Thinkpads Forum

The above product code consists of the following component(s):
1 4323CTO THINKPAD W701 - 1 YR DEPOT TOPSELLER WARRANTY
1 60Y6083 SBB INQUADCORPERFPROC I7 820QM $0.00
1 45M3090 VBB GENUWIN7PROFES.64 $0.00
1 60Y8520 SBB GENWIN7PRO64USENGLISH $0.00
1 60Y6950 SBB 17IN WUXGA RGB-LED-BL $0.00
1 60Y6954 SBB NVIDIAGLM31GB+HG PWR THRML $0.00
1 60Y6943 SBB W701BSFPLESATA,1394AUSB3.0 $0.00
1 42X6306 VBB 2GBPC3-8500 1067MHZ1DIMM $0.00
1 42X6355 SBB KYB US ENGLISH $0.00
1 60Y6940 SBB ULTRANAV+NUMKEY+FPR UPEK $0.00
1 60Y6935 SBB CAMERA, 2.0 MP $0.00
1 60Y7256 SBB INTERNALRAID-NOTENABLED $0.00
1 60Y6968 SBB 128 GB SLDSTTDRV,SRATA $0.00
1 60Y6956 SBB MLT RCRDR OPT DRV(12.7MM) $0.00
1 43Y4810 SBB 9 CELL LI-ION BATTERY $0.00
1 60Y6986 SBB CTRPKNRTHAMWDTLNCR+230WACD $0.00
1 45M3043 SBB BLUETOOTH W/ANTENNA $0.00
1 45M4804 SBB IN.CENT.ULTIMATE-N 6300 $0.00
1 60Y8329 SBB LANGPACUSENG230WCADAP $0.00


Paid about $ 3600 for the above. I know I'm paying a premium for being early adopter but I wanted that i7 processor with the Nvidia 3800.

I figured I'd order an extra 500 GB hard drive from newegg and order ram directly from them too.

Beides your general opinion of the above system, which I welcome, I'd really like to know people's thoughts on these items.

#1 - The SSD 128 GB hard drive. Was that a good move? Is it really that much faster?

#2 - I'm ordering a 500 GB 7200 RPM hard drive from new egg for $ 90 or so. I hope it works with the above system. Will let you know. Comments welcome.

#3 - Anyone have any comments on getting the ram from new egg too? I figure I can get the ram cheaper there. I'm getting 8 gigs (running at 1333 MHZ) for $ 400 whereas the list price for 4 gigs at 1333 MHz was $ 380...in other words more bang for the buck.

Seeing as how the system won't ship for another 3 weeks, I figure I got some time to change my mind. Comments welcome.

First things first, congratulations on your upcoming ThinkPad! With the configuration you have selected, it is truly a monster!

Now, to your questions. If I was you, I would also get the colour calibrator. And for that matter the WACOM (vacuum?) too to show off with, besides you never know when it may come handy, not to mention, for that price not making use of this kind of special capabilities of the W7xx series is almost a shame (take this with a grain of salt because this comes from a guy who desperately wants a machine like yours but cannot afford it at the moment). Now seriously, a screen like the RGB-LED can always use a calibrator, and the difference can be really noticeable IMHO. As for the SSD, two things to consider: Lenovo may not be the best place to purchase the best-for-the-price SSD, and as far as storage performance is concerned, W701 is capable of RAID 0,1. But then again everything comes down to what you need it for. In any case, the SSD shouldn´t be a disappointment at all, much on the contrary. It is a huge difference compared to most workstation HDDs, let alone the notebook ones. Almost zero response times and fast bootup are among the virtues of any decent modern SSD. However, depending on the SSD model, a RAID configuration with two 7200rpm 500GB HDDs may do in some scenarios just better (like reading/writing lots of small data). Also, a SSD is as of now a trade-off between capacity and performance (quite considerable trade-off given the RAID capabilities of the W7xx units), so again it boils down to what you are going to use the machine for. If performance is the only thing that matters, two or three SSDs in RAID configuration should be blazingly fast, provided the chipset has no stupid limitations whatsoever as in some previous cases.

