T61p has arrived!!! (PIC)

[GarryF]

Ok, ran some benchmarks. Firstly for reference my home PC I built back around christmas time,

E6600 Core 2 Duo / 2.4 GHz, Asus P5B-Dl, 2GB DDr2/800, MSI 8800GTX, windows XPsp2

superpi 1m - 21s

3dmark 2006
SM2.0: 4690
HDR/SM3: 4852
CPU: 2120
Tot: 10043

Now the T43P

superpi 1m - 49.347s

3dmark 2006
SM2.0: 158
HDR/SM3: N/A
CPU: 821
Tot: 340

And the T61P

superpi 1m - 23.135s

3dmark 2006
SM2.0: 1531
HDR/SM3: 1353
CPU: 1899
Tot: 3740

So from a CPU point of view everything seems fine. I was expecting more from 3dmark, first time I ran it I got 3572, checked for lenov updates, there was a chipset one so installed that and score went up a bit. No updated gpu drivers that I could see. also haven't installed any windows updates as I'm planning wiping tonight and installing 64 bit.

[agarny]

Quite a difference with your 'old' T43p! Very promising. I am now waiting to hear about your experience with Vista x64! In the mean time, I am waiting to hear about different quotations. Getting interesting... and I might order tomorrow...

[GarryF]

Yeah, should keep me busy all night installing

I also found a post on another forum that listed a mac book pro as having 3dmark06 as 3566 so T61P seems to be in the ballpark, also the nvidia drivers are listed as 17/05/07 so 2 months old, lets hope they mature a bit yet.

[hoya]

Here is the vista performace index, I was surprised to see ram being lowest

would it make any difference to upgrade from existing CL5 to the new CL4 RAM that was announced by G.Skill on the 12th?
http://www.gskill.com/en/press%20070612.html

[pianowizard]

would it make any difference to upgrade from existing CL5 to the new CL4

For benchmarks, it should, though in reality one probably won't notice any difference.

[gator]

Gary, those were excellent pics, thanks for sharing it with us.

The WUXGA resolution of the T61p is exciting, and will be best selling point of this laptop. The machine is too wide for my liking, but I have seen only widescreen dells here and I am not comfortable using them. Your 3dmark '06 scores are great, I guess you got a really loaded T61p

[Pocket Aces]

Have you tried playing any games?

[Pascal_TTH]

Ok, ran some benchmarks. Firstly for reference my home PC I built back around christmas time,

And the T61P

superpi 1m - 23.135s

3dmark 2006
SM2.0: 1531
HDR/SM3: 1353
CPU: 1899
Tot: 3740

Hi GarryF

Can you run some 3D Mark 2005 ? I use to collect any GPU score for my data base :
http://www.tt-hardware.com/img/news5/news050707_2.gif

I still use 3D Mark 05 because 3D Mark 06 melt CPU score. Thus Core Duo and Core 2 Duo have a big advantage when comparing to Pentium-m even with good graphic card.

Thank you ! By the way, witch Quadro do you have ? Can you check core and memory speed ?

[Pascal_TTH]

Here is the vista performace index, I was surprised to see ram being lowest

would it make any difference to upgrade from existing CL5 to the new CL4 RAM that was announced by G.Skill on the 12th?
http://www.gskill.com/en/press%20070612.html

Are thoses module aviable in USA ? Here in Europe, they are not even un Germany where G.Skill is based.

I wait them from this french on-line store :
http://www.materiel.net/ctl/PC_portable ... 00_SA.html

[Kenn]

Hi Garry,

Thanks for all the updates and running benchmarks, all exciting stuff.

Have you had a chance to test battery life yet? I'm interested in seeing how long the T61p lasts with word/web/email (and wifi, of course)!

[GarryF]

Have you had a chance to test battery life yet? I'm interested in seeing how long the T61p lasts with word/web/email (and wifi, of course)!

Hi Kenn, not had a chance to try battery much yet, I generally use it at home or work so don't often rely on the battery, once I get it all setup I'll see what it does though.

Plan tonight was to install 64 bit vista, first step, create recovery discs!!. so I startup the program and 30 secs later BSOD, then after reboot the program wouldn't run saying process already running. I'm guessing the BSOD had left temp files somewhere in a bad place and after spending an hour trying to figure it out I went for the easy option and hit system restore. That took no less than 90 mins and finished 45mins ago, now creating recovery discs, on the 3rd one

Why it did a BSOD I've no idea, only installed 3dmark06 and superpi, must be their fault

[GarryF]

I got Vista Ultimate 64 installed late last night, all was very straight forward using ABR tool I found to backup then restore license.

Then onto drivers, system update is useless, gives a few random updates, going onto lenovo for drivers my model isn't actually listed yet 6460-6XG. I just listed all T61P drivers and installed then 1 at a time, after doing that I'm still missing stuff.

