My First Purchase T30

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macuser · #1 Post by **macuser** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:27 pm

Well I am finally coming to terms and graduating from my mac obsession and purchasing a Thinkpad. I am currently
looking at theT30 for my personal pleasure.
I will be using it for office 2003 access, excel. general web and email, throw in an occassional movie on the road.
I'm chosing a used T30 for my first purchase
Id rather not devulge my earned income
on work related hardware.

I have two ebay items listed below for some friendly input.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... h_SO:SI:IT

and

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-Thinkpad-T30-P4 ... dZViewItem

I will be looking for an upgraded hd for photos, and music too wean myself off the mac

I'm looking to spend under 400 I could go slightly more if I need to but I figure the extra $$
will be handy for upgraded ram and HD.

Although I am new here I enjoy the wealth of knowledge by reading the forums.

Thank you in advance.

Soon to be (ex-mac user)
Edit left - right Scroll

ronbo613 · #2 Post by **ronbo613** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:39 pm

Hello there-Being in the video production and graphics business, I can appreciate what Apple computers can do. For office-type tasks and internet stuff, Windows has the edge.
I don't care either way, whatever does the job for me is fine. I recently got a T30, it's my first laptop, I'm stoked, it's a great computer. I use it for downloading photos and video on the road and checking the email from the company website.
I wouldn't want an Apple laptop, but I'd take a G5(or whatever they are on now), to run Final Cut Pro.

#3 Post by **rkawakami** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:53 pm

Welcome to thinkpads.com and the "Dark Side"

!

As it appears from your expected usage of the laptop, you may also want to consider a high-end T23 system. Available with up to a 1.2Ghz PIII-M and a maximum of 1024MB of PC133 SDRAM, that system should work for you as well. The price tradeoff is that a base system T23 will probably be cheaper than the equivalent T30, but the older PC133 memory is more expensive per MB than the PC2100 or PC2700 DDR.

Also, when posting links it's easier if you keep the link as short as possible since it prevents people from having to scroll left to right.

Bg357 · #4 Post by **Bg357** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 11:56 pm

macuser wrote:.

I have two ebay items listed below for some friendly input.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... h_SO:SI:IT

and

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-Thinkpad-T30-P4 ... dZViewItem

I will be looking for an upgraded hd for photos, and music too wean myself off the mac

I'm looking to spend under 400 I could go slightly more if I need to but I figure the extra $$
will be handy for upgraded ram and HD.

The second one is definitely a good deal, if it's in good condition.

The first one makes no mention of the shipping costs and is inconsistent about it's return/warranty policy. Easy to get burned on the unknowns...

Good Luck

pianowizard · #5 Post by **pianowizard** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 4:08 am

I too think the second one looks better. However, I also agree with rkawakami that it's worth looking into getting a high-end T23. I got my current T23 for $335 shipped just last week, and replaced one of the 128MB sticks with a 512MB one ($47 shipped). It has some of the best specs among the T23 models, and has two big advantages over the two T30's that Macuser is considering: an SXGA+ display (compared to XGA), and substantially lighter (~5.2 lbs versus 5.7 lbs). The USB ports are only 1.1, but I think those on the T30 are also 1.1.

gearguy · #6 Post by **gearguy** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 5:49 am

ronbo613 wrote:Hello there-Being in the video production and graphics business, I can appreciate what Apple computers can do. For office-type tasks and internet stuff, Windows has the edge.
I don't care either way, whatever does the job for me is fine. I recently got a T30, it's my first laptop, I'm stoked, it's a great computer. I use it for downloading photos and video on the road and checking the email from the company website.
I wouldn't want an Apple laptop, but I'd take a G5(or whatever they are on now), to run Final Cut Pro.

But at the end of the day the End product never really looks much different. You never go to the Cinema and actually are able to tell When they've used Adobe on Windows or Final Cut on Mac to edit a movie as good films never ever use cheesy effets that could be assosciated with a piece of software, often using only fades and straight cuts. Crap films like Star Wars can have all the diagonal wipes and other fugly crap

ronbo613 · #7 Post by **ronbo613** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 1:14 pm

But at the end of the day the End product never really looks much different.

Agreed. I use Adobe Premiere, it's pretty much the same as any other editing software. Since many video productions these days wind up on DVDs, how you get there is not that big a deal.
Laptops are now standard issue equipment for field production and they will play an even bigger role with HDV. HDV camera, laptop computer and standalone hard drives to preview and download footage from memory cards.

The USB ports are only 1.1, but I think those on the T30 are also 1.1.

The T30 I've got is USB1.1.

Are all T30 displays XGA?

pianowizard · #8 Post by **pianowizard** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 3:02 pm

ronbo613 wrote:Are all T30 displays XGA?

Some are SXGA+, but both T30's that Macuser is considering are XGA. T23's with SXGA+ are about the same price as or even slightly cheaper than T30's with XGA. The T23 is also quite a bit lighter than the T30. For these reasons, I personally find a high-end T23 more appealing than the T30.

ronbo613 · #9 Post by **ronbo613** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 4:21 pm

Bummer, I have a 14.1" XGA. Maybe a T23 might be as good, or better of a deal in this case if a PIII would do as the processor.

macuser · #10 Post by **macuser** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 9:37 pm

The pIII wont cut it. I have found another ebay chance at a second life with

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %26fvi%3D1

The taw book says sxga and bluetooth for the 2366-97U.
I do like the additional aptions in this one. I do realize I will need to $ extra for perks -
after all i'm a mac user so i understand the business. What should I ask?
Thank you in advance.

