Lenovo Z61t vs. Lenovo 3000 N100

[BigCatAndy]

Hello,

sometime ago I bought for 20€ used Z61t. I personally find him quite a nice machine, especially in the sense of noice, comparing to my T43p with ATI card. I installed Linux and used it just for mailing etc. Nothing extraordinary or special. Recently I got another Lenovo's "baby" - 3000 N100. CPU ist faster than Z61t, HDD ist twice as much as Z61t's. Now I'm thinking about exchanging Z61t with N100. Does anyone have an experience with N100? Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Andrey

[TPFanatic]

Z61t is a ThinkPad with ThinkPad hardware features and software options. The 3000 N100 is not. Both machines are the same age and have the same chipset, if there's components the N100 has that the Z61t doesn't, and you own both, you can move them to the Z61t to upgrade it. The difference in CPU speed between them won't amount to much, they are nearly 15 year old computers.


For upgrading

Their max usable RAM is 3GB due to chipset limitation.

Any SATA 2.5" HDD or SSD will work.

[axur-delmeria]

Any SATA 2.5" HDD or SSD will work.

...but will be limited to SATA I (150 megabytes/sec) due to chipset limitations.

[BigCatAndy]

Z61t is a ThinkPad with ThinkPad hardware features and software options. The 3000 N100 is not. Both machines are the same age and have the same chipset, if there's components the N100 has that the Z61t doesn't, and you own both, you can move them to the Z61t to upgrade it. The difference in CPU speed between them won't amount to much, they are nearly 15 year old computers.


For upgrading

Their max usable RAM is 3GB due to chipset limitation.

Any SATA 2.5" HDD or SSD will work.

Hello,
thanks for the feedback. Actually, you configmed what I thought. Lenovo N100 has good reviews, some of them even compare T60 with N100. But Z61t is compacter and somehow eleganter.

And upgrade: I will not invest much in that Z61t. It is my "toy", I use it from time to time, and I'm satisfied with current performance. Sometimes I think about replacing its TFT panel with better one (1440 x 900), but nothing is planed so far.

Regards,
Andrey

[RealBlackStuff]

Just before I moved, I gave two of those 3000-N100 to the Salvation Army.
I got them for free in some package deal, years ago.
I tried for a long time to sell them cheap, even down to $5,- or as a freebie if you bought another laptop.
No interest whatsoever.
They are an ugly silver/gray, heavy, awkward to handle, have a lousy keyboard, only XGA screen, no replacement battery to be found anywhere.
In other words: a heap of s hite, as we Irish call it.

[wujstefan]

They are an ugly silver/gray, heavy, awkward to handle, have a lousy keyboard, only XGA screen, no replacement battery to be found anywhere.
In other words: a heap of s hite, as we Irish call it.

I'll sign that.

Z61t is a masterpiece of thinkpad engineering. One of my personal favourite unit. I take full joy from using it.
3000 N100 is a blob of plastic. Gave one to my kid after a bad day in school, gave him a hammer and a free hand to do what he want with it. He complained this one did not need enough effort to shatter, and thus he is still angry.

[BigCatAndy]

They are an ugly silver/gray, heavy, awkward to handle, have a lousy keyboard, only XGA screen, no replacement battery to be found anywhere.
In other words: a heap of s hite, as we Irish call it.

I'll sign that.

Z61t is a masterpiece of thinkpad engineering. One of my personal favourite unit. I take full joy from using it.
3000 N100 is a blob of plastic. Gave one to my kid after a bad day in school, gave him a hammer and a free hand to do what he want with it. He complained this one did not need enough effort to shatter, and thus he is still angry.

OK, I see.. Lenovo 300 N100 is definitely somewhere on the bottom of your laptop rating ))

So, I made a decision: I will improve Z61t as far as I can (using CPU and HDD from 3000 N100) and will keep him, and then I will just try to sell 3000 N100 for any amount I get for it. Perhaps, I will use it a bit - just to get a feeling of it.

[BigCatAndy]

Hello again,
yesterday I installed Linux Mint on 3000 N100, and "lspci" commad retuned me, that HDD Controller (of type SATA) runs in IDE mode. I could not find corresponding BIOS setting. Can it be, that N100 runs SATA as IDE-interface? Is it technically possible? Or ist it just a Linux bug, which can be corrected by installing extra modules?

regards,
Andrey

[dr_st]

Most laptops of that generation had a BIOS setting to toggle SATA between IDE/Compatibility and AHCI/Native modes.

[BigCatAndy]

Most laptops of that generation had a BIOS setting to toggle SATA between IDE/Compatibility and AHCI/Native modes.

This what I would expect... Can it be that it depends on the BIOS version? I have 1.08 installed, and the latest one - according to LENOVO page - would be 3.something... So, there are some changes in between..