Just got a T400, lots of questions?
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:26 pm
Hey, all. I just snagged a T400(2765-T6U) off of Fleabay for a pretty good price; $630 shipped. P8400 CPU, switchable graphics, 2GB RAM, 160GB 7200RPM HDD, wireless-N, 9-cell battery, DVD/RW, and Lenovo factory warranty until July of 2011. The seller’s also throwing in licensed copies of Win7 and Vista Business x64… I’m still a little leery about Win7 personally, but I’ll give it a shot for a little bit.
However, after a little bit I’m going to want to start with a round of upgrades. I’m going to bump up to at least 4GB of RAM and give it copious hard drive space… I was either thinking two 640GB, 5400RPM hard drives or two 500GB, 7200RPM hard drives(both using an Ultrabay adapter; I just don’t use an optical drive that much anymore). I know hard drives get faster as the data density increases, but does anyone have benchmarks of these 640GB units? I’m mainly looking for reliable, relatively fast, and massive amounts of storage… I’m not interested in SSDs just yet.
Also, how does one go about extending the warranty? I’m looking to do that around sometime later this year, as this will be the notebook I’m using for school and I don’t need any hassles with anything going south on it. What’s the longest I can extend my warranty to, and how much will it usually run?
I’m also looking hard at getting an Advanced Dock. While I am planning on running a multi-monitor setup, I’m thinking about using USB secondary video cards in order to drive my four monitors. I need copious amounts of screen real estate when I’m at a desk. I plan on using the PCI-e slot on the dock to run an external sound card for my surround sound system… has anyone done this? There’s also an S/PDIF jack n the dock, but my speaker system uses two headphone jacks, one for the front channel and one for the rear. As I haven’t found any sort of adapter that would make this work, my assumption is that a PCI-e sound card is the only way.
And, finally, the keyboard, display, and Thinklight. Are these really as bad as the reviews make them out to be? I know I’m coming to my T400 from a Flexview-equipped T60p, but I also find the panel on my X61s to be more than adequate. I know there are some seriously bad TN panels out there(my girlfriend’s DV9000 has the worst display I have ever seen on a notebook), but are the T400’s panels that bad?
Is there a noticeable improvement in keyboard flex by installing the earlier T61/T60 keyboard? I’m assuming it’s plug and play, but is it worth it? I haven’t gotten my hands on it just yet, and only have my X61s with its slightly warped keyboard to compare it to. I remember my T60p’s keyboard as being excellent and a little preferable to the one on my X61s, but is the difference going to be night and day?
And, about the Thinklight on this model… I’ve heard a lot of reviews saying it’s horribly designed and the light shines right in your eyes when you use it, but I also hear people say it’s not too bad. Is it really that bad, or should I look into rigging it in some way?
Thanks in advance for all the help. I know it’s a lot of questions at once, but I’m pretty excited about this new system.
However, after a little bit I’m going to want to start with a round of upgrades. I’m going to bump up to at least 4GB of RAM and give it copious hard drive space… I was either thinking two 640GB, 5400RPM hard drives or two 500GB, 7200RPM hard drives(both using an Ultrabay adapter; I just don’t use an optical drive that much anymore). I know hard drives get faster as the data density increases, but does anyone have benchmarks of these 640GB units? I’m mainly looking for reliable, relatively fast, and massive amounts of storage… I’m not interested in SSDs just yet.
Also, how does one go about extending the warranty? I’m looking to do that around sometime later this year, as this will be the notebook I’m using for school and I don’t need any hassles with anything going south on it. What’s the longest I can extend my warranty to, and how much will it usually run?
I’m also looking hard at getting an Advanced Dock. While I am planning on running a multi-monitor setup, I’m thinking about using USB secondary video cards in order to drive my four monitors. I need copious amounts of screen real estate when I’m at a desk. I plan on using the PCI-e slot on the dock to run an external sound card for my surround sound system… has anyone done this? There’s also an S/PDIF jack n the dock, but my speaker system uses two headphone jacks, one for the front channel and one for the rear. As I haven’t found any sort of adapter that would make this work, my assumption is that a PCI-e sound card is the only way.
And, finally, the keyboard, display, and Thinklight. Are these really as bad as the reviews make them out to be? I know I’m coming to my T400 from a Flexview-equipped T60p, but I also find the panel on my X61s to be more than adequate. I know there are some seriously bad TN panels out there(my girlfriend’s DV9000 has the worst display I have ever seen on a notebook), but are the T400’s panels that bad?
Is there a noticeable improvement in keyboard flex by installing the earlier T61/T60 keyboard? I’m assuming it’s plug and play, but is it worth it? I haven’t gotten my hands on it just yet, and only have my X61s with its slightly warped keyboard to compare it to. I remember my T60p’s keyboard as being excellent and a little preferable to the one on my X61s, but is the difference going to be night and day?
And, about the Thinklight on this model… I’ve heard a lot of reviews saying it’s horribly designed and the light shines right in your eyes when you use it, but I also hear people say it’s not too bad. Is it really that bad, or should I look into rigging it in some way?
Thanks in advance for all the help. I know it’s a lot of questions at once, but I’m pretty excited about this new system.