T42 Pre-Purchase Questions

[mtcorn]

I have been researching laptops for a couple of months and am considering buying a T42 1.7Ghz or 1.8Ghz, 14" XGA or 15" XGA+ and have a few questions to current owners. I like a lot of what I've read about IBM laptops like the durability, keyboard, touch stick, think light, touch nav, warranty, etc. Here are my questions:

1. What kind of 3DMark2001 scores can I expect with a T42 1.7 or 1.8 with the ATI 6400 64MB?

2. The fingerprint reader sounds like a good thing to have, how do you like it, would you get it again?

3. How do the IBM screens handle lower resolutions like 1024x768 or even 800x600? How is the quality?

4. Is the CPU or video card upgradeable?

5. I use a Panasonic Toughbook CF-72 13.3" 1024x768 at work along with a 21" CRT desktop at 1280x1024, at home I use a 19" CRT destop at 1280x1024. Any recommendations: 14 XGA vs 15 XGA vs 15 SXGA? I assume the SXGA 14 would be too small for me.

6. This IBM would be used throughout my house for web browsing, email, programming, games, internet radio listening, and ebooks. Some of the games I would like to play are Quake3, Sim City 4, Far Cry, and Unreal Tournament 2004. I don't mind playing at lower resolutions like 800x600 or 1024x768 to get acceptable performance. I would like to play games on par with my current desktop: AMD Athlon XP 2400+, 1GB RAM, and 128MB NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4400, 3DMark2001: 6890. Any advice?

Thanks for your input.

[aamsel]

1.) With 3DMark01 Second Edition Build 330, a 2378FVU I tested got 9779 3DMarks. It was a stock 1.7GHz T42 with 64MB ATI 9600.

2.) Haven't used one much yet. If you get the model above, it won't have one. Newer ones do, older ones don't.

3.) Don't run any LCD panel at anything other than the native resolution and expect any clarity or focus whatsoever. These are not CRT's and will not work properly other than at native resolution. This applies to ANY flat panel, desktop or laptop, doesn't matter.

4.) Don't know. I prefer to buy a 3 year warranty, and don't want to void it.

5.) Depends on your eyes. You sit typically closer to a laptop than a desktop monitor, so again, depends on your eyes. I would say that the vast, vast majority of people here get SXGA+ on a 14.1" T series notebook. You can start with standard SXGA+ DPI and increase it in Windows XP, or use a 3rd party software package like Liquid View (which I use) to make stuff bigger. Web browsers all have scalable text sizes but the graphics will not get larger. Again, it just depends. See if you can go to a place that has smaller screened SXGA+ laptops and play with it.

6.) It would have better 3D performance than the system you mentioned below.

Hope this helps, and welcome!

Andrew
Austin, TX

I have been researching laptops for a couple of months and am considering buying a T42 1.7Ghz or 1.8Ghz, 14" XGA or 15" XGA+ and have a few questions to current owners. I like a lot of what I've read about IBM laptops like the durability, keyboard, touch stick, think light, touch nav, warranty, etc. Here are my questions:

1. What kind of 3DMark2001 scores can I expect with a T42 1.7 or 1.8 with the ATI 6400 64MB?

2. The fingerprint reader sounds like a good thing to have, how do you like it, would you get it again?

3. How do the IBM screens handle lower resolutions like 1024x768 or even 800x600? How is the quality?

4. Is the CPU or video card upgradeable?

5. I use a Panasonic Toughbook CF-72 13.3" 1024x768 at work along with a 21" CRT desktop at 1280x1024, at home I use a 19" CRT destop at 1280x1024. Any recommendations: 14 XGA vs 15 XGA vs 15 SXGA? I assume the SXGA 14 would be too small for me.

6. This IBM would be used throughout my house for web browsing, email, programming, games, internet radio listening, and ebooks. Some of the games I would like to play are Quake3, Sim City 4, Far Cry, and Unreal Tournament 2004. I don't mind playing at lower resolutions like 800x600 or 1024x768 to get acceptable performance. I would like to play games on par with my current desktop: AMD Athlon XP 2400+, 1GB RAM, and 128MB NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4400, 3DMark2001: 6890. Any advice?

Thanks for your input.

[mtcorn]

Thanks for the information, regarding quesion #3, does the T42 allow multiple options for downsizing the resolution? I tried a Sony Vaio today at Circuit City that had a few options for scaling the resolution down--like fill the screen, fill screen but keep aspect ratio, or center with a black surrounding frame.

[K. Eng]

Yes. The video drivers can do all of that. I have my T40 set to center with black surrounding frame when set to go to lower res (I can't stand interpolation as it looks horrible).

Thanks for the information, regarding quesion #3, does the T42 allow multiple options for downsizing the resolution? I tried a Sony Vaio today at Circuit City that had a few options for scaling the resolution down--like fill the screen, fill screen but keep aspect ratio, or center with a black surrounding frame.