m57p review

[kotaro77]

I have had 3 dells fail on me in the last 6 months at work... and as a long time thinkpad user I decided to give Lenovo a try in the desktop department.

Thought I would share my impressions as I found it very difficult to find reviews on lenovo desktops.

Found the m57p in the lenovo outlet "new" section, so it was already configured.
e6550 2.33ghz core 2 duo, 2gb PC6400, 250GB HD, and 80GB HD, ati 2400xt.

Overall, the machine is very quiet, at start up the fans give a burst at full speed which is quite loud but afterwards, it seems the fan never goes above its lowest speed. I use the machine to trade the stock market, with dual displays running several applications. While trading the machine never lags, cpu usage stays below 15%, and has not had any stability issues so far. (this is not like etrade or other online trading systems, speed and reliablity are extremely important for me)

The machine performs well, but there are times I think its performance should be better. When opening programs like firefox, and outlook, my x61 is much more responsive/faster. To be fair the x61 has 4gb ram, turbo memory, and a larger HD cache.

Problems - issues out of the box:
The 2nd HD was not formatted, and was not visible in windows xp.
The case cover had 1 tab bent, and did not close flush in 1 corner.
The primary HD rattled a bit while spinning, similarly the dvd burner does the same.
Sometimes the Dvd drive is not visible in windows.
Rather annoying burning smell (nothing is burning that i know of)

I have solved the HD and DVD noise issues by installing some screws to secure the HD. Lenovo uses a tooless design which is nice, but i'd rather have no rattles.
I was able to bend the misaligned tab so the case closes nicely.
I tried reseating sata and power cables for the dvd drive, will see if that fixes that.
And the smell, a full week later is still present, but not as bad.

I am planning to upgrade the ram to 4GB, and possibly upgrade the processor to a quad core. The ati card struggles with some games, but I bought this machine for business use so thats ok. The case itself is a very functional design with seemingly good airflow and many many ports, with a few ports on the front as well. I am a bit concerned about the upgradability of this machine as the power supply is rated at 285watts. So far it seems like a nice machine, I am hoping for thinkpad like build quality that outlasts the competition.

[ryengineer]

Nice review, thanks for sharing!

As far as the odor is concerned, it can be due to the thermal conductivity between the heat sink and newly applied paste or can also be because of the flux residue deposit left on the machine after soldering operations.

Usually the smell goes away with the passage of time, if you would still be able to sense it even after a month or two then report it to lenovo.