Is 510 top of the line?

[Daniel Davis]

Is the 510 currently the "top of the line" Lenovo laptop, or are there models considered to have more bang for the buck?

[penartur]

Is the 510 currently the "top of the line" Lenovo laptop, or are there models considered to have more bang for the buck?

It depends on what do you consider to be "bang".

[Colonel O'Neill]

The T510 is probably the most well-rounded one they have. The T410 is a bit less bulky though.

If you want absolute maximum performance, you'd probably be looking at a W701 or W701ds. A step down from that would be W510.

X-Series is portability
T-Series is mainstream functionality
W-Series is computational power

SL, L, and Edge are budget, more consumer-oriented series.

[Daniel Davis]

Thanks...I'll do a search on those and look/see.

[FragrantHead]

W series means workstation. It's for people who do CAD or photographic work and offers features like quad-core CPUs and a color sensor to calibrate the screen. This doesn't automatically make them superior to the T series. The CPU may be a quad, but the base frequency is only 1.6GHz or, if you pay through the nose, up to 2GHz (last I looked). The turbo boost will not be as high as on a dual-core either and hence there isn't a universal advantage to the quad-cores. The W-series power supplies are bigger and I believe the machines are noisier. The HD+ (1600x900) and FHD (1920x1080) screens are meant to be good, but you can also get them on the T-series. Other screens (standard 510 and all 410 screens) are probably best avoided unless you want the 14 inch for lower weight.

If portability is your thing, then an X201 tablet is arguably the premium machine in that sector. Because it's a tablet, it has either an IPS or PVA screen. Better technology, better contrast and/or color and definitely better viewing angles than any of the other 12" or 14" screens. This is an advantage regardless of whether you want the tablet functionality or not, although the standard X201 and X201s are lighter. Other Thinkpad screens range from mediocre to dismal, with the premium T410s model, which I'm sorry to say I own, having the worst contrast and black-level of them all or indeed any laptop. (Any question about premium Thinkpads inevitably turns into a rant about screens with me, sorry.)

[Daniel Davis]

Thanks for the reply. Choices are becoming clearer. Weight doesn't really matter to me...as I don't lug the thing that much. It will mostly sit on my desk. How do the 201 and 501 screens compare to the x41? I've had no real complaints about the x41 screen, except that it's too small...and even that's not a problem because I have it hooked to a 24" flat panel screen at the office. I suppose the 2 features I'm most concerned with are speed and durability. My x41 has been running 10 to 12 hours a day for about 3 years without a hitch. Noise isn't a factor, as I'm half deaf anyway. I do a good bit of database and wordperfect macro work. The macros are intricate and detailed..and sometimes they take a bit of time to execute. I'd like to speed that up. I'd also like to shorten the boot up time...which is currently nearly 5 minutes.

I'm not familiar with the 201. How does it compare in speed with the 501?

W series means workstation. It's for people who do CAD or photographic work and offers features like quad-core CPUs and a color sensor to calibrate the screen. This doesn't automatically make them superior to the T series. The CPU may be a quad, but the base frequency is only 1.6GHz or, if you pay through the nose, up to 2GHz (last I looked). The turbo boost will not be as high as on a dual-core either and hence there isn't a universal advantage to the quad-cores. The W-series power supplies are bigger and I believe the machines are noisier. The HD+ (1600x900) and FHD (1920x1080) screens are meant to be good, but you can also get them on the T-series. Other screens (standard 510 and all 410 screens) are probably best avoided unless you want the 14 inch for lower weight.

If portability is your thing, then an X201 tablet is arguably the premium machine in that sector. Because it's a tablet, it has either an IPS or PVA screen. Better technology, better contrast and/or color and definitely better viewing angles than any of the other 12" or 14" screens. This is an advantage regardless of whether you want the tablet functionality or not, although the standard X201 and X201s are lighter. Other Thinkpad screens range from mediocre to dismal, with the premium T410s model, which I'm sorry to say I own, having the worst contrast and black-level of them all or indeed any laptop. (Any question about premium Thinkpads inevitably turns into a rant about screens with me, sorry.)

[Colonel O'Neill]

I'm going to offer a recommendation; it's a personal opinion though, so bear that in mind.

If your macros can take advantage of quad-cores, then you might want to consider the quad W510's.
If they're better off running on faster cores rather than many cores, then definitely an i7-620M equipped X201 or T510. The primary difference in speed is the potential for adding a discrete graphics card to the T510; both are able to be configured with the i7-620M. The T510 can be configured to have a 1920x1080 (95% gamut too) screen if you want to extend the desktop to your external so that both are usable individually.

