Thinkpads Forum

Is this a good price for W700? with the following specs



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %26otn%3D1


-Terianx-

ositioning


Mobile workstation; three spindles

Processor


Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Extreme processor X9100 3.06GHz with dual-core, Intel HD boost, 1066MHz system bus, and 6MB L2 cache

Memory


4GB Pre-installed/ 8GB max/ PC3-8500 1066MHz DDR3, non-parity, dual-channel capable, two 204-pin SO-DIMM sockets;

Operating System


Microsoft® Windows® Vista® Business Edition (64-bit)

SATA DVD±RW


DVD burner, SATA 1.5Gb/s, 12.7mm Ultrabay Enhanced, removable (43R9149)

Ultrabay Enhancd


One bay for removable devices, Ultrabay Slim-compatible, 12.7mm high

SATA disks


Two disks, 2x250GB8 (5400 rpm) / SATA 1.5Gb/s, 2.5" wide, 9.5mm high, removable, upgradable, supports 3rd disk, ThinkPad Shock Mounted Hard Drive, Active Protection System™

Widescreen Display


17.0" (431.8mm) WUXGA (1920x1200) color, anti-glare, CCFL backlight,
400 nits, 16:10 aspect ratio, 500:1 contrast ratio, 72% color gamut

Color calibration


huey™PRO Colorimeter by X-Rite® color calibration sensor in palm rest

Camera


Integrated camera on top of screen, 1.3-megapixel, fixed focus

Discrete graphics


NVIDIA® Quadro® FX3700M, PCI Express® x16, 1GB memory
Max external resolution: 2048x1536@85Hz (DB-15 port); 2048x1536 (DisplayPort)

Keyboard


89-key, ThinkVantage button, spill-resistant, multimedia Fn keys

TrackPoint®


TrackPoint® pointing device, "Press-to-Select," Internet Scroll Bar13, magnifying glass

Touch pad


UltraNav™, wide touch pad below keyboard, Tap Zones, scrolling regions label

Numeric keypad


10-key numeric keypad on right side of keyboard

Digitizer


Wacom® digitizer (1280x80mm) on palm rest, digitizer pen, pen holder in right side

ThinkLight™


Two LEDs illuminate the keyboard to improve visibility in low-light conditions

Dimensions


9-cell 17W" (WxDxH): 16.1" x 12.2" x 1.6"; 410mm x 310mm x 41mm

Weight


9-cell: starting at 8.4 lb (3.8kg)

Case material


Top: magnesium alloy; Bottom: Polycarbonate/Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (PC/ABS) plastic

Battery - type


Lithium Ion 9-cell

Battery - life


9-cell: up to 2.3 hr

Chipset


Mobile Intel PM45 Express Chipset (Memory Controller Hub),


ICH9M-Enhanced I/O Controller Hub (SATA 3.0Gb/s, RAID 0 or 1 support, USB 2.0,


PCI Express 1.1, PCI 2.3, security chip, ethernet MAC), LPC bus (WPCN385 Super I/O)

ExpressCard/34


One ExpressCard/34

ExpressCard/54


None

Compact Flash


None

Smart Card Read


Smart Card Reader

Multicard Reader


7-in-1 reader (MMC, Memory Stick, Mem Stick Pro, SD, SDHC, XD, XD Type H)

Ports


Five USB 2.0, external monitor (DB-15, dual-link DVI-D, DisplayPort), modem (RJ-11), ethernet (RJ-45), IEEE 1394 FireWire 400 (4-pin connector; 1394a-2000 standard)

Mini PCI Express


Three Mini PCI Express slots

Intel 5300


11a/b/g/n wireless, Mini PCIe adapter, Intel WiFi Link 5300, 3x3 (Shirley Peak)

2G Turbo


None

UWB


None (uses Half-Mini PCIe slot)

Modem


56K6 V.9229 modem in Communications Daughter Card socket

Bluetooth™


Bluetooth 2.0 wireless, LED indicator

Ethernet


Intel 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection (Boazman), PHY, PCIe x1

