostly because what I have is all in utility. Everything is valuable to me if I own it because it has a purpose. Otherwise I get rid of it.
Good to know. Yeah the L is basically brand new, if not actually brand new. I doubt I'll need to upgrade the CPU though. My rule is if its a pentium 4 and up in a laptop, then it needs to be 2.4 GHZ at least. My G50V is at 2.4, most all my stuff P4 and higher is 2.4. Pentium M and lower, 1.67 to bum. PPC, well, not 1.07GHZ lol.
Also, I have to actually FIND a v6b to put into the L520. It doesn't have one right now. Though theres a huge modding community so I bet I could put whatever I want to put into it TBH.
My dad has an L520 I bought for him. It's with a gen2 i3 and no discrete graphics though, so I wont comment on the internals. It feels every bit as sturdy as the T-series, but lacks thinklight and is a bit heavier and thicker than its cousins in the T-series. The ram, hdd, wifi card etc is easily accessible, I even think the Bluetooth module has its own latch. The rest is not hard to take apart either. The screen even has noticably better colour reproduction than my T430s. It's a fine machine. The volume, mute and mic mute to the left are quite recessed though, and can be hard to press with big, barky, clumsy dad-hands.
