T400 for a web designer

[Sindbad]

Hi Guys, really interesting forum a lot of info here, thanks for your comments and reviews it is very helpful.

Here is the story, I'm getting ride of my old Compaq Presario CQ50, before I had experience with 2 different Toshiba Satellites, Dell inspiron all of these laptops were fine except Dell, it just was giving me a of hard times. I will never go for Dell again.

This time I want to get something different, I mostly work in Photoshop and Dreamweaver, Total Commander, BitTorrent, MSN , Skype, Fire fox and IE (I always have these applications running - all the time). I don't play games, I really like the T400, the budget is low around $950-$1000. So I've got some questions:

1. Screen - see a lot of complains about screen quality, is it that bad?
2. Build in speakers - I listen to music all the time, I don't expect 'Bose' sound quality from notebooks but is it same old speakers from old ThinkPad R52?
3. Warranty - I never had problems with my previous Notebooks, NEVER except Dell (I mentioned before)
DO I really need to purchase 2-3 years warranty? Is it so necessary? Do they brake a lot?
4. Keyboard - will it make "cracking" noise while typing? Because R52 did, may be it did because when I got it it was used.
5. The quality of 4 cell battery - When I should be considering buying a new battery? I mostly work with AC Plugged.
6. Hard drive 5400rpm vs 7200rpm - I'll have tons of movies on my laptop and I'm thinking of getting 5400rpm 250GB. Is there really big difference between 5400rpm vs 7200rpm will I feel this difference?
7. Heating - Every evening I was putting R52 on my laps and the bottom was very hot. was not so comfortable working like this. Is it the same story with T400?
8. There is no HDMI output on T400? Right?


Thanks,

[RDR]

Hi,

I too am a web developer and use a laptop at the client's office, back to our office for meetings, and to take work home. I have evolved from the simple t23, t40, t42, x40, x41, x61t and now traded in my x61t (never really used the tablet) for a t400.

After all the research I did trying to figure out what one between the older t61, the sl400, and the t400 was best suited to my working style, I have to believe that I have made the best choice - T400.

Let me try to answer some of your questions the best I can.

1. Screen is supposed to be a great quality for an external monitor. I develope on the main screen and usually plug in an external hi-res monitor for viewing and proofing.
2. I too listen to music all the time (maybe a programmers trait!) Anything has to be better than the x61!
3. Warranty is well worth it if you can find one with any warranty left. (assuming eBay, etc).
4. ?? never had an issue with any Thinkpads with the squeaking.
5. I got a sweet deal on a T400 with the 9 cell battery and 3gb ram. Batter life is really important to me. I travel on trains and planes and usually wotk right up to the last minute so looong life is key.
6. I am a believer that the faster the RPM, the better the response time will be. 7200 is definitely better. My new one has a 160/7200 that I am removing. I have a 128gb ssd that I have been moving around from system to system... re-formatting and re-imaging between system.s It is faster than most *spinning* drives and really increases battery life as well. I am assuming that the T400 will recognize and support it. We shall see.
7. The SSD really keeps things cool! Never have a problem with heat or noise with the SSD. One of the best investments that I ever made.
8. I think you are correct although I code with 72dpi in mind so hi-res means nothing to me from a business sense. Movies would be sweet though!

My .02 bits worth!

[Sindbad]

RDR, thanks for your answer.
I want to buy it on Lenovo's site just waiting for deal to take 15%-20% off. That's why I was concerned about the warranty, I really do not want to pay that much for it, I better spend this money on additional 1GB ram and a better screen.

Thanks for explaining me about the HDD I think I'll go with 7200rpm.

The biggest flaw I think is the lack of hdmi

[RDR]

Certainly welcome. I paid $595.00 for a New-In_box unit that has a 2.8 year warranty. Must have sat on a shelf for sometime! He said it was a demo unit which I am ok with. It came with the 9 cell battery. I have all the drivers for W7 on a flash drive and a Lenovo-supplied free W7 upgrade hust waiting for the unit to get here. Woo Hoo!

Are we sick or what... Getting excited over a laptop and an OS!

