2373 hvu noisy drive ????

[userpete]

hello list ......

i'm looking at the t 42 2373 hvu .........
but concerned about the 7200 rpm, 60 g drive ,
....several posts have noted the high speed drives have a higher noise level as well, or at least a discernable whine .......do folks find this to be a problem?, or something you learn to live with ??, or over blown ????
my only other lap top experience is a friends a-55 toshiba (4200 rpm) . which , as far as drive noise , is tolerable.......

any input appreciated.... this will be my first laptop, & a huge investment ..... the noise issue is a particular concern .........

as well as general use, ill be doing, 3-d c.a.d. modeling ( SolidWorks) ...... late into the night,..... hence the appreciation for quiet.....

also, any serious drawbacks on the 11 /a/b/g wireless ??? i understand it is "first generation", but not sure what that means .....

many thanks

pete

[Moogle]

I have just purchased that very same model the 2373-HVU... And am typing this message on it...


I find the drive to be noticable during heavy use... But it is really very quiet compared to desktop drives. I personally don't mind some quiet noise from the drive - and the speed of this drive far outweighs any of the noise coming from it.

Yes, the a/b/g wireless is "first generation" - It uses the Atheros 5001X+ chipset instead of the newer 5004X chipset. Oddly, on IBM's website the newer chipset miniPCI card sells for ~$60, where the older one sells for $99...

I don't believe the older chipset has the "SuperAG" technology that allows for 108mbps speeds. I don't even have 802.11g at home yet (Still using 11b ) ... but I may eventually upgrade.

I will say this model has an absolutely beautiful screen (UXGA @ 1600 x 1200) ... Very bright and very sharp. I have played several games using it - there is some ghosting, but it is pretty minimal. The only downside to this beautiful screen, is that it sucks battery. I am only getting ~4:45 from a full charge on the Extended 9-Cell battery (included). I find this to be rather dismal for a centrino... And blame this mostly on the screen (And the gigabyte of memory...)

Even though the battery life may be dismal, this laptop is an absolute joy to use - it is very fast and responsive.

I was tempted to wait for the T43p, with promises of better battery life due to DDR2 - I could've even purchased the fingerprint-reader model. But as my grandfather used to tell me, "Never buy the first model year - Let them work the bugs out first."

I would highly reccomend this laptop (for both the performance and the price.)

-Moogle