Thinkpads Forum

Hi all!

Is the t400 far better than t60?

I have a Thinpad t60 (2 gb ram, x1400,dual core centrio 2 ghz) my second TP. I am very like it, but there is a heat problem. If i use the cpu on max on AC (watching movies, playing games etc) the temperature goes up 100 C and the TP is shut down. I dont like this.. And i thought maybe another t series laptop does not have this temperature problem. So this is my first question if i would buy a t400 and use the cpu on 100 percent will the temperature go up over 70-80 C?

And another thing, my first TP was a t42 machine and its works fine for me. Wasnt there any heat problem but its a quite old so I played with Starcraft 2 on min grafic and its run at on 20-25 FSP avg. And i decided to buy a newer series TP and the game will run better. But did not happen. The Starcraft 2 laggs on higher grapic than minimum and after about 10-20 minute of gameplay the TP shut down (heat problem). So my second question is the t400 a better gamer laptop than t60?

I found a t400 for GBP 230 (276811U) is the change worth it?

Something is wrong with your computer. T60 should never heat up to the point of shutdown under normal operation, even at 100% CPU utilization.

dr_st is correct. Check you fan/thermal grease.

If you need another machine, the T410 is the one to buy - flush six cell battery and Core CPU, among other reasons.

+1 on the repasting on your T60, if you want to keep the system try that first.

Now, onto the GPU issues. The X1400 on the T60 isn't that great of a card for gaming, especially when taking newer games into account. Underclocker's suggestion of a T410 is a good one if you want to stick with the 14" form factor; just make sure to get the Nvidia GPU. If budget constraints limit you to a T400, get the one with the ATI HD3470, which will be significantly better than the X1400 in your T60, but still pretty low-end as far as gaming GPUs go. It's a static benchmark, but your T60 will likely score about 1,000 in 3DMark06, and the HD3470 will score about 2,400. If you don't mind a larger machine and still have to be budget-conscious, a great choice would be the T500. Its HD3650 gets about 3,800-4,000 in 3DMark06, and in my experience can do some mild/casual gaming. It'll be on par with the NVidia card in the newer T410.

Since you're wanting to game, be sure to avoid any systems with integrated graphics only. The Intel HD on the T410 can do better than the X1400 in your T60 in some respects, but you can get a better experience with the NVidia.

Thanks for your help!
I will disassemble the top and check the heatsink and repasting.
I will write soon when i done.

I had dissasabled the TP i dust the heatsink and repasted the cpu but i didnt slush the gpu and the chipset because there was a rubber thing and i did not touch it. So there was some dust then assembled it.
i have played with SC2 for 20 minutes and the TP didnt shut down, the cpu and gpu didnt raise over 80 so now looks like everything ok. I hope its true, if i still have promblems i will write.

LegendaryKA8 wrote:+1 on the repasting on your T60, if you want to keep the system try that first.

Now, onto the GPU issues. The X1400 on the T60 isn't that great of a card for gaming, especially when taking newer games into account. Underclocker's suggestion of a T410 is a good one if you want to stick with the 14" form factor; just make sure to get the Nvidia GPU. If budget constraints limit you to a T400, get the one with the ATI HD3470, which will be significantly better than the X1400 in your T60, but still pretty low-end as far as gaming GPUs go. It's a static benchmark, but your T60 will likely score about 1,000 in 3DMark06, and the HD3470 will score about 2,400. If you don't mind a larger machine and still have to be budget-conscious, a great choice would be the T500. Its HD3650 gets about 3,800-4,000 in 3DMark06, and in my experience can do some mild/casual gaming. It'll be on par with the NVidia card in the newer T410.

Since you're wanting to game, be sure to avoid any systems with integrated graphics only. The Intel HD on the T410 can do better than the X1400 in your T60 in some respects, but you can get a better experience with the NVidia.

