Thinkpads Forum

I am in dilema and very worried give me advices.
I have three options,first one i will repair my own t61 tomorrow and sell it,second i can get t61p 1920x1200 core 2 duo 2.2ghz nvidia quadro etc, the problem here is,i can also have brand new t410 here is conf of t410 core i5 450m 4gb ddr 3 i will replace small and slow hard with my owm 500gb 7200rpm and 14" 1440x900 resolution and nvidia quadro nvs 3100m wifi m blue tooth win 7 64bit pro, 6 cell battery which i will sell or keep cuz i want 9 cell and i will use ultra bay my own battery as well.
So these three laptops are almost same i will say differences here
T61 14" ddr 2 g.skill 4gb memory 2x2gb which i caj transfer to t61p or sell if i go with t410, 9 cell battery for my t61 less than 60 cycles and ultrabay i can use ultra bay on all laptops cool battery, also t61 have 2ghz core 2 duo and t61p have 2.2ghz so small difference... New t410 have old core i5 450m,4gb ddr 3 and i will transfer again hard drive , so for me all laptops are almost same exept cpus and gpu ,since i am afraid my t61 and my t61p can become broken soon or someday..... I will probably get t410 , also i want to tell u that in my country they arent any
Way my t61p to e repaired by lenovo and this will cost me lots of money etc... And one more thing all these laptops have small battery life exepct this t410 t61p have very greedy gpu,so. Tell me what do u think ? I heard on lenovo site that i can make my t410 for more than 10. Hours battery life amd have web cam other domt have i also want if possible to ,ake faster boot enhanced experience with lenovo ))):)

Verysad wrote:nvidia quadro

I'd pass on that card. That and the 140m offered in the T61 have usually higher than normal failure rates. I'd opt for the T400.

Its t410 so u preffer t410? Right?

Not necessarily. If T61 had the Intel GPU and was less expensive, I might go that way, but the nvidia gpus on the T61 are asking for trouble. The performance difference between the two will be small.

For now i can stuck with t61 since i repaied it today with new motherboard but may be i can get t410 or x 200 or something thinner and lighter soon? Nvidia is always better than intel

Get a T420 if you can but if you can't then get a T410 but avoid the T61 and T61p unless you extend the warranty.
I just got 2 years on my T61 for $259.00.
I could have gotten a T410 for all I spent on this lappy.

@Goraman:
stop spreading FUD, any T61 with Intel GPU, or a T61/T61p with nVidia GPU and with production date 08/09 (2008/09) or newer is a very likeable and capable machine.

Capable, yes. Likable, not in my book. Never could stand the looks of them.

For reliability you can compare the intel gpu T61 with the T410. The T410 are faster and more expensive. I think they have more battery life with the same weight compared to the T61. But this can be different if you buy a used notebook. The panels are of the same quality if you compare the 14 inch panels. It's just up to you how much money you want to spend. The T410 is an evolutionary upgrade from the T400 and the T400 is an evolutionary upgrade from the T61. No revolution happened here

RealBlackStuff wrote:@Goraman:
stop spreading FUD, any T61 with Intel GPU, or a T61/T61p with nVidia GPU and with production date 08/09 (2008/09) or newer is a very likeable and capable machine.

Still getting a good T61/T61p a 3 or 4 year old laptop plagued with high failure rates,getting a good one is like winning the lottery.
It is far easier to just get a T410 as they are being sold for far less now that the T420 is out.

goraman wrote:Still getting a good T61/T61p a 3 or 4 year old laptop plagued with high failure rates,getting a good one is like winning the lottery.

No, it is not, if you stay clear of the machines with a nVIDIA GPU and go straight for one with Intel graphics. Unless one is a gamer, the Intel graphics based T61 offer plenty enough video performance (unlike the T60 Intel graphics).

goraman wrote:It is far easier to just get a T410 as they are being sold for far less now that the T420 is out.

Unfortunately only with the added nuisance of a form factor of 16:9 and thus comparatively reduced portability. It is not only about the money, especially if you actually get less than one would expect. You get what you pay for, and i wouldn't want to only spend less to be fed up with a cheap (=poor) counter value.

Well, it is certainly a matter of perspective, but in the absence of any really worthwhile technical improvements (and CPU speed has become rather irrelevant IMHO), there are good reasons to prefer sticking with the older format machines. For this very reason, instead of buying one of these new ThinkPad models, i preferred to fuse the mutually excluded benefits of the T60 and T61 into a single T61+ machine, building a T61 mainboard featuring a Penryn-CPU with 8GB RAM and cool running Intel graphics into a T60 chassis with a new 15" UXGA IPS/Flexview display. That's what i would have purchased if Lenovo were up to offer such a gem.

But i digress...

I just bought an IBM refurbished t61p. It is a 6457 ak7 model. How can I determine the production date?

You should start reading the posts that have been made here, especially the "sticky" ones at the top of each forum!
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=93357

Rumburo you make some good points,I guess I'm just a little sour after getting a T61 only to find out the graffix chip may be a ticking time bomb.
It dose not make for a good impression.
Can you put 8 gigs DDR2 in any T61?
I thought the limit was 4 gigs?
Won't it blue screen or just use 4 ?

goraman wrote:Can you put 8 gigs DDR2 in any T61?
I thought the limit was 4 gigs?

Yes, 2x4=8GB RAM runs just fine in any T61. The Santa Rosa chipset used for the T61 supports 2x4GB RAM out of the box. The offically claimed memory limit when Lenovo released the T61 to the market was 2x2=4GB since no single 4GB modules were yet available at that time. They simply couldn't boast supporting not yet existing memory configurations.

See www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Unofficial_maximum_memory_specs for details. Unfortunately, the www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T61 still states that the T61 is only "upgradable to 4GB".

goraman wrote:Won't it blue screen or just use 4 ?

You'd need a 64bit operating system to actually take advantage of this amount of RAM. With 32bit operating systems it is not possible to address more than 3GB RAM (unless using a PAE enabled system).

I have the 2.5 Penryn,will it also adapt to 8 gigs?
I only see specs for the T61P.
Mine is Type 7663-E37 08/07

64 bit Win 7 home premium.

goraman wrote:I have the 2.5 Penryn,will it also adapt to 8 gigs?
I only see specs for the T61P.
...
64 bit Win 7 home premium.

It doesn't matter which T61/T61p. As they all are based on the Santa Rosa chipset, they all support 2x4=8GB RAM. Your machine is definitely making no exception, especially since it runs a 64bit Windows system.

(Better make sure to remove the serial number from your posting, as this is private information no one should be given a chance to fool around with.)

="rumbero"]

goraman wrote:I have the 2.5 Penryn,will it also adapt to 8 gigs?
I only see specs for the T61P.
...
64 bit Win 7 home premium.

It doesn't matter which T61/T61p. As they all are based on the Santa Rosa chipset, they all support 2x4=8GB RAM. Your machine is definitely making no exception, especially since it runs a 64bit Windows system.