EDIT: Oh yeah, if your macros can do CUDA, then probably the T510 with discrete graphics.

A five minute boot time is definitely out of the ordinary. I usually boot in 30-40 seconds. In this regard, I would definitely implore you to consider configuring your machine with the cheapest drive from Lenovo, and upgrade to a 500GB Scorpio Black drive from WD. Those things look FAST.

Don't forget to go coupon hunting for Lenovo! They're pretty free-handed about those things usually.

[amardeep]

High-spec T410 with SSD ? You don't use the screen that much, so why bother with a T510 (also note the high-res 15" screens have a very high dpi which you may or may not like), I'm assuming quad-core is of no benefit to you, and a T510's going to seem huge after an X41 !

The screen on the T410s I've seen seems, if anything, marginally better than on a T61p and not as bad as the horror stories. Supposedly there are sometimes different manufacturers for the screens within a particular spec Thinkpad, and some are better than others, in which case it's down to chance as to what you end up with.

Oh, FragrantHead's reply contains a lot of good info.

[Colonel O'Neill]

The T510's HD+ and FHD screens are essentially guaranteed to be good. The HD screen suffers from a visible grid.

The T410 is a luck of the draw.

I'm not sure whether or not an SSD would benefit his work greatly; depending on how his macros work. Some clever partitioning and routine defrags on a WD 500GB Scorpio Black should be a good tradeoff between performance, storage, and price. I'd actually go with 6GB of RAM and buy eBoostr Pro to allocate 2GB of RAM as a read-only cache. RAM reads are many GB/s and SSD reads are only around 100MB/s at best.

[amardeep]

I'd imagine an SSD would make not much difference to the work, but helps with the boot times a lot, if that's a concern that justifies spending the extra. It's also a nice-to-have feature as it just makes everything feel a little bit snappier. Only the original poster knows if he's memory constrained or cpu-bound or I/O bound. In any case a modern CPU is going to toast the X41's CPU I'd imagine. After that it's all about if you want to spend the extra money to get a nicer screen or an SSD as the "icing on the cake" or not.

[Colonel O'Neill]

Eh... eBoostr boosts the perceived performance upto near SSD levels for me. It arguably can be faster than an SSD because it loads stuff out of RAM, which is undeniably much faster than any platter based or solid-state drive.

Just to balance out all of the pro-SSD material on the internet nowadays, here's an article on NBR:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardwar ... posed.html
It compares an (albeit poor quality) SSD against a Scorpio Blue + eBoostr. Take it for what it's worth, but you can carry eBoostr across to another drive if you need; when your SSD goes kaput, it stays kaput.

EDIT:
Fortunately, the T410/T510 has an SD card slot whereby the card can stay completely concealed. This makes it a lot easier to get a higher Class SD card to use with eBoostr. It's like building your own hybrid RAM/SSD/HDD drive without paying Seagate money for a drive you can't defrag properly.

[ThinkRob]

Fortunately, the T410/T510 has an SD card slot whereby the card can stay completely concealed. This makes it a lot easier to get a higher Class SD card to use with eBoostr. It's like building your own hybrid RAM/SSD/HDD drive without paying Seagate money for a drive you can't defrag properly.

Just FYI: higher-class SD cards may actually have very slow small random read/write speeds. The class system is based on sequential access speeds, so it might not be the best way to determine what card is best for caching.

Also, the test you linked to was pitting an SSD with one of the worst controllers out there against a giant RAM cache. The RAM cache won, surprise, surprise...

[Colonel O'Neill]

Eh... RAM caches still win outright. We're talking GB/s vs MB/s, here .

EDIT: If memory serves me correctly, he later tried an Intel X25-G2 and stood by his conclusions.

[Daniel Davis]

I know what an SD drive is...but have no experience with them. I don't know what kind of memory or cpu usage wp macros utilize, so I don't know if I'd benefit from an i5 or an i7 ... but assume the faster speeds would be worth the upgrade.

Outside of gaming...it appears from everyone's postings that buying a discrete video card would not enhance my work. I don't do any CAD...and the finer points of color adjustments are useless to me.

Though I use a larger monitor at the office, when I bring the machine home...I'm strictly limited to my laptop screen, so I would imagine I'd really appreciate the larger screen of the 510.

