Thinkpads Forum

Hi, I'm a college student in CA who is thinking about buying a notebook I could spend my next 4 years using. About 2-3 months ago I was planning to buy a T43 notebook. However, when I checked the price couple days ago, I found that the T60 model isn't that much more expensive, so I decided to buy it instead.

I visited Lenovo website and saw a promotion of its Anniversary Sale. There is this model that really strikes me:

- CPU : Intel Core Duo processor T2500 2 GHz. FSB 667 MHz.
- RAM : DDR2 512 MB FSB 667 MHz. (I'm thinking about upgrading it to 1 GB)
- Display : 14.1'' TFT Backlit 1400x1050 Res.
- Hard Drive : 100 GB SATA 5400 rpm (I really hate this, I want a 7200!!!)
- Graphic Card : 128 MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 HyperMemory
- DVD Recordable

- Price : $1799.00 (maybe even goes up about $100-200, if I do some upgrades)

Some of my concerns over the T60 model is the Fan noise and its battery life. If I only do an ordinary web-surfing and low-resolution game-playing, how long do you think a 9-cell battery could last?

Okay, what do you think about this model? Should I wait for a better deal or should I go for it? Also, should I upgrade anything? Thanks ahead for your great advices.

Do you really need that fancy X1400 video for web surfing and low-res games?

Save some money. Get a cheaper computer with cheaper ATI or even with integrated 950. Your battery life will be better.

Also, don't worry about the 5400 HD. It should be fine.

i consider to upgrade to 1 GB memory and at least 128MB video card if you planning to have it for about 4 years and upgrade the new OS Vista that's come on january 2007!!!!

if you do video editing, outlook or photo rendering then go for the HD @ 7200 rpm so you can keep your laptop for more time without making upgrades and keep on mid that thinkpad last longer then any other notebook so the extra bucks are worth spent for very long time!!

Cosmos01 wrote:Some of my concerns over the T60 model is the Fan noise and its battery life.

I am very happy with my T60 (specs below) the fan is quite and the battery life is outstanding. I find the 5400rpm drive quite nice. It runs a little cooler and quieter than the 7200. Plus you can always upgrade the hard drive later, as it's designed to be user upgradeable. I've done that on my T42, very easy.

I added an additional 1 GB memory which made an improvement and was very inexpensive.

My T60 is 6 weeks old now, and I have a lot of time on it with no problems. It, like the ones before, is a really nice computer.

Archer6

If you are sensitive to noise, I'd propose not to buy the T60, as the fan basically never stops without using 3rd party software and eventually overheating your laptop and/or voiding your warranty.
I had a T60p and returned it for the constant fan activity. I actually have ordered a MacbookPro 17" now. This should be delivered sometime next week. Ill give you some feedback on how it compares.
I loved the T60 for its sturdy design and excellent keyboard however for 3k € I can expect my PC to be silent. Period.

filter wrote:If you are sensitive to noise, I'd propose not to buy the T60, as the fan basically never stops without using 3rd party software and eventually overheating your laptop and/or voiding your warranty.
I had a T60p and returned it for the constant fan activity. I actually have ordered a MacbookPro 17" now. This should be delivered sometime next week. Ill give you some feedback on how it compares.
I loved the T60 for its sturdy design and excellent keyboard however for 3k € I can expect my PC to be silent. Period.

Funny, fmy fan very rarely comes on (usually just at startup), and the system never feels hot. Of course, all I do is web surfing and office apps, so I am not really stressing it.

I have owned laptops from Hitachi, SONY, Gateway, HP... and now the T60p.

Even when stressing the system with video editing etc., the fan noise is the quietest of all laptops I have ever used or seen used.

I think my ears are still pretty good, and I can hardly hear the noise.

Well its good if it works for you. But having a GPU Temperature of over 65 degrees when ideling is just not acceptable. And I was not the only person, having these kind of problems. Its also not an issue of the FireGL, since even people with onboard graphicscard reported similar temperatures and noise. All I wanted was a PC, that would not need to use its fan when practically doing nothing. And this is just what I was told the MacBook pro is capable of.
In the end its all a matter of preference and how sensitive you are to noise. But for the sake of having a silent laptop, I'm going to try the switch.

I've tried out 3 T60s and currently own a 2007-68U. None of them were noisy to the point of being annoying or loud, the fan does run, but to term that loud or disturbing, I'd have to been in an "extremely" quiet room.

My T60 makes hardly any fan noise at all.

If I am in a perfectly quiet room, running something like 3DMark06 so the fan is operating at full speed I can hear the fan if I am no more than 2 feet away from the laptop. Most of the time I can hear absolutely no fan noise whatsoever. The disk drive makes as much noise as the fan and neither are as loud as the CD/DVD drive.

Hi filter,

You might find yourself in for a surprise. I'm currently returning my second macbook pro because of it running very, very hot (60C+ at idle). The fan rarely comes on, but sadly in my experience they are scorchers . Hence, I'm switching *back* to PC from apple as I just can't use it and I really need to upgrade from my 12" pb (and why I'm reading the forums here). Others have posted that they've had no problems with the 15" mbp though, so take this for what its worth...

pax et bonum,
frzntoz
____________
mbp 1.83 (standard) - being returned
mbp 2.0 (standard) - returned
pb 12" - working overtime

filter wrote:If you are sensitive to noise, I'd propose not to buy the T60, as the fan basically never stops without using 3rd party software and eventually overheating your laptop and/or voiding your warranty.
I had a T60p and returned it for the constant fan activity. I actually have ordered a MacbookPro 17" now. This should be delivered sometime next week. Ill give you some feedback on how it compares.
I loved the T60 for its sturdy design and excellent keyboard however for 3k € I can expect my PC to be silent. Period.

I really can not agree with you. All thinkpad is quiet compared to laptops with the same configuration.

filter wrote:If you are sensitive to noise, I'd propose not to buy the T60, as the fan basically never stops without using 3rd party software and eventually overheating your laptop and/or voiding your warranty.

To condem the T60 based on these issues that may or may not be a problem, is jumping the gun. The use of 3rd party software (if setup properly) does not cause overheating and voiding the warranty. Statements like this may not be a fair assessment of the product. Especially if it's just the experience of one person, or a small number of people. There are many thousands of ThinkPads out there. It is the nature of a forum like this to hear about various issues, as that is what this board is about, helping one another.

However there are a lot of people out there with ThinkPads that are not having any problems. So, naturally they are not going to be posting here as they have no reason to.

Much like the Mercedes or BMW service departments, only the broken ones go in for warranty repair. The rest of the owners are out there enjoying there cars and only go in for normal maintenance work.

So in fairness when one takes into consideration the complexity of the modern notebook computer, I believe that the ThinkPad brand remains a first class product.