Thinkpads Forum

I have the choice of either a UXGA T601f, or a W701. It would be a daily driver, and I'd like to get the best performance I can get. The option to buy both is an expensive and interesting one. I do have the financial means. But I'd also hate for a good machine to collect dust.

The T601f is loved by many here, and I'd imagine they'd be both sad to see one being stuck in the cupboard. As one of the worthiest 4:3 laptops around I'm going to have a feeling it's still going to give the retro a good competition. Aged, sure. Valuable, definitely.

The W701 has better specs and I admit to have an important need for speed. It would perhaps make for a better workstation. However I do dislike the numpad - always a turn off. Can't see a centered keyboard out there though - big bummer.

W701 seems to have a lot of expandability - 2 drives, 16GB (maybe 32!) of RAM, maybe even a better Quadro card! CPU's a little bit old, but probably still good for most use cases. It could also double as a home server if need be.

Even if the W701 kicks the T601f's butt, I'm still feeling like cheering for the Frankenpad. If anyone's experienced with both, or I've missed something, do tell.

The W701 is, mind you, pretty gigantic. Even though the 17" WUXGA is the same height as 15" UXGA, the W701 is much taller than T60, it even dwarfs the A31.

It is, as you noted though, two generations faster than the donor T61 and W701's, albeit seemingly low clocked, Quad Cores are more futureproof. You won't be sacrificing any screen space going with the 17" but if portability will be a factor than you might have to go with the T60.

What laptop bag would fit a W701?

TPFanatic wrote:The W701 is, mind you, pretty gigantic. Even though the 17" WUXGA is the same height as 15" UXGA, the W701 is much taller than T60, it even dwarfs the A31.

It is, as you noted though, two generations faster than the donor T61 and W701's, albeit seemingly low clocked, Quad Cores are more futureproof. You won't be sacrificing any screen space going with the 17" but if portability will be a factor than you might have to go with the T60.

What laptop bag would fit a W701?

Thanks for your input! It would most likely staying home. I already own an X61s, which I'm typing from right now. With this in mind it feels like a portability-power question. Leave the workstation at home; travel with the light laptop. The T601f is the middle of both.

I don't travel too much, most of the places I frequent are close enough to walk. Could always change in the future, though, and maybe a more powerful - yet still portable unit like the T601f could be ideal.

Regarding the W701 size though.. comparison with a T42p:
Front comparison with T42p, some ASUS laptop
Lid closed
From above
Opened, side-by-side

You weren't kidding..

I would probably get the W701. More practical since you can get one with a nice, large, LED WUXGA display. Performance will be at least double. However, although the motherboard uses an MXM slot for the gpu, the bios and gpu have some special firmware or config, making 3rd party cards useless. They can even damage the machine. Thus, you can only plug in Lenovo's FX 2800M or FX 3800M cards that were available with the machine.

Neat. With X61s you seem to already have portability covered should you need it, so I'd cast my vote for the W701 since it's the more powerful one. I hope you have room for it.

I'd stay with an old good frankie.

IPS + 4:3 form factor + classic design + fantastic keyboard + 2503 PCI-e powered dock is something you just can't get from a modern thinkpad. The question you may ask is "am I looking for this, or is it just RAW POWER".

W701 is a nice machine, but sorry, when looking at 5-ton 17incher it stays far behind hp elitebook 8740w/8760w w/Dreamcolor panel.

The W701 will certainly outperform the T601F - of any flavor. The nVidia units will give the best (undocked) video performance but getting ones with "safe date" GPUs is difficult and expensive (although some say that most of the "unsafe" nVidia date units that were destined to fail, already have - and that with these machines being 9-10 years old now that failure due to age is the primary cause of death).

The fastest out-of-box CPU support on the T61 is also the X9000, 2.8 GHz, and if you want to do the 1066 FSB mod you can get a T9900 (3.06 GHz) or even (with much more modification) a low-mid 2 GHz quad core in there (though there are some limitations which prevent seamless 100% operation) - which prevents CPU performance from matching that of a W701. All W701s will have some type of quad core i7, though many will be very conservatively clocked due to the immense heat Clarksfield puts out. Even so, the best quad cores you can install in the W701 will always outperform the quads you can stuff into the T601F - by a very noticeable margin (~20%, even more if you factor in heat throttling).

