Lenovo T61 suitable for gaming ?????

I recently bought a Lenovo T61 w/T7700, 4GB and NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M graphics card, primarily as my "get things done at home" computer. I run it on dual screens with an Advanced Dock and a 250GB 7200 rpm HDD.

I'd like your collective advice whether it is suitable to replace my aging Alienware Aurora XP64, 3400+ desktop, 2GB, ATI X1950 AGP graphics; or to replace/upgrade the Alienware. With the upgraded ATI card, the Alienware handles my present set of games fine (FPS's primarily, like Halo, MOH, Battlefield, etc, but older games).

My options include adding a gaming graphics card to the Advanced Dock (it can take a full-height, half-width PCIe card). If this is a reasonable choice, does anyone know of a suitable graphics card for this short slot? I understand the NVIDIA NVS 140M is similar to a NVIDIA 8400 (M, GS, ??).

I'm not looking to create/buy a state-of-the-art gaming computer (which I realize would clearly be better), just whether I can use the T61 instead of the Alienware for another year or so. I don't know if a laptop processor (even the T7700) and a limited choice of graphics cards is really up to much of the task of gaming. My Alienware really took off when I replaced the graphics card with the ATI, but it is already long-in-the-tooth. I'm curious how it performs compared to my presently eqiuped T61 (single core vs double core for dedicated gaming).

Complicating all this is that both run on Vista Ultimate. I (foolishly) upgraded the Alienware to Vista Ultimate when it came out.

Q1 - Should I "downgrade" the Alienware back to XP and nurse it along for another year (as long as I stay away from current games)?
Q2 - Should I "bite the bullet" and upgrade/replace the Alienware and keep the systems separate?
Q3 - Should I add a graphics card to T61 Dock and use it as my "complete" computer?
Q4 - other options/opinions?

TIA for your help and advice.

Lauren

 

If you mean strictly for gaming purposes, your desktop rig is definitely better. The T7700 is more than adequate but the desktop 1950pro is still a very good card , much better than the 140M. But if its for older games then the 140M should be fine, just don't expect the same performance as your desktop.

As for your questions it all depends if portability is a requirement. If not then stick to the desktop for games - with a cost effective upgrade ( faster HD, cpu) perhaps.

So to sum up the 140M /w T7700 is adequate for older games. As for the docked card I think it depends on what card fits. Its not going to be a midrange card, probably something lower and it might only be a slight improvement over the 140M and I heard it can be buggy. Sorry can't be much help there.

 

You can play recent games at low-medium resolutions fine with that card, especially with the powerful cpu. 1+ year old games you'll prolly play at high resolutions and settings. But anything made in the past year the card will struggle at anything over medium settings.

 

So it appears that my aging Alienware will still be adequate (for 1-2 year old games) instead of the T61. But if a decent PCIe graphics card can be found to fit in the docking station, I might be able to use the T61 instead?

Thanks for the advice and help - I really appreciate this forum.

Lauren

 

There is no such thing, so don't get your hopes up.

 

Got it!

So I'll hang tough with the Alienware until I can make a motherboard swap and start a new build from there. Unfortunately, my ATI X1950Pro is AGP and my new MB will be PCIe, so I'll run with it for a while longer before making the switch. But my dual 10,000 rpm RAID 0 drives should be good for a while.

Thanks all,

Lauren