W520 4270CTO
Core i7 2960XM (Must have gotten the last one because it dropped off the site as an option the day after I placed the order.
4GB 1333Mhz (pulled and installed my own 4 x 4GB Kingston Hyper X 1866Mhz DIMMs)
320GB WD Black (pulled and installed my own Intel 520 Series 480GB SSD)
nVidea Quadro 2000M
1920x1080 Matte
Intel Ultimate-N 6300

Eureka: X200s (7470-5HU), Arch Linux
Mirandra: T22 (Unknown), Arch Linux

Very nice. just got a similar machine today (W520 w/ 2860QM) from work with 1000M, 8gb RAM and 160gb Intel SSD. Congrats!

Very cool, I am very envious.

You almost got the best of everything that you could possibly put together in a computer. Why not 32GB ram?

Get tpfancontrol, set it on manual and 8, and then get IntelBurnTest, and tell us how many GFlops that thing can produce. Try it with and without hyperthreading enabled. Man o man do I ever wish I could have that machine for a day to test.

How is that sandforce 2281 Intel drive? Have you run any benchmarks with that? What are your WEI scores?

Cant find 32GB ram @ 1866Mhz... would be cool tho.
This is my first sata III HDD. Dont have much to compare it to. I do get the 40sec warm boot issue with it which leads me to believe that the issue is Sata III related.
I run TPFanControl on my T61p to keep the X9000 in check, but havn't seemed to need it yet on the W520.

I think your 1866MHz RAM might be running at 1600MHz.

Very awesome set up regardless.

Why? Does the BIOS restrict RAM speed? My current i7-2820QM W520 has the 1600 MHz Hyper-X installed and runs like a charm. It will soon be going to a family member and I will be in the market for a new machine... Possibly an XM W520. (Or IB W530 perhaps?) Wondering if Lenovo overrides the SB capabilities?

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

NEGATRON!!!! Ram is running @ 1866Mhz

My Intel Burn Test Results:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2960XM CPU @ 2.70GHz
Clock Speed: 2.69 GHz
Active Physical Cores: 8
Total System Memory: 16337 MB

Stress Level: Standard (1024 MB)
Testing started on 3/2/2012 11:00:30
Time (s) Speed (GFlops) Result
[11:00:52] 13.673 65.3746 3.156799e-002
[11:01:14] 13.981 63.9376 3.156799e-002
[11:01:37] 14.396 62.0907 3.156799e-002
[11:01:59] 14.423 61.9742 3.156799e-002
[11:02:22] 14.460 61.8192 3.156799e-002
[11:02:45] 14.414 62.0161 3.156799e-002
[11:03:07] 14.402 62.0674 3.156799e-002
[11:03:30] 14.432 61.9379 3.156799e-002
[11:03:53] 14.474 61.7562 3.156799e-002
[11:04:15] 14.435 61.9254 3.156799e-002
Testing ended on 3/2/2012 11:04:15
Test Result: Success.

Sorry to bump in here with a few questions... if I configure a W520 with an i7-2860QM Processor (2.50 GHz, 8MB L3), what is the max amount of RAM it will handle...? Also, Im reading here that RAM for this machine can go as fast as 1866Mhz, is it therefore possible to configure this machine with the mentioned CPU with 32GB 1866Mhz chips...?

Yes, The W520 supports both 32GB RAM, and also 1866Mhz. But I have yet to see any 8GB DIMMs for a laptop, that clock @ 1866Mhz.

Wow! That is amazing numbers for a laptop! Hell, those would be amazing numbers even for a desktop.

I suppose I must be wrong. I do not have a 2960XM to play with, and I was under the assumption that SB capabilities were only 1600MHz.

Thanks! I have never run this software before. My T61p scored only an average of 5 GFlops.

OK, so this means that its most probable that the best I can do (for now) would be to have 4 sticks of 8GB each that clock 1600MHz... would that be correct...?

I'm sorry, but I don't like misinformation running around. Per Intel's own documentation, the Core i7-2960XM maxes at 1600MHz on the memory bus.

http://ark.intel.com/products/53478

That all being said, the 1866MHz module *should* work at 1600MHz.

Everyone who is trying to get 1866MHz memory for their Core i7-2xxx based systems... you are wasting your money. Your system will run just as well at 1600MHz as it will on 1866MHz, for a lot less money (and better availability of components too).

See my comments over on a post over here. http://forums.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=667350#p667350

Excellent deck, wish I could have gotten that processor! I just ordered one per my sig.

IIRC it's socketed, so you could upgrade it yourself...

Once again, you are incorrect.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos- ... 6885_n.jpg

If it was running @ 1600, the timing would be 9-9-9-24.
My RAM timing is 11-11-11-32.

Not doubting the above test results and the conclusion.... but I do have a question. Why would the Intel documentation quoted by the other posted say that the max RAM clock speed is slower than what the above tests show..... ???????????????????????

Did you swap drives? I thought you had an Intel 520 series drive? That 300GB 320 Series drive is no comparison to the 520.

Depending on if you want speed or capacity. If you want to run @ 1866Mhz, the max you can run is 16GB, But if you want 32GB, then the fastest you can run is 1600Mhz.


I am unsure why Intel says that max supported clock is 1600mhz. HWinfo64 says my active clock is 933Mhz x 2 channels. I have to assume that that would set my ram @ 1866Mhz.


The 520 series is my current drive. Have been copying my documents off of my old 320 series so that it can be formatted and installed in my wifes computer.