Which Thinkpad to look for? T vs W

[gjt86]

I am considering pulling the trigger on a thinkpad, but have never owned one before. Currently, I am looking for something no more than 500 to get the job done (considering the laptop I currently use weighs 7 lbs and has 2gb of ram on a dual core).
My question is though, for photoshop, web development and vmware - which series would be the best bang for buck here?
I've looked over the w520, t410/420 and t520 series, but am starting to get lost. Is a newer i5 better than an older i7 (2720)? Any advice what to do or look for here?
If needed, I can post a few of the ones Ive been looking at if that is of any additional help.

 

[JQB45]

The "W" series tend to be high performance workstation replacement laptops. Where the "T" is more of a high end office laptop. The "W" will be heavier and larger for a given screen size. For VM's you will want an i7 due to the fact that they have hyper threading and tend to have higher clock speeds then the i5 series. The same is true for photo shop. I have used the "T" series for .NET web development and was not disappointed.

It wouldn't hurt if you were to post some links to the products you are considering

 

[gjt86]

Here are a few links to some I have been considering. I've also been told that I should go for an IPS screen?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Grade-B-Lenovo-Thinkpad-T520-Quad-Core-i7-2-2GHz-8GB-500GB-nVidia-15-6-Win-7/141673011890?_trksid=p2045573.c100034.m2102&_trkparms=aid%3D555012%26algo%3DPW.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20131003150253%26meid%3D70aca99e2fa141ff8887ca1e73fe34e5%26pid%3D100034%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D8%26sd%3D141719835794

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T420-14-Notebook-Laptop-i7-2-8Ghz-8GB-1TB-HD-DVDRW-Win-7-Pro-/181737974987?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a506d6ccb

 

[JQB45]

I like the Quad Core at 2.2GHz better then the Dual Core at 2.8GHz, but in reality both are nice processors.

 

[gjt86]

Is there any reason to choose the w520 over or under these?

 

[gjt86]

This is another one I've come across, but its a bit outside of my budget. However, if its significantly 'better', I would consider looking into it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thinkpad-T440s-14-i7-4600U-2-1Ghz-8GB-256GB-SSD-Ultrabook-Laptop-/191552982331?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c99728d3b

 

[gjt86]

Scratch that, it seems most t440s are outside of my budget besides that one which is a little under 700.

 

[JQB45]

Now that I think of it, these would all be nice upgrades to my laptop too

 

[gjt86]

Yeah, tell me about it. At this point, I think any laptop would do. I'm using an older ASUS (2012 maybe?) R530U with 2gb ram - and multitasking, much less photoshop, is pretty much horrifying.

I've never really delved into laptops though because of the not so much need for portability (changing now, obviously) and the reason that they are usually no good after 3-4 years. So on that note, I really like the thinkpads, heard great things about them, and just need something that can handle what my workstation usually does (although it doesn't have to be 'exactly' on par).

 

[velo3100]

I would go with the w series over the t series due to their gpus being more optimised for heavy usage rather than office use which the t series is more designed to do.

 

[gjt86]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-N550JK-DS71T-15-6-1080p-FHD-i7-2-4ghz-1TB-HDD-8gb-RAM-GeForce-850M-Laptop-/281756139883?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4199f9816b

How does this compare outside of the durability of a thinkpad?

 

[JQB45]

I brought my sister an ASUS laptop 2 years ago and she still loves it. (I'm a little jealous... because its better then my 4 year old laptop). She is hard on laptops but hers still works like new.

 

[gjt86]

thanks, this is the other one I am considering as it is more affordable in regards to budget:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/231631388700?_trksid=p2055359.m2763.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

[JQB45]

Thats a sweet laptop, no doubt still a very fast computer. Its likely to be rather heavy and require a laptop bag large enough to hold a 17.3" laptop. The Dell M4800 I used at my last job was 15" but would only fit in a backpack designed to carry 17.3" laptops. It was also over 6 pounds.

 

[gjt86]

I'd like to use it for a bit of gaming, but while travelling I won't have much time for it to be honest. The weight isn't an issue as the current laptop I am using is a little over 7lbs. My main concern is VM's, multitasking, visual studio and photoshop for web development / design.

 

[gjt86]

Also, how might this box fare with windows 8? Any idea?

 

[JQB45]

This is a better deal, better graphics card.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-W520-i7-2-7Ghz-4Gb-250Gb-2GB-Nvidia-15-6-1920x1080-4284-A95b/301680434808?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3Dc8389929239545aa897d806be7205535%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D201392716563

Also it only has 4GB of RAM so you would want to upgrade that but that is fairly cheap to do really.

 

[gjt86]

Note: in regards to the thinkpad listed above; i have found an almost exact configuration for $450 - opinions / suggestions?

 

[gjt86]

Link to how much ram costs?

 

[gjt86]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/16GB-2X8GB-RAM-Memory-for-Lenovo-ThinkPad-W520-Quad-Core-4270-4276-4282-4284-/270929595416?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f14a98c18

Ram seems to be approx $100-$110 for 16gb - is it really worth it to get the 4gb model?

 

[JQB45]

Getting link on RAM. But do keep in mind that the graphics cards usually found in Workstations are meant for Visual Studio, CAD, etc. and are not optimized for 3d gaming.

 

[JQB45]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=DDR3+1333+sodimm&N=-1&isNodeId=1

 

[JQB45]

You make a good point if you do in fact want 16GB of RAM.

 

[gjt86]

Yeah I am aware. The most graphic intensive game I play on my desktop is GTAV - which I know I won't be playing on this machine. While it is a perk, it is not really a necessity - and the most graphic intensive game I'd be playing would be BF4 or Civ 5. Also, given the needs of this machine, I won't have much time for gaming and travelling - simultaneously.

 

[JQB45]

Make sense
16GB RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=DDR3+1333+sodimm&N=100007609%20600213067&isNodeId=1