x41/x61/x220

[whalepirot]

Son's college x41 with IBM 60gB SSD is full and very slow. I can shift many files from it to either SD or network drive, which may help a little. Also looking at Win8 for it, per some comments in these forums.

I am considering:

1) x61s-7666-34U Vista+dock\dvd for $100
2) x200-7454-95U or GKU win 7 for $220

No further, just yet, on memory or HD. I read what I could find on here and found that more memory costs the same, if needed.

x220 is newer but I agree that's not necessary better. Larger memory and HD are big factors as is fitment of a 2.5" SATA.

May go with Win8 on whichever, as the ad says the OS needs reinstall by buyer.

Thanks for helpful comments.

[ajkula66]

Both of these are good choices, and at excellent prices.

I'd go with X200 (newer machine/cheaper RAM/more processing power) but if you son's needs and/or budget are limited, there's nothing wrong with getting him the X61s.

Happy shopping.

[whalepirot]

I think the pricing is quite good., too, but realize that it is easy to toss $120 into a dying machine rather quickly, making the "cheaper", not.

I am not having great luck getting the specifics with the full model numbers, like which CPU they have. The (slow) lenovo site doesn't easily yield such data, plus the seller didn't answer the phone.

[Tasurinchi]

Lenovo's support site is some days incredible fast and other days incredible slow. Today seems to be a lucky day

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ThinkPad X61s (7666-34U)
L7500(1.6GHz), 1GB RAM, 80GB 5400rpm HD, 12.1in 1024x768 LCD, Intel X3100, Intel 802.11agn(n-disabled), Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 8c Li-Ion, WinVista Business

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ThinkPad X200 (7454-95U)
P8600(2.4GHz), 2GB RAM, 160GB 5400rpm HD, 12.1in 1280x800 LCD, Intel 4500MHD, Intel 802.11agn, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 4c Li-Ion, WinXP Pro

I'd also recommend you to go for the X200, unless you have budget restrictions. But keep in mind that upgrading the RAM for the X61s will be more expensive than the X200's RAM. Plus you'd need to install a modded BIOS to have SATAII support. The X200 has it out of the box...

My 2 cents...

[ZaZ]

X200 screens are significantly brighter than the X61, which is another reason to go for the X200.

[Nprod]

I'm also voting for the X200. Even if it's a model with a slower CPU from the X200 line it's around 150% the speed of the X61S. A model with an Intel P8700 would bump that figure to 170%. It's good to keep the CPU in top priority because unlike the memory and hard disk, it's soldered to the motherboard and can't be upgraded.

Also, as other people mentioned - ram upgrade is going to be cheaper due to the (faster) DDR3 memory.