Need some advice re buying a new T61p

[pae77]

Hi all,

I'm finally about to order a T61p and I have several questions and I would really appreciate some advice:

1) I'm leaning towards getting the 14.1 SXGA+ T61p because I like the standard size non wide screen with that resolution (and the widescreen higher resolution machines are not currently available for order), but I am concerned about the fact that the 14.1 non wide model only comes with the nVidia 570 with 128 mb video ram instead of 256 mb ram. How much of a disadvantage do you think this is?

2) Can these machines be ordered with zero ram? I know I can buy ram for a heck of lot less than Lenovo is charging so I want to get as little Lenovo ram as possible.

3) Re ram type: Is there any advantage or benefit in getting the faster PC2-6400 ram vs the PC2-5300 for the T61p or would it just be wasting money?

4) I've had great results with the Atheros wifi card in my T42p but I was thinking of ordering the Intel AGN wifi card for the new machine to have the N capability. Have people had good experiences and performance from this card?

5) Any recommendations with respect to 7200 rpm drives from Lenovo and the best bang for the buck? So far I'm leaning towards starting out with the 100 gb 7200 drive and maybe upgrading later from New Egg or Zip Zoom Fly.

6) Is turbo memory worth getting?

7) Any other advice for a prospective T61p buyer?

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

[ZaZ]

I guess it would depend on what your needs are.

AFAIK no. I'd get the 1GB stick and buy another elsewhere.

There's no advantage to the faster memory since it's not supported.

Had a X61s over the summer for a bit which had the Athernos card. I didn't really notice anything different.

You can almost buy a drive for what Lenovo charges for the upgrade. You might want to get the cheapest drive and upgrade it yourself. Then you can sell the old drive or use it in the modular adapter if you need extra space. You don't need speed for storage. Supposedly the 100GB Hitachi is the fastest since it uses a single platter. I have the 160GB Seagate because Dell was selling it cheap and it entitles you to use DiscWizard for free. It's basically Acronis True Image It's a drive imaging utility which works quite nicely. I like to do a clean install, putting on only the programs I want, then make an image of it which I can restore at anytime in about five minutes.

Turbo memory is reported to give a bit better battery life, but other than that not much. Dell and HP aren't even offering it. It is still a pretty new idea which is probably not completely fleshed out at the moment. It may offer more benefits down the road.

The T61p is a fine machine. I'm sure it will serve you well.

[pae77]

Thanks for your advice. I wish I had more real world info re the 128 mb graphics card vs the 256 mb version. But I have gone ahead anyway and placed an order for the 14.1 SXGA+ model with the 128 mg nVidia 570 card, Vista Bus 64, T7500 cpu, 1 gb ram, 100 gb 7200 hard drive, Intel AGN wifi, Bluetooth, 9 cell, pc and express card slots.

I've already ordered 4gb (2x2gb) paired ram from NewEgg for about $150 after mail in rebate.

So I think the new machine should be a very nice upgrade from my present T42p which seems very slow to me these days.

The hardest decision was whether to go for the 15.4 WSXGA+ to get the 256 mg graphics card, but I really didn't want that big of a machine. I just hope I don't find the 128 mb graphics card limiting down the road.

[RonS]

1. I wouldn't worry about having "only" 128MB of RAM. With a smaller 14" screen, you don't need as much memory because you have fewer pixels on your screen. And even then, only high-end games will ever even take advantage of 128MB.

2. You may be able to call in a CTO order to make a machine with zero RAM. When I order machines, I order the minimum (512MB or 1GB), take it out, and replace it with memory from NewEgg. You'll save a lot of money doing this. Your best/cheapest upgrade it to load your new T61p with the maximum memory. I'd max-out your machine with 4GB of RAM even if your version of Windows may only "see" 3GB.

3. Don't bother with faster memory. PC2-5300 is all you need. Faster memory is only beneficial if you a) plan to move it to another machine that needs the faster memory, b) play with overclocking, or c) find it cheaper than the standard speed.

4. I've had both Atheros and Intel. I'm not a heavy wireless user (just around the house and hotels) and I've found both to be just fine.

5. My suggestion is to order the cheapest drive you can with your Thinkpad, and then get a Hitachi 7K200 (or the Seagate) from NewEgg. Use Acronis to clone your old drive to your new drive, and then use the original drive as a backup. Now you have a spare/backup hard drive. If you get a Slim bay drive adapter, you can hot plug it into the slim bay as a second drive, or get a small USB drive enclosure. You will save money by doing this, and end up with a "free" spare.

6. Turbo memory, at this point in time, is worthless. If you machine ocmes with it installed, I suggest you remove it until Vista comes out with SP1 that *may* benefit from it. Most reports now indicate that it either does nothing, slows down your machine, and/or causes bluescreens.

7. If you're placing an order for a new machine, consider getting a Mini Dock or Advanced Dock. Mini Dock will give you DVI for an external monitor, and the Advanced Dock will allow you to install a PCI-Express add-on card, which brings your Thinkpad's expansion capability closer to that of a full desktop machine.

I recommend you order Bluetooth and the fingerprint reader. I think they're worth the minimal extra cost.

Also, look around for coupons and discounts. They're almost always available. Cruise FatWallet.com for Thinkpad coupons. Sometimes you can get discounts through American Express, or you can buy stock and get shareholder prices, although the shareholder prices aren't always the best deal. I've saved over 50% by using various bargain-hunting methods.

[pae77]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the advice. After that I'm feeling a little better about the 128 mb vram. I've already done most of what you recommended, except for the hard drive. I ordered the machine through EPP, with the minimum ram. I don't know if it will work but I linked to the EPP site via a site that promises an additional discount. Unfortunately I couldn't find any coupons that work on this configuration on the EPP site, but EPP gives a pretty good discount anyway.

As I mentioned above, I've already ordered 4 gb of the 5300 memory from New Egg and got a great price on that (~$150 after mail in rebate). And I did order the 2nd hd adapter and the advanced mini dock and bluetooth and no turbo memory, and the intel agn wifi card. I passed on the FP reader. I just don't mind typing in passwords and I mostly use the password manager in Firefox which makes it pretty effortless. Also am somewhat suspicious of and reluctant to use any Lenovo security software beyond the power on, supervisor, bios, and hd passwords. The Lenovo security applications have always seemed problematic and unreliable to me.

I just decided to go for the 100 gb 7200 rpm drive from Lenovo for the following reason: It was not a very expensive upgrade and if it ever fails, I can get almost immediate replacement from Lenovo while the system is under warranty for 3 years. That alone is worth paying a bit extra over other channels for the drive to me. But I will soon be buying a second laptop drive elsewhere for maintaining a cloned backup ready to swap in should I have problems. Haven't decided yet whether to get another 100 gb 7200 rpm drive or something bigger and slower, or something bigger and fast. Still mulling that one over. Probably would have been more economical in the long run to get a cheaper drive from Lenovo with the new machine as you suggested but I don't want to mess with the order now anyway as I'm itching to get my hands on this new machine and it seems a long way off to delivery.

So thank you for helping me to confirm that I am mostly more or less on the right track with what I have done. It's been a pretty intense 24 hours as I've really only turned my attention to the whole issue of upgrading to a T61p and the various options and specs in the past day and have had to figure all this out and which version of Vista to get very quickly. But I have decided that I want to be running Vista 64 with 4gb ram and hopefully I won't have too many serious compatibility issues with it.

Now the waiting begins. . . .