Buying a T410s - which options for maximum performance?

[torlanglo]

Hi,

I'm in the process of buying a new T410s, and was wondering if anyone could help me configure the laptop for maximum performance. I'll be using it as my main developer machine (Visual Studio, etc.), compiling, debugging, testing all day long. Price is not a concern at this point (within reasonable limits).

I have selected the Optimus version with the i5-560M cpu.

I'm planning on 8GB memory. Should I go with Lenovo memory, or should I go with the min. (2GB) and buy memory separately? Which memory is recommended?

The Lenovo site is giving me an Intel SSD 160 GB upgrade option ($80 extra). Should I go with that, or are there external 1.8" SSD drives on the market that are faster (e.g. Crucial RealSSD C300, OCZ, Corsair)?

I'm also uncertain how the different WiFi options would impact performance. Any insight here would be great. Here are the options presented to me:

Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 [$0.00]
ThinkPad bgn Wireless
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (2x2 AGN) [add $20.00]
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN) [add $40.00]
Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 [add $55.00]

Anything else I should be considering, making this the fastest possible laptop?

Thanks,
Tor.

Previous Thinkpads I've owned: T400, T60p, T41

[ZaZ]

Doing the memory afterwards is usually cheaper, but take a look on NewEgg before you buy. I like to get my memory used on eBay. That's usually the cheapest. When I got my X200 Lenovo was charging $80 to go from 1GB to 3GB, but I picked up a used stick for $30 on eBay. Thinkpads are pretty brand agnostic these days. Personally I'd get the 2GB stick and then add another 2GB or 4GB stick and see how it goes. I don't know what compiling, debugging all day means, but it's been in my experience most people don't need more than 4GB of memory unless they've got a specific need like running VMs.

$80 seems pretty reasonable for the Intel SSD. The 1.8" segment is pretty limited. I think the Vertex 2 is slightly faster, but that'll likely only show up in the benchmarks and you're going to pay $300+ more for it. Some of your other options are SATA III drives, which won't offer much better in a SATA II machine.

[torlanglo]

Here's a comparison of a few RAM alternatives on Newegg: http://bit.ly/diEPTQ.

It's interesting to see such a big price difference, is that at hint at quality?

Tor.

[SHoTTa35]

Here's a comparison of a few RAM alternatives on Newegg: http://bit.ly/diEPTQ.

It's interesting to see such a big price difference, is that at hint at quality?

Tor.

Some of the RAM there have higher latency. I checked my system (T410si) and it came with 2GB but the RAM included was Timing 7-7-7-20 vs Timing 9-9-9-24 that's listed on that page so maybe Lenovo has higher quality DIMMs than the basics out there.

For those 3 however i don't know what the difference is. They are all the same timings and capacities so no idea. I'd say just get the cheaper ones as more RAM is always better than faster (and less) RAM.

[torlanglo]

I would like to get 8GB of RAM. Lenovo offers me the following:

8 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM) at 1066MHz [add $515.00]

It would be nice to know what kind of memory this is (why it is worth $515). The comparison is the following memory via NewEgg:

G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-8GBSQ [$140]

That's a huge price difference. Is there a quality/performance advantage when buying from Lenovo?

Tor.

[Colonel O'Neill]

Don't think there's any performance advantage to getting RAM with Lenovo. However, the stock sticks assume the same warranty period as the ThinkPad they're put in. I'd just order seperately; a bunch of vendors offer their own warranty on the RAM anyway.

[pshifrin]

The T410s unlike the T410 has easy access to both ram slots by removing the bottom access panel so upgrading the ram yourself is super easy. I'd go for the best rated ram on newegg, not the cheapest.

[torlanglo]

I tried real hard to find out if there are options on the specific RAM (8 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM) at 1066MHz), for instance if there are alternatives on latency/timing, but the only alternative I have found (anywhere) is "9-9-9-24". Further, NewEgg has 3 alternatives (Crucial, G.Skill, and Corsair), and the cheapest one (G.Skill) is also the highest rated.

I wasn't able to verify which RAM Lenovo uses for the $500 upgrade, it would have been cool to know if that's better/faster RAM. The tabook for T410s doesn't even show PC3-10600 as an option (but it's definitely offered on the customization page for the machine).

I just ordered the T410s 2901CTO which comes with 2GB RAM, and also ordered 8GB G.SKILL RAM from NewEgg. In addition I ordered the Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB SSD drive also from NewEgg. Now the waiting game begins (estimated ship time is 11/22).

Thanks for the feedback!

Tor.