Thinkpads Forum

I am looking to replace my X40. My top priority is the speed of the machine. The X40 is quite slow, due to 4200RPM HDD. Also, the stories about how slow Vista can be are a concern. I will use the X200 as my primary machine for business and home. Not a gamer.
I plan on ordering the P8600 processor.

Questions:

1: Should I order 3 Gig of Ram?

2: Which hard drive is faster in real world performance, the 160Gig 7,200 RPM, or the 200 Gig 7,200 RPM with encryption. [Does encryption slow everything down, and do I have to use it if I get the 200 Gig drive?]

3: Is the Intel Turbo memory hard drive cache (2 gig) worth getting? Does it really speed things up?

4: Is Vista as bad as I have read, and should I try to order it with XP instead?

Thanks

Paul O

1. *edit just upgrade your memory to 2gb or 3gb whatever your pocket can afford.

2a. tbh your laptop is prolly running slow cause its a single core x40 in combination with the 4200rpm hdd, just go to newegg.com and buy a hitachi 320gb 5400rpm hdd for $89 ($119-$30rebate), exact same 320gb hdd lenovo sells as an upgrade for like 180 i think.... yes retarded... i can gaurantee 5400rpm will be fast enough, for business and personal use, maybe slow for gaming.
2b. unless you plan to use encryption theres no point in getting it. So lets say you handle a lot of sensitive data, then encryption is worth it, or your in a high traffic and high laptop theft region, then maybe its a good idea, but otherwise i would opt out
2c. other alternatives are the wd scorpio 320gb hdd for $109, they have the 5400rpm and a 7200rpm version if you REALLY want that extra speed

3. In benchmarks 1gb of turbo memory shows nominal effect on system performance, it does let it boot slightly faster. in essence i believe it works exactly like ready boost (where your system can utilize a thumb drive into extra ram). I would get it, cause its only 50 bones, your getting 2gb instead of most other laptops offer 1gb, and itll give you that slight performance boost, and maybe in the future there will be a bios or os update that increases performance

4. Um in my opinion I like vista, its a nice refresh, granted there are some crappy things about it, but its a new os and people are eventually going to upgrade to all vista (as the win os). Remember XP was pretty [censored] till SP2, and its been around longer so its been more refined, but eventually they will stop selling xp and youll have to get vista.

Notes:

4gb OCZ: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227247

4gb PQI: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820141340

320gb Hitachi Travelstar 5400rpm: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... %2bhitachi

WD 320gb Scorpio 5400rpm: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136197

WD 320gb Scorpio 7200rpm: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136280

if you have any more questions just ask.

jamse wrote:1. no, goto newegg.com and buy 4gb of ram for 50-80 bones. there is not much performance difference between ddr2 and ddr3, and i know desktop mobo are backward compaitble with ddr2 and ddr3 so it should be the same with laptop mobos.

These desktop boards achieve this by having slots for both DDR2 and DDR3. There's no space for this in laptops, especially ultraportables. Unfortunately DDR3 is still very expensive.

jamse wrote:2a. tbh your laptop is prolly running slow cause its a single core x40 in combination with the 4200rpm hdd, just go to newegg.com and buy a hitachi 320gb 5400rpm hdd for $89 ($119-$30rebate)

The X40 does not use standard-sized (2.5") laptop hard drives; it uses 1.8" wide drives, with an unusual connector to boot.

These desktop boards achieve this by having slots for both DDR2 and DDR3. There's no space for this in laptops, especially ultraportables. Unfortunately DDR3 is still very expensive.

the desktop mobo use the same slots for ddr2 and ddr3, same 240 pin size also. im fairly sure intel wouldnt take away the backwards compatibility for laptop mobo. ddr3 is essentially higher clockspeed memory, that uses less power (1.5v compared to 1.8v ddr2). it is possible to run ddr2 on a ddr3 mobo because they are manufactured almost the same way, except ddr3 is 90nm tech, which is how they get the lower power draw at those higher clockspeeds. But i figure the savings of buying ddr2 for a laptop that supports ddr3 out weights the benefits of paying the premium of using ddr3, well in my personal opinion. just as long as the battery life doesnt go under 7-8hrs, i would be happy and im fairly sure it would not effect the battery life of an x200 by that much maybe worst case scenario.

and there is no advantage in buying memory from lenovo, its not more compatible than most memory. they use a korean brand hynix (korean), which problably sells ram to pqi (chinese) if not that samsung (korean) sells to pqi. not quite sure who sells to ocz though, either micron (usa) or infineon (german).

*side note
ddr3 will not work in a ddr2 compatible mobo, but ddr2 will work in a ddr3 mobo. also, i could be totally wrong about backward compatibility with laptop mobo with ddr2, im just stating my experience and knowledge of desktop mobos.


Also, i did not know that x40 use 1.8hdd, i am kind of glad i didnt buy a used one off ebay now.

I retreat from my claim about desktop motherboards; sorry, my mistake. I sustain my objection to the laptop memory claim.

DDR2 SODIMMs are 200 pin; DDR3 SODIMMs are 204 pin.

Links: newegg 200 pin DDR2, 204 pin DDR3; crucial DDR2 (SODIMMs listed as 200 pin), DDR3 (SODIMMs listed as 204 pin).

lol
im not going to lie this feels like de ja vu

guess your right about the sodimms

PaulO wrote:I am looking to replace my X40. My top priority is the speed of the machine. The X40 is quite slow, due to 4200RPM HDD. Also, the stories about how slow Vista can be are a concern. I will use the X200 as my primary machine for business and home. Not a gamer.
I plan on ordering the P8600 processor.

Questions:

1: Should I order 3 Gig of Ram?

2: Which hard drive is faster in real world performance, the 160Gig 7,200 RPM, or the 200 Gig 7,200 RPM with encryption. [Does encryption slow everything down, and do I have to use it if I get the 200 Gig drive?]

3: Is the Intel Turbo memory hard drive cache (2 gig) worth getting? Does it really speed things up?

4: Is Vista as bad as I have read, and should I try to order it with XP instead?

Thanks

Paul O

I ordered the X200 with a 64 Solid State drive along with 2GB of ram and the 2.4 GHZ Centrino 2 .. This combination will give extremely fast performance in a large part due to the Solid State drive first and foremost, and the DDR3 memory and very fast 2.4GHZ processor. The 2GB of turbo memory will speed things up by a few percent, however it isn't worth it if you get the Solid State Drive. Most review sites don't recommend turbo memory.

I also upgraded the Wifi to the intel 3X3 and the bluetooth. The 9 cell battery upgrade is a must if you go on long trips and don't want to worry about running low on battery.

In either case, this X200 is a faster machine than the X300 in every way.. However the biggest difference would be in the solid state drive and second the DDR3 memory.

Save money and go with windows Vista basic.. It's a $50 savings (or $200 saving since it costs $150 to downgrade to XP) which could go towards more memory or any other option. Once you get Vista, you can adjust for best performance and switch to classical view and it looks and performs like XP.. Vista still has many quirks, but it isn't worth the downgrade in my opinion..

jamse wrote:1. *edit just upgrade your memory to 2gb or 3gb whatever your pocket can afford.


...


4gb OCZ: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227247

4gb PQI: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820141340

]

These are DDR2 - they won't work in an X200

awolfe63 wrote:hese are DDR2 - they won't work in an X200

james wrote:guess youre right about the sodimms

this is in regards to someone else saying what you said... you should really read the entire post...