So you advice to buy a t500. You had talked about specs. And what about the quality?
Its a lenovo product the IBM is far gone and i just read that lenovo's thinkpad more and more weaker product like old IBMs t40/t41/t42 etc. So do you have any information about quality?
And all of the t500 products are good enought or there are some models what i should avoid? (i found a model with Intel 4500MHD Graphics what you think)

4ckatro wrote:
So you advice to buy a t500. You had talked about specs. And what about the quality?
Its a lenovo product the IBM is far gone and i just read that lenovo's thinkpad more and more weaker product like old IBMs t40/t41/t42 etc. So do you have any information about quality?
And all of the t500 products are good enought or there are some models what i should avoid? (i found a model with Intel 4500MHD Graphics what you think)

If you're going to game, make sure that the T500 has the ATI HD3650 GPU, which gives you switchable graphics. Avoid ones with the X4500 only. The switchable graphics allows you to switch between using the X4500 for power savings and the HD3650 for more intensive tasks. You can get it with an LED-backlit 1280x800 display, but I personally prefer the higher-resolution 1680x1050 panel, or if you're okay with opening your system up you can retrofit a 1920x1200 panel in there if you need the extra res.

As far as build quality, I would personally say that the T500 is on par with the T60, with a magnesium roll cage in the system chassis as well as the display lid. I feel it's a pretty tough notebook. I've had mine about ten months and I've had no issues. I actually had it fall(while in its case) a total distance of eight feet. One of the display latches broke off and there was a small area of dead pixels on the LCD(which I later replaced), but other than that the system wasn't really damaged. If the same thing happened when I was on the road I could have used it just fine until getting it back to fix the display. Some people say the fit and finish is a bit lacking compared to the T60(I had a 15" T60p a while before the T500), but in my experience it's about on par.

Only intel-gpu T400/T500 models can output video through the dock with the intel-gpu. If you have a dedicated gpu model, you have to enable the dedicated gpu to output video through the dock. These notebooks can not output video with the ingegrated gpu.

ssd_thinkpad wrote:Only intel-gpu T400/T500 models can output video through the dock with the intel-gpu. If you have a dedicated gpu model, you have to enable the dedicated gpu to output video through the dock. These notebooks can not output video with the ingegrated gpu.

Not entirely true. You have to have the dedicated graphics enabled to output to the digital video output(DVI on the dock, or DisplayPort on the T500 itself). The VGA output will still work when powered by the integrated graphics.

LegendaryKA8 wrote:+1 on the repasting on your T60, if you want to keep the system try that first.

Now, onto the GPU issues. The X1400 on the T60 isn't that great of a card for gaming, especially when taking newer games into account. Underclocker's suggestion of a T410 is a good one if you want to stick with the 14" form factor; just make sure to get the Nvidia GPU. If budget constraints limit you to a T400, get the one with the ATI HD3470, which will be significantly better than the X1400 in your T60, but still pretty low-end as far as gaming GPUs go. It's a static benchmark, but your T60 will likely score about 1,000 in 3DMark06, and the HD3470 will score about 2,400. If you don't mind a larger machine and still have to be budget-conscious, a great choice would be the T500. Its HD3650 gets about 3,800-4,000 in 3DMark06, and in my experience can do some mild/casual gaming. It'll be on par with the NVidia card in the newer T410.

Since you're wanting to game, be sure to avoid any systems with integrated graphics only. The Intel HD on the T410 can do better than the X1400 in your T60 in some respects, but you can get a better experience with the NVidia.

And what about R500 with Ati 3400 HD?
Is this same than t400 with Ati 3470?

According to the HMM, the discrete GPU in the R500 is the same one as in the T/R400, but has only 128MB of RAM (as opposed to 256MB), so performance may be somewhat lower.

dr_st wrote:According to the HMM, the discrete GPU in the R500 is the same one as in the T/R400, but has only 128MB of RAM (as opposed to 256MB), so performance may be somewhat lower.

OK!
I had choose two thinkpad but still i dont know what should i buy
So these are the t61p with Nvidia Quadro FX 570M 256 MB graphic (1920x1200 res) and the second one is a w500 with ATI Mobility FireGL V5700 512Mb graphic (1680x1050 res).
As i know the w500 has a same gpu than t500 ATI 3650 ( FireGL a quite better maybe) but what about t61p with nvidia?
If i want to use it for cad drawing or for playing games wich one is the better? (i can acquire it in the same price about GBP 264)

Don't touch the T61p with nVidia. It may be a ticking time bomb waiting to fail.

The W500 is both newer, better and more poweful GPU.

dr_st wrote:Don't touch the T61p with nVidia. It may be a ticking time bomb waiting to fail.

The W500 is both newer, better and more poweful GPU.

Ok!
thanks your help