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Yeah.. the 2560P/2570P LCD is the only pitfall. Unfortunately attempts to mod in a X220/X230 IPS one have been unsuccessful due to LCD bezel clearance. Still, I'd take a 2560P/2570P over a X220/X230 anyday. Vastly superior build quality and the upgradable CPU being key highlights. A i7 2860qm CPU will be nearly twice faster CPU than anything you could get in a X220/X230.

Consider Crack in X220 casing + poor support - Page 3 - Lenovo Community . I'm surprised Lenovo claims business grade build as there's plenty of X220/X230 units on ebay whose chassis is already disintegrating AND whose owners have had problems with Lenovo honoring the warranty as that link shows.

If you look back at say a 2530P vs X200 or 2540P vs X201. You'll find ebay examples of the used HP units looking significantly better (close to new in some cases) than their Lenovo counterparts. The Lenovos show significant wear across the top cover, palmrest, mouse buttons and keyboard.

You won't see straight commentary like this about failing Lenovo build quality on a competing website sponsored by Lenovo. That competing website takes measures to censor such comments to ensure revenue for them both. Those poor-built Lenovos being a constant stay in their top 50 list of most popular notebooks.

Yeah i read up a lot about cracking on the x series from various sources, i had a T series notebook, T60p, just died on me last week, read another recent thread in the lenovo section at NBR about someone who also had cracking issues in their T series, the person nearly got trolled for bashing the build quality on thinkpads, but in all honesty, the newer series uses way inferior materials, and you really can't go wrong with the elitebooks durability. i don't think TP are what people make them out to be anymore, especially with the ridiculous pricing on the new lineup, looked at the T440p, but i figured if i am going to spend 1k+ on a laptop, i better expect similar build quality to apple, but that's just not something you will find so not worth my money. The only thing they basically got going for them is the nice displays they offer in my opinion.

Set SW1=1 and hotplug, halt Win7/8 loading with F8/F12 and hotplug the eGPU.

Set SW1=3 (6.9s PCI Reset Delay) and SW2=2-3 (x16 slot). Power on the eGPU slightly before powering on the notebook. Hit F8/F12 to halt Win7/8 loading. A RED PERST# LED will show on the PE4L while the delay is active. Once RED LED switches off continue loading Win7/8. This is the mechanism used to avoid a BIOS seeing an eGPU and halting with a black screen on bootup.

Yes, 2560P is a Sandy Bridge notebook. It also has a 5Gbps expresscard slot and a socketted CPU (though limited to Sandy Bridge series). All Sandy/Ivy and Haswell systems have 5Gbps expresscard/mPCIe slots. See http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4109-egpu-candidate-system-list-%5Bthin-light%5D.html for a list of good eGPU candidates.

A 2570P improves on the 2560P by offering an Ivy Bridge CPU (+upgrade path), has USB 3.0 ports, RAID capability across storage and use magnets rather than hooks to secure the LCD to the base enclosure and unwhitelisted wifi capability. I believe a 2570P systemboard would be a 100% perfect fit into a 2560P chassis and vice versa.

See http://forum.techinferno.com/hp-business-class-notebooks/2537-12-5-hp-elitebook-2570p-owners-lounge.html#post33901 for pics, details and full upgrade potential details.

if i go with the 2560p i think th i7 2860qm will be enough for me for the next 3 years (mostly office type of work), i am mostly concerned about the screen (which hasn't changed from either series), so it is basically down to the IPS x230 with a soldered processor (bummer) or this, i really like nice screens, really sucks HP can't be modded.

Does anyone know if the 2560p has the same 5gbps expresscard as the 2570p?

Budget: $550

I don't really need to play cutting edge games, only games i play are league of legends and dota, and i wanted something that could round those at least on high with no lag, i do realize that isn't the highest budget, but i am looking at used options,

i would prefer something 14" or smaller, but if it is 15" i will consider it

i am also looking for a second option if i can not find a laptop in that price range with a very nice display similar to the lenovo X220 IPS, i can't seem to find any laptop with a display at that size with that good quality in that price range of 550.

Thank you Nando, I stand corrected. One more thing though, a GTX 560ti would probably be fine, but BF3 requires a lot of CPU and since you are lucky enough to have a socketed CPU you could always upgrade it later if necessary.

That should be no problems at all!

I'm guessing you have a i5 of some kind?

With your requirements you should be fine using a PE4L2.1b-EC + GTX 660.

What's your budget?

I was looking to spend around 200 and yeah i have an i5 3320m

was looking at some local computer shops and a lot of them have older cards for sale at decent prices,

$75 for a 550TI and $100 for a 560 TI, 6850 for $75 as well

Hi, i've been reading over this thread and NBR thread and have decided to try this out, however i am still a little confused on which setup i should get for my needs

i want to be able to play games such as bf3 on 1024 x 768 on medium detail at 50+ FPS,

I have a lenovo T430 and a PSU already and was wondering which setup i should go for for these requirements