About to buy a refurbished T400: Need your opinion please!

[c0dehunter]

Hello All,
I am about to buy a refurbished T400 (Win 7, 2GB DDR3, 80GB HDD), and I will be installing Windows 8 Pro (retail, next month) on it.

I need to know:

1) If Windows 8 Pro would run fine on these machines?

2) If so, could you please provide a link to Win8 drivers (even beta)?

3) What is the maximum RAM that a T400 accept?

4) Do any of the T400's come in a "touch-screen" variety?

5) Last but not least, currently I own a R61i and I am running Win7, and its pretty fast. Would I notice a big jump, switching from a R61i to T400? Again, I need this machine (T400) to be running Win8 Pro, and I want to make sure if I am spending $299 for a good reason.

I am going to use it for school, email, and web, no game or multimedia usage.

Thanks!

[Cigarguy]

I have two T400 and know that they'll run Win 7 no problem. I can't see it not running Win 8 if it runs Win 7 just fine. Best place for drivers is from Lenovo's support site. Which won't have any Win 8 drivers until Win 8 is released.

T400 can take up to 8 GB of RAM. Where I live 8 GB (2x4 GB) of DDR3 is only $40 so it's definitely worth upgrading.

AFAIK, there's no version of T400 that come with a touchscreen.

I can't speak to the speed difference between a R61 and T400 but I can tell you the speed difference is very small between a T61 and T400. T61 with SSD, 8 GB RAM and T9300. T400 with SSD, 8 GB RAM, and T9400. Upgrading from 2 GB to 8 GB and adding a SSD made a huge and significant difference on both systems. For your usage, a T400 can more than handle it.

$300 for refurbish unit is OK. Better deals can be had. I got both of my T400 for less than $180 Cdn each. When buying I factored in the memory and SSD upgrade to the price. I'd keep on eye out on the marketplace on this forum.

[c0dehunter]

Thanks for your reply, I really appreciate it. Yes, the price for 8GB is around $37 USD.

Would you please let me know what SSD drive you used? I have never used one, and I am thinking about getting a new one and installing it in the T400.

[QWERTY Andreas]

The T400s could be configured with multitouch, but i dont think they are very common

[Cigarguy]

I am thinking about getting a new one and installing it in the T400.

I'd get the cheapest one with the size that suits your need and budget. I like using the SSD as the OS and program drive while data is stored on a HDD in the Ultrabay. With the T400 you'll be limited to SATA II speed (about 280 MB/s) so any modern drive will be more than suffice. Some people swear off of Sandforce based controlled drives because early 22XX controllers were prone to random BSOD. I myself had this problem with a Corsair 120 SSD. Seems like Sandforce have finally fixed this problem with the latest firmware. Crucial M4 drives are very reliable. Intel and Samsung makes some great drives. Some will tell you that Intel and Samsung is the only way to go but I've never subscribe to this. For me, price and size is the most important factor.

[c0dehunter]

Thank you so much for your responses. OK, would you know if this is good deal? (and the right spec, you mentioned SATA II only):

http://www.microcenter.com/product/3983 ... _%28SSD%29

I really don't care for the size, since I always store my files and data on an external drive. I just need an inexpensive SSD, since I have to get the 8GB DDR3 as well, and I don't want to spend more than $80 on top of the $299 price for the T400.

Thanks.