Questions about buying T61

[TomF]

I currently have a T40P which is approaching its 4th birthday (this is about 80 in PC years ). It’s time for a new Thinkpad.

Buying a new PC brings up many emotions: among them, many thanks to my current T40p, remembrances of all we did together, excitement about the new PC and worry that I will buy the wrong options. I have been reading the Lenovo site for what’s available and I just recently found this site which seems to have many knowledgeable members.

I want to post my current purchase plans. Any comments would be appreciated.

I am a developer who is not into gaming. I plan on using VMware to have multiple VMs for different purposes. Currently I can only run one VM at a time. With the new power and memory, I hope to be able to run multiple VMs.

WWAN – I commute daily from central Jersey to New York City on the train. I use the time in the morning for an IM session with some programmers in India. I would also like to connect to a Citrix session. I had a Verizon card with an external antenna that recently died. The IM session was OK, but the Citrix session was erratic. I temporary replaced the card with an EVDO Rev A card as I was planning on buying the Thinkpad soon with built in EVDO.

Is the Verizon Sierra CDMA2000 Rev A. If not, is there a way of using a Rev A. card with the build in antenna? (I assume the internal antenna is the way to go).

The T61p does not seem to have an Verizon option so the T61 is the max I can purchase. Is this correct?

Hard Drive – Buy small drive and install a 7K200.

Memory – Buy with 512 MB or 1 GB card and install 2 GB card. Any recommendations?

I have not decided on the screen size yet. I currently have a 14.1 1400 x 1050. My concerns are weight and pixel size. Since I carry the laptop every day, I do not want extra weight. My eyes are getting old. I can see the current screen fine, but squeezing more pixels into the same space may be difficult to see.

The WWAN card seems to take a lot of power so the 7 cell battery seems necessary. Any comments?

External Monitors – I have two monitors at work. I would like to do this at home. Can I attach two external monitors to the advanced dock with the laptop display turned off?

TIA

Tom

[whizkid]

Welcome to the forum TomF!

I don't have a T61/p but I do have a T60, and I've owned a lot of ThinkPads and have been reading experiences of others a long time too.

I'm a developer too. My T60 has a 14.1" 1400x1050 display. I like the pixel count because most modern software will let me scale up as large as I like. And the occasional game looks really sweet!

The display also affects weight. My T60 with the 9-cell was a bit heavy when I carried it around a four-day conference, but yours won't be carried all day every day either. You know what you have in your T40p (but didn't say), so consider them all: 14.1" wide will be a little smaller than a 14.1" regular, which is smaller than 15.4" wide which is pretty close to or a little smaller than 15.1" regular. If you can get a machine with an Intel video controller, it can really help with battery life.

Since you'll be using VM's, you'll want a T61 or something with Santa Rosa. It will let you install and use all of 4GB of RAM, and very fast RAM at that. You'll also have to use a 64-bit OS to use it all. 2GB in two 1GB sticks is about 8 to 10% faster than 2GB in one stick.

Your plans for a big fast hard drive are good. Consider adding a flash card reader to use as readyboost or whatever it's called in Vista. (I use Linux most of the time.)

My T60 has a Verizon WWAN and I've never used it. Sorry. You can swap out the optical drive for a battery, but they have a short lifespan.

You should be able to run two independent displays with just some cables and your dock. If you add a video card to your dock that can use the same driver as the laptop, Vista will work with Aero on all your displays.

Enjoy!