x301 buying advice (I already ordered your favorite!)

[ssd_thinkpad]

After considering lots of other Thinkpads for basic websurfing and text editing, I am finally attracted to a x301, large and bay battery where lenovo thinks of getting around 10 hours. Is that realistic? Would more than 2 gb ram have any effect on battery life? What do you think of intels 80 gb mlc ssd with its extremely good reading but rather "inferior" writing speed?

As I am resetting dpi from original 140 down to 100 the horrible vertical screen size gives me headaches, but you can adjust firefox and office by removing most tool- and statusbars. If you have some advices on how to make life more comfortable with its vertical screen size, you're most welcome.

What would you take?
1. X301 2774-LEG - 64 GB SSD - DVDRW - 6 month less guarantee
or
2. X301 2774-17G - 80 GB Intel SSD

[Marin85]

From what I read here, 10h battery life is far from realistic on X301... The amount of RAM has insignificant impact on battery life, so if you want to install more RAM (for Vista 4 GB are recommended ), battery life isn´t a concern. The Intel X-25M is one of the fastest SSDs out there. If you are concerned about its write spees, then you may want to consider X-25E. IMO both Intel SSDs are simply beasts and won´t disappoint you. However, there has been recently an article about performance degradation in X-25M over time, but this has not been really confirmed yet, nor denied... As of now, the situation is somewhat inconclusive. Nevertheless, pretty everyone I know using Intel X-25M is impressed with the performance gain over mechanical drives... Now, regarding the "inferior" writing speeds, it really depends on what you are going to do on your X301. IMO, there is nothing a X301 is suitable for that would require some vast writing speeds... Websurfing and text editing definitely don´t require such ultra-performance

Regarding the wide screen, you can turn it into a standard 4:3 by using sidebars (like Vista sidebar, Firefox bookmarks sidebar etc.), but then you have one really small 4:3 screen... The extra space on the side could be sometimes handy for such sidebars. Now, I´m typing this on a 15.4 WUXGA screen, hence it´s rather easy for me to achieve such a 4:3 viewing due to the size of screen and the high resolution. However, the relative sacrifice of space on a small 13.3'' screen would be much bigger with such a "tweak". You have to try it out for yourself and see if it fits to your needs.

Marin

[ssd_thinkpad]

Thanks for your reply. I am using a samsung slc ssd now and like the speed. I most likely turn aero off so maybe there is a battery effect, too. Most reviews of x300 say this notebook has low battery life, newer x301 has a bit larger one with the new cpu that uses 2 watt less. Regarding the screen I only need vertical screen size for web browsing and text editing. Vistas bar does not look good on the right, I am thinking of automatically hiding it then.

I'll also want to turn cpu fan off until system reaches very high heat with tpfancontrol or nhc software. Hope that the bay battery is not giving additional heat to the system then.

[ssd_thinkpad]

These both otherwise models with same specifications have same price:

1. X301 2774-LEG - 64 GB SSD - DVDRW - 6 month less guarantee (lenovo)

2. X301 2774-17G (NRD26GE) - 80 GB Intel SSD (lenovo)

I would buy a bay battery as I do not need an optical drive. Which model would you prefer? I am particularly looking for a model with a good display, maybe newer models have abetter display? Which model is newer?

[Marin85]

AFAIK, all X301 are newer and they all use the same display with LED-backlit. If I have to choose between these 2 models, I would go for the second one because of the longer warranty and the bigger SSD capacity (and the Intel SSD is faster than the Samsung one). Are you sure about the warranty. I check out the links but I don´t see anything conclusive there.

[ssd_thinkpad]

Warranty is from retailers directly and is as said, first model has 6 month less warranty. I put only the links if someone is interested in having a more detailed view of these models. In fact, second model costs 100 € more but includes the bay battery. The bay battery costs 100 € if bought seperately. I just wanted to keep it simple thats why I showed both models which are priced the same for shown configuration.

[Marin85]

Well, in such a case, everything is in favor of the second choice

[archer6]

I would most certainly concur with Marin, and choose number 2. My X301 has not disappointed me in the least. It's form factor, light weight and typical stellar ThinkPad keyboard move it to the top of the list of machines in this category. Pricey, yes... but worth it.

Cheers

[Nubulin]

Both drives are MLC which really surprises me. Supposidly the Intel is a better drive, but who knows. Depends on price and how much space you need. For me the extra 16GB was enough and the deal was right. You will have more lower priced options with the 64GB as there are a TON more to chose from out there.

[ssd_thinkpad]

Thanks for your votes! I am still undecided. I only need less than 32 GB. I am used to slc ssds so hope not to get eventually a hard downfall with samsungs mlc ssd. I will buy the additional bay battery for 100 €.

[Marin85]

Well, that´s a good question. But since both Samsung and Intel are MLC SSDs, I don´t see much of a reason for hesitation provided those two configurations are the only ones you consider. There is of course the option to buy a X301 with the Toshiba mechanical drive and upgrade after-market to a SLC SSD.

[ssd_thinkpad]

I can not make my own cto configuration in europe and these two models are the best priced available for me. Are you really sure the 64gb drive is a mlc? Wonder how much I could make by selling the dvdrw drive. It is really expensive in ibm parts shop but who needs such drive now? Would I get 100 $ for it? Intels ssd is three times faster when reading but with 2 gb ram and only office / web browser most stuff should be in ram already.

[Marin85]

To be honest, since we are in Europa, I´m not sure if it is really a MLC drive, but there are some signs it could be. You may want to read What SSD X301 has ? I want the same for my X200s If you are aware of the model number of that Samsung SSD, I guess google can tell us more about it.

[ssd_thinkpad]

Thanks to your knowledge and advice I decided to chose

2. X301 2774-17G (NRD26GE) - 80 GB Intel SSD (lenovo)

instead of

1. X301 2774-LEG - 64 GB SSD - DVDRW - 6 month less guarantee (lenovo)

Of course I will give you all a review about this machine