Having said all that... My nVidia T601F, which I just recently did the base-level 1066 FSB mod to so I could upgrade its old 2.5 GHz T9300 to a 3.06 GHz T9900, is my work machine that goes with me to the jobsites. It's heavier and gets worse battery life than my X220 or T420/W520 and is slower in terms of GPU and CPU... but its form factor just cries out "built to work" more than the others (which get used at home for casual stuff, gaming, audio-video editing etc.). It has the nVidia NVS 140m - the entry level discrete GPU on the T61 (and no - not a safe date GPU, one made in mid 2007) and has no GPU problems at all aside from choking with HD streaming video oftentimes. I think the faster CPU should cure that, though I haven't really tested it since doing the mod. The faster CPU has already shown me a very noticeable difference in everyday computing since a lot of what I do involves Google Drive and a few other web-based applications. For reference, my Frankie has the IPS UXGA panel, Windows 7, 8GB of (what is now, overclocked) DDR2-7100 memory and a 128GB SSD. It's really a pleasure to use and I often get questions and comments from clients and co-workers regarding my being able to use such an old machine daily in today's digital environment.

All in all I don't see why my trusty T601F won't last me (for my needs) up through the end of Windows 7 support in 2020. But as I said - it's a work machine. I would go crazy trying to use it for "everything" I do nowadays as my main machine back home. That's why I have the horsepower machines (relatively speaking) *20 series... and of course, my desktop.

theterminator93 wrote:The fastest out-of-box CPU support on the T61 is also the T9500

Nope, it's the X9000.

theterminator93 wrote:For reference, my Frankie has the IPS WUXGA panel

Nope, it's UXGA.

RealBlackStuff wrote:

theterminator93 wrote:The fastest out-of-box CPU support on the T61 is also the T9500

Nope, it's the X9000.

theterminator93 wrote:For reference, my Frankie has the IPS WUXGA panel

Nope, it's UXGA.

Embarrassing that I would goof that up. Fixed in the original post, thanks for having a keen eye to point that out!

My vote for W701 or even 8740w if your desktop (table) can handle this;)

fourthree wrote: W701 seems to have a lot of expandability - 2 drives, 16GB (maybe 32!) of RAM, maybe even a better Quadro card! CPU's a little bit old, but probably still good for most use cases. It could also double as a home server if need be.

Even if the W701 kicks the T601f's butt, I'm still feeling like cheering for the Frankenpad. If anyone's experienced with both, or I've missed something, do tell.

QuadCore W701 can eat 32GB of cheap DDR3 1333 memory, while T601f can be maxed to 8Gb with expensive DDR-2 4Gb sticks.
W701 can eat even more - 4 (5?) SATA drives (2.5": 2 + 1 in ultrabay) + 1 eSATA port +1 eSATA port on W701's docking station (but i don't know is these eSATA ports be usable simultaneous).
+ Native USB3 port;)
Even more there are bunch of W701's on feebay for ~$300.

BUT We (I) love T60 (T601f) mainly for screen. 8740w can have IPS (DC2) screen but keyboard and "trackpoint" is wrong (and HP can handle only 1 + 1 (bay) + 1 (eSATA) HDD's). DC1 from 8730w can be transplanted to W701 but it is good TN. And i haven't free space on desktop to use W701 everyday.

It's a tough comparison for sure. And there is no default right or wrong answer.

My take would be that if one is expecting to spend a *lot* of time looking at the screen, FrankenPad wins hands down.

If they need the (still quite serious) horsepower of W701, their eyesight should be in prime shape if they are expecting to stare at its screen for hours on end.

The only serious downfall of aforementioned 8740W (with DC panel) is the keyboard. In all other respects it's head and shoulders above either of these machines and would likely be my choice if I were interested in a powerful system that could handle some serious graphics work.

For my personal needs - which are quite modest nowadays - FrankenPad wins.

Thanks all, I've decided that a T601f would be a better choice. I'm about to finally see those legendary screens with my own eyes.

W701 sounds like a fun machine to have - but for that I'd need extra funds and guarantee that the DC panel would work and MXM upgradeability. Maybe in the future. (I do like my quality screens - you at them a lot after all.)

fourthree wrote:
W701 sounds like a fun machine to have - but for that I'd need extra funds and guarantee that the DC panel would work and MXM upgradeability. Maybe in the future. (I do like my quality screens - you at them a lot after all.)

Installing a DC 2 panel (from 8740W) in a W701 is not for the faint at heart. One member of 51nb has done it BUT I've given up on the idea after researching what the mod in question actually entails...

ajkula66 wrote: Installing a DC 2 panel (from 8740W) in a W701 is not for the faint at heart. One member of 51nb has done it BUT I've given up on the idea after researching what the mod in question actually entails...

I suppose you have a good reason to spare the details from us. Please keep it that way.

But since you mentioned 51nb, their T70 project would likely demolish the W701. If only it had an Iris Pro CPU.. but let's hope you can obtain them first, and CPUs later.

A QX9300 T601 will be as fast as a 920XM 701 in some multicore applications. But it will be blown out in graphics performance, and single threaded.

Late update, but I'm using my T601f for a week now on a daily basis. UXGA took a little bit of getting used to - thickness and a slightly larger keyboard also took some time - but overall? It's an *amazing* machine and I'm *highly* satisfied with it.

Thank you, TPF members!

Enjoy your awesome system.