Does anyone know when new tpads are likely to be introduced?

[kamaleon]

Hi there.

Being a noob on this tpad world, i'm wondering if there's a few "traditional" times of the year / dates when lenovo will introduce new models? Around march maybe?

Thanks!

[Nilonym]

Traditionally IBM would usually do a refresh in Q1, but for 2007 it is very likely that we will see a refresh in the April time frame to coincide with Intel's release of the Santa Rosa chipset.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrino#S ... .282007.29

[kamaleon]

thanks for that info mate

so i see you're waiting for it hey?

i hope they won't stop putting pcmcia ports on their santa rosa machines.

What exactly apart from a higher fsb and 801.11n can one expect from santa rosa?

[tomh009]

There is a very good chance the new ThinkPads will only have ExpressCard/54 slots, not PC Card.

Santa Rosa also provides support for >3 GB of memory, better integrated graphics (GMA X3000), flash-memory disk caching for Windows Vista ReadyFetch (though with hard disks also implementing ReadyFetch support, it's unclear whether Lenovo will use the chipset cache), UMTS/HSDPA WWAN and EFI to replace BIOS (in 64-bit mode).

[Nilonym]

thanks for that info mate
so i see you're waiting for it [Santa Rosa] hey?

Yes, I am waiting for it. There have been a lot of discussions in these forums lately about the futility of always waiting for "the next best thing", but I think there is a difference between never being satisfied and choosing a smart time to buy. When I buy a new ThinkPad I tend to use it for a long time - coming up on four years for my T40p - but when I am ready to upgrade, I wait for the next big refresh, rather than buying the current model. I've waited four years - a few more months won't kill me - and buying at the beginning of a refresh cycle extends the life of my investment.

[kamaleon]

Yes, i'm starting to think it'd be nice to wait for santa rosa too - i mean they can't be worst than napa with merom

I hope someone from lenovo reads this and thinks "hey what a great idea!"
- wide T61p with flexview/ips, +-2Ghz cpu with 4MB L2 800Mhz fsb, nvidia graphics, firewire and card reader, pcmcia (i have a senao card!) + express card

during april or may, then i wouldn't mind making a bit investment that'll last me a couple of years too

oh well back to reality now...

[kamaleon]

There is a very good chance the new ThinkPads will only have ExpressCard/54 slots, not PC Card.

where exactly did you get that info from mate?

I'll be really sad to know my senao card won't be of any use by then...

If this can be confirmed, i probably won't wait for santa rosa and get a T60 now...

[tomh009]

There is a very good chance the new ThinkPads will only have ExpressCard/54 slots, not PC Card.

where exactly did you get that info from mate?

I don't know that -- I'm speculating (ie "there is a very good chance"). ExpressCard is intended to replace PC Cards; current ThinkPads are in some ways transitionary models, with hybrid support (PC Card and ExpressCard/54 on T60, PC Card with ExpressCard/34 adapter on X60).

At some point in time the PC Card slots will go bye-bye. My prediction is that that will happen as soon as there is a change to the case plastics -- whether that will be this spring or not remains to be seen.

[Ken Fox]

There is a very good chance the new ThinkPads will only have ExpressCard/54 slots, not PC Card.

where exactly did you get that info from mate?

I'll be really sad to know my senao card won't be of any use by then...

If this can be confirmed, i probably won't wait for santa rosa and get a T60 now...

Don't forget about getting a T43 as a "budget" option. I decided to upgrade from my T42 in December and (especially) to go back down to a 14" from a 15" screen which I found made the laptop too large and heavy for me. There was a big sale going on in December with the ability to configure the products as you wanted and to pay "employee" prices on them. Every time I configured a T60 it worked out to be almost twice as expensive to get the T60 I would have wanted vs. the T43 that would have been almost as fast and much better than "adequate."

For $1170 delivered, including upgrades, I have a new T43, 2.0ghz Mobile Pentium, 2gb RAM, and a 100gb 7K100 Hitachi 7200rpm hard disk, plus the original 60gb 5400 hard disk that shipped with the machine. Other than for applications that most people do not use regularly, or games, my system should function about as fast as a T60 FOR MOST USERS. It may not be as suitable for Vista, but I don't know why anyone in their right mind would want to run Vista during the next year while the bugs are being worked out. From a functional standpoint, what the user experiences, I doubt there is much difference between these two models (I'm talking about the form factor, the build quality, the screen, the keyboard, that sort of stuff).

The T43 is severely undervalued in the market right now and if you can snag a nice one at an attractive price, I'd say go for it.

[kamaleon]

Thanks for the tip mate, but i'm definetly looking out for as much horsepower as i can get.

I'm looking at watching and working with H.264 videos so a pentium M isn't enough, unfortunatly.

This is why i'm looking out at the T60 / T60p, with merom/napa or allendale/santa rosa, 4MB cache L2.

I run a E6600 on my desktop on an asus P5B-Dlx, raptor 16Mo hard drive, 2GB micron D9gmh ram, and i spend a couple of months living in a van in summer, so I'm really looking out for a big beast to keep up with what i can achieve on my desktop.
I don't do any 3D gaming whatsoever, though.

[Nilonym]

This is why i'm looking out at the T60 / T60p, with merom/napa or allendale/santa rosa, 4MB cache L2.

Allendale is a low-cost Core 2 desktop CPU with 2MB of L2 cache.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_2#Allendale

The Santa Rosa chipset will support new models of Merom using Socket P.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_2#Merom_2

[kamaleon]

ok, sorry for my ignorance