[Sindbad]

$595.00 WOW. Demo? Sounds like you are a neighbor of US Director of Lenovo head quarters Where do you get this kind of deal?

[RDR]

HA! Nope, just an eBay hunter. I have purchased from this dealer before and the Thinkpads are exceptional. With a 7 day return to boot!

A thought on your HDMI question. There are 3 types of docking stations out there. One of which has that interface. Just a thought on the process.

I plan on purchasing a dock for the office. There is a basic doc with power supply on eBay for $50. Not too bad. Also the Lenovo outlet has some great deals on them as well.

Take care,

Rick

[RDR]

Ok, just purchased a doc for the office. Simple doc with power supply from eBay. $42.

Now for the unit to get here!

[Sindbad]

Rick, I'm also an ebay hunter however there are no deals like this on ebay, there are hundreds of hunters there, and the bidding goes all the way up and the winner gets the stuff lets say 5%-10% less then Lenovo.com has.
What is the user name of the seller you've got the laptop from? Congrats with new docking.

[RDR]

Here is the auction id: 110465241629

I am very pleased with the deal especially seeing the warranty go out to 2011!

[Sindbad]

I paid $595.00 for a New-In_box unit that has a 2.8 year warranty.

Strange, but on the auction it says condition "Like new"

Stupid question: Why some of the Thinkpads say Core2Duo but they have Intel Centrino sticker on it?

[Vempele]

Centrino = Intel processor + Intel chipset + Intel wireless. (specifics at Wikipedia)

[RDR]

Hi,

I called them to speak to the deal this weekend. They indicated that they have (had) 3-4 units that were *demo* open-box units that they purchased. I suspect these were from some local retailer. My thought was, because of the warranty, the risk of a defective or scratched unit was worth the lower price to me. Their return policy makes the initial review easy. If scratched, it goes back. Then if anything else kicks in, the warranty will take care of it. This has been my buying-model for eBay stuff and, so far has been great!

I am your typical starving programmer that needs a high powered box to get work done while on the train / plane. I sit in the dining car (train) and get a good 4-5 hours of work done while going to NY, PA, etc. Thus the need for a great battery life.

[RDR]

Hi all,

System arrived today. PERFECT shape. Very NEW... no scratches, etc. Was running XP Pro. Took my Lenovo Windows 7 disks and scrubbed / installed on a fresh hard drive, took 20 minutes! When it came up, I used the ThinkVantage product to go out and *find* the drivers for the system. All drivers were installed including the fingerprint reader. Everything checks out... The absolute easiest install I have ever seen. Sort of the type (showing my age) when I upgraded from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95. In 3.11, you had to manually configure everything in config.sys and hoped you spelled things correctly! W95, just said *welcome to plug-and-play*.

Upgrading to 4gb this weekend (marketpro computer show with all kinds of RAM vendors).

Woo Hoo.... now the task of loading all of the IDE stuff for my job..

[Sindbad]

Hi all,

System arrived today. PERFECT shape. Very NEW... no scratches, etc. Was running XP Pro. Took my Lenovo Windows 7 disks and scrubbed / installed on a fresh hard drive, took 20 minutes! When it came up, I used the ThinkVantage product to go out and *find* the drivers for the system. All drivers were installed including the fingerprint reader. Everything checks out... The absolute easiest install I have ever seen. Sort of the type (showing my age) when I upgraded from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95. In 3.11, you had to manually configure everything in config.sys and hoped you spelled things correctly! W95, just said *welcome to plug-and-play*.

Upgrading to 4gb this weekend (marketpro computer show with all kinds of RAM vendors).

Woo Hoo.... now the task of loading all of the IDE stuff for my job..

Congrats. Is this the one you mentioned before?

[RDR]

Yes it is. I am surprised at how easily it also upgraded to W7 using simply the Lenovo CD and the one utility from Lenovo that goes out and gets the drivers it needs for all the hardware.

I am learning how to make W7 *suitable* since I had a really bad taste with Vista.

