Lenovo ThinkPad W540: Workstation Performance

[@the_beefy1986]

I recently rescued a W541 from ewaste and did a full restoration/upgrade: new keyboard, upgraded to IPS display panel, Samsung SSD, 32 GB RAM, and AX200 card. That last upgrade necessitated a BIOS modification, and I thought, what the heck, might as well do coreboot. :) It's a joy of a system to use. Great rundown and thanks for the info on the TB interface.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

So glad you were able to save it!

[@nevemartins]

I still own one of these with 32gb of ram and 4tb of ssd storage, still delivers and never let me down. Also, there has never been a better keyboard on a laptop.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Awesome!

[@Cobalt985]

Except for the T420 keyboard ;) I own an L560 with the same keyboard, I still prefer the T420 but I'd GLADLY take the L560/W540's keyboard over the tiny scissor switches of a Macbook and many other ultrabooks of today.

[@henrymuogor6335]

​@@LaptopRetrospective@nevemartins I want to buy this laptop, I'm wondering if it would be good for video editing? 32GB RAM, intel i7 1tb storage but with 2gb graphics card. Please I would appreciate a response as I am a beginner.

[@ZGearbox_AT]

Still use my W541 it as a daily and it's still a fantastic workhorse, I've purchased one for a hundred bucks with only the i7-4710MQ and the quadro k110M installed and was stripped out of hdd and ram; I did some upgrades like an IPS FHD panel, 16GB of ram, a backlit keyboard, a thinkpad ultradock and the 170w AC Never missed a beat!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

That's an awesome piece of kit. Well done.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I suspect so.

[@ZGearbox_AT]

@bitcoins for drugs I can safely say that yes, you can but watch out for the CPU and GPU temps as these computer thermals are not that great; so a repaste with a good thermals paste and tpfancontrol is a must.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Thanks for weighing in!

[@retropcdurham]

Former ThinkPad P71 owner, there really is something special about big heavy powerful portable workstations that will always be appealing to me.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

After handling this and another, I can see why.

[@billcarson9565]

I have the P73, 4 years ownership in 32 days, when my extended warranty will run out, I am looking to add 12 more months, although it would be nice if lenovo would allow another 4 years! I upgraded my 64GB ram to 128GB, it came with 2x 1tb opal SSD's and a 2TB hdd, a 4k display, 4GB quadro card, 9th gen i7, I will look to replace the HDD with a 4TB SSD soon. absolute beast of a laptop, but lesson learned, too heavy to cart around the office, will be looking at a a 15" laptop for the next one, the P73 disappeared a few months after I purchased it, I'm guessing weight had something to do with it!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@billcarson9565 I'd love to see a P7x machine one day. ❤️

[@billcarson9565]

@@LaptopRetrospectiveif i get round to it, i will make a video

[@nitrax8629]

Great video on these, they are exceptionally well built (that magnesium midframe!) and have stood the test of time well... Only now are these systems seeing a real replacement where I am, with Surface Book 3 systems. Had one of them come in with the extreme edition processor and highest end Nvidia graphics option, they're all being stored for now in case of technical issues with the new kit... Wouldn't lie, I would love to get my hands on that system when they are no longer needed as backup :)

[@MikeDancy]

that's a clean machine! looks good. I should grab one for myself to replace my T450s

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yes indeed, thanks to a certain someone I got a real great specimen. 😉

[@dragunovbushcraft152]

W540/41, is FAAAR superior! You WON'T be sorry!

[@overthebar]

I have 2 W541's, different screens and gpus, apart from that they are the same. Even the cheaper one is great, if you couldn't guess, that's why I got two!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

The W series was no joke.

[@carlosleninmajano8084]

Thanks Brother.

[@billcarson9565]

Great vid, i bought a W541 from ebay, came with 32GB ram quad core cpu and a normal HDD, i have purchased 3 new drives for my upgrade, Samsung evo 1TB of SSD for the HDD replacement, 1 M.2 2242 1TB for use in the WWAN port, and a optical to SSD drive bay converter and an additional samsung evo 1TB SSD. I will be stripping it down to replace the thermal paste and pads this weekend.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

What a beast!

