Lenovo Thinkpad for casual and some gaming

iconix

Honorable
Jan 27, 2013
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10,510
I am searching for a reliable laptop. I want a Thinkpad because of the keyboard because I am not the softest typer. I also want a laptop that can do light gaming. I do not like textured tochpads. I do not care about the fps or anything like that I just care that the laptop can play it and not lag. Right now I play Guild wars 2 and Rift. I mainly use my laptop for casual stuff like internet and microsoft office and MMO games (gw2, swtor, rift)

My current laptop is a Samsung NP305e5a-A07us:

CPU Type
AMD A6-3420M 1.5GHz
Screen
15.6"
Memory Size
4GB DDR3
Hard Disk
320GB
Graphics Card
AMD Radeon HD 6520G

I am trying to choose between the Lenovo T530 and T430u. I have no budget constraints.

T530:
CPU: i7-3630QM
Graphics: NVS 5400M 1GB

T430u
Processor: i7-3517u
Graphics: GT 620M

I do not get the differences between the NVS and GT 620M. Whatever I buy I am going to upgrade it to 8GB RAM and upgrade the hard drive. I am open to any thinkpad as long as it can play some MMO games.

Thanks for any help.
 
The NVS 5400 is basically a GT 630m with lower clockspeed (660MHz vs 800MHz). Nevertheless it will be a little more powerful than the GT 620m. Click the below link for a review and some benchmarks.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-NVS-5400M.76731.0.html

I'm considering the ThinkPad T540 when it comes out with a Haswell CPU. But that probably will not be until July or perhaps August. It would be nice if Lenovo could shave some weight off, but I understand that do so will likely reduce the overall ruggedness of the laptop.

I'm not very interested in getting a laptop capable of playing games... or at least that's what I keep telling myself...
 

Tibbs01

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2012
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With no budget restricitons I would recommend looking at the W530 in which you will be able to get a gpu that would support running those games at decent settings on the upgraded 1920x1080 screen at native resolution.
 
Sep 15, 2014
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if i remember correctly the "u" models of the T series came with Aluminium heat sinks, this coupled with the laptop being physically slimmer means that overheating is a serious issue, on the contrary the normal T series deals with heat quite nicely and i can only imagine that the larger 15 inch is even better (than the 14 inch ones im used to). and the 3630qm is more powerful than the 3517u so that should also help you out. In conclusion, if you won't benefit from the smaller form factor you should definitely go for the more powerful and more capable T530.
 
Sep 15, 2014
11
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4,570

without any budget restrictions, his best bet from thinkpad is the P70, but when he says that he "doesn't have a budget restriciton" i assumed that he wanted to stay somewhat close to the price of a t530.