bargain ThinkPad t530i (fwd)

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Wed, Jul 16, 2014 at 01:19:57AM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
[snip a bit that I had no more comments on]
> I was surprised by the mini-DisplayPort since the T520 and W520 came
> with full-sized DisplayPort.  Mind you, there are a lot more mini
> cables available because that's what Apple uses.  (Mini-DP things
> usually come in white and non-mini usually come in black.)

Certainly mini-DP adapters are quite easy to find now because of the Mac.
And take less space on the case.

> I had thought that the keyboard was supposed to have been downgraded
> in the transition between *20 and the *30, but it seems good (one
> change: no keys are blue).  I guess the keyboard changed in the *40.

I like the keyboard on my W530 for sure.  It is as far as I know quite
different from the *20 line, but I don't think in a bad way.  Probably
some users disagreed.

> The 1920x1080 resolution seems quite nice at 15.6".  More is nicer but
> beyond that point it is not so much for packing more text on the
> screen but for making the same text look better.
> 
> I really like the way you can get at the guts.  I sure wish there were
> no whitelist in the "BIOS".

Yeah, although given I have an intel 6300 factory installed, the whitelist
hasn't been a problem for me.

> I think that the framework is the same.  But I imagine you have a quad
> core i7 and thus 4 memory slots (32G!).  You also have nVidia Optimus
> graphics.  Not yet well supported by Linux, as far as I know, but with
> "manual transmission", you can choose between a fair bit of GPU power
> or energy efficiency.

Yeah I can use the nvidia when wanted using the optirun or whatever the
command is.  I forget since I rarely do that.

The case is probably similar.  Not sure if the mainboard is mounted
differently to handle the extra memory slots under the keyboard or not.

I only have 24GB installed in mine at the moment.  Does make hibernate
and resume take a rather long time.  Just think what 100MB/s and 24000MB
ram means.

> I think of these ThinkPads as the ultimate serious Linux notebooks.
> Not always the best choice, but wonders none-the-less.
> 
> The large and serious Linux userbase is valuable too.

They do tend to be quite nice.

I am highly unimpressed by how bad the keyboard and pointing device is
on Dell business laptops.  Terrible junk.  I haven't seen an HP business
model lately so not sure how they are.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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