[@billcarson9565]

@@LaptopRetrospective All done. The strip down of the laptop and repaste took some time (2 hours) i spent time cleaning the insides thoroughly, but it was worth it, the old thermal past was past giving any benefit, I used Noctua NT-H1for both the CPU and Nvidia processers, cleaned out the dust from the fan and I was tempted to replace the thermal pads that sit above the GPU ram and a few other smaller pieces but they were OK and even though I have purchased arctic 1.0mm pads I could not be 100% sure that it was 1.5mm thick pads currently in use, no matter I will monitor and replace once I find the correct specs. Be aware that there are multiple screw sizes when taking this apart, I used photos to identify which screws went where and that made it very easy, especially when putting it all back together again. next upgrade will be to install a wifi 6 card, i believe that to do this i will need a modded bios with the whitelist removed.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@billcarson9565 Keep us posted. In my mind thicker would be better as it can compress but an air gap is forever.

[@billcarson9565]

@@LaptopRetrospective Will do.

[@MichaelSpann-jp2ue]

As a low-budget consumer coming from a dell Inspiron 13 5000. (i3 6001u), I can confirm that for the right price, this is one powerhouse of a deal to this day. Truly astounding how well this bad boy all the way back from 2013 performs to this day in 2024. (quadro k100m model) Best part, you can still somewhat game on this lovely laptop. aged like fine wine. (on slight a side note, the keyboard is great to type on)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Lots to like, no question.

[@wandererstraining]

I don't have a W540, but a W530. Not my main machine anymore, but still so usable. I love that it has a hot swappable optical drive. Because of that, it fits three drives. One mSATA SSD, and two 2.5" drives of our choice. It can also have not one, but two 9 cell batteries! The regular 9 cell battery can still be found, but the slice battery, as far as I know, cannot. The specs on my machine are: CPU: i7-3720QM RAM: 24GB GPU: Nvidia Quadro K1000M Screen: 15", 1920x1080 Storage: Crucial 256GB mSATA SSD, 1TB 2.5" SSD, 1TB 2.5" HDD

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Very cool! The slice battery is indeed quite rare.

[@wandererstraining]

@@LaptopRetrospective I wish more laptops had it, and I wish Lenovo had standardized battery formats so we could keep buying new ones! With both batteries, I could make my W530 last 12-15 hours. (Reduced screen brightness and light usage.)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah standard size batteries, especially when internal is very tricky.

[@Veg-Power]

I had several W540/T540p + P50. The 3K screen of my T540p is MUCH better looking than the P50 4K screen! I sent back the P50 and kept the T540p (now working for my father). It's still one of the best machines available. The screen is pure gold but my two w540 had worse 3k screens than the T540p somehow. Also batterylife (easy 9-10h vs 6-7h), noise (silent unless heavy load) and cooling was better on the T540p vs W540 and it didn't perform less on battery which the W540 did. difference is ofc GT750M vs GT730M and 32GB vs 16GB RAM max. It has the BEST chiclet Keyboard ever made imo. perfect travel and tactile feedback. full height trackpoint is nice too and audio is better than on other thinkpads, too. Very robust machine, but has palmrest-flex unfortunately. But it is tolerable. I hated swapping the CPU though. Disassembling every single part! Much better on T440p. not much thinkpads after this one came out with a high-res display in combination with very good batterylife. Everything after that was 4K (or not combined with QuadCore) which caused almost half batterylife.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Thanks for sharing your experience with the W series. Lots of good points.

[@AtliJarlMartin]

The bad rep the Clickpad got I never related with. I got used to it and I never had any problems with using the TrackPoint on the models that had it.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I think it falls to personal preference like many things.

[@AFluffyMobius]

I had the choice to either use a T580 or W541 at work, and while the T580 has amazing battery life, decent enough screen, runs cooler, and can charge via USB-C PD, i chose the W541 for one reason. The keyboards are night-and-day different. I'm not sure if its generation dependent, but the 40-series keyboards have MUCH better key travel than than anything newer from Lenovo. While the keyboard travel on the T580 isnt as bad as recent Dell Ultrabook chiclet keys on my work provides, it still doesn't hold a candle to the W541 keyboard. The one negative with the W541 is the placement of the GPU right under the left-hand palmrest. It gets TOASTY with general usage. Battery life isnt great but not too bad, about 5-hours or so on an 80% charge. p.s. if anyone is wondering, the 3K screen isnt really worth it in my opinion. At least not at 100% scale. Everything is almost too small to read at "regular" sitting distance. Keep it FHD, you'll be fine with it. If someone could fit a 1440p screen into these, now that would be the best of both worlds.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Interesting fact, there are several manufacturers for each generation that have different switch mechanisms. I think that's calmed down in recent years. At its peak there were many different manufacturers for the same keyboard.

