Lenovo M30-70 13.3" Laptop €248 4GB, 500GB, Celeron 2957U

Laptop arrived today, can't see what all the fuss is about. I installed an SSD 120GB so got to see the inside, build quality is very good. Also Lenovo a use western digital hard drive and Samsung memory. Unlike Acer were most of them Ive seen use Hitachi. The sound is very impressive better than my old Dell latitude, the screen brightness could be a bit brighter bit still good. The CPU can handle 1080p in Youtube also the GPU is decent enough.

Currently installing updates at moment so Ill post back later. so far am very impressed.

Also forgot to mention it is VERY light.

Edit: Coming from an 2008 Latitude the touchpad isn't bothering me all that much yet, after installing the drivers I thought it would enable multi touch, guess not. Ill mess around with it later see can I get it to work.

Update: took all day for updates to install, I was coming from a 2009 image of Windows probably why. The screen is a bit washed out/ of colour, again noticeable as I just came from my Dell but nothing to annoying, software might be able to fix the problem. Again I am very happy with it.

Just messed around with the contrast there in settings seemed to help a bit.

OK, last update as this thread seems to be now dead, installed Windows 8 in full EFI mode, works wonders, cold boot takes less than 2 seconds laptop itself is very speedy with SSD. No need for better CPU when all you do is browse the web.

stevek93 wrote: »

Laptop arrived today, can't see what all the fuss is about. I installed an SSD 120GB so got to see the inside, build quality is very good. Also Lenovo a use western digital hard drive and Samsung memory. Unlike Acer were most of them Ive seen use Hitachi. The sound is very impressive better than my old Dell latitude, the screen brightness could be a bit brighter bit still good. The CPU can handle 1080p in Youtube also the GPU is decent enough.

Currently installing updates at moment so Ill post back later. so far am very impressed.

Also forgot to mention it is VERY light.

Edit: Coming from an 2008 Latitude the touchpad isn't bothering me all that much yet, after installing the drivers I thought it would enable multi touch, guess not. Ill mess around with it later see can I get it to work.

Update: took all day for updates to install, I was coming from a 2009 image of Windows probably why. The screen is a bit washed out/ of colour, again noticeable as I just came from my Dell but nothing to annoying, software might be able to fix the problem. Again I am very happy with it.

Just messed around with the contrast there in settings seemed to help a bit.

OK, last update as this thread seems to be now dead, installed Windows 8 in full EFI mode, works wonders, cold boot takes less than 2 seconds laptop itself is very speedy with SSD. No need for better CPU when all you do is browse the web.

I did a similar job on a 11" acer I got a with a Ivy Bridge Celeron, it was unusable when I first got it (due to the 5-6 hours it took to update to win 8.1). I banged in another 2gb of ram and a SSD and the machine is perfect now, I even play a few lightweight games on it like WoW and Heros of the storm without any issue.

There was a time when celeron and intel GMA were a byword for horrible performance, but I think these days the biggest issue is manufacturers bang in cheap mechanical hard disks that should be only be used in external disks. These are a source of constant pauses in windows and applications while the disk seeks information, so I honestly think that for a surfer, a cheap laptop and a self installed ssd is probably a better investment.

keithclancy wrote: »

SSD is one of the best performance upgrades you can stick in a laptop.

When people say "My laptop is slow"

They usually mean its slow for a program to appear after double clicking on the icon.

This is usually caused by disk fragmentation and seek times, gets exponentially worse over time.

SSD removes all of that.

How easy is one to install? Or get the OS over?

naughtb4 wrote: »

How easy is one to install? Or get the OS over?

Usually pretty easy, if you get a kit that includes a USB Enclosure you just plug it in via usb, boot from the CD that comes included, copy your disk image over to the SSD, shutdown the laptop.

Replace the drive in the laptop with the SSD Replacement that you've imaged, turn the laptop on and your done.

You can then stick your old drive in the enclosure and use it as a Portable hard disk

Responsiveness difference is huge, startup times are drastically reduced, Microsoft office and other apps work much better, clicking on Chrome it just instantly appears.

imitation wrote: »

I would recommend a kit or decent bit of transfer software alright, I use easeus partition master but it always seems break windows, so I have to use a recovery disk on top of it to get it back up and running.

Drive Imge XML using a PART PE disc, I used in the past with XP it might still work with Windows 8 not 100%. Norton ghost is what Samsung recommends.

Also does anyone know where to get a sleeve for this laptop in the city centre?

mighty magpie wrote: »

Hi Guys
In the market for a new laptop/ultrabook/notebook (whatever they are called these days). My budget would be about 600eur. Can someone recommend anything a bit more advanced than the lenovo in the OP. something around the 13", light with good battery. does the laptop in OP have a big brother i could consider?

It has an i3 model which is 550 I think.

Chimichangas wrote: »

Well I was interested in a lenovo, and then saw it was dabs.ie.
Last item I bought from them wasnt a bargain, but it was the last laptop I buy from them.

And people are saying it could be cheap components used, and dabs? Not a reliable enough combination imo.

Do you mind me asking what the bad experience with dabs was?

delboy76 wrote: »

Do you mind me asking what the bad experience with dabs was?

I got Motherboard, Ram, Processor and case from Dabs two years ago and I haven't had any issues.

So there is some good from them.