1 Unknown device which was Thinkpad PM Device, installed from old drivers folder so keep that if you upgrade.
Fingerprint software - Anyone know where I can download the x64 version of that?
I installed all the software I could find relating to onscreen display, I have volume, brightness etc. Can't get Fn F5 to work though, does anyone know what software I need for that. Without that I can't turn on bluetooth.

I expect they will sort all the driver issues out in a few weeks time, right now I'd just like to fix bluetooth as I have a BT mouse.

In general system seems "much" faster now, boots up really quickly, and everything has more of an xp feel to it when it comes to moving folders, files etc. The T43P was very sluggish in vista.

[gator]

I installed all the software I could find relating to onscreen display, I have volume, brightness etc. Can't get Fn F5 to work though, does anyone know what software I need for that. Without that I can't turn on bluetooth.

Gary, you need the thinkpad hotkey driver for this. I don't know if there is a 64 bit version of this yet - maybe you can try the 32 bit drivers (no clue if they'll work or not):
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 38953.html

[GarryF]

Gary, you need the thinkpad hotkey driver for this. I don't know if there is a 64 bit version of this yet - maybe you can try the 32 bit drivers (no clue if they'll work or not):
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 38953.html

that looks like the xp driver but you got me on the right track, this one looks promising
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... rintLenovo
Can't try it until tonight,

[agarny]

Finally ordered my next ThinkPad! Same as Garry's, except for the memory: I will have 4 GB (I also intend to install Vista x64 on it).

I also had to get a new external screen, so I had "no choice" but to go for one that does 1920x1200... Should be nice!

[barrywohl]

Hooray for the headphone jack and microphone jack on the left and not on the front. Somehow I had missed that the front location was only for 14 inch T61 computers. For watching movies on your lap top (pun intended), the left is better for the headphones.

What is the story on "UWB"?

I forgot about the travel bezel. This is my first T. My previous ThinkPads were 755CX, 760CD, A21p, R50p and (briefly) Z61p.

[Jeremy092288]

Gary, I ordered my T61p here in the US on the 11th. I was just wondering what your dates were:

Date Ordered
Estimated Shipping Date
Actual Shipping Date
Date Recieved July 17th
Shipping Type

Thanks! I'm anxious to get mine so I was wondering how far they were into building them.

[JaneL]

Gary, I ordered my T61p here in the US on the 11th. I was just wondering what your dates were:

Use the shipping sticky for this kind of thing.

[erik]

I got Vista Ultimate 64 installed late last night, all was very straight forward using ABR tool I found to backup then restore license.

did you use an included vista DVD to switch over to 64-bit?

[GarryF]

Finally ordered my next ThinkPad! Same as Garry's, except for the memory: I will have 4 GB (I also intend to install Vista x64 on it).

I also had to get a new external screen, so I had "no choice" but to go for one that does 1920x1200... Should be nice!

Congrats, I am tempted to get the 4GB and fast 200GB drive too. I am sure you'll enjoy it though, first thing to do after booting it up is BURN those recovery discs

As for the screen I've been using the dell 2405 as an external monitor for a year or so now, I actually have the laptop on the left hand side and extend my desktop onto the screen, makes for a huge workspace. I've got the dock for the T61P but wasn't in work today to hook it up, I'll try it tomorrow. Without the dock your stuck with VGA which isn't the best compared to DVI.

did you use an included vista DVD to switch over to 64-bit?

There was no disc included in the package, you need the retail vista disc or the anytime upgrade disc I think.

On the shipping thing keep in mind that the UK are only get one model for now, we can't pick and choose options, it's that or nothing, so they probably have them stock piled somewhere. In the USA it seems you can build to order so that's why they haven't appeared there yet. I ordered last wednesday when they became available, it shipped friday and arrived yesterday

[papertiger86]

Hey GarryF,

Thanks for all the helpful info on your T61p. Have you had a chance to try out the battery life yet? I also ordered one with a 6-cell and am curious how many hours it will be able to go.

[pianowizard]

Have you had a chance to try out the battery life yet?

Garry, a quick way to do this is, go to Battery Maximiser's Battery Information and divide "Full Charge Capacity" by "Wattage", e.g. 70Wh / 15W = 4.67h or 4 hours 40 minutes. There is no need to actually run the laptop on battery for several hours to see when the battery dies; that wastes one cycle of battery charge.

[agarny]

Congrats, I am tempted to get the 4GB and fast 200GB drive too. I am sure you'll enjoy it though, first thing to do after booting it up is BURN those recovery discs

I don't tend to burn things, but I surely back them up (on a partition on my laptop, a backup at home and another at work -- should be enough! ).

Regarding the 200GB hard drive, I think I will re-use my T42p's current main disk (7k200 60 GB) as my future T61p's 2nd disk. My T42p's current 2nd disk (5k400 80 GB) will become my T42p's main disk.

As for the screen I've been using the dell 2405 as an external monitor for a year or so now, I actually have the laptop on the left hand side and extend my desktop onto the screen, makes for a huge workspace. I've got the dock for the T61P but wasn't in work today to hook it up, I'll try it tomorrow. Without the dock your stuck with VGA which isn't the best compared to DVI.

