Thinkpads Forum

Hi, everyone. I have TP X60, 1707-A31; the almost nonstop use of it for over 2 years already made me a lifetime TP fan . Now I'm trying to get/make the ultimate TP X?? laptop for my needs, so this one will go anyway.

The priorities are:
- portability and operability (in outdoor environment too),
- longest work on battery
- maximum wireless connectivity/sensitivity,
which brings questions at least about the types of the processor, the display and the WiFi.

1. What type of processor - regular, LV or ULV? Does better performance always mean shorter battery life? Is the rule "The bigger - the merrier" valid and where's the "sweet point"? How do the three types behave temperature-wise?
Or shortly - do I need X61s or X61 and in the latter case is the T8100 the best option or is it way too much?
1a. Where could be the bottleneck - the processor / RAM / HD? SSD or higher speed hard drive? How about (for instance) T8100 with 2x1GB RAM and 64 GB SSD drive (considering the options, available at present on ebay)?

2. Image quality and screen resolution - 1024x768 is the minimum requirement of the software I use the most (and I cannot change this, since that's how I make my living); alas, it's rather annoying... Most likely I need the screen of the tablet models - so should I get the screen of a x61T only or consider the tablet models (I do not draw at all)? Can an 8-cell battery last almost NINE hours with the IPS/S-IPS screen (as it did with a TN one)?

3. WiFi - How about the "N" type compared with A/B/G? Does the WWAN retractable antenna really make a huge difference in sensitivity?

PS: I definitely don't need a widescreen TP, and/or an optical drive (or I may consider getting a docking station )
PS2: If my post is not at the right place, I do appologise sincerely.

Thank you, Bill and all the people in this great place!

1. Low-voltage CPUs are always best for maximum battery life. An L7700 (Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz Low voltage, 17 watts TDP) will give you around the performance of the T5600 (Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz standard voltage, 35 watts TDP) for slightly more than half the power consumption at full speed and 100% CPU usage (27 watts vs 53 watts). Power consumption figures are from CPU-World.com.

My X61 Tablet with L7700 lasts more than 4 hours when browsing the web with a 75% capacity 8-cell battery. Meanwhile my X61 T8100 can only reach 2 hours with a new 4-cell battery when doing light tasks (typing/reading documents) and the wifi turned off.

Undervolting a 35 watt TDP CPU can only go so far. My X61 T8100 only goes down to 0.95v, while the same processor on a T61 can go down to 0.90v. It seems to be a system board limitation. My aunt's X60 T5600 can only go down to .975v.
In contrast, my X61 Tablet L7700 can go down to 0.85v

1a. The biggest bottleneck is always the hard disk. Those who upgrade to SSDs almost always attest to the increased responsiveness, most describing the difference as "between night and day".

The entire X60 line is limited to around 3GB due to the Intel 945GM chipset, while the X61 line can go up to 8GB (2 x 4GB). However, 4GB is a more realistic limit because 4GB DDR2 SODIMMs are hideously expensive and might be hard to find.

Whether a certain CPU is fast enough is dependent on your needs. Since you're coming from a Core Solo T1300, almost any dual-core is an upgrade.
On the other hand, almost every new version of any program is bigger and more resource-hungry than the previous one, so having a faster processor will give you CPU cycles to spare.

In my experience with the L7700 and T8100, I only feel the CPU speed difference when I'm pushing the processor to its limits, like trying to watch Full HD video. Otherwise, they're indistinguishable in performance.

2. There's a mod that allows installing the SXGA+ (1400x1050) IPS screen on non-Tablet models. However, it's rather difficult to do. There's a thread about this: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=sxga+mod

3. No idea regarding sensitivity. Haven't tried war driving with my X61.