Buying new Thinkpad: T7250 C2D vs T9300 T61

I'm a forum member @ thinkpads.com forums. I'm looking to replace my T42p laptop 14.1in SXGA+.

It has been a discusion lately at TPForums regarding if having a laptop with the newest T9300 C2D yield on a more cool and quiet laptop compared against the T7250.

Reason I ask this is because on Lenovo's Outlet, and on eBay as well there are 4x3 models 14.in T61's (the model I'm looking for should be a 4x3) fitted with those T7xxx models.

But ordering a new laptop, widescreen only direct from Lenovo you can get the T9300 for about 100 bucks than the original price.

So I'm debating whether to buy a 14.in SXGA+ T61 with those old T7xxx versus ordering a T61 with the T9300 for which the price only rise a few hundred bucks.

Is getting a T7xxx processor is worth this days.

I plan on keeping this laptop for at least 3 or 4 years tops.

 

Ohh more info.

If go the SXGA+ route I will have a portable laptop, but If I go widescren I'd like to go WUXGA which I think is not possible anymore to order a T61p direct from Lenovo as they're now selling those T400/T500 new models. Am I right?

I'm shooting to get very good battery life, I suppose the T9300 in terms of heat & manufacturing technology allows to achieve more battery life than the T7250 right?

 

Performance-wise, T7250 is 2GHz, 2MB cache and 800MHz FSB, T9300 is 2.5GHz, 6MHz cache and 800MHz FSB, so the T9300 is likely to be around 25% faster in doing CPU-intensive tasks.

Power-wise the T9300 is Penryn (45nm process) so it might run at lower voltage and use less power, or maybe the CPU part uses less power but the much bigger cache leaks more power when on idle. This is an aspect not revealed in the Intel data sheets but there is evidence somewhere in this forum to support my hypothesis that more cache can provide increased idle power consumption. However, there is considerable variation between individual CPUs that are all within tolerance.

Overall, the T7250 is a very respectable performer and meets the needs of most users unless there are computationally-intensive tasks which take minutes to run. RAM (minimum 2GB) and a good hard disk are the other key ingredients for good performance.

It should be possible to upgrade the T7250 to a faster CPU (up to the fastest that Lenovo offer in the series) in the future if you need a power boost. However, if you are coming from a single core CPU then you will find the improved performance of the T7250 to be a big jump.

John

 

Thanks John. I actually come from using a Pentium M 745 1.8Ghz processor. It has 2MB of cache just like the T7250.
I don't do heavy computation-intensive task like you say, only maybe converting some songs to my SonicStage Network Walkman, or maybe reencoding a Divx video.
In the games department I played on my T42p games like San Andreas, NFS Most Wanted. I'm not looking to get a super fast processor or something, I'm more concerned about battery life. If the T9300 would yield lower idle/load temps than the T7250 then that's where I'm shooting at.
So it would be nice if you have owned a T7250 &/or T9300 to post your opinion here

 

If money is the issue, why not get a t8100 or t8300? I would assume they are a good amount cheaper than the t9300, and you would be getting a penryn so they should run cooler and use less energy. My biggest thing would be, is it worth the extra $$$ to get a new machine vs. a refurb/used machine?

 

Yes mullen you are right, on eBay there are T61 SXGA+ machines new that have the T8100. I thing I found the best suitable price erformance ratio.

I found this list:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

The comparison:
Intel Core2 Duo T9300 @ 2.50GHz 1734 60
Intel Core2 Duo T8100 @ 2.10GHz 1290 79

Pretty negligible the difference between those to. I think I'm going for the T8100.

 

The price/performance sweetspot for me 4months ago was the t8300. Not sure what it is currently.