Questions for X41 Owners

[billyb]

A few questions for any X41 users here:

1. How warm does this machine get after say 2 hours of moderate (browsing, e-mail, word, excel) use? Hot enough to be uncomfortable in someone's lap? How often does the fan come on and is the fan audible?

2. How warm does this machine get after 2 hours of high-CPU-load apps where the CPU would be operating at close to maximum when plugged in to AC power? Like maybe a couple of hours of FS2004, or SETI@Home, or a fractal generator or similar?

3. How warm does this machine get after 2 hours of high-HD-load apps like watching a DVD movie off the HD?

I'm picking between an X40 and X41 with 8-cell battery.

The ULV vs LV issue as far as battery life is concerned is not really important to me as 5+ hours away from AC power is good enough for my usage pattern. It is an issue as far as heat is concerned, and even more important to me is fan noise.

The primary factor for selecting this machine as a replacement for my ageing T41 is size and weight. I'm getting older, and every pound that I have to heft leaves me feeling a little wearier at the end of each day. In the past 3 years I have hardly ever used my optical drive when travelling, in fact in the recent past I haven't used it for anything except the ocassional software install. I have wireless networks and machines with optical drives which can easily be shared at my home and work locations. I routinely travel with 2 x 80GB external USB drives so I have never needed to burn optical data backups on the road.

I travel very extensively in the Far East (I am currently based in India), and am usually away from home for 12 to 15 days in any given month. 90% of my work related use of this machine will be standard office applications, e-mail, internet, VNC into my home and office networks via wireless or ethernet depending on where I am. 10% will be running FS2004 which is my prime source of entertainment when travelling. Because of this I am leaning towards the X41 series rather than the older X40 as the 1.5 LV CPU and the GMA900 will probably give me a much better framerate experience here than the same CPU with the Intel Extreme Graphics solution. Any other virtual pilots out here with X41s who can confirm this? Except for FS2004 I really don't do any gaming at all. Will the GMA900 also do a better job of playing DivX movies than the Intel Extreme Graphics?

The machine I am currently looking at is the 2528-6NU. Can anyone tell me how this is different from the 2525-6NU? As far as I can tell only the prices at pricegrabber.com are widely different, with the 2528 coming in several hundred dollars below the 2525 model.

If any X41 owners can post their thermal and fan noise experiences, I will be very grateful. And if anyone out here is an X40 or X41 owner and an FS2004 user, you can make my day with your experience on this machine.

BillyB

[blackomegax]

based entirely on gaming experience (i dont have a thinkpad, yet).

the gma900 is a 2 or 4 pipeline dx9 chip, about equivilant to a nvidia 5200 (extremely low end)
for dx7 or dx8 games tho, it should do "ok"

and, FS2004 isnt exactly a demanding game (vs say, lomac or farcry, neither of which will run on a gma900 suffeciently)