Ordering tomorrow this T61, 3 questions!

[danny_isr]

Ok this is the setup below .
i cannot wait for the 4:3 have to buy it tomorrow.

1) is there a new coupon ?

2) if i'm buying 512M can i take it out and put 2 other DIMMs ?
or am i stuck with 512 and a free slot ?

3) is this a good Vista version ?


i decided to go with 4 cell + additional 7 cell for traveling.
ultrabay was another option instead of the 7. but then if i'm on flight i wont be able to watch a DVD

i will be happy to hear any inputs on that setup.




Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz 800MHz 4MBL2)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ Camera
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M (128MB)
512 MB PC2-5300 SDRAM DDR2 667MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
100GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim
PC Card Slot & Media Card Slot
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
4 cell Li-Ion Battery
7662: 1 Year Depot Warranty - Express

[wearetheborg]

Yes, you can put in two sodimms of u;r choice.

I really really recommend getting the 3 year depot warranty. It only costs like $90

[danny_isr]

can you add the warranty any time you want as long it still under warranty ? (i mean in the first year ? )

[barrywohl]

You can only get ThinkPad Protection at initial order. You can add warranty later but not ThinkPad protection.

Lack of ThinkPad Protection has cost me oodles from water damage on an R50p. I'd never go without it.

If you spill water on it, or run over it with a truck, or happen to drop it onto a concrete driveway, ThinkPad Protection will cover you, but warranty might not.

For me the ONLY warranty option is four years of depot/TP protection. I don't trust "on site" to be as competent as depot, and I have other computers as backup.

[rukiri]

I'm not trying to argue with barrywohl, I think he makes valid points, but just to offer another perspective...

With prices decreasing as they are for all electronics, and the pace at which computers especially are evolving, I would hesitate to get any warranty over 3 years, and think soberly about getting a warranty over two years.

If serious damage or hardware failure occur for this machine three years from now, do you think you will be glad you paid an extra xxx three years ago to cover it? Or will you rather have that xxx in your pocket to put towards a new machine? Consider the fact that these thinkpads specifically costed maybe 50% more three years ago. Three years from now, the T81 line may have LED backlit screens, quad core processors, etc. etc. all for maybe 700-900 dollars.


edit:

sorry, to answer the OP's comments.

The only change I would make would be to take out the media card reader, get the expresscard slot, and put in your own media card reader. If I remember, lenovo charged 40 bucks for the media card reader? You can buy your own for ~20-30 bucks and then you have the option of upgrading it, or swapping it out with something else when you need to.

[barrywohl]

With prices decreasing as they are for all electronics, and the pace at which computers especially are evolving, I would hesitate to get any warranty over 3 years, and think soberly about getting a warranty over two years.

Whatever length warranty you choose, I'd add ThinkPad protection. It is a personal choice whether you want one or two or three or four years.

I'm using a 3 1/2 year old R50p at this instant, with a cup of coffee six inches away. FOR ME, a four year depot warranty with four years of TP Protection is worth it.

If you plan to replace the laptop in two years, then get two years of depot warranty with two years of TP Protection. Just remember, that you can add warranty later, but not TP Protection.

[nurio]

I noticed you ordered "PC Card Slot & Media Card Slot", so you are basically giving up on Express Card!
I would personally go with "PC Card Slot & Express Card Slot", as I can simply get an external USB media card later.

[NathanA]

I don't trust "on site" to be as competent as depot, and I have other computers as backup.

Oooof. No way. I haven't ever purchased ThinkPad Protection, but I always upgrade to on-site. I had a HORRIBLE experience (actually, multiple horrible experiences) with teh evil Solectron corporation (the company IBM previously and Lenovo now sub-contracts their depot repair services out to) back when my ThinkPad 770 (!) was still under warranty, and never ever under ANY circumstances would I EVER trust those monkeys with a ThinkPad of mine EVER again. They have proven not only to be incompetent when it comes to repair, but they have absolutely no regard or concern for other people's property. By all means, if you want to get your computer back from repair looking like hell (all scratched up, things reassembled incorrectly, the wrong length screws PUNCHING THROUGH the roof of your UltraBay or HDD bay, etc.), send it off to depot service!

Apparently, service used to be better (way better, according to some people who have been doing the ThinkPad thing for a while...ask our moderator BillM!) when IBM owned the repair depot.

Just do a search for Solectron in this forum to read about other people's horror stories as well. I'm not the only victim.

On the other hand, my local IBM/Lenovo on-site repair guy is awesome. Friendly, competent, service-oriented, and to top it off, we discovered while he was working on my T42p a couple years ago that we know some of the same people/have some friends in common! (Of course, this is in a small college town of 25,000...)

COMPLETE night/day difference in experience.

Don't hesitate to get the on-site. Trust me. If I didn't have on-site, I'd BUY the replacement parts and do the work myself before sending it to Solectron.

-- Nathan

[danny_isr]

you guys suggesting the express slot , if you can please explain me
about it. i think i asked that somewhere in the past. but maybe i didnt get it right. just few details will help

thanks Danny

[NathanA]

you guys suggesting the express slot , if you can please explain me about it. i think i asked that somewhere in the past. but maybe i didnt get it right. just few details will help

ExpressCard is the "new" version of PCMCIA/CardBus, allowing for PCI Express-like bandwidth to expansion cards.

