Thinkpads Forum

Hey all!

I'm looking for a tablet on the cheap, it would be a second computer dedicated to drawing in Photoshop and animation in Flash.

I've used Photoshop with 4GB of RAM and would never want to go below that, so the X60t is out of the question.

Is the screen on the X61t good? I'm considering a tablet for the screen itself, so this is a big deal. Would it be worth it to get an X61t with a broken screen and drop in an X60t panel?

My biggest question is whether or not the CPU hit will render PS/FL unusable; I'm okay as long as it doesn't lag while I work (Which is generally a direct result of an insufficient amount of RAM).

Regards,
Trey.

The X60T screen is more or less the same as the X61T's. There are some "worse" variations with a VA screen instead of AFFS, but they are rare. Unofficially the X61T supports up to 8GB memory, but actually obtaining that amount of memory will be costly - 4GB DDR2 modules are rare compared to their DDR3 counterparts.

The CPU seems ok to me, but i'm using the less common 1.8ghz L7700 variation instead of the usual 1.6ghz L7500. I'm not very sure about CS6 - it fully meets the minimum requirements, but not by too much. I have Paint Tool SAI and Paint Shop pro 9 here and they run excellently.

I think maybe you should look for an X200T or X201T. The 16:10 ratio is annoying compared to the 4:3 screen on the X61T, but at least you won't be worrying about costly ram upgrades. Also the X200/201T have an LED backlight for their screens which you might prefer.

One can always do pll mod on X61/Tablet (raises FSB from 200 MHz to 266 MHz) which is relatively easy (compared to T61) and has been done many times before without downsides (heat, stability etc) on German Thinkpad forum.
And of course the easiest way to get more oomph is to flash BIOS that enables Dual-IDA (adds one more multiplier: L7500 goes from 1.6 Ghz -> 1.8 GHz, L7700 1.8 GHz -> 2.0 GHz etc).

The ideal one is an X61T tablet with the SXGA+ screen from the X60T.
The X61T SXGA+ screens develop ugly air bubbles along the sides where the screen is glued to the lid.