As for the RAM, just buy the bare minimum of RAM that suits to your current needs. 1333MHz-RAM prices shall drop further. Also, in a similar manner, especially if you are the kind of guy that likes upgrading, you can just go for the i7-720QM cpu, resell it later on when the i7-920QM prices will drop (probably around the same time when you may also happen to need more powerful cpu). Also, it seems like a new batch of Nehalem-based cpus will be coming out by the end of the year, including the i7-940QM (can´t now say anything about the TDP though) and most likely these will be backwards-compatible. On the other hand, if you are really the type of early adopter that wants the cutting edge right now and here, I guess most of the above does not make any sense. In the end rational individuals try to max out their utility (under the given budget restriction), and great part of the utility of an early adopter of tech stuff is exactly that - to have the sharpest cutting edge right now and right here

BTW, do you intend on buying additional warranty? A machine like this is definitely worth the extra buck for warranty (and let us not forget the heat this baby will be producing when pushed hard).

Just my 0.02$

Enjoy your ThinkPad (starting from now)

Marin

Arretium, I agree with Marin85 about ordering the color calibrator. I have a W700 with the calibrator. If I look at the screen with calibration turned off, and then turned on, that's easily worth $150. It seems silly to have a $3,500-4,000 laptop with a yellowish or blueish display, just to save $150.

I also agree with him about adding extra warranty coverage. The current crop of ThinkPads have had some significant technical glitches, making a required repair a larger possibility. And the Quadro FX 3800M graphics processor draws up to 100 watts of power, versus 75 watts for the 3700M in the similarly designed W700. Virtually all of that power turns into heat. So we don't yet know whether the extra heat will be a factor in reliability. Note that this heat comes into play mainly when you're doing graphics-intensive tasks such as playing 3D games, or running intensive CUDA-type applications on the graphics processor. During run-of-the-mill operations, the graphics processor runs relatively cool.

Good luck!

I agree with Marin85 & QFoam, both of whom have offered exemplary feedback.
Me? I say a hearty Congratulations!
As a fellow early adopter, and ThinkPad user, who fully understands the price one often pays for enjoying the latest technologies as they are introduced, I too highly suggest the extended warranty to match the amount of time you expect to use the machine. Make no mistake, I truly believe you will get a lot of fun and pleasure from your fine new 701.
.
Cheers...

I would make the following recommendations:

1) Definitely get an extended on-site warranty + accidental (I actually used it late last year after my 130 pound malamute & I were playing to close to my W700ds)!

2) I wouldn't get the SSD drive from Lenovo ... I would get a 256gb from Amazon or NewEgg

3) I am a software developer and while my Thinkpad W700ds does have the Wacom tablet and Paletone color adjuster, I have NEVER used them!

And to give you a comparison in price against the Dell M6500 (which I just ordered to go along with W700DS), I paid $4480 for the following:

1) 17" RGB screen
2) 920QM processor
3) FX3800M graphics card
4) 2x256GB SSDs
5) 2gb of memory (I am going to use 16gb of memory I already purchased when I thought I was getting a W510)
6) 3 years on site warranty + accidental insurance!

You will enjoy your new machine!

Best Regards,

Shane

Aside from the obvious, the on-site warranty has one great advantage over the standard one: since the repair service is performed in front of you, there is little chance for someone to screw up your ThinkPad (more) (as there were several such cases with depot rapairs reported on this forum in the past)... Also, I most definitely second the suggestions about getting accidental protection!

Cheers,

Marin

Arretium, I agree with Marin85 about ordering the color calibrator. I have a W700 with the calibrator. If I look at the screen with calibration turned off, and then turned on, that's easily worth $150. It seems silly to have a $3,500-4,000 laptop with a yellowish or blueish display, just to save $150.

Thanks a ton Marin85, Shane, archer, and QFoam. I really appreciate your input.

Color Calibration/Wacom digitizer
I didn't get the color calibrator because of the price difference. I would have liked to have it (color calibration), but I didn't want the WACOM digitizer. On the old W700 you could order the color calibration WITHOUT the WACOM. My big hangup with the wacom digitzer (Besides the $150 I don't want to pay) is that I keep picturing that thing getting in the way and being a problem. It might have been cool, but I didn't really want to have to deal with that wacom thing when I'm using the laptop in bed for example. I just pictured that cord getting in the way all the time. If I could disable the cord and unplug it, that might solve the problem.

You guys really think I should just get it anyway eh?


