Thinkpads Forum

I'm thinking about a Thinkpad X200s, With 1.86ghz, 4gb ram and 160gb sata disk...

Is it really worth it?

What do i miss in the X200s compared to a X300 or a X301?
What's pro and cons?

With a X200s, you'll miss an optical drive, and it's a bit thicker than the X300/301. Also, the X200s doesn't have a touchpad, if that's of any importance for you.

You get: a smaller footprint, slightly less weight and a more powerful machine. IIRC, you also get the possibility to use a real docking station instead of just a port replicator.

It's up to you, I guess

Is it possible to put a better grafic card in the real dock station?

raket wrote:I'm thinking about a Thinkpad X200s, With 1.86ghz, 4gb ram and 160gb sata disk...

Is it really worth it?

What do i miss in the X200s compared to a X300 or a X301?
What's pro and cons?

I have X61, X61s and the X300 before I got the X301. If X200 is slightly 'faster' than X61s in terms of bus speed, memory and CPU then here is my take. My X61 will feel faster than the X61s and X300. The first X300 were designed to be energy efficient for such a small package.

That is why I upraded to the X301 which now 'feels' the same speed as my X61.

The lack of touchpad and CDRW/DVDRW is a non event as most of us doesn't use the DVD most of the time. You can just plug into any network and if there is another computer, share 'that' computer DVD reader. I use the thinkpad red pointer most of the time, so the touchpad is 99% useless.

Energy wise, my X61 can last 4 to 5 hours, and the X300, X301 around 3 hours (6 cells, full brightness and operation, vista busienss). But if you upgrade to win7, you lost around 30 minutes to 1 hour and now my battery gauage shows 2.5 hours.

So if you need long usuage time, the X200s would be the way to go.

By the way, I also had the T61 which was a tad heavy and the X61 screen was too small, so I settled on the X301. But NOW, there is the T400s which is basically a X301 on a 14inch screen. I'm upgrading to that.

So if you need long usuage time, the X200s would be the way to go.

I'll second that. My X200s (one of the ULV models) can routinely hit 6+ hours of heavy usage on the 6-cell battery. I don't have a 9-cell, but I've heard that 12 hours is not at all an unrealistic upper bound.

bleh i got x200 p8600 4gb ram 9 cell, 6-8 hours outta the battery no problem i'd save your money and get that instead of x200s

mulambo187 wrote:bleh i got x200 p8600 4gb ram 9 cell, 6-8 hours outta the battery no problem i'd save your money and get that instead of x200s

I second that too. The x200 would be more 'powerful' in terms of CPU compared to the x200s.

Ideasmiths wrote:
I second that too. The x200 would be more 'powerful' in terms of CPU compared to the x200s.

While this is true, I have to wonder how much this actually matters to most users. Sure, I know that most people *think* they need a beefy CPU to have a "fast" machine -- but the majority of common tasks today are either RAM or (more frequently) I/O bound. Slow boot times? Disk-bound. Applications taking a long time to load? RAM or disk.

I've been using a machine with a 1.6Ghz C2D, and I have yet to encounter a task outside of compiling that would be made noticeably faster by the use of a more powerful CPU.

I guess if you do a lot of gaming or a lot of work with high-bitrate media you might need a powerful CPU, but given that the purpose of a machine like the X series is mobility, trading some CPU performance for greatly-extended battery life seems like a smart move to me. YMMV though.

Hi,

But is a x200s or t400s really slower?
I have tried on a lenovo store, those t400s/x200s were exceptionally fast, instantaneous response, v v impressive.

Matt

a113135 wrote:Hi,

But is a x200s or t400s really slower?

Well you can see the CPU stats for yourself. If what you're asking is "Will I notice a difference in speed?", then I'm afraid that we can't really answer that for you. It all depends on what you do. If your workload is CPU-bound then yes, you might. If it's disk or RAM-bound, then you may well not notice a difference.