I only use the point stick (the red button) when I don't have a mouse handy....and I never have been able to get excited about a touch pad. I'm pretty much a mouse guy. So, even if the 510 came with a touch pad, I'd probably disable it.

I don't know a whole lot about memory speed, but the suggestion of ordering 6g and allocating 2 of it for cache use would seem to me to make sense. Funny, my brother in law came across an invoice back when he worked for Pepsi...that documented their purchase of a 16meg memory module for $100k ! Back in those days, it was considered a very interesting thing if you had access to a cursor-driven ping pong game...and a 10meg hard drive was considered luxury indeed.

I'm going to offer a recommendation; it's a personal opinion though, so bear that in mind.

If your macros can take advantage of quad-cores, then you might want to consider the quad W510's.
If they're better off running on faster cores rather than many cores, then definitely an i7-620M equipped X201 or T510. The primary difference in speed is the potential for adding a discrete graphics card to the T510; both are able to be configured with the i7-620M. The T510 can be configured to have a 1920x1080 (95% gamut too) screen if you want to extend the desktop to your external so that both are usable individually.

EDIT: Oh yeah, if your macros can do CUDA, then probably the T510 with discrete graphics.

A five minute boot time is definitely out of the ordinary. I usually boot in 30-40 seconds. In this regard, I would definitely implore you to consider configuring your machine with the cheapest drive from Lenovo, and upgrade to a 500GB Scorpio Black drive from WD. Those things look FAST.

Don't forget to go coupon hunting for Lenovo! They're pretty free-handed about those things usually.

[Colonel O'Neill]

The discrete video card primarily benefits 3D video games.
Other uses include: Rendering 3D content, usage in select video encoders to speed up video encoding, running parallel computations, etc.

The T510 with 1920x1080 is a lot of screen space, albeit in a 16:9 widescreen format, which isn't too great for working with anything needing vertical space. That said, the high resolution compensates.

[Daniel Davis]

I just took a look at the w710 prices. Didn't know they were that high. That forces me to look for specs instead of a specific machine. If any of you have any advice, I'd appreciate your sharing it. I don't know whether to go for the 510 (People are saying it has issues that could land it in the shop.), the 410 or the 210. Are the model numbers generally indicative of sequence (i.e., 410 is later model than 210...510 is later model than 410)?

I guess I'd better just select some things I want, and get advice from you on things I SHOULD want, but don't know enough about them to include them on my list. So, here's what I THINK I want. Please tell me what I SHOULD want that's not on the list:

1. i7 processor
2. Finger-touch screen
3. At least a 14 inch screen..but can settle for smaller if bells and whistles are significantly greater.
4. Swivel screen would be nice, but can live w/o it.
5. 7200 hard drive (spin) speed
6. >300g hard drive
7. Slot for removable HD would be nice, but can live w/o it, especially if there's a USB 3.0. I have 2 USB external HD's, tho I don't know if the cable supplied will work with USB 3.0.
8. 64 bit Windows
9. Phone jack for sending faxes..tho that's not an absolute necessity.
10. Must be a thinkpad.

I don't care if it's got bluetooth or not...as I've never been able to get bluetooth to work for me anyway.

So, with all that...if this was YOUR money...and you want to max out at $2500....and assuming you don't want to end up with something that has to go back to the factory for whatever reason....which Thinkpad would you buy...and who would you buy it from?

[craigmontHunter]

The model numbers (210, 410, 510, 710) are indictive of the screen size (the first number - 2,4,5,7) and the generation (10 is actually the second generation, they started at 0, some of them are actually 01 (201, 701, because they keep the same form factor as their predecessors, but got the internals upgrade). as to your questions:

1) there is some variation of every current x,t,w thinkpad with an i7 processor, you may have to look a little to find it.
2) I believe that the x201t (tablet), t410s and w510 all have touch screens.
3) the first number gives you the size in inches (201 = 12", 410 = 14"...)
4) the x201t is the only version with a siwivel screen
5 + 6 are options that you can configure on the system, I believe that most (if not all) of the options have a 500gb 7200rpm drive.
7) the 701 is the only version with a second hard drive bay internally, you can get adapters for all but the x series that replace the dvd drive (the x-series needs a dock)
8 ) all of them have this option
9) I beleive that all of them have this option, some one please correct me if I am wrong
10) any of the above

Bluetooth is an option that you can configure on checkout.
2500 is a lot of money, and you will have to play around with the pricing system to see what you want. I personally would go for a t410, but I have always liked the t's.

