What's with the sharp-edged T500 palmrest?

[baertracks]

I've had my T500 for a week, and really like it. The LED backlit screen is so much brighter and easier to work with (than the T60 screen). I'm running with 6 GB of RAM, a 500 GB Momentus 7200.4 HDD, and 64 bit Vista Ultimate. This laptop really moves.

I have also been pleasantly surprised with program compatibility. Just about every program that I own runs fine on the 64 bit Vista system. I was expecting more difficulties along those lines.

My only complaint is the palmrest. Unlike the T60 palmrest, the one on the T500 has a sharply defined front and right side edge. I find this to be very annoying. I am continually scraping my palm against those sharp edges. I think that it also gives the palmrest (and the whole laptop) a cheaper feel.

Perhaps I just have a "Monday-morning" palm rest. I'd be interested in hearing whether others have noticed a similar problem on their T500s.

I finally took off the plamrest to see if I could repair the situation. My "tools" were a piece of fine grade sand paper and a bit of fine steel wool. I stroked the edge of the palmrest at a 45 degree angle lightly with the sand paper. The emphasis here is LIGHTLY. It does not take much pressure at all to sand off that sharp edge. I couple of light strokes is all that you need.

I then buffed it lightly with steel wool. The result was very satisfying. The palmrest now feels like the palmrest from my T60.

If you plan to "try this at home" be be sure to remove the palmrest before doing this. Otherwise you may get plastic "dust" under your keyboard.

Regards,
FRANK

[Marin85]

Perhaps you will find more replies in the T400/T500 subforum Nice-speced machine btw...

[baertracks]

Perhaps you will find more replies in the T400/T500 subforum Nice-speced machine btw...

Good Grief. I thought I was posting in that group. Thanks for the heads up. Is there a way to move a message to another group?
FRANK

[Marin85]

Only a mod/admin can do that. Wait a bit (if it is not urgent) (better than double-posting), it will be probably moved very soon

Off topic, but how does your signature appear in your first post, but it doesn´t in your second?...

[baertracks]

Off topic, but how does your signature appear in your first post, but it doesn´t in your second?...

I guess that I have signature turned off as a default. When posting or replying I have to check a box to "attach signature." I checked the box for the original post, but forgot to do it in my reply.

[basketb]

Would you mind posting HDtach/HDtune benchmarks for your 500gb drive (and as a comparison for your 320gb ultrabay drive? thx.

[baertracks]

Would you mind posting HDtach/HDtune benchmarks for your 500gb drive (and as a comparison for your 320gb ultrabay drive? thx.

First, my mistake. My ultrabay HDD is 250GB rather than 320GB. I forgot which one came with the laptop.

Second, I can't get HDtach to work on my 64-bit system. In compatability mode it says I'm not logged in as administrator (but I am).

Third, here are the results for HDtune.

HD Tune: ST9500420AS Benchmark (500 GB drive, 7600rpm, primary drive)
Transfer Rate Minimum : 36.0 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 99.0 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 73.0 MB/sec
Access Time : 17.9 ms
Burst Rate : 48.5 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 13.1%
HD Tune: ST9500420AS Information

http://baertracks.com/thinkpads/HDTune_ ... 0420AS.png

HD Tune: HITACHI HTS543225L9S Benchmark (250GB, 5400rpm, ultrabay drive)
Transfer Rate Minimum : 5.2 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 66.9 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 50.5 MB/sec
Access Time : 17.8 ms
Burst Rate : 76.5 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 13.5%
http://baertracks.com/thinkpads/HDTune_ ... 225L9S.png

[Marin85]

Hm, while the 7200.4 definitely has impressive throughputs, its access times are even worse than the ones of its precedessor. For comparison the access times of my 7K200 are about 14.7ms. I remember reading somewhere Seagate claiming about 12ms for the 7200.4, that´s not even close...

[basketb]

First, my mistake. My ultrabay HDD is 250GB rather than 320GB. I forgot which one came with the laptop.

Second, I can't get HDtach to work on my 64-bit system. In compatability mode it says I'm not logged in as administrator (but I am).

Third, here are the results for HDtune.

HD Tune: ST9500420AS Benchmark (500 GB drive, 7600rpm, primary drive)
Transfer Rate Minimum : 36.0 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 99.0 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 73.0 MB/sec
Access Time : 17.9 ms
Burst Rate : 48.5 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 13.1%
HD Tune: ST9500420AS Information

http://baertracks.com/thinkpads/HDTune_ ... 0420AS.png

HD Tune: HITACHI HTS543225L9S Benchmark (250GB, 5400rpm, ultrabay drive)
Transfer Rate Minimum : 5.2 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 66.9 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 50.5 MB/sec
Access Time : 17.8 ms
Burst Rate : 76.5 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 13.5%
http://baertracks.com/thinkpads/HDTune_ ... 225L9S.png

Thanks for running these tests. Your Seagate performs way better than the 500gb Samsung in my T61p and your Hitachi performs much better than the 250gb Fujitsu (which originally came with the machine) in my ultrabay.