Thinkpads Forum

Finally the day came, having sold my primary laptop i couldn't wait anymore for a dream spec T61 to come out, so i went and got the best I could find.

T61 7664-18G
T7300(2GHz), 1GB RAM, 120GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1440x900 LCD, 128MB nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 4c Li-Ion, WinVista Business


First impressions: It's a sleek machine, real Thinkpad, pictures don't flatter it at all, it's much much nicer in real life. The LCD is really good, much better than i expect and better from the Z61t I got for my father.

Negative Points:
The keyboard dissapointed me right from the start, not as good as my previous Thinkpads either the Z61t.
I have them side by side and the feeling of the Z61t keyboard is smoother. A light-buld blinked in my head and i tried to exchange keyboards between the two! Success! Keyboards are interchangeable with the Z61t keyboard giving a much nicer feeling and response to my fingertips. Now the crappy keyboard went to my father's Z61t and i got the better keyboard on my T61
(Please ppl, don't tell him anything, i hope we won't understand what a cunning thing i did)

Took out the 1GB piece RAM it had, installed 2x1GB Transcend 667Mhz Ram and now i m downloading from my desktop machine the T61 WindowsXP drivers, as Vista is a load of BS (still up to this day) and i can't risk using Vista with my Oracle Applications (we develop and sell software for Cargo Forwarders etc)

I ll keep you posted!

p.s i still would like it to have a camera just like the Z61t

p.ss It has a PCMCIA and an ExpressCard socket! Yay!

p.sss The best part of all? It has the colorful IBM logo! Hurray!

Congratulations on your excellent machine.... I know the euphoria of getting a new Thinkpad. Good luck with it...

nice nice, congrats on your Thinkpad I wish i could afford one of those but i'm still not sold on widescreen laptops yet even tho they do look nice. I saw a Z60 series or somtehing like that the other day and it was real nice and tiny but nah, i loved my T42 better

Did you check out the thread about the different keyboards? You can tell which keyboard you originally got on your T61 by looking under the keys to see how they are attached. I have a NMB keyboard (apparently) and they are the best. The ALPS and Chicony ones aren't as good i'm told but i wouldn't know

how was the size? was it thicker compared to your z61?

hi guys and thank your for your kind remarks.
And Yes nothing beats that "new-machine" feeling

As for the size I ve made some good photos with my Nokia, but I need to finish the XP installation on the T61 as i need bluetooth to transfer them.


Funny thing is i used the WinXP Pro Sp2 CD i got to install windows on the T61 and it couldn't find the hard disk!

Thank God i had a USB floppy from an old Portege and with these files
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62909
i found a work around (pressing F6 during XP installation)
Seems the 965 is too new chipset for the oem xp cd.

But the T61 seems a bit bigger than the Z61t. marginally

sokos wrote:Funny thing is i used the WinXP Pro Sp2 CD i got to install windows on the T61 and it couldn't find the hard disk!

You need to change HDD settings from SATA to Compatibility mode in the Bios.

but that would have an impact on Sata native performance.
Since the workaround worked, don't you think it's better?

in order to install XP you change it to compatability mode then once XP is installed you install the right SATA drivers then reboot, change it back in the BIOS and then boot windows.

Normally you'd just press F6 when windows is installing the install the drivers but since the thinkpads don't have a floppy that's the method you have to use. If you happen to have a floppy drive tho you can do it the normal way.

The other way i suppose it to integrate the drivers into a customer XP CD since the normal OEM ones out there don't have the drivers for it. YOu can use one of those custom XP installation CD makers thingys to integrate all the drivers for your whole system and also make it unattended so you just stick the disc in and reboot and let it run and you wont have to do a darn thing other than come back 30mins later when it's done.

Ok here are some pics of my baby, butt naked

http://www.forwarding.gr/mx5/ram.jpg (installed the 2x1GB)
http://www.forwarding.gr/mx5/t61.jpg
http://www.forwarding.gr/mx5/t61_z61t.jpg (size comparison)
http://www.forwarding.gr/mx5/t61keyb.jpg (exchange keyboards)

Sorry for the quality it was my cell phone, but if there is something specific u d like me to photograph just ask me too.

Thanks for the pics sokos. Can you run some 3D Bench marks like 3D Mark 2003, 2005 or even 2006 ? Have you try TPfancontrol to see if it can handle T61 and report temperatures ?

Looking at your keyboard pictures (exchange keyboards) and comparing them with this this picture from a thread I started earlier, it looks like your Z61t came with an NMB keyboard and your T61 came with a Chicony keyboard.

Now your Dad has the Chicony.

Thanks for the pics. THe T61 fan/heatsink look real badass!

sokos wrote:Ok here are some pics of my baby, butt naked

Sorry for the quality it was my cell phone, but if there is something specific u d like me to photograph just ask me too.

I like those ronchy nudies... no photo shopping, just the T61 in the raw!

gator wrote:Thanks for the pics. THe T61 fan/heatsink look real badass!

