Purchasing advice needed on T410 and its cousins
Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 12:41 am
Yes, you read it correctly: silly old me - of all people - is asking for an advice on purchasing a ThinkPad, and April 1st is nowhere in sight...
Here's the essence of the story: my daughter's maxed-out 14" SXGA+ T60 is getting a little slow for her needs, mostly games and multitasking as in being on Skype while watching a PowerPoint presentation and listening to music...right. Here's what I know:
a) The "new" machine needs to be no larger than 14", with an integrated media drive.
b) It should be a ThinkPad, since it's a lot easier for me to support it.
c) At one point in the game I gave her an Intel-based T400 and she was underwhelmed, which leads me to believe that an Intel-based T61/R61 would be an absolute non-starter. She positively hated the dim (in her opinion - it was an average panel) CCFL LCD.
That's when I started doing some research and came to realize that examples of the T410 palette can be found for less than I expected. The problem is, I have extremely limited experience with these machines, and am therefore looking for words of wisdom...
I would honestly rather stay away from sub-models utilizing 1.8" drives unless someone around here sells me on the concept.
The machine *must* have a WXGA+ panel, that much is clear. However, I can't really make heads or tails of the graphics options and would need guidance primarily in this department.
Oh yes...one last thing: the young lady in question has discovered Linux and is liking it a lot. So, whatever GPU ends up as the choice of the day should have some support in mainstream distros such as Mint.
Thoughts, experiences, known caveats/weak points?
TIA my fellow ThinkPadders.
Here's the essence of the story: my daughter's maxed-out 14" SXGA+ T60 is getting a little slow for her needs, mostly games and multitasking as in being on Skype while watching a PowerPoint presentation and listening to music...right. Here's what I know:
a) The "new" machine needs to be no larger than 14", with an integrated media drive.
b) It should be a ThinkPad, since it's a lot easier for me to support it.
c) At one point in the game I gave her an Intel-based T400 and she was underwhelmed, which leads me to believe that an Intel-based T61/R61 would be an absolute non-starter. She positively hated the dim (in her opinion - it was an average panel) CCFL LCD.
That's when I started doing some research and came to realize that examples of the T410 palette can be found for less than I expected. The problem is, I have extremely limited experience with these machines, and am therefore looking for words of wisdom...
I would honestly rather stay away from sub-models utilizing 1.8" drives unless someone around here sells me on the concept.
The machine *must* have a WXGA+ panel, that much is clear. However, I can't really make heads or tails of the graphics options and would need guidance primarily in this department.
Oh yes...one last thing: the young lady in question has discovered Linux and is liking it a lot. So, whatever GPU ends up as the choice of the day should have some support in mainstream distros such as Mint.
Thoughts, experiences, known caveats/weak points?
TIA my fellow ThinkPadders.