[@balithinkpad1413]

write this comment in W540, bought it new back then, served me well ever since, never had any issues, only battery replaced once at 2017, still going strong today. maxed ram to 32, use three drives configuration, and surprisingly well with windows 11, altough i revert back to 10 pro . i know its not light, not thin, but who cares, as long as it served me well within my workload, im goin to still use this beast for the next few years i hope.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

That's awesome! Glad to hear it is still getting used.

[@balithinkpad1413]

@@LaptopRetrospective i was thinking to replace the origin fhd tn panel to ips fhd panel, since looking for the 3k panel is almost impossible here, but im still doubt about the color quality in between both ( tn vs ips )

[@balithinkpad1413]

@@LaptopRetrospective by the way, because of your P50 video, i finally buy P51 few months ago, and yes, its amazing build quality in a 15inch body.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

IPS is generally superior in every measurable way.

[@wombat1238marsupial]

Great video, probably the W stands for WOW!😊😊 A friend has one of these and the docking station (THINKPAD ULTRA DOCK) has to be powered by the 170w adapter when W540 is docked. You could heat a small room when he uses this beast😂😂

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Haha yeah it could get a bit warm but for a good reason. Lots crammed inside.

[@Lucretia9000]

Without the dock, is the 135w enough?

[@bigbodge]

"its pretty much, if you dont mind the weight, preferable to the T540p in about every measurable way" its like you literally saw the 2 tabs I have open lol

[@LaptopRetrospective]

That's the benefit of reading the comments on all my videos. I learn from those that have come before me and remember it for when I film.

[@bigbodge]

@@LaptopRetrospective In the end I decided to go with a P50, but it was a close call between that, the W540, and a T520 (kind of the odd one out, but as Im upgrading from an X220 it was pretty much the same thing but with a bigger screen)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

The P50 is awesome. Great choice.

[@bigbodge]

@@LaptopRetrospective Cheers! I've never used a 16 inch (I guess technically 15.6, but I doubt that 0.4 makes the world of difference) laptop before, so it'll be interesting to try. The X220 has been a solid machine for me the past few months but its not great for media consumption due to the small screen

[@LaptopRetrospective]

If you haven't seen the P50 video on the channel, you should. It's pretty impressive.

[@Pernig]

Lovely looking machine.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It really is.

[@qazmko22]

Thanks I bought the t440p, I think this is also a great option. I will suggest this video to my friends.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed the video!

[@watch_kitty]

Pardon, I'm looking at getting a W540 to replace my current entry level laptop on my move towards Australia. Lenovo (thankfully) still sells power bricks and power cables of various regions for this, however the 170w AC adapter seems to be an North American exclusive (no 2 prong cable for outside US and Canada). Would forgoing the 170w AC adapter hinder performance or functionality in any way? I'm also interested in replacing the hard drive with an SSD and installing Linux onto it. I'd be using it mainly for office work and video watching (which the 3200U on my current laptop can barely handle). Many thanks for the video!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

The short answer is, if it is a higher end configuration, it will need that bigger power adapter or it just won't work. Base configurations can get away with lower wattages.

[@watch_kitty]

@@LaptopRetrospective So it might be a problem then? My apologies for not sharing the specs of the W540 I'm looking at but it's as follows: CPU - i7-4800MQ GPU - K1100M RAM - 16 GBs

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@watch_kitty yeah a standard 65W charger probably won't cut it for that setup. The PSREF might confirm this.

[@watch_kitty]

@@LaptopRetrospective This is my first time looking at these lovely machines so forgive me as I'm not accustomed to so much information being freely available. Aaannnnd indeed, PSREF confirms a 170w AC adapter. Fuuuuuck this would've been nice to bring along with me, especially for the amount of office work I need to do. I thank you for your response, you've been quite helpful. May I ask what you think of the T470? I've also been looking at that one and it seems to be a higher end model ft. the 1920x1080 screen.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@watch_kitty The T470 is dual core I believe and the improvements made to the T480 make it a second-class machine unless the price is rock bottom and you aren't too worried about performance. Most prefer to track down a T480 for a few dollars more.

[@alfredosalgado4174]

I have been using an X230 with 16gb ram, 2tb ssd on, Windows 7 Ultimate, for the last 5 years. I upgraded it of course, but I have been dabbling with buying a quad core thinkpad - THIS or THE 541W would be an awesome choice. My only question is... can they run Windows 7 Ultimate or only professional??

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Either can run Windows 10 so I can't imagine either struggling with Windows 7.

[@alfredosalgado4174]

@@LaptopRetrospective Sure... Thanks.

