|
|
|
|
|
|
by fapjacks
4039 days ago
|
|
|
I have a W530 for work and it works very well with Linux Mint 17. There was a bit of trickiness with the dual graphics cards and getting it to work right on the dock to output to quad monitors, but if you're not using multiple monitors via a dock, I highly recommend the W530. Even with that little bit of work it's been an excellent performer. |
|
|
I purchased mine right about two years ago (brand new from a seller on Amazon in order to avoid delivery delays when purchasing direct) and went for one with only 4 GB of RAM and a 500 GB SATA HDD. I paid (separately and, again, via Amazon) $300 for 32 GB of RAM and $385 for a 480 GB SSD (and spent 20 minutes installing them) but this was much, much cheaper than purchasing the W530 with those upgrades pre-installed. I ended up giving away the "original" 4 GB RAM to a friend who could use it and (since I very rarely need or use the optical drive) I usually keep the original 500 GB SATA HDD in the secondary bay in order to keep a fresh, up-to-date backup of my data for when the SSD inevitably fails without warning.
The NVIDIA Optimus graphics system is apparently a PITA for some people but since I don't use a dock or external monitor it's really not been an issue for me. I believe I have my BIOS set to the "Discrete Graphics" setting (to use the NVIDIA card) and Ubuntu has no problems with it (I previously ran Arch Linux on the W530 with the Intel card and also had no issues).
The W530 isn't nearly as light as many other laptops (about six pounds, if memory serves) but, then again, it's considered a "Mobile Workstation" -- and with the quad-core i7 @ 2.70 GHz, 32 GB RAM, the 480 GB SSD and 500 GB SATA spinning disk, and FHD 1920x1080 15" display, it truly is!
Side note: after using MacBooks and MacBook Pros exclusively for ~7 years, I said that I'd never again buy a "PC laptop" (i.e. a non-Mac), but I'm extremely happy with my W530 (running Linux, of course) and use it almost exclusively nowadays. About a year after purchasing the W530, I sold my MBP simply because I had only used it two or three times in that year and thought I might as well sell it and get something out of it instead of letting it sit around and eventually become obsolete.