Thinkpads Forum

I'm a student who can't seem to make up her mind on what laptop to get.

What I plan on using it for.
Vista, MS Office, basic photo editing with picasa from google, and web surfing. I'll be in Caribean for half a year so I need it to be brick house solid (reason I'm going with a TP). I don't plan on buying another computer I finish med school 2+ more years.


I was thinking of going with a 2613CTO Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.0GHz, 4MB L2, 667MHz FSB) with the 60 gig 7200rpm, 1 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM), ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 64MB w/o WWAN (WHAT DOES WWAN MEAN?) and 14.1 SXGA+ TFT.
$1260

My reading from here made me believe that the x1300 would be cooler so the fan would be on less often, and that I could later put another gig of ram in to have Vista running the best it can.

Am I overing doing it? I'd love to spend $100-200 less, but I don't want to be disappointed when everything is running Vista in a year or two.

If I drop to the slower 80gig HD and then go with 2x512mb for ram, it is about $120 cheaper. But will I be disappointed in the future?

Thanks Lindsey.

I don't know much about graphics cards but 64MB of graphics memory may not be enough to run all features of Vista. I would not worry about being "disappointed when everything is running Vista in a year or two". Think about it, XP was released in 2001 but five years later, Win2K is still perfectly adequate.

If I were you, I would stick to having 1GB of RAM in one slot, but get a 5400rpm HDD.

definitely go with the 1 GB stick. if you get vista and want to upgrade to 2 GB later, you just need to get another 1 GB. if you get two 512 MB sticks, they'll both have to go if you want to go up to 2 GB later.

as far as i know, the x1300 is fine for all of the features in vista. someone here installed vista on a laptop with x1300, and was able to run everything.

laundromatt wrote:someone here installed vista on a laptop with x1300, and was able to run everything.

I was under the impression that 64MB of graphics memory can run the Aero Glass interface only if one limits the display resolution to 1024x768.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=30363

check out the last post on that thread.

laundromatt wrote:http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=30363

check out the last post on that thread.

How good is your thinkpad?? 2623 D6U

Hey Kuma, I just noticed in your signature that you already own a great T42. Are you sure you need to upgrade?

I'm Kuma's girlfriend. Just using his computer to ask questions.

Should i go with the 128mb video ram?
Why wouldn't I?

for what you plan on doing with it, I don't think that you will be disappointed with it in the future at all if you go with 128MB, the 80GB, and 1GB of RAM; that should be more than enough to start with.

Good luck with Medical School.

Christopher,
Should I go for the 128 of video ram and not get the 7200rpm HD?
I was worried that the fan would be on all the time bc of the higher temp that the 128 vram would run at.
Should I not be concerned?

I honestly wouldn't be concerned. Having more VRAM doesn't directly correlate to having higher GPU or system temps unles the core itself is clocked higher and has the ability to access more bandwidth for memory ops. I haven't seen any significant, much less any, temperature increase on a given T Series vs. a p designation of the same model.

The fan isn't going to be spooling up all the time to deal with it, especially if you don't load it much, which it sounds like you are going to be doing.

If it were my money, I go for the larger 100gig Hard Drive @ 5400 RPM. In addition, go for the X1400, with sports 128megs of ram. And NO, it will not make your fan run all the time and your system won't run hot. I have this configeration and use my Thinkpad on my lap all the time and at most it may get a bit warm if I'm running several programs at once.

Take a look at the T60-D7U. You will get a decked out unit for a great price. I just purchased this configeration for $1150.00

Kindest regards, Steve

One of the following two models will be my purchase selection but I cannot decide which, ugh! Help me with your suggestions, Please!

8741-4BU or 8744-5BU

Both models are almost identical with exception of the following, same warranties, minor software differences (makes no difference).

The 8741 model has a 100G 7200 Drive and Intel Wireless a/b/g. ($100 cheaper than the 8744 model)

The 8744 model has a 120G 5400 Drive and Thinkpad a/b/g/n wireless.

Now I don't see a need for wireless n in the near future but is the wireless circuitry within the notebook that much better to chose the 'n' wireless over the 100G 7200 drive?

As far as I'm concerned the a,b,g is just fine.

They play these numbers game and to tell you the truth, I don't see that much if any in real life sittuations a difference between the b and g wireless. I know the g comes in with faster numbers, however, in a real home enviorment, there is not any big deal in one over the other. So, I don't see where the n will be any better than the g.

Just my 2 cents.

Go with the 100GB HD.

