Thinkpads Forum

Hi, I am contemplating between then x60s and x41. I need it primarly for school.. office, sas, matlab, and vba.. i think i can get the x41 for several hundred dollars cheaper but would it be sufficient for my purposes? would the x60s have noticeable performance advantages for these tasks? thanks in advance

tmkim80 wrote:Hi, I am contemplating between then x60s and x41. I need it primarly for school.. office, sas, matlab, and vba.. i think i can get the x41 for several hundred dollars cheaper but would it be sufficient for my purposes? would the x60s have noticeable performance advantages for these tasks? thanks in advance

This is just my opinion.

Steer clear of the X41; it has a non-standard 1.8" 4200rpm hard drive that is hard to upgrade and will slow down the entire system. I would much prefer either a used X31/X32 or a new X60# to any X41 regardless of price. Even cheap notebooks these days come with 5400rpm drives. People who upgrade from 4200rpm notebook drives (in systems that allow it, i.e. not in the X41) are usually surprised at just how much a faster hard drive will do to speeding up their computing. Both the X31/X32 and X60 series will allow upgraded standard sized (2.5") hard drives including the fastest ones, which run at 7200rpm.

agreed, my friend has an x40 and he says the 4200 is too slow for him

X41 is just enough for surfing, simply word processing...

X30 / X60 would be much more better for your Matlab and other intensive applications.

Especially if you're planning to run SAS ... you need some decent disk i/o. If you need to save a few dollars, get an X60 (as opposed to X60s) rather than an X41 -- or even a used X32.

tmkim80 wrote:would the x60s have noticeable performance advantages for these tasks? thanks in advance

Yes, absolutely! I have used both X40 (similar to X41) and X60s. It's much faster, can use bigger and much cheaper hard drives, and has three USB ports.

Ok, thanks everyone for their feedback. I now feel that x60s or x60 is the way to go.

Since you are running apps that may need extra performance, consider getting an X60 (and not X60s) with the Core 2 Duo (as opposed to the Core Duo) which can run 64-bit which you might not use now because it is rather new but for future use because Matlab double precision FP runs significantly faster in 64-bit. Also be sure to spring for an 802.11 a/g/b/n device for an extra $35. A 7200 RPM drive is nice as well.

X60s is just nice too...!!

tmkim80, if you want the lightest possible Thinkpad, get an X60s with an ultralight (that's the official name) LCD and a slim line 4-cell battery. Such an X60s weighs 2.69 lbs or less. The X60 doesn't have the ultralight LCD option and can't use the slim line battery.

pianowizard wrote:tmkim80, if you want the lightest possible Thinkpad, get an X60s with an ultralight (that's the official name) LCD and a slim line 4-cell battery. Such an X60s weighs 2.69 lbs or less. The X60 doesn't have the ultralight LCD option and can't use the slim line battery.

It's all a question of optimizing for the right thing. If weight is absolute #1, go with pianowizard's suggestion. If performance on Matlab and SAS is important, get an X60 with Core 2 Duo and a 7200 rpm disk. If battery life is critical, X60s with an 8-cell is the bee's knees. If price is primary, a low-end X60 with Core Duo and 5400 rpm will give you the most bang for the buck (and still far better performance than an X41).

tomh009,
agreed