Thinkpads Forum

Asus W7 or W5, or Dell m1330 could work as well.

The bottleneck with video editing is usually the hard disk. The whole raw video data can't fit into ram, so everything depends on the disk subsystem. I never heard of anybody doing serious video editing on a laptop hard drive. It is ok for you consumer video cam data, but I think you'll be in a world of pain if you want to edit HD video. A T61 + expresscard RAID 0 might be up to the task.

I totally agree with you regarding the 1.8 drive. Slow and un-upgradeable. You don't save much space with it, so it seems to me a questionable hardware choice - although I suppose for design purposes it makes sense. But I learned my lesson.....

TPA already said this but it got drowned out in the conversation.

The Toshiba R500 gives the X61 a serious run for its' money - check out this comparision review at notebook review.

I have never owned a laptop that was not a Thinkpad (and I am at 10+ at this point) but I this is probably the next laptop that I will buy.

TPA already said this but it got drowned out in the conversation.

The Toshiba R500 gives the X61 a serious run for its' money - check out this comparision review at notebook review.

I have never owned a laptop that was not a Thinkpad (and I am at 10+ at this point) but this is probably the next laptop that I will buy.

The Toshiba is certainly a cool looking computer. I'll be curious how is hold up in performance testing. Does anyone have any first hand experience with Toshiba customer support? Aside from the occasionally EasyServe person who doesn't speak English, I've had very good experiences with them and when I have sent my machines in, usually get them back within 48 hours - another reason I've been very loyal to Thinkpads....

<looks around for a broken record>

From what i've read on their site, most of the notebookreview folk are touchpad users so tend to miss the heinous crime of a system not having a trackpoint.

Believe me, if you've been using a ThinkPad for 10 years, switching to a system without a trackpoint will be unbareable, regardless of how good the system is otherwise, it will probably mean that *gasp* you turn into one of those people that pull out an external mouse every time you want to use your laptop.

As for performance, I really do believe it is a non issue without a trackpoint as the time you lose navigating around with a touchpad would far outweigh it.

Touchpad only machines are for people who don't know any better (don't mean to be offensive but the people how can use both well and still prefer the touchpad are a very small group).

Snife - I have friends who have had Touchpads since day one, and they feel about their pad as you (and I) feel about our Trackpoint. So I never want to minimize how good the Touchpad may be - if you're used to it.

But the week I used the Vaio, I was in PAIN! I suddenly realized how quickly and efficiently I used the Trackpoint - I zip around and click without giving it a second thought. But that's after 12+ years. My T43p had the Track and Touch, and I simply disabled the Touch because I hate moving it accidently. Thanks but no thanks...

That said, I'm happy to consider making a change if it's worthwhile....

DWSpiro wrote:Snife - I have friends who have had Touchpads since day one, and they feel about their pad as you (and I) feel about our Trackpoint. So I never want to minimize how good the Touchpad may be - if you're used to it

I was one of those people, my first few laptops were VAIOs and I really liked the touchpad, then I started working for IBM and, at the time, the models only had TrackPoints so I had to adjust, after 2 weeks, I couldn't believe that I ever liked touchpads. I have also known many other people who I have bullied into making the transition and I have not personally met anyone who, having given both a fair chance, prefers the tcouhpad. That is why I feel so strongly about the trackpoint, I honestly believe that the majority of people are using an inferior pointing device simply because that is all they have known.

I will admit it is a lot easier to start using a touchpad than a trackpoint if you have never used either which is why I think most vendors stick it on as I don't think it can be much cheaper to implement.

So kinda new but related question - does anyone know of any place in South Florida where I can actually see these THinkpads (the x61s and the T61p). I'm in Fort Lauderdale, and don't know the IBM retailer here (and the website was no help). I know in Boston I'd go to MicroCenter, but no clue here.

Anybody??

snife wrote:I will admit it is a lot easier to start using a touchpad than a trackpoint if you have never used either which is why I think most vendors stick it on as I don't think it can be much cheaper to implement.

I started using laptops (a 600E and a Dell Inspiron 8200) back in Aug 2002 and found the trackpoint easier to use. But I now prefer the touchpad, though I still use the trackpoint about 10% of the time (both are available on my R50p's).

DWSpiro wrote:does anyone know of any place in South Florida where I can actually see these THinkpads (the x61s and the T61p).

I've seen one or two Thinkpads (T and Z series) at Best Buy and Staples in Houston TX and Providence RI respectively. These stores usually display WXGA laptops though, so it's unlikely that you'll see a T61p, which has WUXGA.

DWSpiro wrote:does anyone know of any place in South Florida where I can actually see these THinkpads (the x61s and the T61p).

Lenovo doesn't release such new models to retail stores (CircuitCity and BestBuy) this early.

I did see the X60 and T60 at MicroCenter up in Cambridge a couple weeks ago - was wondering if there's any such place down here in the Ft. Laud/Miami area....

DWSpiro wrote:I did see the X60 and T60 at MicroCenter up in Cambridge a couple weeks ago - was wondering if there's any such place down here in the Ft. Laud/Miami area....

X60/T60 were released more than a year ago.

Oh, I know how old they are. But I'd be happy to physically see an X60 now that I'm thinking of buying an X61s. But I can't find any in South Florida, so I may have to wait till I get back to Boston next week.

I did see an R series at Best Buy.... but Staples and Office Depot didn't have a single Thinkpad....

The only *61 series sent out to retail stores, as of yet is only R61. T61/X61 will take a while to make it there.