SSD v. Hard Drive & ordering from New Egg (the SSD or second hard drive)
The more I read, the more I don't know what to do. Maybe I should just dump that SSD and get a regular hard drive? Order another SSD from newegg or something? The thing that concerned me about ordering it from new egg was whether or not it would work with the laptop and longevity of the SSD (i.e. compatability). I've read loads of reviews from people who have purchased them and put them in their own laptop and the compatability concern that I have seems to be a non issue.

On the other hand, the longevity issue of SSD is a major concern. If I was going to go SSD, I wanted to get a big SSD drive, but those are expensive (more than I can afford). Further complicating matters is that the SSD drives don't appear to be very reliable. On New egg, I was noticing failure rates (based on reviewers) of 30%. I'm very uncertain about this choice. I don't want to end up like the many reviewers on New Egg who report that their SSD drive died after 30 days. This made me think stick with Lenovo's SSD drive because at least IO know I can warranty it through Lenovo..despite it's perhaps limited capabilities.

I have heard that Intel's SSD drive is the champ. Maybe I should just order the Intel X25-M through New egg? Thoughts on that?

I'll head/follow your guy's advice on the warranty.

I got an SSD drive with my recent W700 purchase for a couple of reasons:

* going with standard hard drive wasn't that great, as size/pricing wasn't attractive.

* I wanted as stock of a Win7 Lenovo load as I could get. No hassles with cloning the drive, etc.
Just boot it up and GO.

Since I declined the hard drive, I could use those $$ towards the SSD drive, so that lessened the
$$ impact.

And, yes, SSD is really THAT fast


I presume the W701 has the extra drive slot as does the W700, in addition to possible ultrabay capability,
so adding the 500G drive is a good thing, along with your idea of buying it & memory elsewhere.

Well, after saying I'd wait for the first sale, I didn't end up waiting. I too have ordered! By my math, buying a topseller model (2500-3BU) and seperately adding the extras I wanted came out to the same thing as Lenovo discounting the equivalent CTO config by 27%. We'll probably see roughly that discount sometime in the next month or two, but maybe not too much more... So I don't feel like I'm being reckless by not waiting.

I do wish I could get some of that volume pricing love on a 920XM, but I can replace the 820M anytime I want later on.

Arretium wrote:

My big hangup with the wacom digitzer... is that I keep picturing that thing getting in the way and being a problem... I didn't really want to have to deal with that wacom thing when I'm using the laptop in bed for example. I just pictured that cord getting in the way all the time. If I could disable the cord and unplug it, that might solve the problem.

Arretium, there's no cord on the Wacom tablet. It's almost seamlessly built into the right palmrest of the laptop. If you don't use it, you don't even realize it's there. And it is only active when you run the included pen across its surface (no cords on the pen either, which stowes invisibly in the side of the laptop). The tablet doesn't pick up your fingers or palm resting on it, or anything like that, thus it doesn't interfere with anything in any way. So the tablet is not really a factor in the way that you're describing.

To me, there's no question about getting the calibrator. It's built into the palmrest and you can hardly even see it (no cords or anything like that). Once a month, it prompts you during bootup, you just close the lid, it beeps for a minute, then you're done and you just forget about it and move on with a much nicer-looking screen. Every document you print matches your screen better, etc.

Shane Stump wrote:OK... first thing we need to do is save you some money!

Still comes out about $100 more expensive than the equivalent topseller model ($2735.10 vs. $2640.00 from where I purchased), but it's very close. Given that I ordered a CF reader assembly to replace the smart card assembly, I only actually saved $30 over this route in the end

(oops, forgot to add the bluetooth. I saved $47

arretium wrote:17IN WUXGA RGB-LED-BL $0.00

Can anybody decrypt this?

Bring_back_IPS wrote: Can anybody decrypt this? :)

17in 1920x1200 (WUXGA) 100% gamut with an RGB LED backlight aka "The nicest screen" (....but not IPS ;-)

17in 1920x1200 (WUXGA) 100% gamut with an RGB LED backlight aka "The nicest screen" (....but not IPS

Thanks but is that posted somewhere on their web site? Is it matte? I find it strange that I have to order a $4k system without knowing what I order. If they send me a glossy one, I would not be able to complain.

Bring_back_IPS wrote: Thanks but is that posted somewhere on their web site? Is it matte? I find it strange that I have to order a $4k system without knowing what I order. If they send me a glossy one, I would not be able to complain.

The psref catalog says "Anti-glare", which is also how the W700 screens were described, and those were all matte. Reviews have also said the W701 screens are matte.

