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]

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

 

[JQB45]

I'm also a Visual Studio C# ASP.NET Web Developer.

 

[gjt86]

I've searched pretty hard to find a 2gb quadro for the same price. I really would like to go for it and upgrade the ram, but it doesn't seem possible. How much performance is the 4gb model over the one I linked in terms of my most noted needs? I'm honestly thinking of pulling the trigger on the 16gb model.

 

[gjt86]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-W520-i7-2-7Ghz-4Gb-250Gb-2GB-Nvidia-15-6-1920x1080-4284-A95b-/111626037709?hash=item19fd6e29cd

+

$85 approx for 16gb of ram isn't too bad in comparison - pretty menial.

 

[JQB45]

Here I am contradicting myself but its worth noting the laptop you found with 16GB of RAM has a quad core cpu versus the one I found which is only a dual core. I think you are right to go ahead and get the 16GB model you found.

 

[gjt86]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-W520-i7-2-7Ghz-4Gb-250Gb-2GB-Nvidia-15-6-1920x1080-4284-A95b-/111626037709?hash=item19fd6e29cd

Is dual core?

 

[JQB45]

Yes.

 

[gjt86]

Probably going to go for that w520, but ran into http://www.ebay.com/itm/321776764509?_trksid=p2055359.m2763.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Seems to lose the durability supposedly, but I do gain a better gpu? It is a bit outside budget, but if everything is significantly better, I'd be willing to consider it (with ram upgrade as well most likely).

 

[JQB45]

The U processor designates a highly energy efficient processor. The trade off is they are not very powerful.

 

[gjt86]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X230-Laptop-Core-i7-2-90GHz-8GB-240GB-SSD-Windows-7-64bit-Webcam-/261977452556?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cff12b00c

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thinkpad-T520-Laptop-Core-i7-2-70GHZ-8GB-500GB-Windows-7-Pro-webcam-DVDRW-/391186796134?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5b148cce66

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Grade-B-Lenovo-Thinkpad-T520-Quad-Core-i7-2-2GHz-8GB-500GB-nVidia-15-6-Win-7-/141673011890?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20fc5e9ab2

Not too into the T series for lack of dedicated gpu, but seem like decent deals if upgrading RAM.

 

[gjt86]

Sorry, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-IdeaPad-Y400-14-Intel-i7-upto-3-40GHz-NVidia-GeForce-8GB-1TB-DVDRW-Win8-/201394394506?hash=item2ee40a958a

was supposed to be included in the link. I feel like I'm getting a bit redundant now, but given I have almost 0 experience with laptops, I want to to make sure before I pull the trigger. Second opinions are great - thanks btw 😉

 

[gjt86]

A bit out of scope, but how does the w520 fare against an early/late 2011 MBP running bootcamp? Never owned a mac in a long ass time, but I've heard good things about their hardware?

 

[JQB45]

Those all have low resolution displays. They are not 1080p.

 

[gjt86]

Gotcha, good to know.

 

[JQB45]

I have no experience with Mac. So no idea.

 

[gjt86]

Ah, was just curious, although the lack of durability and DIY upgrading is not something I am very interested in.