Thinkpads Forum

The background story

I am a proud owner of an IBM T42 2378-FVU (14.1" SXGA+, Radeon 9600 64MB, Dothan 1.7GHz) from 3 years ago. I immediately upgraded the hard drive to a 7K60 and got the RAM up to 768MB. It worked perfectly throughout the years and annual clean reinstalls were all it took to keep it smooth. I also upped to RAM to 1.5GB at one point.

Fast forward 3 years. Lenovo is having a 25% discount on its website. Students get 5% more. The USXGENERIC coupon gives another 5%. That's whopping 35%! I get tempted and I start looking. But to my dismay, the T61 comes with the weak NVS 140 128MB graphics card. I looked at T61p and the 14.1" SXGA+ version (if it is still available at all) only comes with the FX 570 128MB. It seems like the only way I can get the FX 570 256MB is to go for the 15.4" WSXGA+.

The questions

So I don't want anything heavier than my T42. How does the T61p compared to the T42, Assuming you are using the smallest battery (6-cell?) available?

T42 - 5 lbs?
T61p 14.1" - ?? lbs
T61p 15.4" WS - ?? lbs

Also, is it possible to get the FX 570 256MB on a 14.1"?

Finally, is the 128MB version significantly weaker than the 256MB version? I forsee myself doing 2D and some 3D AutoCAD in graduate research. In my free time I do quite a bit of photoshopping and play some games.

The comments I see on the forum are less than encouraging. It looks like the Lenovo management is bringing the IBM brand to its knees now.

both autocad 2007 and solidworks 2003 ran flawlessly on my 3-year-old T42p with a 128MB FireGL V5200 so i highly doubt that the 128MB Quadro FX 570M would cause you any issues.   it takes surprisingly little horsepower to drive apps like these.   3D stress modeling will eat up more but again the 128MB 570M should handle it.

as far as lenovo "bringing the IBM brand to its knees", i disagree.   my T61p is built better, stronger, and more logically than my T42p.   the 128MB GPU issue doesn't bother or affect me as i wanted the 15.4" WUXGA T61p regardless of the weight.   i haul around 20lbs in photography equipment daily so a 6 lb notebook is nothing in comparison.

we might eventually see a 256MB GPU offered in the 14.1" SXGA+ T61p but only time will tell.   imo, the 14.1" SXGA+ display is a compromise in itself when doing heavy graphics work (autocad, solidworks, photoshop, illustrator, etc.) simply because of its limited resolution and poor contrast ratio, even after hardware color calibration.   i could only survive with one if i had an external display.

fwiw, the 15.4" T61/p is only about 2" wider, .2" thicker, and 1 lb heavier than a 14.1" SXGA+ T61p and offers more resolution, higher contrast ratio, firewire 400, integrated SD reader, WUSB, and a 256MB GPU (which is technically 512MB total because of the shared memory).   yes it's bigger but the benefits (to me) far outweigh the minuscule increase in bulk.

if 2D/3D horsepower is your ultimate concern then you'll have to make a compromise:
1. buy a larger/heavier 15.4" T61p and deal with it
2. buy a 14.1" T61p and deal with 128MB dedicated + 128MB shared vram
3. buy an older T60p with 14.1" SXGA+ and 256MB FireGL V5250 (which is about half as fast as the 128MB 570M but has twice the memory)

i'd recommend option number 1.

all size/weight/processor/GPU specs can be found in the tabook.

good luck.

Anyone else taking a similar upgrade path?

Dang, I missed the 20% coupon expiration date. Argh!