T61p to T500 upgrade; thoughts?

[mybellyisempty]

I'm bouncing this thread off the forums I read for differing viewpoints. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Those that have migrated from a T61 to a T500, your opinions are especially welcome.

I've sold off a gaming laptop & a high end desktop, but never bought myself a replacement. It's time I do so.

Currently, I have a T61p Specs are as follows:

Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5ghz
4gb 800mhz DDR2, running at 667mhz
15.4" WUXGA LCD (175 nit, 500:1 contrast)
256mb Quadro 570m (8600 GT equivalent)
Intel X25m 80gb SSD
WD 320gb 7200rpm drive in Ultrabay hdd adapter (SATA to PATA)
DVD+-DL
Intel 4965AGN
Bluetooth
Wireless USB (pulled from unit)
1gb TurboMemory (pulled from unit)
Vista 64 bit Business (Will upgrade to Win7 when it releases on Technet)
9 cell battery
3 year Accidental warranty through 04/11

It's sitting in an Advanced dock, letting me access the DVD and HDD simultaneously. I have 2 spare 9 cell batteries, unused.

It works perfectly, and handles my gaming needs without issue, although the T6x series is limited to SATA 1 speeds, making my X25m run at 100MB/s instead of up to 200.

The replacement I'm looking at is a T500 @ $1,399.56

Core 2 Duo T9400 2.53ghz
2gb 1066mhz DDR3
15.4" WSXGA+ LCD (200 Nit, 500:1 contrast)
256mb Radeon HD 3650 + Intel integrated switchable
250gb 5400rpm
Ultrabay hdd adapter (SATA to mini-SATA)
DVD+-DL
Intel 5300AGN
Bluetooth
Vista 64 bit Business (Will upgrade to Win7 when it releases on Technet)
6 cell battery
3 year Accidental Warranty


I'll make some aftermarket purchases, and swaps that will leave the systems like this:
The T61p will be downgraded to the 200gb 7200rpm drive I have in an enclosure, the 250gb 5400rpm will replace it. I'll continue to use it for multi-boot needs. The old Ultrabay adapter may be sold, or moved to the docking station.

The T500 will be upgraded to 4gb RAM, the 80gb SSD will be moved here, the 320gb 7200rpm will be moved into the new Ultrabay adapter.


The pros of this move are:
Better battery life
Better harddrive performance
High quality secondary laptop
Maintains compatability with (most) peripherals, which I might not get if I were to buy another system.
DisplayPort (to HDMI w/ adapter) would give me HD video output potential the T61p lacks.

The cons of this move are:
No real step up in non-HDD based performance. Video & CPU are practically the same.
Still no eSATA.
Core i7 is around the corner...but likely 8 months away.
I could buy a faster computer (Core 2 Quad, GT260) for about the same price, but would lose out on the docking station, keyboard, build quality, and warranty.