[@TechDave]

everything about this laptop is utterly perfect... in every way, especially the expresscard port AND thunderbolt 1 edit: stick an ssd in there and a 2tb drive where the dvd drive is, and im sold!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

This is where I say "But wait, there's more!" It will just be a while. 😉

[@TechDave]

@@LaptopRetrospective *drools patiently*

[@brutusthebuttress1476]

​@@TechDave！！(゜ロ゜ノ)ノ

[@sirhc0632]

Lenovo once made a dual screen ThinkPad once BTW, I think it was called the W700ds. It looks ridiculous, and I think its hinge also doesn't go full 180 degrees. Also probably the heaviest ThinkPad. Just saying.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I've been trying to find one that doesn't cost huge amounts of money. No luck so far.

[@YR7A]

I purchased one of these things new in 2014, amazing machine, still using it today and typing on it right now. Honestly one of the best laptops I've ever owned, though I do use a x220 for day-to-day tasks when I don't need a boatload of power and weight.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Good combination!

[@thelam1129]

Are you an engineer?

[@YR7A]

@@thelam1129 No, I'm a CNC machinist & hobbyist 3d printer.

[@thelam1129]

@@YR7A is this laptop good enough for cnc job?

[@YR7A]

@@thelam1129 yes

[@aaroncheah2088]

The high-end cousin of the T540P. Upgrading a stock T540P to W540 will require 3 items. Motherboard, heatsink and display bezel. Personally, I prefer the W541 which has a better GPU and physical trackpad buttons.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yep, gotta love that parts compatibility.

[@mohamedelsaidelmosad11]

I have a T540p and I have always looked at the W540 with jealousy!

[@Lucretia9000]

I just picked up what was advertised as a W541 board with K2100M but it's coming back as a W540 board, no FRU sticker on the board.

[@dragunovbushcraft152]

Those trackpad buttons can damage your screen, if you're not careful!. I don't recommend.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I know that's a concern on the T440 series, the W series might be better off especially since the 540 and 541 are essentially identical.

[@joshtree8298]

I was gonna say the p50 is usually a better buy. But I saw a w540 with a 1440p ips display and 4910mq go for $210 yesterday! Now that than price I’d go for the w540 ANYDAY over a p50 for ~$400! And upgrading it is still relatively possible. You’ll never see a good quality p50 for for even $300 as often. The P50 can run the express card really fast, has faster ram and better cooling, and no option for the lcd display. But overall the w540 really holds up. a relatively simple (if you know how to solder) mod can get this machine pretty close (correct me if I’m wrong) to run an external gpu I think the internal gpu is not a good card especially. On the p50 it can stay cool more easily, but both m1000m Quadra and the quad to in w540 aren’t geared for gaming. It seems to throttle with the cpu way too fast for most practical use; most people will probably prefer it disabled. I could be wrong. But the ram upgrade is nice for practical use. And unlike a t540p, you can get the cpu in i7 quad core is not very affordable compared to a w540 And ivy bridge/ 4th generation i7 are both really, really fast. They out perform 6th generation and the p50. Yep ivy bridge and i7-4xxxmq are super fast, ivy bridge may even be better but you are probably sacrificing a lot to use say a w530. The trackpad replacement is just too easy and affordable not to do imo! I use w541 interchangeably because it’s really the same machine.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah it depends on the deal and what you need from your machine which is better.

[@dragunovbushcraft152]

YEP! My DD is STILL a W540,/32gb/RAM/2x1tb, Samsung 860 EVO, SSD/480gb M.2, NGFF drive/3k screen, and K2100M video/I7 4900MQ. I've had it for six years, and have STILL found no reason to upgrade. :^).... Oh, I'm STILL on Win7Pro! Best dang computer EVER! Actually, I have TWO of them!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

That's awesome, what do you use them for? Are you worried about using them online?

[@SirDeeJack]

Is there a DC charging option for the W540? I picked one up at a pawn shop and really need the ability to charge in my car or RV.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Good question. You can check the PSREF documents online to see if there is an official option. If not then you'll need to go with an inverter I suspect.

[@SirDeeJack]

@@LaptopRetrospective Thank you! An inverter is working "ok" but kind of cumbersome...but it does work. Thanks for the reply!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

You're welcome. Good luck.

