While 17-inch mobile workstations offer an enviable combination of performance and features, if truth be told they are not ideally suited to CAD on the go. Their size, weight and poor battery life are real barriers to portability.
15-inch machines offer a much better all-round mobile experience and the ThinkPad W530 is a great example from Chinese manufacturer, Lenovo.
ThinkPad comes with an impressive pedigree, going back to the days when it was owned by IBM. While this new model bears little resemblance to the angular chassis of old it does manage to retain the robustness, which has become synonymous with the brand over the years.
There are some functional differences: the curved chassis sports an off centre catch, which makes single hand opening possible.
The Touchpad has a dimpled surface, which gained mixed reactions from our testers. Some liked its tactile feeling; others found it harder to point accurately.
In traditional ThinkPad style though, there’s also a TrackPoint nestled in the middle of the keyboard and, of course, an external mouse is always the best option for serious CAD.
The island-style keyboard, which has spaces between the keys, is solid and responsive but lacks a numerical keypad, a popular feature with designers. The keys are backlit and in traditional ThinkPad style can also be lit from a light at the top of the screen – perfect for those late night emails.
The chassis has been given some good attention to detail: the USB ports are colour-coded for easy reference. There are 2 x USB 3.0 (blue), and 2 x USB 2.0, including a permanently powered port (yellow) which is useful for charging a smartphone.
The 15.6-inch backlit LED display is full HD (1,920 x 1,080), clear and bright and boasts a wide viewing angle and a 95% colour gamut. Furthermore, those that demand colour accuracy can easily calibrate their display thanks to the built in X-Rite Pantone colour calibrator. Simply close the lid and the system does the rest, automatically adjusting the colour tint.
Serviceability is good with the hard drive enclosure standing out for the ease with which drives can be replaced.
The W530 is limited to a single 2.5-inch drive — a workstation quality 240GB Intel SSD 520 Series in our test machine — but the 34mm ExpressCard Slot can support an additional SSD.
For larger capacities, Lenovo offers a range of SATA drives.
Inside the machine the Intel Core i7-3720QM CPU provides a good solid foundation for CAD. It’s not the highest spec CPU on offer, but offers good price/performance. It has a clock speed of 2.6GHz (turbo boosting up to 3.6GHz) plus four CPU cores and eight threads, which gives a welcome boost when rendering.
The processor is supported by 8GB DDR3 1600MHz memory; not a massive amount for modern CAD workflows, but there’s the option of 16GB or 32GB for those who work with larger datasets.
The W530 is very much designed for 3D work and the Quadro K2000M GPU is ideal for mainstream modelling. It’s a step up from the entry-level Quadro K1000M, the other GPU option in the W530, but probably won’t satisfy users of graphics-hungry design viz applications. If high-end graphics your thing, you’ll need to investigate a 17-inch mobile workstation.
One of the benefits of the mid-range Quadro K2000M is its reduced power requirement. With a max power consumption of 55W it’s significantly more efficient than the high-end Quadro GPUs. This, coupled with the 45W Intel Core i7-3720QM CPU, means the W530 has relatively low power demands.
Our test machine’s 9 cell Li-Ion Battery, a step up from the standard 6 cell model, also means you can spend longer away from the mains.
Testing with SolidWorks, we didn’t get anywhere near the quoted ‘up to 11.1 hrs’, but you can expect to get a good few hours of battery life when hammering the machine with CPU and GPU intensive workflows.
Overall, the W530 is an impressive all round mobile workstation for mainstream CAD. Its size, weight and battery life means it’s perfectly suited to design on the go, but can also be a more than adequate desktop replacement.
However, with only a 240GB SSD you may need to invest in external storage for CAD data.
To view comparative scores from other workstations please click here
For details of all our specific CAD/CAM/CAE benchmarks click here
Specifications
» Intel Core i7-3720QM (2.6GHz) (Quad Core) CPU
» 8GB (2 x 4GB) PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHZ SODIMM memory
» Nvidia Quadro K2000M (2100M) (2GB) GPU
» 240GB Intel 520 Series SATA3 Solid State Drive (SSD) w/Full Disk Encryption (FDE)
» Microsoft Windows 8 professional 64-bit (Windows 7 professional 64-bit downgrade)
» 15.6″ LED B/L (1,920 x 1,080) display
» 2.7kg
» 245 x 373 x 32-36mm
» 3 year on-site warranty
CPU benchmarks
(secs – smaller is better)
CAM (Delcam PowerMill) – 1) 180 2) 278 3) 402
CAE (SolidWorks Simulation) – 97
Rendering (3ds Max Design 2011) – 214
Graphics benchmarks
Graphics benchmarks
(bigger is better)
CAD (SolidWorks 2013) – 35
CAD (Creo 2.0 – SPECapc graphics test) – 2.56
Intel Core i7-3720QM (2.6GHz) (Quad Core) CPU
8GB (2 x 4GB) PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz SODIMM memory
Nvidia Quadro K2000M (2100M) (2GB) GPU
240 GB Intel 520 Series SATA3 Solid Stata Drive (SSD) w/Full Disk Encryption (FDE)
3 year on-site warranty
180
278
402
97
214
35
