Need help choosing a T60

[Raystream]

I am ready to buy immediately as soon as I can figure out what is the best route to go. Though I do need to try to keep it between $1500 and $2000. Below is what I would like...

1. Intel Centrino Duo 1.6GHz or higher

2. 6+ Hours battery life... pratically the most important thing

3. 1GB+ of ram (Need this without a doubt for Microsoft Virual Server 2005 R2)

4. 60GB 5400RPM HDD or larger

5. 15 inch Screen with support for 1280x1024 or higher screen resolution

6. Wifi A/B/G

7. Bluetooth

8. Combo Drive (CD burner/DVD-Rom)

9. Fingerprint reader

10. Windows XP Pro

Now as for questions...

How much of a battery performance impact is there with the ATI x1400 GPU? Do I need to get a 9 cell battery or an Ultrabay Slim battery to get 6+ hours of battery life out of it?

How much of a battery performance impact is there between a 5400RPM HDD and a 7200RPM HDD?

Should I go with an 80GB 5400RPM HDD or a 60GB 5400RPM HDD?

Is it worth it to get the 15inch screen? I would like to get it... but if price becomes to much of a problem...

Any advice to get all the features that I want along with achieving the 6+ hours of battery life would be grealy appreciated!

[darrenf]

2. 6+ Hours battery life... pratically the most important thing
[...]
How much of a battery performance impact is there with the ATI x1400 GPU? Do I need to get a 9 cell battery or an Ultrabay Slim battery to get 6+ hours of battery life out of it?

The impact is considerable. Perhaps with a slow processor and 14" XGA screen you would get 6 hours with a 9-cell but if battery life is your priority, plan to get the integrated graphics, 14" and a 9-cell. You should get 8 hours plus.

-darren

[Raystream]

2. 6+ Hours battery life... pratically the most important thing
[...]
How much of a battery performance impact is there with the ATI x1400 GPU? Do I need to get a 9 cell battery or an Ultrabay Slim battery to get 6+ hours of battery life out of it?

The impact is considerable. Perhaps with a slow processor and 14" XGA screen you would get 6 hours with a 9-cell but if battery life is your priority, plan to get the integrated graphics, 14" and a 9-cell. You should get 8 hours plus.

-darren

Well... if I were to change that around and say I would like to achieve 4.5 Hours to 6.0 Hours with a 15inch screen with Flexview and the x1400... what would your advice be?

[christopher_wolf]

First off, Welcome to the Thinkpad Forums

The 15" screen, especially with a higher resolution, will eat up battery life faster than the 14.1" would. The same goes for the ATI card versus the integrated graphics...the ATI card will take up more battery life than would the integrated card doing the same thing, to a certain point however (i.e. start playing an intensive game and all bets for the battery life are off no matter which GPU you have.)

[darrenf]

I can tell you that my T60p (2.16GHz, ATI V5200, 14" SXGA+) gets 4 hours on max brightness and 5 hours on minimum brightness doing 2D work. That's with bluetooth off, the CPU at 1GHz (the minimum speed for all the T-series processors) and PowerPlay turned on (that's ATI's underclocking power-saving feature).

Things that would further decrease battery life:
FlexView
15" screen
UXGA

A slower processor probably will *not* affect power usage because they all use the same voltage and have the same clock speed. Only the max multiplier is increased on the faster processors.

-darren

[christopher_wolf]

Don't forget WiFi since it has a significant drain due to the fact that it is on all the time for the most part if you are connected and mobile without a wired LAN.

[darrenf]

You know, I thought about mentioning that but honestly the WiFi seems to draw virtually no power. I'm running a test as I write this and battery usage with WiFi on is 19 to 20 Watts. With WiFi off, power usage is still 19 to 20 Watts. It might use 1/3 Watt less on average at most. That's pretty amazing!

-darren

[christopher_wolf]

You know, I thought about mentioning that but honestly the WiFi seems to draw virtually no power. I'm running a test as I write this and battery usage with WiFi on is 19 to 20 Watts. With WiFi off, power usage is still 19 to 20 Watts. It might use 1/3 Watt less on average at most. That's pretty amazing!

-darren

Pretty interesting, but it does still draw power and, to be of use, it has to be on pretty much all the time the Thinkpad is in operation by the user. Maybe it was me when I tried it out several times...I think I got more out of it, but I am not sure.

[darrenf]

Keep in mind - I'm disabling it with the switch on the front of the laptop. Perhaps that doesn't remove power from the card.

-darren

[Raystream]

Well... I finally decided... and chose the 2623DBU model. It seems to be fairly brand new and very hard to find. I choose it among other things because it is a T60 instead of a T60p and from what I have read the T60 is getting much better battery life. Now the only thing is finding a good mouse and a carrying case. In which for the case I am trying to find a good slim case (+ carring strap and an area for folders and a few misc) with great cushioning that I can carry around from meeting to meeting, on planes, and will hold up during some consulting jobs.

I'm currently going through all the ones listed in the carring case thread but I'm stuck on dialup for the moment. So if anyone can chime in it would be greatly appreciated.