[@mdsalahuddin7077]

Inspired by this channel, I have purchased many ThinkPads from eBay in recent years. But my best eBay purchase so far is a W541 with 4710mq, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD with Win10 Pro at USD 190. Now paired with an external monitor with an ultra dock, 2nd SDD caddy, M.2 SSD for Linux; this beast run my office on its own. Though I already have a T460p and eyeing on a T470P but I am not leaving W541 anytime soon. I have a query: what is the best used Thinkpad currently available widely on eBay that can take place of a w541?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

That can take the place of a W451? Maybe a P50 but it depends on what your needs and use cases are I suppose.

[@Lucretia9000]

Problem with most of them is the bios password lock issue.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

There are ways around it, even if it means desodering the old BIOS chip and replacing it with a new one.

[@mark902]

i don't get the hate for the "clunkpad". you don't have to press it down. you can just tap to select. two finger tap to right click. maybe it because i'm used to the logitech k400 where i never use the buttons, but i find the "clunkpad" to be quite nice.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I think for a lot of people, it is the depth of the "squish" of the click and the force needed. It was a huge departure from previous decisions of shallower, firmer clicks and dedicated buttons.

[@mark902]

i'm gathering a lot of people use the trackpoint and the missing buttons to navigate. i guess it just depends what you're used to. i'm used to the taps. i never use the trackpoint. i never used the buttons on my k400+. i never even have to press to clunk on the t540p. just a light tap. but i can see if one were to use the trackpoint, and have to press the whole entire trackpad every time it would be a lot. @@LaptopRetrospective

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah, TrackPoint users weren't thrilled.

[@tedarmavan]

It's interesting to see how well W540/1 compete against the like of P50 for example, or any ZBook/Precision from same generation

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Hmmm interesting idea. What kind of competition do you think would be best?

[@MyHowHowHow]

Imho the zbook g2 17 is better in some aspects...dual 2.5" drive bays, graphics up to quadro k4100m (mxm type)..BUT the lowest spec screen is HD+ only with terrible viewing angles. It uses the same quad core 4th gen CPUs, has full size displayport and the build quality is great. Oh and the keyboard is not that good, but at least it has a track point and real trackpad buttons.

[@tedarmavan]

@@LaptopRetrospective Maybe some speed test, and teardown comparison…

[@chiqui1234ok]

Hi! Thanks for the video. CPU and GPU are upgradable?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

CPU yes, GPU I believe is part of the motherboard.

[@Maximaomega]

thank you for great knowledge. i have saving plan to buy this laptop for studying 2D design, light rendering, and sometimes maybe try gaming like gta v etc.. and i hope this laptop can handle programs update at least for next 3 years. depend on my needs above, is this W540 is suitable for me? or i should look for another thinkpad type? and this will be my very first laptop i own 😄 thank you & sorry for my terrible english. 🙏

[@LaptopRetrospective]

One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is to focus on what you want your laptop to do. Right now it sounds like you want to do absolutely everything. If you want some real expandability, check out the P50/P51 as it has Thunderbolt 3.

[@Maximaomega]

@@LaptopRetrospective ah thank you very much for the great advice. ok let's stick to corel and adobe software since P50 is very rare here in my country and the lowest price of P50 ( i7 6700hq) is cost twice of W540 ( i7 4800mq) price i can't afford for now. W540 itself is around $400

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah local pricing varies a lot. A P50 here isn't twice the price. How much RAM does the W come with?

[@Maximaomega]

@@LaptopRetrospective it comes with 8Gb ram and 500gb Hdd but the i5 series comes with 16Gb ram and 256 ssd + 500gb hdd. with lower price, around $270. its decent amount of money, i can repair my mom shop with that spare

[@LaptopRetrospective]

What's the i5 machine? You didn't mention it earlier. 😂

[@rspascual21]

Is there a light indicator for this laptop that signals that the battery is fully charged?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I believe the indicator goes off when the battery is fully charged. I'll have to look sometime.

[@edwardtran137]

Im having a W541. Still runs well, but the keyboard is dead after 3 years of purchasing, which is confusing to me.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Strange but should be easy to solve by replacing it.

