X40 suitable for student? Things to watch out?

[zodiac]

Hello,

a great community you guys got here. Straight in line with the overall Thinkpad quality. I felt a bit honoured when I received the email with my account activation. Especially, since I used a gmail sub adress. Nevermind.

I've been using an old faithful 600E since 2004 and it never let me down. Well, the hard drive, which was in there since the actual day 1, crashed. And the battery went flat forever. But what the heck. I am very critical about quality in all respects, but the 600E always satisfied me all the way.

Now, I will soon be in the situation of having to carry a laptop around with me nearly every day since I will be a freshman at uni. The 600 is a bit big and I feel like the 6 lbs are a little too much of a burden for that purpose.

This led me to the X40. Now I am wondering, if it is really the right thing for all my purposes. Those are:

- office, of course
- internet
- movies, played back via ext. screen or beamer
- music, played back via ext. speakers (-> quality of the sound card)

Thats pretty much it. I really like the idea of this slim, smart and ultra portable working tool. But is it the right thing for my needs?

Now, there are some more questions left:

- I heard some stories about a not-so-good connectivity of the built-in WLAN device. Is that true?

- How suitable is the X40 as an desktop pc replacement? Is it suitable to comfortably work with it on "bigger" things, like longer homeworks, projects, etc? Might just keep an LCD screen, keyboard, mouse for those purposes.

- Is there any way to replace 4200rpm HD? I really need a fast boot time and a good workflow. I usually "tune up" my Win XP machines but the 4200rpm would be bottleneck not to conquer, I fear.

- I read about 7h of battery life. What combination of batteries can that be achieved with? What is the overall weight then?

I think, thats it for now. Thanks for already reading that far.

Cheers,
Martin

[DVormann]

- Is there any way to replace 4200rpm HD?

There is: http://supertalent.com/products/ssd-com ... p?type=IDE
Might consider X61s instead of X40 + SSD, though.

For working at home my X41 has external screen, keyboard and mouse. With the exception of 3D games and CAD X40 can do just about everything. Watching movies included.

Make sure an X40 has 512 MB RAM soldered on board.

[j-dawg]

You may want to consider how having no (built-in) optical drive will affect your ability to watch movies. On the other hand, if you're planning on buying a dock to go with it, as well as keyboard/mouse/monitor, I can see an X40 filling the relatively low-intensity role you describe.

[spasticteapot]

The X40/X41 won't get 7 hours unless you have an Ultra Low Voltage CPU.

[ThinkPad]

Just to let you know, the speaker on the X40 is pretty bad. If you want to hear quality sound you should get external speakers.

For your application it would suit just fine, except for the movie play back which would require an external DVD drive which are rather inexpensive.

The hard drive is not upgradeable.

[spasticteapot]

Just to let you know, the speaker on the X40 is pretty bad. If you want to hear quality sound you should get external speakers.

Also, it's mono. Go get some proper headphones.

The hard drive is not upgradeable.

60GB hard drives may be purchased on eBay. However, because the ThinkPad X40 uses a 1.8" hard drive found almost nowhere else, they cost an arm and a leg.

[ThinkPad]

Also, it's mono. Go get some proper headphones.

Compared to the T series speaker, the X series output is horrible because it is underneath the machine and comes out muffled when placed on surfaces

60GB hard drives may be purchased on eBay. However, because the ThinkPad X40 uses a 1.8" hard drive found almost nowhere else, they cost an arm and a leg.

Other than 60gb, the HDD cannot be upgraded like the 2.5" can to 250gb in PATA.

[kaotic504]

i have an x40 that i still use for surfing the web, using Office, and watching movies (streamed from my NAS boxes). works just fine. really, that's all the power i need. i don't use it to program but i probably could. it's definitely, lighter and slimmer than my X60 Tablet. I can fit it in my Timbuk2 sleeve. if you can get one for a great price (under 400), i'd say go ahead. i've seen them sell on ebay for ~$400.

[keyman]

The X40/X41 won't get 7 hours unless you have an Ultra Low Voltage CPU.

IBM says you get 10 hours with 8 cell battery and extended life battery (62Wh + 27Wh = 89Wh). So i got a LV 1.5GHz, but i don't think that the consumption increases that much with a non-LV. My X40 1.5GHz LV needs with disabled wifi and lowest brightness about 8 W. Guess that a non-LV won't double that

P.S.: Hi everybody