Just ordered this model 2516-ADU

[bass1175]

I picked up this notebook for fairly cheap and wondering if you guys are aware of any flaws or video card issue. I cant find more of it as I wont it from an overseas auction. Your thoughts on this model? its a 2.4ghz i5 with "Max turbo speed"of 2.9ghx" Can someone also clarify to me what this means? I have never seen this option on my previous T series models. Resolution isn't that great at 1280 x800 and its my only regrets as I got real comfortable with my t61 1400x900 screen.
Reasons I got it, it came with
750gb Hard
8gb Ram installed
$400 with shipping, brand new in box with all manuals and CDs.

I picked it up simply because of the price.

Your feedback on this model is appreciated.

[ZaZ]

The T410 has the Intel GPU, which tends to be more stable than the ATI and/or nVidia cards.

Turbo boost allows the CPU to run a bit faster if needed, but for most uses, it won't be needed.

[bass1175]

Thanks Zaz for replying, is this turbo feature software controlled? I have a 2.2ghz C2d on a t61, you think there would be a noticeable difference in performance.Also Z I love xp and would like to install it on this machine, is the 64 bit version of xp stable on this machine? So far the best T series laptop I owned is my current t61 and a previous t30. Worse being the t43, so I always fear these video cards and was relieved to hear theres no issue. I guess lenovo learned from the t40s era. Looking forward to this upgrade from the C2D which has really performed very well for everything, hardly ever lagged even under extreme abuse.

But Im curious about this turbo feature and can this be added to my t61 machine? Is this the companies official way to overclock? And if anyone running xp on the t410, how is your experience? Should I just keep Win7?

Thank you much ZaZ and everyone.

[ZaZ]

Turbo boost is a feature of the CPU and cannot be added to an older machine. It kicks in when you're maxing the CPU, which 99% of the time most users aren't doing. For just typical usage, I don't think it matters much. My X220i has the i3 CPU, which does not have the turbo boost and I've never felt it was lacking in performance. It would have to be something where you're running the CPU at 100% of capacity like video encoding or crunching databases before it kicks in.

All the XP drivers are available on Lenovo's site if you want to go that way. I don't know much about x64 as I'm still running x86 W7 or Linux on my machines. Whether you want to keep W7 is a personal preference. XP is certainly faster due to the lower overhead, but W7 is more modern and secure.

[bass1175]

Thank you Zaz, I only like XP as I have mastered it over the years, I disabled the wireless card on a w7 machine and took me 15 minutes to find out how to enable it again, thats when I starting cursing out MS and have decided to stick to what I know. Iam sure Im going about it the wrong way to some but, as also mentioned xp is less laggy and faster. I appreciate all your input Zaz, thank you much.

[agarza]

Hey Bass

I'm getting a used T420 as a replacement for my T61 SXGA+, I plan on installing XP on it, I know, many people would blame for not stepping to a more modern OS but that's how I like it.

I experimented a bit using XP 64 bits on my T61 with bittersweet results:
- If you have more than 3GB and want to hibernate you will not be able to do that, because of limitations of the OS
- Some drivers were tricky to install, even so, issues were encountered regarding freeze up on the machine

So if you will be using XP I recommend stick to the 32 bit unless you really need more RAM, in this case, you're better off experimenting what is the result installing XP 64 bits, maybe those drivers are more stable.