Lenovo T460?

[Jonathan S.]

After many Dell laptops both at my former employer and then on my own, bought a Lenovo T420 way back in October 2011.

Increasingly lots of slowdowns, freezes, 100% disk moments, etc.

Trend Micro says my computer is all optimized and what-not.
I would try to look into fixes, but I'm thinking that for a laptop this ancient (by laptop standards), might have to just buy a new laptop by now?

Usage is mainly lots of big spreadsheets, writing up report text (in both Word and WordPerfect, still my favorite!), wading through massive pdf files from clients, creating my own pdf files for reports.
(Plus of course posting skimo race binding pictures to the internet, and driving myself crazy drawing umpteen revisions of skimo race course layouts.)

Posted below is the T460 configuration I am contemplating, and my old T420 for comparison.

A few specific q's:

• My laptop spends most of its time at a docking station in my home office, a lot of time separate from that at various other parts of the house, lots of time in its briefcase in the trunk of my car when I'm backcountry skiing midweek but might have to attend to something, but only several airport trips a year. Hence not really concerned about something smaller/lighter. So these new laptop-replacement tablets wouldn't seem to make much sense?
• Given how often I use it at a desk, a docking station still seems convenient compared to dealing with multiple cables?
• I went with the base configuration except for a longer (and bigger/heavier) battery). Anything worth stepping up for though?
• I didn't bother with any software since I still have the discs from my T420 (and an old external DVD).

Thanks in an advance for any feedback, and apologies in advance if I'm being really clueless on anything here!

[auvgeek]

Personally, I would spend a little extra for a SSD (256 or 512 GB), and, depending on the size of your spreadsheets, you may want to spring for 12 or 16 GB RAM. These may be upgradable later, though—I'm pretty sure the RAM on the T460 isn't soldered onto the motherboard (unlike the ultrabooks). But if you're not comfortable doing that yourself, it might be worth paying a small premium to buy somethign configured appropriately by Lenovo.

Regarding the battery: you can probably get an aftermarket one for pretty cheap. IIRC, one nice thing about the T460 is they're hot-swappable, so you can just carry an extra in your briefcase.

Also: Lenovo is about to do a big refresh with the new intel chipset (kaby lake, supposedly ~10% faster), so you may want to hold off for a few weeks, unless you can get that one on sale.

ETA: Please verify everything I've posted here with lenovo or someone else. I'm not an expert, and this is all from the top of my head.

[carlh]

Get a SSD, I put one into my work laptop (lenovo w540) and it's night and day better. Anything with a hard drive is now painful to use.

[stuckathuntermtn]

6 year old laptop means components may be starting to go. Fans and stuff going means overheating which means slowdowns, shutdowns, freezing. You may want to check out a malware sweeper like Malwarebytes or Spybot in addition to TrendMicro. Make sure live protection is off if you get Malwarebytes. Don't want 2 virus scanners running at the same time. I prefer SpyBot. It's a little less user friendly to start, but it has a passive "Immunization" feature that blocks a lot of shit. If you're not using an ad blocker with your browser, I'd recommend that too. adblockplus.org
You can look at your task manager and sort by read/writes to see what's using the disk so hard. You may need to add the column to the task manager details or download Process Explorer from Sys Internals.

use MSConfig tool or CCleaner (better) to disable shit like Adobe and Java update nonsense that is always bothersome.

Even a small SSD is worth more than that laptop at this point.

If you really can't or don't want to replace the laptop, you may also want to double up on the RAM in addition to a new SSD.

[anotherVTskibum]

Get a SSD, I put one into my work laptop (lenovo w540) and it's night and day better. Anything with a hard drive is now painful to use.

When I looked at laptops recently, I was shocked at how many still have spinning drives. SSDs are night-and-day better all around for laptops, and mostly better for desktops (the power savings vs capacity tradeoff may be a difference there, but the access speed is still hugely difficult). Putting a spinning drive in any computer as a primary drive at this point makes about as much sense as buying a new pair of lightweight touring skis and then mounting a brand-new pair of the original Dukes on them.

[XXX-er]

I would use LT's for 3 years after which they were written down and we got issued a new one

the HW has definatley got better but after 3 years the hinges were screwed the kybds were screwed, lines on the display you name it, they often didn't make it thru a 3 yr cycle so insted of fixing it myself I would just call up the LT replacement hot line and I could new LT in 24hrs cuz I hated working on them

if you got 6 years out of an LT and especialy if you can write off the next one ... time to upgrade

[MESH]

If you upgrade the T420 also look into swapping out the CPU. It looks like it came with an Intel Core i7 2620M which you can get cheap on ebay.

[Jonathan S.]

Many thanks for all the feedback!