Intel AMT


Intel Active Management Technology (IAMT 4.0)

Audio support


High Definition (HD) Audio, AD1984HD codec / stereo speakers, 1 watt / volume up, down, mute buttons / digital microphone, microphone input jack, headphone jack

Security


Power-on password, hard disk password, supervisor password, security keyhole

Security chip


Trusted Platform Module, integrated in ICH9M, TCG 1.2-compliant

Fingerprint reader


Fingerprint reader on palm rest, swipe sensor, supports the security chip

Limited warranty


3-year - EasyServ™, depot repair service / service upgrades available

the seller is asking for $3600 plus free shipping, is that a good deal?

According to Lenovo's tabook, that preconfigured model (275829U or 2758-29U) has two 250GB 5400 RPM hard drives configured as a RAID-1. So that means you have a 250GB storage capacity in that configuration, not 500GB as mentioned by the seller (i.e., the two drives are mirrored, so that if one fails, the other has a complete copy of the entire drive contents). And, because the disks are 5400 RPM, you'll take a significant performance hit versus 7200 RPM drives. However, the RAID-1 compensates for this to some extent by boosting the speed of reading data from the drives. That's because it reads half the data from one drive while simultaneously reading the other half of the data from the other drive.

RAID-0, on the other hand, additionally gives you a speed boost for writing data to the drives. That's because, instead of writing the SAME data to both drives, it writes half of your data to one drive while writing the other half to the other drive. So with RAID-0, you additionally get the speed boost for writes, and you get a total capacity of 500GB. The main drawback with RAID-0 is that, if one drive fails, you then lose ALL of your data.

That said, you can always replace the hard drives with something faster or, if you're inclined to do so and are up to the task, reconfigure them as a RAID-0 yourself, or as individual drives (for 500GB total, but with no speed boost for either reads or writes).

Also, that preconfigured model comes with the X9100 processor, which is a bit overpriced, compared with the performance of the much cheaper T9600 processor. For more info on the processors, see:

http://www.buy-a-thon.com/reviews/W700- ... mpare-proc

Note that you're not getting the W700's Blu-ray writer option, if Blu-ray matters to you.

You can check the price of the same configuration on Lenovo's site (note that Lenovo doesn't currently seem to be offering any special W700 sales, as they have at times during the past). The warranty that the seller is describing is 3-yr. depot service. And you can see what other outlets are charging for the same pre-configured model:

http://www.google.com/products?as_q=275 ... d&safe=off

Honestly, modern 5400rpm HDs are pretty quick. My W500 (320gb 5400rpm) reads an average of 55 MB/sec (average of linear read for beginning, middle, end, and random read).

QFoam wrote:Lenovo doesn't currently seem to be offering any special W700 sales

I take that back. As of this writing (Monday, 11/24) there's a Black Friday/Cyber Monday ad for Lenovo special offers at the top of this page (which presumably ends today), and which offers significant discounts.

Well, even with the black Friday coupon, the price is still more than $3600. It's because lenovo charges tax. Plus I get $200 cash back from microsoft.

I have a question, what does the first four number in the model mean? for ex: 2757-CTO and 2758-29U. what's the difference between them? I know model with CTO are customized, but what about the first four numbers.

-TerianX-

terianx wrote:I have a question, what does the first four number in the model mean? for ex: 2757-CTO and 2758-29U. what's the difference between them? I know model with CTO are customized, but what about the first four numbers.

-TerianX-

Nobody knows......


Seriously - they are just model numbers. They are somewhat randomly assigned to a combination of a machine type (i.e. W500) and certain key parts (display size, motherboard type, graphics chip). Sometimes they differ based on sales channel as well. I've never been able to detect any meaningful pattern overall.

Not reliably.

2767-R1U has a 1 year warranty. 2767-E1U has a 3 year warranty. 2768-2JU has the same system board, graphics, chassis, and display as 2767-R1U.