Thinkpads Forum

I use my current WinXP T61 15.4" configured as shown below in my signature line about 100% of the time on an advanced mini-dock as my desktop replacement with an external 22" WS 1680x1050 monitor, an external KB and external mouse. The lid rarely, if ever, is opened.

It's basically a 1 year old 6462-CTO T61 15.4" T7500 (2.2) with the Nvidia 140M and 2Gb of ram (two sticks). I myself upgraded the HD to a 200GB 7200 RPM Hitachi 7k200. This T61 came with 4 years of Lenovo onsite next day 9-5 warranty plus damage protection (3 years are now left).

I use my older WinXP T42 1.8 15" Flex-view (also described below) as a backup unit and for occasional travel, but it's standard depot warranty expires in a year and it has no damage protection.

An opportunity has presented itself where I can purchase a brand new late build 6459-CTO T61p T9500 (2.6) 15.4" with an Nvidia FX570M and 4 Gb of ram (overkill for 32bit WinXP) with the "rare" 1680x1050 screen resolution option for about 1500 U.S. I understand this lower resolution was rarely specified on the "p" version, but it is definately what my 56 year-old eyes prefer. The HD is only a 5400 RPM unit but I would swap-in my 200GB 7200 RPM Hitachi using Acronis. The warranty on this T61p is only the standard one year depot repair.

My plan is to place the new T61p in the advanced mini-dock where it would not normally be vulnerable to accidental damage or travel risk, give the T42 to one of my nephews, and start using my current T61 which still has 3 years of onsite next day 9-5 warranty and accident protection as my spare and for travel.

Question:

Compared to my T61, would the T61p as spec'd below offer any real performance or noise disadvantages and/or advantages while spending it's life docked and the lid closed:
__________________________

6459-CTO T61P

Windows XP Profesional SP3 plus factory supplied Recovery Disks

Motherboard part number 44C3931

Intel Core 2 Duo processor T9500 (2.6 GHz) – 6M , PENRYN

4GB RAM – two 2GB DDR2-667 SDRAM SO-DIMM (PC2-5300)

250 GB HD 5400 RPM

LCD panel, 15.4-in. WSXGA+ (1680 × 1050 resolution)

NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256Mb)

DVD-RW/CD-RW RAMBO (8XMax Dual Layer)

Intel 3945ABG WiFi

Bluetooth

PC Card Slot and Express54 Card Slot

Battery pack, Li-ion (6 cell)

Lenovo 1 year depot warranty (expires on September 18, 2009)

Thanks

eecon wrote:...Question:
Compared to my T61, would the T61p as spec'd below offer any real performance or noise disadvantages and/or advantages while spending it's life docked and the lid closed...

Since you didn't say what you do with your Thinkpad, it's not easy to answer that question. Assuming you do the regular stuff; e.g., web surfing, e-mail, word, occasional photoshop, DVD watching, etc., I'd say buying the new computer is a waste of money. Plus, I personally think, at $1500 it's not really an opportunity. But it's your call, if you want to spend that kind of money.

basketb wrote:

eecon wrote:...Question:
Compared to my T61, would the T61p as spec'd below offer any real performance or noise disadvantages and/or advantages while spending it's life docked and the lid closed...

Since you didn't say what you do with your Thinkpad, it's not easy to answer that question. Assuming you do the regular stuff; e.g., web surfing, e-mail, word, occasional photoshop, DVD watching, etc., I'd say buying the new computer is a waste of money. Plus, I personally think, at $1500 it's not really an opportunity. But it's your call, if you want to spend that kind of money.

You make good points .... mostly proprietary wind-tunnel engineering 3-D modeling apps that pretty much load up my 2.2's CPU to 85% and the 140M GPU gets stressed pretty hard .... maybe like some of the 3D games from 2006 or 2007. My T61's is still smooth with no slowdown on quick 3D rotations. However, my old T42 1.8 with the ATI 9600 barely crawls through a 3D rotation with this year's software upgrade. It seems that the software becomes more demanding as time marches on.

I've done some more research and found that the graphics card on this new T61p is a NVS 570M rather than a FX 570M.

I wonder what's the difference is between the NVS and the FX version of the 570M?

eecon wrote:I wonder what's the difference is between the NVS and the FX version of the 570M?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=nvs+fx, first result

Interesting, I didn't know that they switched the GPU that late in the production cycle. If that's really the case, this new machine seems rather useless for you. Otherwise with the FX 570 and the T9500 and your applications, I would have said that you may notice some performance improvements.
In any case, have you looked at other alternatives like getting an Advanced Dock and a dedicated graphics card? I don't have any first hand experience with that combination (yet) but others here report some success with various cards (and some failure with various cards that don't work).

waste of money.

just overclock your NVS 140m I did that on mine, runs sooo much better ... 648/900 core/memory is what I run

qviri, basketb and miro_gt ..... Thanks guys, you saved me some wasted cash

This Forum is the best!

I might look into the the new T500 series as it also uses the same advanced mini-dock ..... or maybe the W500.

My nephew is really bugging me for the the old T42 before Fall term begins in a couple of weeks.

miro_gt wrote:waste of money.

just overclock your NVS 140m I did that on mine, runs sooo much better ... 648/900 core/memory is what I run

Thanks .... What utility are you using and what kind of temps are you seeing?

^ RivaTuner

it maxes out at 80 deg C with continues playing of games, lol. But I can get that lower with the laptop fan running on max and undervolting the CPU. Other guys report more than 10 deg C drops with those two running, so under 70 deg C.

The last two you do with TPFanControl and RMClock respectivelly

P.S. my laptop just scored higher than T61p at 3DMark06, lol. Mine did almost 2300 marks, where as the T61p stock does about 2100. Both laptops are 14.1 inch models (mine is just standard screen)

good luck

Eh, just so you know - the card inside that T61p is th FX 570M, no matter what they state. There is no such thing as NVS 570M.