Apparently, on the 14" T61s, when you order the Media Card reader, it replaces the ExpressCard slot, so you have to choose between getting the Media Card reader and having the expansion slot. The Media Card reader is built-in to the laptop and cannot be removed to reveal an ExpressCard slot in its place, so you are stuck with it, so to speak.

Thing is, there are Media Card readers which fit in an ExpressCard slot (or even the PCMCIA+CardBus slot immediately below it) that are readily available, so if you order your 14" T61 with the ExpressCard slot and then buy a separate Media Card reader to go *into* the ExpressCard slot, then you have the best of both worlds. You will be able to remove the Media Card reader and use the ExpressCard for something else at times, if you like (for example, you might want to purchase the new Creative X-Fi Express card for upgraded sound...requires an ExpressCard slot!).

I'd still like to see a picture of a 14" T61 with the Media Card reader option...I'm just curious to see what it looks like. Anyone have this configuration or know of a place that I can be pointed to with pictures of it?

-- Nathan

[Ted_E]

[quote="danny_isr"]Ok this is the setup below .
i cannot wait for the 4:3 have to buy it tomorrow.

1) is there a new coupon ?

2) if i'm buying 512M can i take it out and put 2 other DIMMs ?
or am i stuck with 512 and a free slot ?

Buy 1GB from Crucial, move the 512 to slot two and put your 1 GB in slot 1. That's what I did on T60

3) is this a good Vista version ?

FWIW, IMO, there's on such thing as a good version of Vista. Every heavy duty user I know who has tried it has tossed it and installed XP or, in some cases, W2000.

Ted

[danny_isr]

FWIW, IMO, there's on such thing as a good version of Vista.

Ted

hahaha that is funny i know what you mean. i used to be on OS/2 team and tried to convince people to use OS/2 (32bit multitasking ) when they where still on DOS and Win 3.1 . it was a lost battle back then.

ok let me rephrase my question , which version is the less worse ?

about the express slot , basically it's what i got now on my T43 ?

[rarirurero]

Drop the video card and upgrade to 1 DIMM 1GB of RAM.

The video card will only hurt your battery life, and unless you need to do heavy work with 3ds max, blender, etc... you won't reap the benefits of it. For an integrated graphics chip, the Intel X3100 is good, and plus you will get an extra ~1 hour of battery life.

If you get the 1GB of RAM and leave another slot open, then you have the possibility of upgrading to 2 or 3GB. If you get the 512MB, you can take it out and upgrade to 2/3GB later as well, but then you have a 512MB stick sitting around doing nothing.

[Ted_E]

FWIW, IMO, there's on such thing as a good version of Vista.

Ted

hahaha that is funny i know what you mean. i used to be on OS/2 team and tried to convince people to use OS/2 (32bit multitasking ) when they where still on DOS and Win 3.1 . it was a lost battle back then.

ok let me rephrase my question , which version is the less worse ?

about the express slot , basically it's what i got now on my T43 ?

I am running eCS 2.0 RC1 on the T60. It still has a few warts but that's why its RC and not GA. I run eCS 1.2R on the T23.. eCS (formerly OS/2) has come a loooong way in recent years and much work is being done to take it further. The number of apps foe which i need 'doze is down to two or three and I expect one of those to go away in the next few days.

Ted

[danny_isr]

Drop the video card and upgrade to 1 DIMM 1GB of RAM.

The video card will only hurt your battery life, and unless you need to do heavy work with 3ds max, blender, etc... you won't reap the benefits of it. For an integrated graphics chip, the Intel X3100 is good, and plus you will get an extra ~1 hour of battery life.

If you get the 1GB of RAM and leave another slot open, then you have the possibility of upgrading to 2 or 3GB. If you get the 512MB, you can take it out and upgrade to 2/3GB later as well, but then you have a 512MB stick sitting around doing nothing.

well my plan was to take the 512 out and e bay it. get 2G one DIMM somewhere else.


about the video card , well... i have a flight Sim for radio control models and it's demanding. i have no idea how the intel card will work on that. i know with my X300 i have to turn off almost everything in the simulator to make it work "ok" ....

in a way the X300 sucks , because it's not super performer and it creates all the heat in this laptop and battery life too...



Minimum:
Allows minimal simulator functionality.

* Windows Vista*, XP*, 2000*, ME, 98
* Intel® Pentium® 1.0 GHz or equivalent
* DirectX® 9 (or above) compatible video and sound card
* 3D accelerated video card with 32 MB (or more) RAM
* 256 MB RAM
* 2 GB hard drive space

Optimum:
Enables complete simulator functionality.

* Intel Pentium 3.0 GHz or equivalent
* 3D accelerated video card with 128 MB (or more) RAM
* 1GB RAM

thanks Danny

[rukiri]

Are you talking about the ATI X300? Or Intel's Integrated X3000? I realize those two names are really similar, but they actually describe completely different products : /


To comment on your question though, Yeah, if you're going to be gaming on the laptop, you might want to spring for the Nvidia card... Though to be honest, if you want to be gaming, maybe you should spring for the T61p, or get something other than a thinkpad?


As for the ram, I think lenovo charges 30 bucks to upgrade from 1 512mb dimm, to 1 1gb dimm? If so, you might as well keep the 512 and just buy two 1gb dimms, or a 2gb dimm like you said. You can always e-bay the 512mb dimm if you need to.

[danny_isr]

i was talking about ATI X300.
i'm very "light" gamer. just here and there.

the X300 isn't far from what i need. i mean it's not enough but i feel if it was just a bit faster it would be fine. So the Nvidia on the T61 may be enough for me....