The unit is performing quite well although it only has 1gb of ram and is running at 98% ram usage. They forgot to install the extra sticks. They will be here tomorrow.

The T400 is an interesting box. I have it next to the X61. The T series is a bit different to type on, but at the same time, the T keyboard is a lot more comfortable in the touch. I do like the wider screen and think that, when the ram gets here, it will be very fast. I am loading up all the web IDE environments and want to test later tonight. I do a lot of SEO and the SEO tools run faster than on the X.

[Sindbad]

Just won mine on ebay,

New, Open Box.
2.26 GHz P8400 Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
14.1" Widescreen WXGA+ 1440x900 TFT
2 GB RAM
160 GB 5400 rpm HD
Integrated a/g/n-draft Wireless Card
6 Cell Battery

$520 (with shipping)

The guy had bunch of them, according to his feedback who ever bought T400 from him here pretty happy. However I'm not sure about the warranty.

[RDR]

Hi,

I got on the Lenovo site and validated my warranty is, indeed, as stated. I am going to load my 128gb SSD today to see if it works with the BOIS. Really happy. And the *shape* of it is amazing! It litterally appears unused. No shiny keys or surfaces, no scratches, etc.

[RDR]

Followup on the 128gb SSD. I cloned the drive in the T400 to the SSD using Acronis. Okd 80gb 5400 RPM is now a 128gb ssd that is a LOT faster.

Put the new SSD in, booted, and presto.. a faster system with absolutely no sound! Speed improved yet again. Battery life increased by about 30 minutes estimate.

[Sindbad]

Put the new SSD in, booted, and presto.. a faster system with absolutely no sound! Speed improved yet again. Battery life increased by about 30 minutes estimate.

the price for SSD is very high now, will wait for another 6-10 month before an upgrade. By the way how long ins the boot time?

[zhenya]

the price for SSD is very high now, will wait for another 6-10 month before an upgrade. By the way how long ins the boot time?

That may be so, but a year ago people were saying the same thing, and the prices have not fallen dramatically. In the mean time, I've had a year of use with the best performance upgrade you can buy for a laptop computer today. Boot times are cut in 1/2, at least, and better yet, as soon as you can see the desktop, you can start loading your frequently used programs. From login to everything I need open is probably 15 seconds.

[RDR]

That's what I am seeing... about 15-20 seconds. I am not using the most expensive drive either. I am using a Kingston 128gb model. Ebay about $250 used. It was in perfect shape and has gone through 3 laptops so far. Well worth the price.

[Sindbad]

That may be so, but a year ago people were saying the same thing, and the prices have not fallen dramatically.

That's probably because there are only 128GB SSDs available on the market at this time, once there is going to be a higher capacity SSD's (i'm pretty sure this will happen in next 6-10 month) the 128SSD will become cheaper.

[RDR]

I used to have an 80gb in my X41. It was the smaller form factor. Not 2.5. It was plenty of room. I am not using but 30gb for the tools. I keep my data on a very fast flash drive and move it to the local drive when I need to work on it. (heavy mySQL stuff ... data crunching and mostly ETL stuff). 128gb is tons of room. Right now the slowest part of the W7 evaluation is the graphics card on the T400. Everything else ranks 6.0 and above including the disk test. THe graphics card under the *gaming* rank is 4.1 so my system is evaluated at a 4.1. Hmmm...... Don't agree with the *lumping* of me in the 4.1 area just because a function that I don't use is slowing me down. Nope, it is NOT slowing me down. .NET really doesn't care about the video card! The system smokes! SQL times for a 500gb record parse is faster than my RedHat box at the office! I am very pleased.

Again, my .02 BUT I have managed, for under $750 to put together a killer system for my development use that is current (circa 2009) and has another 18 months of warranty!

Ok, here is the drawback. I need the larger display and the high processor for work, but I do miss being able to sit at a clients office and when a question comes up, being able to open my little x41 (non-tablet), fast boot, and be online with my MiFi in about 10 seconds.

Are we EVER to rich, thin, OR have the best laptop? I think not. I am now looking on eBay for maybe another X series! God help me!