-mac

pianowizard · #11 Post by **pianowizard** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 9:54 pm

macuser wrote:The pIII wont cut it.

For "office 2003 access, excel. general web and email, throw in an occassional movie on the road", a 1.2GHz PIII would certainly cut it. In fact, even a 700MHz PIII would be just fine. Also, do you realize that Pentium 4 processors aren't as efficient as Penium III ones, and, as Brent just pointed out in another thread, a 1.4GHz PIII is as fast as a 1.8GHz P4. So, the 2GHz P4 of the T30 you are considering would be equivalent to a 1.5-1.6GHz PIII, not a whole lot faster than a T23 with 1.2GHz PIII. On top of that, Pentium 4 consumes quite a bit more power than PIII or Pentium M, and is thus not well suited for laptops. It's no wonder that IBM released only one model in the T30 series and started the T40 Pentium M series as soon as that processor became available.

#12 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 11:24 pm

Two points:

1) I recently have the chance to compare transcoding video on a PIII 1.13Ghz T23 and an P4-M 1.8Ghz A31. The T23 ran pretty hot but got the job done only a few minutes slower than the A31. Both machines took about 3 hours for a 2:20 VOB.

2) When quoting an eBay auction's URL, you don't need to provide anything past the auction item number. The "&ru=http%3A...." is useless information that only makes it harder for people to read the thread (since you then have to scroll left to right).

(edit: Unless you are using an 15" SXGA+ screen

)

pianowizard · #13 Post by **pianowizard** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 11:44 pm

rkawakami wrote:1) I recently have the chance to compare transcoding video on a PIII 1.13Ghz T23 and an P4-M 1.8Ghz A31. The T23 ran pretty hot but got the job done only a few minutes slower than the A31.

So the difference between PIII and P4 is even smaller than I thought! Did those machines have similar memory and hard drives?

#14 Post by **rkawakami** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 12:09 am

pianowizard wrote:So the difference between PIII and P4 is even smaller than I thought! Did those machines have similar memory and hard drives?

Well, seeing how the A31 had almost a twice-as-fast processor clock speed, yet still performed the transcode only a little bit faster than the T23, I'm not sure what you mean by a "smaller difference". My understanding before I compared these systems was that, on an equal clock footing, a PIII-M will beat a P4-M on many of the processor-intensive benchmarks, all else being equal.

IIRC, the T23 has 768MB with a 5400 rpm 60GB drive. The A31 at work has, I believe, 1G of memory with a 4200 rpm 40GB drive. One could say that the A31 was hampered slightly because of the slower disk drive, but from my viewpoint the processing efficiency allowed the "slower" T23 to mostly keep up with the "faster" A31.

The OP should conduct his own research into whatever programs will normally be run on the system to see what the advantages are between the two processor architectures.

pianowizard · #15 Post by **pianowizard** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:51 am

rkawakami wrote:Well, seeing how the A31 had almost a twice-as-fast processor clock speed, yet still performed the transcode only a little bit faster than the T23, I'm not sure what you mean by a "smaller difference".

I was indeed not expressing myself clearly. What I meant was that the difference between a fast PIII such as the 1.13GHz one on your T23 and a relatively slow P4 like the 1.8GHz one on your A31 is even smaller than I had expected. In other words, I thought the 1.8gig P4 would outperform the PIII by a wider margin.

#16 Post by **rkawakami** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 4:14 am

Yeah, I kinda thought that's what you were driving at, but I don't like to put words in people's postings

.

BTW, what are you doing up so late (or early!)

?

pianowizard · #17 Post by **pianowizard** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 4:21 am

I woke up prematurely!

ronbo613 · #18 Post by **ronbo613** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 11:03 am

Having used both PIII and P4 processors on a regular basis, I would prefer a P4 in most cases. That being said, I would agree that the main difference between the two for processing tasks is the time it takes to do the job.
For video rendering with a PIII computer, I would think 768MB RAM would be minimum, and a 7200rpm drive would be ideal. With a 5400rpm drive, if you have background programs running or do something like unplug a USB device while transfering DV or rendering video, there is a good chance there will be a problem with the file the computer is working on. Can't imagine doing any video-type work with a 4200rpm drive.

The OP should conduct his own research into whatever programs will normally be run on the system to see what the advantages are between the two processor architectures.

That's probably the best advice.

ujav · #19 Post by **ujav** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:27 pm

Yes, that's old story, it begins after appearance of desktop p4 CPU and comparing it with pIII.

I think that main advantage of p4m is higher clocking - you can't find a 2.6-2.8Ghz pIII cpu.
Other is DDR instead of oudated SDRAM, and - faster FSB.

And.. that's all?

macuser · #20 Post by **macuser** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:45 pm

Product: ThinkPad T23 2647-NU8 [change]

Operating system: All [change]

Original description: PIII-M 1.2GHz (512KB), 512MB RAM, 64.0GB HDD, 14.1 SXGA+(1400x1050) TFT LCD), 8x8x24/8x CD-RW/DVD-ROM, 802.11b Wireless(MPCI), Modem(MPCI), Ethernet(CDC), IBM Secure Chip, Win2000

New Rig

XP pro for now might roll back for smooth y2k

SXGA <3 internal wireless

pianowizard · #21 Post by **pianowizard** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:51 pm

macuser wrote:Product: ThinkPad T23 2647-NU8

Wow, that's a really nice T23, as good as mine LOL! Did you get it on eBay?

macuser · #22 Post by **macuser** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:06 pm

only tom can deliver

My First Purchase T30

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