Would a TP X300 be suitable for university (engineering) ?

[rzl]

Hello all.

I've got the opportunity of replacing my notebook finally, and I've found an occasion for a Thinkpad x300 for 400€, which seems a good prices to me (does anyone not agree with this? if so, explain please).

Now, the point is... Would that be a good laptop for me?

I'm 18 at the moment, I study industry-applied computer science in high school and what I do is mostly programming, database design, website development.

But since I'd need to keep the notebook for at least some years, I suppose I'm probably going to attend the University, and going to use many "heavy" softwares like Matlab and things like that (well, i think i can name apps like Gcc, oracle, postgres, virtualbox, vmware, Matlab, octave, java se, java ee...).

Would the x300 be suitable for this kind of usage?

And... Oh, since I often give NetBSD/FreeBSD a try, I will probably make heavy usage of the compiler... Would that kill (or shorten the life of) the SSD ? In that case I'm thinking of replacing it with a normal hard disk... What's your opinion about?

[GrandMasterKhan]

Braddah, the CPU is not all that poweful. I think you need the 640M found in other models.

[visionviper]

Hello all.

I've got the opportunity of replacing my notebook finally, and I've found an occasion for a Thinkpad x300 for 400€, which seems a good prices to me (does anyone not agree with this? if so, explain please).

Now, the point is... Would that be a good laptop for me?

I'm 18 at the moment, I study industry-applied computer science in high school and what I do is mostly programming, database design, website development.

But since I'd need to keep the notebook for at least some years, I suppose I'm probably going to attend the University, and going to use many "heavy" softwares like Matlab and things like that (well, i think i can name apps like Gcc, oracle, postgres, virtualbox, vmware, Matlab, octave, java se, java ee...).

Would the x300 be suitable for this kind of usage?

And... Oh, since I often give NetBSD/FreeBSD a try, I will probably make heavy usage of the compiler... Would that kill (or shorten the life of) the SSD ? In that case I'm thinking of replacing it with a normal hard disk... What's your opinion about?

While the x300/x301 would be fine for programming/compiling it won't cut it for some of the other things you are going to need to use (like if you are doing complex models in Matlab).

And don't worry about the SSDs. They have lifetimes are much improved from when they first emerged on the market. The only reason to swap one out is because you need more space and you can't afford a SSD in the capacity you are looking for.

[rzl]

So what would you advice to me?

The point is that this is an *occasion*.
I would buy a second hand thinkpad x300, at a reasonable price (400 bucks).

Otherwise, i wouldn't have the possibility to afford a thinkpad.
(And otherwise, If i had moneys, I'd buy an x301 or an x201, or a t410 better).

Cheers

[visionviper]

A T400-series or x200 would suit you.

[rzl]

Much too expensive (the t410 and x200).

By the way, for the same price (400 bucks) i can take a macbook pro, 2,26ghz, 2 gig ram, 160 gig normal hard disk..
Seems pretty fast, but it would be heavier and would have shorter battery life.... Uhm...

[sanjuro]

x300 may be slow for some of your intended uses but the price is not bad. I would go ahead and get it and get some use out of it. May be you can upgrade to a faster computer when your financial situation improves.

[visionviper]

Much too expensive (the t410 and x200).

By the way, for the same price (400 bucks) i can take a macbook pro, 2,26ghz, 2 gig ram, 160 gig normal hard disk..
Seems pretty fast, but it would be heavier and would have shorter battery life.... Uhm...

Well then don't get the T410. You can get a used T400 in the $400 range.

[LegendaryKA8]

I would second the T400. I purchased mine for a little over $600, which included the switchable ATi GPU. If you feel you need more processor power a little later on, you can swap out to as powerful as a T9900... which should be able to get you through a while. As far as portability goes it's fine... plenty of my classmates in college make do with far larger notebooks. If you don't mind a little weight you can kit it out with a 9-cell battery that gives about 7-8 hours of life.