Sanity check on new T60 FlexView config for photography

[taob]

I'm on the verge of buying a new T60 to replace my aging X40... so exciting! In the three years I had my X40, although a very lovely machine, I found a few shortcomings I hope the T60 will address.

• display quality: I definitely want the FlexView screen now, even though the maximum resolution tops out at 1400x1050.
• hard drive performance: I appreciate the X40's 1.8" drive for weight and power savings. I don't appreciate not having any 7200 rpm options.
• CPU/RAM: I had planned to run Photoshop on the X40, but with only a 1.2GHz Pentium M and 1 GB of RAM (coupled with the slow 40GB drive), it was quite painful at the best of times.

Through IBM Canada's EPP promotion, I have ordered a T60 (6FND071): 1.83 GHz T5600, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB HDD, ATI X1300, 15" FlexView, DVD-DL writer, Intel 3945ABG wireless, 2 x 9-cell batteries, and the Advanced Mini Dock.

I'm a professional photographer by trade and probably won't be playing any heavy-duty games on the T60. Should the X1300 w/ 64MB be enough? Or, anticipating Vista, should I consider the X1400 w/ 128MB instead?

What's the difference between the Intel and the Thinkpad-branded mini-PCI wifi adapter? The cost difference is only about $8, but they seem like the do exactly the same thing.

I would like to drive my Dell 24" widescreen LCD (1920x1200) display. I understand that I can do this with the T60 parked in the advanced mini dock. My X40's video BIOS apparently will not output widescreen aspect ratios... I hope this is not a problem with the T60!

Does the Advanced Mini Dock come with its own AC adapter, or do I plug the T60's into the dock? It would be nice to leave the dock at the studio (with the external monitor), the standard AC adapter at home, and be able to charge the battery in both locations.

The pricing I was quoted seems to be very good, so I will be spending some extra money installing a 3rd party 1GB RAM upgrade and swapping out the 80GB/2MB/5400 rpm drive for perhaps a Hitachi 100GB/8MB/7200 rpm SATA drive. Any caveats with that? I'm hoping Lenovo kept HD and RAM as user-serviceable parts...

[tomh009]

Brian, your config will do fine with Vista and Photoshop. Even the GMA 950 integrated graphics would be fine for that.

The ThinkPad-branded wireless uses the Atheros chipset, which is generally preferred by most readers here (including me!).

Yes, the T60 groks wide-screen resolutions so you should have no trouble driving your monitor.

The hard disk swap is easy. When you get your system, make a set of recovery CDs, remove the disk (hardware maintenance manual is online at lenovo.ca should you have any trepidation!), replace it with the new one, insert back in, and boot with your first recovery CD. It'll image your new disk into factory configuration. Memory upgrade is even simpler ...

Incidentally, please don't post EPP pricing on these forums as that's against our policy. I have edited your post accordingly.

P.S. What type of photography do you do?

[taob]

The ThinkPad-branded wireless uses the Atheros chipset, which is generally preferred by most readers here (including me!).

Aha, good to know, thanks!

The hard disk swap is easy. When you get your system, make a set of recovery CDs, ...

Does IBM/Lenovo still give you the option of requesting a free set of recovery CD's if you call them within 30 days of the purchase of a new Thinkpad? I did that with my X40, although I suppose since the T60 will have a burner, it won't be as much of an issue.

Incidentally, please don't post EPP pricing on these forums as that's against our policy. I have edited your post accordingly.

Whoops, sorry about that!!!

P.S. What type of photography do you do?

Mainly weddings, portraits and corporate events (http://blog.luxography.ca/). The X40 is not ideal for that, although the portability is great when you're lugging tons of other gear around. I have the X40 connected over VGA to an old 17" Viewsonic 1280x1024 LCD for client viewing in my studio, but it sure would be nice to have a 15" FlexView while on the road or on site with a client. The viewing angle on the X40 was also a problem when you have an entire extended family hunkered down around the kitchen table wanting to look at photos...

[pipspeak]

Personally I'd want a 128MB graphics card for photoshop and a big ol' monitor, particularly when using a lot of memory-intensive PS plugins, but the 64MB should be OK.

Most importantly (And I assume you're already on top of this) get a good color calibration system to ensure both the laptop and monitor are color-accurate.

[tomh009]

Photoshop and the plug-ins require lots of main memory, not video memory. Once you get beyond 32-bit colour, there is really very little that Photoshop demands of the video hardware. DirectX, 3D and dynamic transparency effects are what demand high-end video cards; Photoshop essentially displays static images on the screen.

Brian, very nice photography! I have only shot one wedding, and I'm convinced my forte does not lie there ...

[ThinkTay]

Photoshop and the plug-ins require lots of main memory, not video memory. Once you get beyond 32-bit colour, there is really very little that Photoshop demands of the video hardware. DirectX, 3D and dynamic transparency effects are what demand high-end video cards; Photoshop essentially displays static images on the screen.

Brian, very nice photography! I have only shot one wedding, and I'm convinced my forte does not lie there ...

A lingering obsession over rendering power required for Photoshop seems to be one of the biggest issues on these forums. Perhaps a sticky? Graphics and memory were issues back when computers came standard with 256mb and photoshop could hog near a gig.

These days, practically any new machine is perfectly suited for use with PS

[taob]

Personally I'd want a 128MB graphics card for photoshop and a big ol' monitor, particularly when using a lot of memory-intensive PS plugins, but the 64MB should be OK.

Unless the X1300 grabs video RAM from main RAM (which I'm 99% sure it does not), it won't be an issue for Photoshop. Maybe some day Photoshop will have GPU offload capability, but until then, pretty much any graphics adapter (desktop, laptop or otherwise) made sinc ethe turn of the millennium will be adequate. I was thinking maybe Vista might want something with a bit more oomph, but it seems the X1300 should be good to go.

Most importantly (And I assume you're already on top of this) get a good color calibration system to ensure both the laptop and monitor are color-accurate.

I did try profiling my X40 with my Eye-One Display 2 hardware colorimeter using a variety of software, but the results were less than spectacular. I'll see if the FlexView + X1300 combo can do better. In any case, it isn't critical, since all my production work is done on my desktop system anyway.

[taob]

Photoshop essentially displays static images on the screen.

If my X40 isn't constantly in swap, you can pan around images pretty smoothly in Photoshop, and the X40 only has IEG2 graphics ("extreme", my butt... ). A Radeon X-anything will be a step up!

Brian, very nice photography! I have only shot one wedding, and I'm convinced my forte does not lie there ...

Well, if you get roped into shooting another wedding, give me a call and I'll bail you out. One of my favourite weddings was in K/W, and we drove to Stratford for some of the photos too.

[tomh009]

Well, if you get roped into shooting another wedding, give me a call and I'll bail you out. One of my favourite weddings was in K/W, and we drove to Stratford for some of the photos too.

I'll keep that in mind! I mostly do sports and nature, though it's all on the side so far, haven't quite dared to jump in with both feet yet ...