First Post: Need Your Help with an Opinion of Best ThinkPad?

[slimp]

Hi,

I'm new to Lenovo ThinkPads and would like your opinion.

I would use a laptop primarily when out on errands to check e-mail and my on-line accounts for my Internet sales work, but also as a back-up to my desktops.

I run Windows 10, prefer 16GB for speed, have multiple browser windows open, runs MS Office, SuperAntiSpyware, and Photoshop at the same time. I don't game.

Can you give me guidance on ThinkPad selection and comparative speeds?

How much faster, if any, are Intel CPUs from say 2012 to prevent?

Are PCIe/NVME really faster than SATA-3 SSDs (I like 256GB SSDs)?

Is DDR4 RAM really going to be faster than DDR3, for what I'm doing.

I have my eyes on a T450, but wonder whether a T460 or T470 is really going to be that much faster, all other things equal?

Thanks

[MikalE]

Best is subjective. Welcome to the forum.

I think for what your use will be, an i5 or i7 processor will suffice. 8/16 GB of memory should get the job done too. Something in the Thinkpad line for a better business line computer or and E series for entry level. If you are only using this for what you stated in your OP, an upper end E series should suffice.

There is a night and day difference in processor speed between second generation i-processors and current production. The biggest differences though come in power consumption and running temperatures. Cooler is better for processor life, lower wattage is better for battery life. The best of both worlds. Cache has also increased immensely since 2012.

I still run computers daily from 2010, and depending upon program or application there is no comparison in speed or running temps.

[theterminator93]

Web browsers these days really take advantage of multiple threads/cores. Integrated GPUs have advanced light years in the last decade as well.

My T25 (based on T470) is noticeably slower than my T480 due to the core count.

My W520 like the T480 has 4 cores and keeps up but is finally starting to show its age, mostly in the GPU area. Fortunately I don't do much that relies on video. Its main drawback though is the tremendous heat/noise it makes - it has to work much harder to keep up with "everyday use" than it did before considering so much of "everyday use" these days is web based/hosted apps that run in a browser - much more CPU and RAM hungry than local programs.

My wife uses her X220T and I use an X220 for travel, all i7 models (dual core). They are OK, but again - getting long in the tooth. It may be 3-5 years before we are forced to stop using them due to software support and forced obsolescence.

I don't notice much difference in SSD speed between my *20 series (using SATA-II mSATA SSDs) compared to my NVME equipped TPs, but if all else was equal (e.g. same CPU) I'm sure it would be more pronounced.

Whatever you do, avoid the E series like the plague - they are not ThinkPads in any way other than the fact that Lenovo misbranded them. They are cheap consumer-grade products with lousy build quality, slapped with the enterprise-grade ThinkPad brand label. For a "real" ThinkPad, entry level starts with L series and moves up to T, X or P/W.

In general I'd recommend anyone new to the brand look for a T series, quad core. 14 inch is a nice compromise between productivity, performance and portability, at the expense of access to the highest power CPUs and GPUs and a numeric keypad. The biggest performance bump is between T470 and T480 for the simple reason everything went from 2 cores to 4. I say look for T480 or newer as a starting point, but we have no idea what your budget is, either.

[MikalE]

I did not realize the E series had fallen so low in the hierarchy.

My T500 with T9600, 8 GB of RAM and SSD can't even keep up with televised video any longer. There is a noticeable lag between audio and video sync on some streaming programming, most noticeably from BR Fernsehen.

The T520 is still able to keep up and watching is still enjoyable on this laptop.

[TPFanatic]

@MikalE
I recalled poor streaming performance with my T500 as well back in the day. But lately I had a recent experience with my R500 (T9400, 8GB, Intel GMA, SSD) playing YouTube 1080p flawlessly with latest Firefox (Ublock Origin). I was not multitasking at the time, though, which certainly would have slowed things down.

[slimp]

Wow! Thanks, everyone for your detailed and quick responses!

MikalE and others, can I mitigate the heat problems by changing the thermal paste upon purchase with Arctic MX-4, then changing it more frequently (how frequently)?

[axur-delmeria]

The performance difference becomes noticeable starting from the T480, mainly because it's the generation where quad-cores became standard for Core i5/i7 CPUs (in order to match the then-new Ryzen processors).

[theterminator93]

Heat is less of a problem and more of a characteristic of the CPU advancements in the last decade. CPUs emitted more heat and consumed more power at low load relative to more modern CPU designs. With the advent of the Ultrabook more emphasis was placed on low-power efficiency improvements than performance improvements until about 5 years ago. CPU performance per clock cycle only increased about 10% between Sandy Bridge (2nd gen) and Kaby Lake (7th gen). Looking from 7th gen to 12th gen, performance per clock has nearly doubled, while maintaining the same level of efficiency.

[slimp]

I just learned that some ThinkPads use AMD CPUs. What are your thoughts about those, e.g. the 2-GHz AMD quad-core A8-6410 processor on the G50-45?

[axur-delmeria]

Personally, I wouldn't get any AMD laptop before the Ryzen 3000 or 4000 series, preferably the latter.

[theterminator93]

I agree. I never held the AMD APUs in high regard compared to the equivalent Intel counterparts. Until Lenovo stopped branding the ThinkPads with AMD CPUs as a separate model, I'd skip them.

[mikemex]

I dismantled all my desktop PCs recently. I was planning to upgrade them at some point but there is no rush as my T14 G1 AMD seems to do everything I want at the moment. My brother in law even made a custom upright stand to use it as a desktop monitor and not get fatigue in the neck. The W530 I was using on a dock station was too low.

Honestly, a W530 with 32GB of RAM and a decent SATA SSD is pretty much indistinguishable performance wise from anything recent and costs pennies nowadays. If size or battery life is not an issue I recommend that route. You need an 8th generation or above to get both size / battery life and the same level of performance.