[Daniel Davis]

When you say: "I believe that the x201t (tablet), t410s and w510 all have touch screens." do you mean FINGER touch or stylus touch? I have a stylus touch (x41) now. I rarely use it, but might if I didn't have to keep up with that stylus pen.

Also...if you use finger touch on the screen...do you find you have to use a screen protector?

[Daniel Davis]

One more thing....of the following:

210
410
510

Which one has had the fewest glitches since they hit the market?

[ThinkRob]

One more thing....of the following:

210
410
510

Which one has had the fewest glitches since they hit the market?

AFAIK, none of those models have any widespread known issues. I have a T410, and have used an X201 at work, and both perform admirably.

[Daniel Davis]

AFAIK, none of those models have any widespread known issues. I have a T410, and have used an X201 at work, and both perform admirably.[/quote]

Ok...that does it, then. I guess I'll go for the 510, tho I wish it came in tablet.

[Daniel Davis]

Is there an x model in each of the numerical series (e.g., x410, x510, etc.)? If not, what is the highest model number that is an x series? Is it possible to configure an x series computer such as it is as fast as the 510 comparably equipped?

The T510 is probably the most well-rounded one they have. The T410 is a bit less bulky though.

If you want absolute maximum performance, you'd probably be looking at a W701 or W701ds. A step down from that would be W510.

X-Series is portability
T-Series is mainstream functionality
W-Series is computational power

SL, L, and Edge are budget, more consumer-oriented series.

[anthean]

Is there an x model in each of the numerical series (e.g., x410, x510, etc.)? If not, what is the highest model number that is an x series? Is it possible to configure an x series computer such as it is as fast as the 510 comparably equipped?

No. X201 is really all that is available now, with the X301 no longer being sold, and anyway using the low voltage version of previous generation processors.

I believe an X201 has essentially the same processor options as a T510, but of course the X201 does not have the option of discrete graphics (although you have suggested discrete graphics is of little benefit for you. Nor does it have an optical drive).

That said, some people would argue that the T410s should have been labeled as an X410.

Really, most people think about the amount of portability that they need, and then choose the size of machine based on that:

The model numbers (210, 410, 510, 710) are indictive of the screen size (the first number - 2,4,5,7) and the generation
.
.
.
3) the first number gives you the size in inches (201 = 12", 410 = 14"...)

Also be aware that a new generation of processors ("Sandy Bridge") will be available shortly beginning with CES in January, although it may take several months after that to actually receive one of the next generation of Thinkpads with these new processors.

[Colonel O'Neill]

The T410s kinda has a few issues to be worked out at the moment.

The LCD vertical line issue should no longer affect any ordered recently, but the drivers are still hit-and-miss.
There's still the palmrest issue.

[ThinkRob]

The LCD vertical line issue should no longer affect any ordered recently, but the drivers are still hit-and-miss.
There's still the palmrest issue.

Really, the palmrest cracking is the only reason that I haven't gotten a T400s/T410s. Otherwise it seems about perfect for me.

[Daniel Davis]

Well...thanks to all you folks that helped me narrow down my options. I finally dived in this evening. The options and price are listed below. How'd I do?

=================================

Processor Intel Core i7-720QM Processor (6M Cache, 1.60GHz)

Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64

Operating system language Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 US English

Display Panel 15.6" FHD Display (95% Gamut, 270nit) with LED Backlight

System Graphics NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M Graphics with 1GB DDR3 memory

Total memory 8 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM

1333MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)

Keyboard Keyboard US English
Finger Print Reader UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader

Camera Camera, 2.0 MP
Hard Drive 500 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Optical device Multi Recorder Optical Drive (12.7mm)
System expansion slots Express Card Slot & 5 in 1 Card Reader
Battery 9 cell 2.8Ah Li-Ion Battery - Dual Mode
Power cord Country Pack North America with Line cord & 135W AC adapter
Bluetooth Bluetooth w/ antenna
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)
Integrated mobile broadband Integrated Mobile Broadband - Upgradable
Language Pack Language Pack US English

41C9337 2YR Onsite + 2YR ThinkPad Protection Add $211.65

57Y4600 Lenovo Power Hub with US line cord Add $59.99

Subtotal: $2,942.99
Sale price: $1,960.64
Coupon 20% off -$337.80 ()
Shipping and handling: $0.00
Estimated tax: $64.92
Estimated total: $1,687.76*

[Colonel O'Neill]

Niiice, although the coupon is a little weak at 20%. I'm sure you can find better especially with the whole CES 2011 coming up (hint: subscribe to Lenovo's newsletter).