I know though that there have been one or two pics (one in the Lenovo catalogue!) that seem to show a glossy screen, so I can see why you'd be worried, I have to admit I'm just a smeeeedgin concerned still myself.

QFoam wrote: Arretium, there's no cord on the Wacom tablet. It's almost seamlessly built into the right palmrest of the laptop. If you don't use it, you don't even realize it's there. And it is only active when you run the included pen across its surface (no cords on the pen either, which stowes invisibly in the side of the laptop). The tablet doesn't pick up your fingers or palm resting on it, or anything like that, thus it doesn't interfere with anything in any way. So the tablet is not really a factor in the way that you're describing.

To me, there's no question about getting the calibrator. It's built into the palmrest and you can hardly even see it (no cords or anything like that). Once a month, it prompts you during bootup, you just close the lid, it beeps for a minute, then you're done and you just forget about it and move on with a much nicer-looking screen. Every document you print matches your screen better, etc.

I was just picturing my palm resting where the digitzer goes and that causing a problem. Are you telling me this is not the case? I don';t have to worry about my palm resting where the digitizer pad is and it causing the screen to go "do things" (sorta like a loose mouse..do you know what I mean??).

Ok Guys -

I just cancelled my original order. Apparently it will take 3 days to reorder so I've got some time to review your advice.


Big KUDOS to Shane for telling me about the shareholder discount. THANKS!

arretium,

Glad it helped! Please remember that E Coupon and you might be able to find others. Purchasing a computer these days is like purchasing a discounted airline ticket... every one pays different!

For the Dell M6500 I ordered, I actually "haggled" with the Dell order taker over a couple week period.

Best Regards,

Shane

P.S. Remember things you purchase from Lenovo are taxable and things you purchase from NewEgg.com are not only cheaper, but NOT taxed!

arretium wrote: I was just picturing my palm resting where the digitzer goes and that causing a problem. Are you telling me this is not the case? I don't have to worry about my palm resting where the digitizer pad is and it causing the screen to go "do things" (sorta like a loose mouse..do you know what I mean??).

Correct, Arretium, you do NOT have to worry about your hand accidentally triggering the tablet and thus accidentally moving he mouse. The Wacom tablet is not even capable of detecting your hand or fingers. So resting your hand on the tablet can not affect the mouse pointer in any way. The way the tablet works is that an electrical device is embedded in the pen. When the tip or eraser ends of the pen are placed on or near the tablet surface, only then does the tablet wake up, detect the device inside pen, then start using the pen to control the mouse.

Anyway, the following info about ThinkPads will be useful when buying a W700/W701:

Using coupons for dramatic savings

21 Days: the secret price guarantee that can save you money

Buying a W700 on a shoestring

Best of luck!

QFoam wrote:Best of luck!

Thank you for all of this QFoam. That and Shane's post would have saved me some time if I'd just waited one more day It's funny to be getting FRU parts order confirmations from IBM in New York...

I am anused by the section "Buying a W700 on a shoestring". Reminds me of Zeddemore's line from Ghostbusters, "That's a big Twinkie." s/Twinkie/shoestring/

Thanks to all who helped, especially QFoam and Shane.

I headed your guys's advice and ordered this system:


4323CTO ThinkPad W701 -1 Year Depot Topseller Warranty
4/22/2010**
$4,189.00
$3,292.90

$4,189.00
$3,292.90


Processor Intel Quad Core Processor i7 820QM (1.73GHz 1066MHz 8MBL3)
Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64
Operating system language Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 US English
Display type 17" WUXGA RGB-LED-BL
System graphics NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M 128-core CUDA parallel computing processor 1GB (dedicated)
Base W701 Base for Planar eSATA, USB3.0
Total memory 2 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
Keyboard Keyboard US English
Pointing device Ultranav + Number Pad + Fingerprint Reader + Pantone Color Sensor + WACOM Digitizer w/ Stylus
Camera Camera, 2.0 MP
Storage subsystem Internal RAID - Not Enabled
Primary Hard Drive 500 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Optical device Multi Recorder Optical Drive (12.7mm)
Battery 9 cell Li-Ion Battery
Power cord Country Pack North America with DT Line cord & 230W AC adapter
Bluetooth Bluetooth w/ antenna
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)
Language pack Language Pack US English 230W AC adapter

I also went for the 3 year warranty per your suggestion.

Total cost? How about $ 3493 including tax!