[@rohitkavuluri]

1.How long I can last with ThinkPad W541 6cell battery Dual core i7 processor, 6cell battery. 2.Can we switch from dedicated GPU to integrated GPU? 3.Is it worth buying a ThinkPad W541 in the year 2022 for college purpose (Coding, photoshop, Multimedia) 4.My main target is battery, can I make it last for atleast 8hrs?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

1. From the PSREF PDF: 6-cell: up to 6.2 hr; 9-cell: up to 11.1 hr. That assumes 100% fresh cells and not running intensive, battery draining applications and processes. 2. Yes, that should be the case, but it will depend on what applications support it. Some are a pain and don't understand two GPUs and struggle. 3. Coding, Photoshop and Multimedia would be pretty easy for this thing, remember it is a workstation class machine. 4. If you're main goal is long battery life, you don't want a workstation grade machine. As stated in 1. you are not going to get 8 hours on a 6-cell battery even under the most ideal of conditions.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Reference: psref.lenovo.com/syspool/sys/pdf/withdrawnbook/thinkpad_w541_we.pdf

[@Cmdrbzrd]

Could it be possible to solder on a more powerful GPU(Think K4/5100M) with a modified VBIOS to not conflict with the VRAM(If the motherboard already has the K1/2100M)?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

All I know for sure is you'd want specialized equipment to even try, you'd likely need to modify the BIOS as well and that assuming the motherboard has the pin out to support it. I've never heard of anyone attempting such a thing.

[@jimbob5885]

will xp windows install on levono think pad w540 quadcore i7 ,, i think its like yours .,,, or which is the newest think pad that will work on windows xp ,, any info will be helpfull ,, thanks,, great video

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Why do you need XP?

[@Lucretia9000]

I'm trying to put one of these together now, but I'm having issues re battery's and psu's, or should I say, working out what is genuine and what is a cheap dangerous chinese copy. Do you know how to tell these apart? I'm in UK (currently), so trying not to import as well.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

The copies likely won't have Lenovo written on them from my experience.

[@Lucretia9000]

@@LaptopRetrospective Well, they post plenty of images with Lenovo on the label. Even Lenovo's part's site shows a PSU with just 170W on the top, no Lenovo logo on the top. I've never seen an image of a real one or would know the difference. Any advice?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Ah are concerned about getting sent a genuine article from a seller?

[@Lucretia9000]

@@LaptopRetrospective concerned about being sent one labelled as genuine but turning out that it's not.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

That's going to mainly coming down to a trustworthy seller. The one I have is marked Lenovo on one side and then has its label on the other. I have the ADL170NDC2A. The hardware maintenance manual or the PSREF will specify what exact models are designed for it.

[@ruz54]

what do you think is in similar vein to being powerhouse + very hard build + not expensive as all hell - would be Thinkpad "gaming" laptop?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

That's a tricky question. I personally feel a lot of gaming laptops are heaps of plastic to protect the internals. I've gotten my hands on a few and so far, not too many feel exceptionally well built. The Razer's I've seen are built out of good materials but all have had quirks. I haven't had a Legion in my hands and I wonder if any ThinkPad DNA has leaked into them.

[@ruz54]

@@LaptopRetrospective i think i didint precise my question because you answer "what gaming laptop has sturdy build like thinkpad" but my question was "what thinkpad could be used for some gaming" sorry for confusing with my poor english

[@LaptopRetrospective]

No problem! Thanks for taking the time to clarify the question. The tricky part is ThinkPads aren't really designed for gaming but some can game. There are workstation ThinkPads that have dedicated GPUs but they're often your workstation versions of those dGPUs. You might find it easier to come up with a list of games you want to play and then solutions can be found. You can always get a ThinkPad with. Thunderbolt 3 port and an eGPU.

[@ruz54]

@@LaptopRetrospective i know about existence of eGPU but it seems to be very unfitting product - its very much not portable - its very expensive - it has problems on its own, the good question is what thinkpad models have the dGPUs and what GPUs we can find from used market and how reasonably "cheap" they are

[@LaptopRetrospective]

ThinkPads that have dedicated GPUs vary, they tend to be the high end T series or workstation class machines.

[@Queso305]

I just bought two of these yesterday. How long should I expect these to last nowadays? (2022)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

ThinkPads generally if they are taken care of will last beyond their Operating System. W series hold their value in a way that needs to be seen to be believed.

[@he1senberg333]

A quick question is it true that you can put the motherboard of w540 in t540p?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Pretty sure the chassis is the same if you open the maintenance manual linked in the description.

[@he1senberg333]

@@LaptopRetrospective thanks😃

[@mohamedelsaidelmosad11]

two questions since I own a T540p for 6 years now: 1. in case that was a replacement battery, can you please leave me a link where I can buy that 100W battery for my T540p? 2. How are the temperatures for the i7-4800m inside that chasis? I have an i5 inside the T540p and thinking about upgrading to the i7-4800m and I have seen some comments on Reddit that it throttles hard that you don't really get a lot of extra performance out of the upgrade

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Not sure about sources for the battery, sorry. It will vary on where you are in the world as well. Regarding temp, the cooling solution and motherboard are different between the models and I suspect that helps.

