Thinkpads Forum

I just joined these forums after ordering a T61 with ship date of August 2. The specs of my system are 2.2 ghz processor, 100gb HDD 7200 rpm, the free upgrade of intel wireless card that included n band wireless, fingerprint scanner, no bluetooth, Windows Vista Business and the 15.4 screen that was the wsxga+ are those are all the correct letters? And the 9 cell battery...

I was wondering if the intel memory boost is worth it, because I was reading places that said it almost hurt the machine more than helped and opted not to pay the extra. Also, I accidently customized the machine that came with wwan wireless internet, but don't plan on ever using that part of my system. Did I pay extra to get that and should I reorder my system to save a few dollars?

One last question. I recieved information that the T61P will go on sale on 7/11, should I wait for this as people say that the flexview screen is a must. Are there any other suggestions for an entering freshmen leaving August 22. I'm entering the business school and prefer thinkpad, because of it's business style. What would be the desired specs above or below what I have and would the T61P be worth waiting for if I'm mainly going to be using it for school work/ some gaming, but mostly flash games. Thank you!

Flexview is always iffy because Lenovo has supply problems getting these screens. I have a flexview screen, and it is nice (though not nearly as bright as I would like), but I have not really compared it to the non flexview screens.

I would definitely reorder to get rid of the WWAN card. If you think you might use it, thats fine, but otherwise it takes up a PCIexpress slot inside the machine. This is the same slot used for the Turbomemory. I have no experience with Turbomemory, though theoretically it should speed up the system. Any problems it has will probably be fixed by Vista SP1.

The T61p differences are fairly small. It will have the FX 570 graphics card. It will have a WUXGA screen available (not sure if its Flexview), and its base configuration will probably be 2.2+Ghz and at least 2GB of RAM and a 160GB HDD. The screen and the graphics card are the two main differences. If you dont need a system with a screen resolution that dense, you may not need a T61p, though they are going to be awesome laptops.

For the record, I would be happy with a T61, as it is a big improvement on the T60, from a design perspective (they fixed the overheating problems and added a rollcage to the screen). The T61p is going to be overkill for most people, but really really cool nonetheless.

It's easy to add the turbo memory afterward in any case, as long as you have a slot available (ie no WWAN card). The current 1 GB cards are too small IMHO in any case; once 2-4 GB cards are available you can add one to improve the Vista performance.

So far, there's a general consensus that Intel Turbo Memory is nice, but far from wonderful. Tests didn't show -any- improvement in day-to-day programs; in fact, the only thing it DID help with (and amazingly so) was Hibernating and Resuming from Hibernation.

There's an amazing video that somebody posted, comparing Hibernation with and without the Turbo Memory, but I can't find it.

Thanks for the responses. I think I'm going to reorder the T61 tonight without the Turbo and possibly add the bluetooth, and also getting rid of the WWAN, so I have room for my turbo memory in the future. As for the 7/11 release it is for the IBM discount page, but the regular T61P it should be released within the next couple of days on the consumer site.

Redmumba wrote:So far, there's a general consensus that Intel Turbo Memory is nice, but far from wonderful. Tests didn't show -any- improvement in day-to-day programs; in fact, the only thing it DID help with (and amazingly so) was Hibernating and Resuming from Hibernation.

Actually, if you check page 4 of that article, you will see that "general usage" throughput went up from 4.3 MB/s to 10.1 MB/s, and application loading from 5.1 MB/s to 10.1 MB/s, and those are definitely good things. In addition, PC WorldBench showed a 15% increase in battery life.

A larger turbo memory card would have a bigger impact, but even the 1 GB card is still worthwhile IMHO.

Redmumba wrote:Tests didn't show -any- improvement in day-to-day programs; in fact, the only thing it DID help with (and amazingly so) was Hibernating and Resuming from Hibernation.

There's an amazing video that somebody posted, comparing Hibernation with and without the Turbo Memory, but I can't find it.

The thread Redmumba is referring to is here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=44399 Look for the post by g2tl on Wed Jun 20, 2007 8:10 pm.

The hibernating/resume speed is very attractive to me. If I had Vista, I would be very tempted to get turbo memory just for the hibernation/resume speed. Otherwise I'd hold off on turbo memory until there's confirmed performance gains.

tomh009 wrote:

Redmumba wrote:So far, there's a general consensus that Intel Turbo Memory is nice, but far from wonderful. Tests didn't show -any- improvement in day-to-day programs; in fact, the only thing it DID help with (and amazingly so) was Hibernating and Resuming from Hibernation.

Actually, if you check page 4 of that article, you will see that "general usage" throughput went up from 4.3 MB/s to 10.1 MB/s, and application loading from 5.1 MB/s to 10.1 MB/s, and those are definitely good things. In addition, PC WorldBench showed a 15% increase in battery life.

A larger turbo memory card would have a bigger impact, but even the 1 GB card is still worthwhile IMHO.

Right, but those were theoretical benchmarks--none of the programs showed any pickups.

The results are particularly impressive, performance in the XP Startup, Application Launch and General Usage tests is at worst double with Turbo Memory enabled. Clearly the same isn't true in the real world as we weren't able to measure any improvements in system boot or application start times, but the technology is working at least in this controlled environment.

ptantra wrote:The hibernating/resume speed is very attractive to me. If I had Vista, I would be very tempted to get turbo memory just for the hibernation/resume speed. Otherwise I'd hold off on turbo memory until there's confirmed performance gains.

I am loving the resume speed on my T61 (7664-17U)...

I was really impressed with how quick it resumes, as compared to my R40 and T21...

FlexView is not available on T61 and indications are that it will not be available to individual orders, and likely only available to large-volume custom corporate orders

I have compared FlexView and standard screens side-by-side, and the difference is appreciable. I've also seen a number of T61 screens side-by-side at IBM and they're disappointing. The quality is nconsistent as some are quite poor, notably on the WSXGA+ ones.

tfflivemb2 wrote:I am loving the resume speed on my T61 (7664-17U)...

Has the hibernation/resume speed slowed as you've added more software/used to your laptop?

Thank you for all the replies. I called in to change my order and was told that it was already sent to manufacturing. Does it usually get sent that fast even on weekends? So, I ended up cancelling the WWAN and adding the TurboMemory and integrated bluetooth. But, I still need to call back in two days to make sure they cancelled and got everything right. Hopefully this doesn't delay my shipment too much...