I too have a T430, and love it. Can't imagine that a lighter laptop would be able to achieve 8-9 hours(largest battery 9 cell i think) in a text editor with a 14 inch screen. I also swapped out the HDD for an SSD and removed the DVD and put the HDD in it(they make special caddies for HDD in DVD drive) which I take out sometimes because I like to thow my laptop around and dont want to worry about breaking the HDD. Myne was $820 from lenovo. Edit: also runs Linux Mint like a champ, all hot keys keys(FN) work, but I too get the problem with putting my computer in sleep mode for more then a month.

I ordered it with the stock DVD in. I think I ordered the bay battery from amazon. I'll check when I get home. It was an easy swap.

If you haven't heard this advice, I highly suggest you order the cheapest configuration you can from lenovo. Then order memory from crucial or newegg. You can save upwards of $100 over upgrading with lenovo.

I like the t430s form factor much better than my wife's MacBook Pro.