[@mohamedelsaidelmosad11]

@@LaptopRetrospective I am planning on upgrading the heatsink during the process to compensate for the difference but since the chasis is the same and air flow is designed similarly, I was looking forward for an insight

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Unfortunately I'm not as experienced with the Performance and Workstation varieties but there are others in the comments section here that might be able to tell you better.

[@mussamalik1272]

bro plz tell me how its keyboard black light on and how we use f series buttons

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Is there a pictogram on the space bar? If no, then no backlight keyboard.

[@basicforge]

I have a W510 and a W520. Love them both, but the W520 is a big upgrade over the W510. Much faster.

[@Veg-Power]

Could you tell me pls if the bottom of the cases are the same? Somewhere I read the W510 bottom was magnesium while W520/W530 is plastic only. Thanks! :)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

W series are beasts.

[@basicforge]

@@Veg-Power That does seem to be true. Not sure why that would save money unless they had already spent the money on tooling beforehand. Well, what do I know? ;)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Not sure about the bottom of the W510 since I've never seen one, but the rollcage on the inside is no slouch. The outside might take a visual beating but that would be it.

[@basicforge]

@@LaptopRetrospective It's definitely metal on the W510. The bottom cover on the W520 is quite different and seems to be plastic.

[@tanha8178]

Just bought one recently, for an old seri like this, to keep the operation at decwnt level I choosed the i7 4710mq, give 480 cb Cinebench R15 at stable 2.5gHz, with turbo boost on and adapter connected it's pass 500, on par with my Dell 5510 (xeon), Thinkpad P50 i7 6820hq and Asus FX504 i5 8300H. 16gb of ram is enough for the capability of the CPU, I mean it's not powerfull enough to put in 32gb to run hardcore. Nice laptop, but the build is quite flex, not as tough as ny T420.

[@TheSistaWarrior]

One of my students wants to sell his to me for 680.00 USD. Is that overpriced or just right?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Depends on the local market. It seems a bit on the high side unless it's fully loaded.

[@10lauset]

Cheers.

[@DOLFO_CH]

I like ThinkPad w541 laptop performance but the issue only single battery no internal. Still using w541 for working, and x270 for mobility

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Dual batteries make sense in certain configurations and setups where remote work and mobility matter. Less important for a workstation.

[@JohnDoe-wi7eb]

I just brought a w541 and I'm going to keep it docked at home and use it as a portable desktop replacement

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Nice!

[@kaydenmadency6448]

Wow yours is so much cleaner than mine

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah? Does yours have some battle scars? 😁

[@kaydenmadency6448]

@@LaptopRetrospective just a few 😂 Mine has a 1tb ssd in it though and I plan to upgrade the ram from 16 to 32 soon. It boots in like 15 secs on average.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

That's awesome!

[@kaydenmadency6448]

@@LaptopRetrospective yeah I love it

[@ShenghuiYang]

My P52 has a similar appearance.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Nice! It's a good looking device in my books.

[@rizkifathi8421]

yeah i like thinkpad workstation laptop

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Lots to like.

[@rifat115]

i have a qsn.Is I7 v pro processor compitable with 11th gen I7 processor?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Pretty sure the socket size is completely different.

[@zadscreamo]

Hi where id the buttom of hard reset ?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Sorry, not sure I understand your question.

[@DanElgaard9]

I remember that my company had alway purchased the Lenovo W-series, because all our purchased accessories always worked with the new models. Then came along the W540, and I remeber we bought one, and NOTHING worked! All was useless - from docking stations to smart-bay accessories - NOTHING! Boy, was everyone in the house mad (including me)... ...they haven't purchased Lenovo ever since!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It is a shame that accessories can't last forever but eventually they do need to move on to make way for new features and design changes.

[@DanElgaard9]

@@LaptopRetrospective New features: Yes. Design changes: No Stick with what works - it was later revealed that the design changes was only made because Lenovo sales of accessories were plumging (because people could use their old ccessories with their new W-model), and that was the real reason for the design changes.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@danelgaard1050 I'd love to read anything related to the subject. The x40 era also brought in the time of no more optical drives needed which was going to change laptop design.

[@michaelscottcutler3627]

Sexy machine. Great vid!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Cheers!

[@Wol333]

How is battery life?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It's a workstation so if you're pushing it hard, a few hours. I don't think you'd be getting much beyond 5-6 unless everything is turned off.