You can actually modify the config to add the 'n' if you want for an additional $35.

dfumento wrote:Go with the 100GB HD.

You can actually modify the config to add the 'n' if you want for an additional $35.

Actually you can't modify the config since the 8741 is a pre-configured model.

In some other threads the Thinkpad 802.11n has been suggested as the way to go when ordering if available. Reference has been made that the circuitry is better than the Intel version. That is why I was asking that if a tradeoff had to be made which would be the best config to order. I know I could always install a new HD if I wanted or needed but I don't know if the wireless is upgradeable.

pianowizard wrote:

laundromatt wrote:someone here installed vista on a laptop with x1300, and was able to run everything.

I was under the impression that 64MB of graphics memory can run the Aero Glass interface only if one limits the display resolution to 1024x768.

Aero Glass runs pretty comfortably on my old D610 with a 64MB ATi X300, with a 1400x1050 resolution.

deeastman wrote: Actually you can't modify the config since the 8741 is a pre-configured model.

In some other threads the Thinkpad 802.11n has been suggested as the way to go when ordering if available. Reference has been made that the circuitry is better than the Intel version. That is why I was asking that if a tradeoff had to be made which would be the best config to order. I know I could always install a new HD if I wanted or needed but I don't know if the wireless is upgradeable.

Call sales and say you want to change the card on the unit and see what they say.
I ordered the 802.11n for my newest laptop and it turns out that both it and the Belkin n1 router have the Atheros chipset. Matching Chips work best.

Definitely go for a 128 mb graphics controller memory and a 100GB Hard drive, better if it is 7500 rpm but 5400 wouln´t do any harm. You medicine students do a lot of power point pressentations, so I would reccomend the more Ram you could stick into your baby the better, and welcome to the caribbean! you surely will enjoy it.

dfumento wrote:

deeastman wrote: Actually you can't modify the config since the 8741 is a pre-configured model.

In some other threads the Thinkpad 802.11n has been suggested as the way to go when ordering if available. Reference has been made that the circuitry is better than the Intel version. That is why I was asking that if a tradeoff had to be made which would be the best config to order. I know I could always install a new HD if I wanted or needed but I don't know if the wireless is upgradeable.

Call sales and say you want to change the card on the unit and see what they say.
I ordered the 802.11n for my newest laptop and it turns out that both it and the Belkin n1 router have the Atheros chipset. Matching Chips work best.

I heard the same thing too about the matching chipsets are atheros and I'm planning to buy the laptop with atheros wireless a/b/g/n and the belkin N1 router which also has the editor's choice on cnet.com !!

x1300 runs vista eye candy just fine. If you don't play games or do some sort of crazy cad tools that require A LOT of 3d acceleration, the extra cost of an x1400 is not warranted. For almost all non-hardcore gaming purposes an extra 64 mb of video ram is not really that big of a deal. What will get you a tangible increase in performance is:
1. Faster CPU has an impact
2. More RAM has an impact, especially with Vista, however RAM is easily upgradable and will only get cheaper in the future.
3. Faster hard drive, although if it's not big then it basically isn't usable.
4. Video card if you are an avid gamer, however thinkpads really aren't built for gaming. Otherwise any directx 9.0 compatible video card will work fine for Vista.

If I were you, I would stick with the T7200, get a gig of ram in one stick (If you need to upgrade later it'll be easy and a gig won't set you back $100), and a bigger hard drive with an x1300. I fill up my 60 gig all the time with the 10 gigs of vista crap, 2-3 gigs of thinkvantage updates, and the 2-3 gig thinkvantage partition, leaving me with little to work with, so I would strongly recommend something bigger than that. Another solution would be to purchase a separate notebook hard drive for use in the Ultrabay. As for 5400 vs. 7200... Some people claim it's very noticable and others claim it's only a mild increase. I believe it's somewhere in the league of 15-20% faster hard drive accesses.

Since you're a student, check for student programs at your school with lenovo. At my school, we have a partnership with lenovo that offers huge discounts.

As for the wireless debate, everything I've read has claimed the IBM wireless is almost always superior to the intel version.

None of the above matters a whole lot. All those configuration optins are adequate IMHO. However, if you are planning to edit photographs the *screen* is what you want to worry about. The base screen is not very good for that purpose because the contrast varies too much with the viewing angle.

claudeo wrote:None of the above matters a whole lot. All those configuration optins are adequate IMHO.

Exactly. In fact, even the T42 that the OP already has should be just fine.