Advice Before I Buy

[hu7ch]

Hello all,

I've recently become interested in the Thinkpad line of notebooks, especially with the recent deals going on. To preface a bit, I'm a graduate student who's been thinking of purchasing a notebook since this past summer, but held off until the Core 2 Duo's were released.

My main usage will come from basic internet browsing / research, word processing, and excel usage. I will likely be using it to travel as well when I go out on internships over the next few years. In addition to that, I would like the ability to play recent games (Battlefield 2142, etc.), although graphic settings don't matter to me. It wouldn't be used for that often, just when I'm away from home traveling.

Anyways, there are two deals which have really quote my eye with the current sales. The first one is a T60p configured through the student site (saved the quote, as the price recently increased) with a 2.16 C2D, 14inch screen, 1 stick of 1gig RAM, 80gig HD, intel wireless card, and 6 cell battery. This comes out to be $1,356.08 after taxes.

The second is just a 14inch T60 with an x1400, 2ghz C2D, 2 512 sticks of RAM, 9 cell battery, 80gig HD, and lenovo's wireless card. this configuration is about $90 dollars cheaper.

I'm pretty tempted to pull the trigger on the T60p, as it seems to be the better deal including a faster processor, 1 stick of RAM (can upgrade later if I need to 2gigs), the upgraded video card (although I've heard various reports on how it responds to games as it is a CAD card). The only downside I see is the 6 cell battery, as I'm worried about how much time I'll get out of it, and I can't upgrade to a 9 cell now that there is a price increase when I configure through the student site now.

I've wrote too much, but I'm just looking for some advice on my choice here. Thanks in advance.

[marlinspike]

Well, you could always buy a 9 cell battery separately. They are on sale for like $125.30 now, and that would get you two batteries. Or you could get a battery that you can swap out your CD drive with for $119. I will say this, with my 9 cell and everything set to max power saving, I can get about 6.5 hours (minus 1 hours for wireless useage), so I would imagine the battery run time of the 6 cell is still better than the average bear. Of those config's I'd go with the T60P, mainly for the 1 stick of ram factor (it doesn't sound like you're doing anything that benefits from the CPU).

[corymcnutt]

I agree...go with the T60p. You definitely want that 1 gig stick of ram to allow for easier upgrade later. You can live with the 6 cell for now and purchase a 9 cell later if you feel you really need it. The T60p seems like a much better config and deal.

Cory

[pianowizard]

I agree...go with the T60p. You definitely want that 1 gig stick of ram to allow for easier upgrade later.

I gave the same advice to another person just last night. However, if you are 100% sure that you will only need 1GB and will never upgrade, 2x512MB may be better because with dual channel it will be slightly faster than having just one 1GB module.