[@clipsdelvilches833]

Please help me,i can buy a w540 with 16gb ram 256 SSD Quadro 2100 i7 4900mq for 280 dollars used on ebay,do you think is a good option?sorry for the bad English my main language is Spanish Hope you reply🙂

[@LaptopRetrospective]

What do you want to do with it? That's the key question.

[@clipsdelvilches833]

@@LaptopRetrospectiveit'll be my first laptop,I'm going to do illustration,basic video editing,watching KZbin twitch discord,for school,and basic gaming,but I'm gonna used most for illustration,I'm a beginner in graphic design,

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Gotcha. These workstation machines are capable of doing a fair bit of work. As for a first laptop it would be a solid choice to get an understanding of how far you can push the limits vs what you need it to do. Price isn't too bad either for the specs. Just make sure the display resolution is good for your work or find a nice second display.

[@clipsdelvilches833]

@@LaptopRetrospective the display I think is 1080p,I don't care about the screen a lot if it don't look that bad for me is good,you think for using discord and watching KZbin and online classes it will be good? And clip studio,only those programs

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Should be able to handle those things no problem. Remember it isn't a gaming laptop but has lots of power to give. They are well regarded.

[@PriyaSingh-up4jm]

Hey Is it worth buying now in 2022 ??

[@LaptopRetrospective]

What do you need it to do? It's still a great machine.

[@PriyaSingh-up4jm]

@@LaptopRetrospective Just my office work for 10 hours a day Thats all

[@PriyaSingh-up4jm]

@@LaptopRetrospective Should I go ahead and buy it ? I'm getting this is second hand condition with warantee for 32000 INR That's around 418 USD.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

What are the specs at that price?

[@PriyaSingh-up4jm]

@@LaptopRetrospective Lenovo Thinkpad W540 Laptop (Core I7 4th Gen/16 GB/1 TB/Windows 7/2 GB) -

[@akungoogle4603]

if i5 W540, Good ??

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Depending on what you need the computer to do.

[@Sofie72]

I'm having a bit of a mystery problem with my Lenovo w540. (a mystery to me because I'm not a pc technician... :P ) I use it to build in games. And i keep having severe problems with lag. It has 16 gb of Ram so that should be ok. But im thinking maybe it's the CPU or GPU that gives me problems? I have IntelR HD graphics4600 screen card and one called Nvidia quadro K2100M somewhere in the specs, it claims the platform role is Mobil. But i don't know if this is a settings problem or related to anything else. Or of importance at all. The processor name shows up 8 times under processor and is named Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4800MQ CPU @ 2.70GHz, 2694 Mhz, 4 kjerne(r), 8 logiske prosessor(er) From this information could anyone see what could cause an issue or recommend a good upgrade?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

What specific games are you building in?

[@Sofie72]

@@LaptopRetrospective Hi thank you for answering :) There is a few, Ylands, Garden paws, Stranded deep and green hell are the ones i built the most in. I am currently mostly into Ylands. this also have an editor feature where one can create builds with scripted features as well.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

No problem. What are the system requirements for these platforms? The GPU is a workstation unit and sometimes doesn't perform in the same way.

[@Sofie72]

@@LaptopRetrospective I would think it varies a bit? But i was within limits and allowed to install them, i think. This is the specs for the one I'm using now and experienced lag in. Minimum requirements: Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics Card: Intel HD 520 CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 File size: 2 GB OS: Windows 7/8/8.1/10/11 (64-bit Operating System Required) Recommended system requirements: Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K File size: 2 GB OS: Windows 7/8/8.1/10/11 (64-bit Operating

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah the K2100 isn't a powerhouse. So you are sitting between minimum and recommend settings for GPU performance.

[@SRTHAKOR87]

Kitne Tak aajega ye ???

[@thotratkoceri]

How it runs windows 11?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Since it doesn't natively support it, I haven't tried it.

[@thotratkoceri]

@@LaptopRetrospective cool, I'm considering purchasing one and does the quatro k1100m drivers support latest update of windows 10(21H1)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I've got the lastest version of Windows 10 on there with no reported issues.

[@studioviper3016]

Shame about the numpad... Makes typing uncomfortable when you use the laptop on your lap.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

To be fair, I don't think the Workstation line designers thought it would spend too much time on your lap.

[@nitrax8629]

You do NOT want to use this on your lap, trust me... high power components plus a full copper heat sink make for quite the hand warmer of an exhaust :)

[@SuperSteephen]

Hai sir can play GTA5 this laptop

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Check your system requirements against your configuration to see.