Doesn't look very different from T60 one's. How can Lenovo claim it can be cooler and quieter ?

T60p cooling :

Pascal_TTH wrote:Doesn't look very different from T60 one's. How can Lenovo claim it can be cooler and quieter ?

The internal construction of fan is different.

ryengineer wrote:

Pascal_TTH wrote:Doesn't look very different from T60 one's. How can Lenovo claim it can be cooler and quieter ?

The internal construction of fan is different.

More information about the new fan design has been posted on "Inside the Box" at Lenovo Blogs:

http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=81

Sounds like they had a real hoot designing it.

Christopher123 wrote:

ryengineer wrote: The internal construction of fan is different.

More information about the new fan design has been posted on "Inside the Box" at Lenovo Blogs:

http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=81

Sounds like they had a real hoot designing it.

Christopher123

I'will read this... If it's really silent, I hope it can be possible to by a T61 cooler to get the fan and mount it on other Thinkpad.

sokos wrote:A light-buld blinked in my head and i tried to exchange keyboards between the two! Success! Keyboards are interchangeable with the Z61t keyboard giving a much nicer feeling and response to my fingertips.

Great!, thanks for this "experiment". I now know that the T60 NMB keyboard I have will fit the T61

Excellent news! I'm glad to hear that it is up to your expectations... with all the uncertainty surrounding the T61, I'm glad to hear yet another positive review.

As for the XP tips, on behalf a future-Vista-uninstaller, thank you for the help ahead of time! I probably would've come back here in a month or two and asked the same thing.

So... think you can talk to Lenovo so I can get my laptop any sooner? I RMA'd my old laptop, and right now, it'll be back before my new one--which I ordered over a month ago. -.- Fricken Lenovo!

Redmumba, glad to be of help to you, that's what makes forums and their communities so great. I could help you in Greece, but outside not much that i could do

But ppl, i don't quite understand why do you order from Lenovo straight? Don't you understand that shopping from a local dealer is usually the best deal? You support both the business (local economy) and support offered is ALWAYS better than dealing with a person you can go see and discuss, rather with some press 1,5,2,5 recorded message or unknown technicians or part timers phone center that will throw you around like a tennis ball?

@smartins: guard your keyboard like your eyes

@stallen: you are one dirty boy

sokos wrote:But ppl, i don't quite understand why do you order from Lenovo straight? Don't you understand that shopping from a local dealer is usually the best deal? You support both the business (local economy) and support offered is ALWAYS better than dealing with a person you can go see and discuss, rather with some press 1,5,2,5 recorded message or unknown technicians or part timers phone center that will throw you around like a tennis ball?

Ordering from lenovo gives you an opportunity to customize your order. Cam or no cam, 4-in-1 card media or not, Expresscard or not, WWAN or Turbomemory, these are just few things to name...

and then one joins the sticky topic (aka crazy waiting list )
Just looking the amount of ppl waiting or complaining about their order, makes my jaw drop.

I think it's a matter of patience and I couldn't wait, also Matt from the Lenovoblogs wrote about his dream machine and his thinking is correct. Most parts can be installed or replaced later
(ram, cpu, turbomem) so why bother? (yes camera is something i d like, but work can't wait for a camera)

Plus, most retail machines have the 3 year guarantee.One can go see it even try it and then buy it. Internet is great but somethings it just can't do! And that is buying something expensive such as a car, a house, clothes etc.

For support, at least I know (from past experiences with my T41) if something gets damaged, in one-two days it's fixed, but then again i am fortunate enough to be in Europe

Not to mention, you get some [censored] good deals from Lenovo. 20% off from Visa, another 20-25% for the Memorial Day sale. Plus, due to the errors, we get a free gift.

Its enough to make me wait... estimated shipping date is 7/3 for me, which isn't bad since I replaced the order on the 6/14.

thank you for the pictures.

the z61t is on the left and t61 right? the t61 seems much bigger

any more pictures of z61t vs t61 would be most appreciated.

edit: clothed pictures would be nice too

sure no problem, time to dust off my Nikon D70, so check the thread soon

Pascal_TTH wrote:

Christopher123 wrote:

It would be great if we could put this fan in our T60's, the fan whine is ridiculously loud and annoying. The housing looks like it might fit.

OK!
I m back with as promised with more pics for the good ppl of this forum. Comparison sizing of T61 with Z61t (both 14.1" wide 1440x900)

http://www.forwarding.gr/t61_z61t_side.jpg
http://www.forwarding.gr/t61_z61t_side2.jpg
http://www.forwarding.gr/t61_z61t_thinkness.jpg
http://www.forwarding.gr/t61_z61t_top.jpg
http://www.forwarding.gr/t61_z61t_open.jpg

Thanks for the pics ... I think I like the Z6x better than the T61 looking at the above pics

yes, thank you very much for the pictures

disappointing that they made the t61 bigger than the z61

does it feel much bigger, or is it not noticeable?

IMOH, T61 has successfully imitated the looks and features of Z-series. No wonder why Z-series has been phased out...