Move from a T530 to a W530?

[BillG]

I have a Win7 T530 with an i7-3540M and a nice fast Samsung SSD (ReadyBoost=off) and its served me faithfully. However, the 16GB of RAM isn't cutting it. I'm working multiple projects with many windows and browsers open, and I'm maxing out the RAM very fast. I don't have the time to configure a new laptop, so I'm looking at a HD compatible option by moving to the W530 so I can get 32GB of RAM (with a quad CPU). I understand the W530 draws more power than the T530, I can settle for an i7-3612QM and do the 90Watt power brick mod.

Can anyone tell me if I can just plug my SSD from my T530 into a W530 and expect it to work after a few reboots? As stated I don't have the time to build myself a new Win7 laptop so my first choice is a hard drive-compatible upgrade.

[TPFanatic]

W530 will need at minimum the 135W AC adapter, they refuse to work with the 90W. There's a guy in Seabrook NH on eBay selling the 170W ones for $15 a piece, item # 284975065307.

I've moved drives across ThinkPads many times and from T530-W530 should be very seamless, you might need to download a new Nvidia driver but that should be it. For Win 7 at least Lenovo's driver for W530 video is the same and shared with T430,T430s,T530 Nvidia versions, so if you're running an Nvidia machine already it might just work.

If your Windows 7 is not activated by SLIC volume licensing it will need a reactivation in the new machine, you can use the Phone activation to re-use the existing activation, or an OEM code sticker.

IMO it takes a lot to use up 16GB RAM so if that's your bottleneck I wonder if you should go big and look for a P50, which is the last with Windows 7 support and can be maxed out at 128GB RAM for around $300 for the RAM (4x32GB DDR4, each stick is around $75).

FWIW I moved a T430 Optimus drive with Windows 7 into a P71 and I used a lot of P50/P70 drivers to get it working. But sadly programs like Davinci Resolve don't recognize the GPU has CUDA, when it is supposed to have it. I guess I would need newer OS for that to work best.

[BillG]

:
IMO it takes a lot to use up 16GB RAM so if that's your bottleneck I wonder if you should go big and look for a P50, which is the last with Windows 7 support and can be maxed out at 128GB RAM for around $300 for the RAM (4x32GB DDR4, each stick is around $75).

FWIW I moved a T430 Optimus drive with Windows 7 into a P71 and I used a lot of P50/P70 drivers to get it working. But sadly programs like Davinci Resolve don't recognize the GPU has CUDA, when it is supposed to have it. I guess I would need newer OS for that to work best.

Interesting. Do you think I can easily move my SSD to a P50? Or a T550? Do they use a smaller power brick than the W530?

[TPFanatic]

YMMV, I think it would work.

I would suggest downloading at least the USB 3.0 and network drivers of the hypothetical P50 onto the SSD before moving it into the new computer, since neither a T530 nor vanilla Win 7 will have those built in.

You can also try doing sysprep with generalize on the environment before putting it in the new computer for the first time, that might clear out potential Driver incompatibilities, they can cause BSODs in the new computer that are annoying to clear out outside the OS (bootable repair media with command prompt can do it, but then it's no longer a seamless transition). The Realtek audio driver that T530 uses likes to crash the OS when put into an older generation Thinkpad, but I believe P50 and T530 use the same Realtek driver.

It's advisable to do this all on a backup or clone of your original drive so your original config isn't in any way damaged.


As for the power bricks, I believe they are height-wise slimmer but still longer and wider than the barrel 90W.

[BillG]

Yeah, for any move like this I'd first clone the SSD then install the drivers before migration.

I'm now looking at a W530 with the 35W K1000M GPU (the K2000M is 45W) and I can install a 35W CPU like the i7-3632QM, hopefully it won't get too warm.