Upgraded now to:

1. SSD (256, since that’s still 2x what I’ve managed to accumulate on my current laptop, even after over half a decade)
2. 12 memory (as compared to 8 previously, and 4 on my current laptop)
3. Downgraded the rear battery, on the idea that 3 cell will allow the laptop to fit more easily into my current briefcase (since the 6 cell option apparently protrudes a lot), and then easier to just have a second battery to swap in if needed

New configuration is shown below.
And in case you're wondering why the price barely changed even though I upgraded two major items, when I returned to the original configuration, the price in my cart had dropped by ~$200.

[MESH]

Sometimes you can save even more by keeping the minimum specs then buy the SSD and extra memory somewhere else.

[RShea]

If you are having issues with your 6 year old laptop- then definitely probably time for a new one- especially since it is for business needs. Sure you could get an SSD and stick it in the system (I did that with the system I am typing this on). But it is probably time to pick up something new.

As for the 2nd configuration, looks OK, other than the Lenovo docking station is a bit pricey. Depends on what you need to have available and a few other things as to if a 3rd party USB docking station from one of the accessories companies would be worth checking out or not. Kensington, Targus and some others have a single plug docking stations to handle many standard accessories like KB, mouse, printer, etc. for a bit of savings. http://www.computerworld.com/article...ur-laptop.html Probably not worth it if you want Lan connection via wired port off the docking station though.

As for the auvgeek comment on the new chipsets, Skylake is not that old being rolled into most of the Thinkpad laptops but here is the article on which will be the first systems with the Kady Lake chips (note the pricing and cheapest model is a 15.6 screen not a 14 inch unit):https://www.itvoice.in/index.php/it-...kaby-lake-cpus (Note Indian site but general discussion on the specs will apply) They are discussing the speed improvements especially video and if you are looking at the highest end iCore 7 CPU's.

There in the last 2 months been a few good sales on Thinkpad E560 (15.6 inch screen size- otherwise similar specs as you had in the first configuration for CPU, HD, etc.)- this is not an Ultrabook series (DVD included) and there are a few 14" screens similar in the E series

[Jonathan S.]

^ Yes, that $210 price for the docking station did give me pause ... but out of curiosity I blindly Googled the part #, and I was surprised to see that even new versions are available from apparently legitimate sellers, as low as $135 here [edit -- correct url now inserted]:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182435261116
I'd be nervous about buying a laptop or almost anything electronic from eBay, but given that a docking station is a relatively "inert" (?) product, does this seem okay?

Also, what do you think about this Outlet laptop for $739:
http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/i...W-PC0G8UQN/445

Specs are listed as follows:

• Condition: New
• Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-6200U Processor (3M Cache, up to 2.80 GHz)
• Operating system: Windows 10 Professional 64 - English
• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 520
• Memory: 16GB PC3-12800 DDR3L 1600MHz SDRAM SODIMM Memory
• Display: 14.0" HD (1366x768) color, anti-glare, LED backlight Display w/ 720p HD Camera
• Pointing device: UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad)
• Hard Drive: 256GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA3
• Optical Drive: No Optical Included
• Battery: Integrated 3-cell (23.2Wh) plus External 3-cell Lithium Ion (23.2Wh)
• Network Card: Integrated Wireless Wide Area Network upgradable
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth
• WWAN: Intel Wireless-AC 8260 Bluetooth Version 4.0
• Finger Print Reader: No Fingerprint Reader
• Warranty: 1 Year Standard Depot Warranty

The second version of the custom T460 I posted is $884 w/o the docking station and w/ some random internet coupon.
So, savings of only $145, but don't seem to be any disadvantages?

[MESH]

Everything looks great on the outlet one. Since it has Windows 10 Pro and a TPM you can also encrypt the hard drive with BitLocker for added security.

[RShea]

Yes, I agree with Mesh that one of the biggest advantages to the Outlet unit is the Windows Pro instead of Home version of the OS- 3 or 4 added features or functions with the Pro over Home. You can price out that upgrade on the regular site but definitely $30 add-on. Plus you have an option with the Win 10 Pro to use downgrade rights to get Windows 7 Pro if you are not a Win 10 OS fan. There is only 1 so better not wait too long if you are going to pull the trigger.

As for the docking system, your link is to the Outlet store laptop, not any Docking Station or Ebay. As with anything on EBay- look at the seller feedback for good reputation, check out warranty or if they would allow a return if there is any issue. I also check description and determine if it is used, new (sealed box or open?) or exactly what.

[Jonathan S.]

Trigger pulled on the outlet laptop, thanks for the feedback on that.
Here's the correct url for the eBay dock listing:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182435261116
Almost seems too good to be true!

[Jonathan S.]

Many thanks for all the feedback: laptop arrived today, and we're already off & running!