There's a chance of getting the 500GB Seagate 7200.4, which kinda sucks IMHO; the 500GB Scorpio Black would be much better but needs to be a aftermarket addon.

[FragrantHead]

I wrote the below before noticing the 20% off coupon on the W510. That might change what I'm about to say. Anyhow, here I go:

You've previously stated that you don't need a color sensor, nor a dedicated graphics chip, so I assume you've chosen the W510 for the quad-core CPU. That's possibly useful for your database work, but it's your mention of the intricate WordPerfect macros that gives me pause. WordPerfect is a name from the past, which means it may not be multi-threaded. I would inquire whether the version you use reaps any benefit from having 4 CPU cores (and whether it runs under Windows 7 64-bit for that matter). If not, then the quad-core is a bad choice, because of the low base and low-ish turbo frequencies. You would be better off getting the highest-clocked dual-core you can find and you can go for a T510 instead of a W510. This will be faster for single-threaded applications. I wouldn't get too hung up on getting an i7, by the way. Google the processor and look for the product page at ark.intel.com. You'll find no differences between a high-end i5 and i7, except the i7 has a bit more cache, typically 4M vs. 3M. (Lower-end processor are feature restricted, lacking the useful AES new instructions, VT-d and the like, so I personally avoid them).

My second point of advice, if you don't absolutely need the 500M disk-space, go for an SSD. Subject to what others here will say regarding the brand and whether to buy it as an aftermarket kit or get the Lenovo one, this will make the single biggest contribution to boot time and overall responsiveness of the machine, more so than getting the latest and greatest processor. It's what I'd throw my money at anyway.

Thirdly you can get an Ultrabay adapter that will allow you to put a second hard disk into the machine in lieu of the DVD drive.

Finally you've mentioned your T41 takes 5 minutes to boot. If that's the case I would say something is wrong with your Windows install or the hard disk. Or perhaps you're running Vista? I run XP on a T30 with a 160GB 5400RPM conventional disk and it takes about 45 seconds to boot. If I start up an Oracle database instance (an older 8.1.7 version), it takes another 23 seconds - I just timed it. This includes the overhead of running Truecrypt full disk encryption and ESET anti-virus + firewall. Otherwise my Windows install is quite lean. A good way to achieve this is to get a program called "Autoruns" at http://www.sysinternals.com (now owned by Microsoft), which allows you to disable unneeded software starting up at boot time. You need to be quite technical to use it though; much like editing the registry - which is basically what it does - you can screw up your Windows install with it.

Another thing: Listen out for sustained, very repetitive noises from the hard disk while the T41 boots. These can indicate problems with the disk where it has to repeatedly scan certain sectors before it reads the data properly. The machine will still work, but the hard disk is starting to fail. A new disk, imaged from the existing one, would get your T41 back to normal at minimum cost.

Of course there are many reasons for slow boot time, but the last thing that springs to my mind is anti-virus software fine tuning. ESET, the anti-virus software I use, has a reputation for speed, but there are a couple of things that will quite literally slow it to a crawl when faced with clean, but difficult to scan files, such as:

* (Advanced) Heuristics - trying to catch new and unknown viruses.
* Scanning of compressed executables.
* Scanning inside large email archives (wouldn't affect you at boot time).

With ESET all of these options can be selectively disabled, for example to use these advanced scanning techniques only when files are written, not every time they're executed.

[Colonel O'Neill]

Battery life will be a bit mediocre out of the box due to the lack of Optimus for the W510, but can be alleviated partially or completely with the use of the NVidia System Tools's underclocking options.

[Daniel Davis]

Thanks for your excellent, informative reply. The main reason I bought what I bought, I suppose, was that it has enough technology that (for what I do) it won't be obsolete anytime soon. Beyond that....I just don't understand a lot of the finer points, and I don't have particular knowledge of what I can get or not get and for what price. So, I just swallowed hard and took the plunge.

I know for a fact that my wp macros can't harness quad core, so I guess I should have gone for a duo. I'm using version 9 of wordperfect. Some of the macros i run result in a pause as long as 2 minutes before I see on screen what I want...with my x41. Others leave me waiting for 30 seconds to a minute. These add up to a lot of wasted time (not to mention frustration) in a week.