Well, I went for the Benq FP241W in my case.

I had never really thought of extending my desktop by using both my ThinkPad's screen and an external one. I might try though. I just wonder how that will work out in practice, since their physical dimensions are obviously different (and I am not sure whether my eyes will be happy to have to adapt every few seconds).

On the shipping thing keep in mind that the UK are only get one model for now, we can't pick and choose options, it's that or nothing, so they probably have them stock piled somewhere. In the USA it seems you can build to order so that's why they haven't appeared there yet. I ordered last wednesday when they became available, it shipped friday and arrived yesterday

We can, in the UK, actually choose another system, which is what I initially wanted to do, but they would indeed have to build it, hence a longer delivery time (I was told 3 weeks). In the end, I managed to get the system I wanted (except for the processor: T7500 instead of T7700) and at a much lower price (a few hundred pounds cheaper), not to mention that I will get it some time next week, which is completely fine with me (in 3 weeks time, I will be on the other side of the world, so it would have been useless to me ).

[GarryF]

Garry, a quick way to do this is, go to Battery Maximiser's Battery Information and divide "Full Charge Capacity" by "Wattage", e.g. 70Wh / 15W = 4.67h or 4 hours 40 minutes. There is no need to actually run the laptop on battery for several hours to see when the battery dies; that wastes one cycle of battery charge.

It's showing 20.40W and offering we 3 hours 24 minutes when I unplug the power cord, now 5 mins later it's howing 18.99W & 2:40mins.

I found the finger print software ver 5.6 so no errors in Device Manager now, but I still have the problem with Fn F5 not working, I've installed hotkey manager and it does work as I can change brigtness etc using Fn yet F5 doesn't work, I'm missing something somewhere

[erik]

There was no disc included in the package, you need the retail vista disc or the anytime upgrade disc I think.

lenovo US told me that if i selected vista ultimate in my order that it would be 64-bit.   i'm still trying to figure out what's going on.

either way, it's good to know that your activation transferred from 32 to 64 using ABR.

[Kenn]

I tried extending my screen before - 1600x1200 + 1920x1200.

3 big problems:

First, the desktop LCD IS so big and bright (Dell 2407) that the laptop looks like it's always stuck on lowest power setting.

Second, next to a desktop monitor + keyboard, the laptop screen has to be placed about 3 feet away, making it incredibly difficult to read, especially with the retina-scorching brightness of the monitor nearby.

Finally, though the vertical resolution is the same, allowing me to drag windows between the desktops without hitting invisible "edges," the screen sizes are just too different - it sometimes looks like a half-foot drop when I throw a window onto the laptop

I ended up just using the 24" solo when at home. Also, while docked I keep the T42 lid closed - that should help extend the life of the backlight bulb too (to prevent it from going dim/changing colors over time).

[pianowizard]

bright (Dell 2407) that the laptop looks like it's always stuck on lowest power setting.

Yeah, the 2407 is "notorious" for being too bright! I set mine at 30% brightness.

the screen sizes are just too different - it sometimes looks like a half-foot drop when I throw a window onto the laptop

The mismatch between my QXGA R50p and WUXGA Dell 2407WFP is even worse! I don't find it too hard to adjust though. And having 1920x1200 + 2048x1536 = 5,449,728 pixels is unreal!

[GarryF]

Well, I went for the Benq FP241W in my case.

I had never really thought of extending my desktop by using both my ThinkPad's screen and an external one. I might try though. I just wonder how that will work out in practice, since their physical dimensions are obviously different (and I am not sure whether my eyes will be happy to have to adapt every few seconds).

Great choice on the FP241W, I use that on my main machine at home, it's very nice. I'm a big fan of 1920x1200 which is why I wanted the T61P

for extending the desktop keep in mind that although the sizes are different the pixel heights are the same, also you can use a program like ultramon, makes it easy for swapping windows from one display to another. I generally have outlook running on the laptop and whatever I'm working on showing on the big screen.

[mattkrass]

I was wondering if I could get a shot of the T61p on top of or in front of the T43 with the lids closed, I want to see a comparison on the width.

[GarryF]

lenovo US told me that if i selected vista ultimate in my order that it would be 64-bit.   i'm still trying to figure out what's going on.

either way, it's good to know that your activation transferred from 32 to 64 using ABR.

from what I've read all references for the T61P with ultimate seem to hint at 32 bit, I'd like to think they'd give customers a choice which is possibly why business is 64 bit and ultimate 32 bit.

ABR was really easy but it only backups up from 32bit so I've made a safe copy of the files incase I ever need to reinstall again as it won't backup from 64 bit. Restores fine though.

For whatever reason I worked my way along Fn, F2-F3-F4 then F5 suddenly worked so I've bluetooth now installed and working so upgrade is finshed!! going to take an image now and then let windows update break the machine now