As to the boot time of my x41...I''m including how long it takes Paradox (9) and my keyboard macro program (EZ-MACROS) and another program to load...after the boot sequence has run its course. When all is said and done...I'm lookin' at almost 5min.

I'd also like to clone my x41 hd, though i think it's healthy. From what I've read on the net...it's a major pain to do so. What I'd REALLY like...is to clone the x41 hd onto the new machine, but I know that won't work...and if it did...would deprive me of the latest version of windows. I'll just have to spend an hour hear and 4 there to reinstall all my software...and convince the vendors I'm not trying to rip them off as I move to my new machine.

I would have like to have gotten the faster hd you spoke of. My budget for this is shot, though...so I'll have to live with what they send me. I also know that if I had your technical knowledge, I could have gotten a better machine for the money, but I don't know that much about all this. I'm a pretty good gadget guy and troubleshooter...and have been reading pc magazines since the dos days...but there are huge holes in my knowledge base.

In any event, I doubt seriously I would have ended up with as capable a machine as I did w/o your input. Thanks. I almost did go for the T...but ended up going for the W with an eye toward needing it for some software I may not have heard of yet that would require it someday.

I appreciate your help, and that of the others in this forum. I hope you all had a merry Christ-x.

I wrote the below before noticing the 20% off coupon on the W510. That might change what I'm about to say. Anyhow, here I go:

You've previously stated that you don't need a color sensor, nor a dedicated graphics chip, so I assume you've chosen the W510 for the quad-core CPU. That's possibly useful for your database work, but it's your mention of the intricate WordPerfect macros that gives me pause. WordPerfect is a name from the past, which means it may not be multi-threaded. I would inquire whether the version you use reaps any benefit from having 4 CPU cores (and whether it runs under Windows 7 64-bit for that matter). If not, then the quad-core is a bad choice, because of the low base and low-ish turbo frequencies. You would be better off getting the highest-clocked dual-core you can find and you can go for a T510 instead of a W510. This will be faster for single-threaded applications. I wouldn't get too hung up on getting an i7, by the way. Google the processor and look for the product page at ark.intel.com. You'll find no differences between a high-end i5 and i7, except the i7 has a bit more cache, typically 4M vs. 3M. (Lower-end processor are feature restricted, lacking the useful AES new instructions, VT-d and the like, so I personally avoid them).

My second point of advice, if you don't absolutely need the 500M disk-space, go for an SSD. Subject to what others here will say regarding the brand and whether to buy it as an aftermarket kit or get the Lenovo one, this will make the single biggest contribution to boot time and overall responsiveness of the machine, more so than getting the latest and greatest processor. It's what I'd throw my money at anyway.

Thirdly you can get an Ultrabay adapter that will allow you to put a second hard disk into the machine in lieu of the DVD drive.

Finally you've mentioned your T41 takes 5 minutes to boot. If that's the case I would say something is wrong with your Windows install or the hard disk. Or perhaps you're running Vista? I run XP on a T30 with a 160GB 5400RPM conventional disk and it takes about 45 seconds to boot. If I start up an Oracle database instance (an older 8.1.7 version), it takes another 23 seconds - I just timed it. This includes the overhead of running Truecrypt full disk encryption and ESET anti-virus + firewall. Otherwise my Windows install is quite lean. A good way to achieve this is to get a program called "Autoruns" at http://www.sysinternals.com (now owned by Microsoft), which allows you to disable unneeded software starting up at boot time. You need to be quite technical to use it though; much like editing the registry - which is basically what it does - you can screw up your Windows install with it.

Another thing: Listen out for sustained, very repetitive noises from the hard disk while the T41 boots. These can indicate problems with the disk where it has to repeatedly scan certain sectors before it reads the data properly. The machine will still work, but the hard disk is starting to fail. A new disk, imaged from the existing one, would get your T41 back to normal at minimum cost.

Of course there are many reasons for slow boot time, but the last thing that springs to my mind is anti-virus software fine tuning. ESET, the anti-virus software I use, has a reputation for speed, but there are a couple of things that will quite literally slow it to a crawl when faced with clean, but difficult to scan files, such as:

* (Advanced) Heuristics - trying to catch new and unknown viruses.
* Scanning of compressed executables.
* Scanning inside large email archives (wouldn't affect you at boot time).

With ESET all of these options can be selectively disabled, for example to use these advanced scanning techniques only when files are written, not every time they're executed.