Just bought R61 for virtulization

I bought direct from Lenovo. Is this a good price or did I get the shaft?

8918CTO ThinkPad R61 Series - 1 Year Express Warranty
8/12/2007** $1,650.00 $1,650.00

Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz 800MHz 4MBL2)[1]
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic[12]
15.4" WXGA
nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M, PC Card/ PCIe
4 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)[8]
100GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm[4]
CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo 24x/24x/24x/8x Max. Ultrabay Enhanced[5]
ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless LAN Mini-PCIe US/EMEA/LA/ANZ[10]
6 cell Li-Ion Battery ( 2.4 Ah )[60]
8918: 1Year Express Warranty

 

SHAFT


--

 

Stop right there.

You might want to look at this thread and weigh the costs and benefits of buying RAM from Lenovo and buying RAM yourself.

I believe that you could have saved several hundred dollars right there.

 

OUTCH! that price is painful. Is it still possible to cancel this order?

 

That's some serious shaft. I got my T61 for cheaper with similar specs for 200 bucks cheaper.

Ditch the 4 GB RAM. First of all, you can get it from somewhere else for WAY cheaper. And unless you are getting a 64-bit OS, which Vista Home Basic is not, the 4 GB will be a total waste.

 

You just got robbed. Check out what I paid for a T61. The only difference is 2 mg of ram (waste), everything else on mine is same or better (dvd + Wifi+ XPpro)

6459CTO CTO THINKPAD T61 WIDESC 1 $1,357.20
42V8190 SBB INTEL CORE 2 DUO 1 $0.00
46P4166 VBB MICROSOFT WINXP PRO 1 $0.00
42V8376 SBB MS WIN XP PROF.US E 1 $0.00
42V8287 SBB 15.4 WSXGA+ TFT 1 $0.00
42X0818 SBB NVIDIAQUAD NVS 140M 1 $0.00
41W2063 VBB 2GB PC2-5300 667MHZ 1 $0.00
42V8195 SBB KEYBOARD US ENGLISH 1 $0.00
42V8297 SBB UN(TRCKP TOUCHPAD)F 1 $0.00
42V8169 SBB 100GB HDD,7200RPM 1 $0.00
42V8172 SBB DVD REC.8XMAXDUAL L 1 $0.00
42X0805 VBB PC CARDSLOT EX CARD 1 $0.00
42V8177 SBB INT.WIRE.WIFI/LINK4 1 $0.00
62P6054 VBB INTEGR.BLUETOOTH PA 1 $0.00
41W1508 SBB 6 CELL LI-ION BATTE 1 $0.00
39T6442 SBB COUNTRY PACK NORTH 1 $0.00
27R1769 SBB PSTN CABLE 1 $0.00
42X1487 SBB LP US ENGLISH 1 $0.00
42X1232 SBB NEWINTELLAB_DUALCOR 1 $0.00
42V9665 SBB FCC, LABEL 1 $0.00
42X1482 SBB BLUETOOTH W/ ANTENN 1 $0.00
42X1483 SBB BLUETOOTH SCREW 1 $0.00
42V8631 SBB 15WSXGAW/BTW/OWWANW 1 $0.00
39T6440 SBB 56K V.92 DESIGNED M 1 $0.00
42V8654 SBB CL.PLATE T61WLAN BL 1 $0.00
41W1749 SBB GEO LABEL US WLAN B 1 $0.00
41W2300 SBB LOGO PLATE 1 $0.00
42V8607 SBB INT.WLAN ANTENNA 15 1 $0.00
42V8229 SBB MS LABEL (XP) 1 $0.00
42X0877 SBB MT 6459 SYSTEM LABE 1 $0.00
42X0850 SBB MECH MISC PARTS 1 $0.00
42V8601 SBB NO UWB ANTENNA 1 $0.00
42V8239 SBB ODD SW DVD REC 1 $0.00
42X0995 SBB PC CARD SLOT EXP.CA 1 $0.00
42V8612 SBB ST LCD COVER/BEZEL 1 $0.00
42X0840 SBB NVIDOANVS140M W/WWA 1 $0.00
42V8300 SBB 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 6 2 $0.00
42T6638 SBB PACK. US, 15.4" 1 $0.00

 

i dont even know how its possible to price a r61 that high...i think he's just messing with us

 

How are you planning to virtualize? Xen? VMWare? Which will be your host OS Windows? Linux?

You definitely want 4GB RAM, but I would cancel that order and do some price checking as stated above. It may turn out cheaper to get the smallest ram possible from Lenovo, and then just buy 2 GB sticks.

I tend to think Vista will suck for virtualization as it brings alot to the table in terms of over head, if you are buying this laptop because you plan to run many different OS's and use those virtual OSs over your real OS, then I bet Windows XP will get better scores since it has a smaller footprint.

 

You paid around $300 to much

 

Just for comparison purposes, (and to maybe add something constructive since I've done nothing but lurk around these boards for a month or so now) I ordered an R61 same day as you with these specs for $1,058 after taxes, which includes 3-yr. warranty.

SBB INTEL CORE 2 DUO PRCESST7300
VBB MICROSOFT WINXP PROFESSION
SBB 14.1 WXGA TFT,W/OCAM.
VBB 1GB PC2-5300 667MHZ 2DIMM
SBB 80GB HDD,5400RPM

 

Yes, XP would be faster and more memory conservative. But, the problem is the 3.15GB access. Win Server 2003 x86 can go around this problem using the PAE and access your 4GB.

I would recommend you to run Windows Server 2003 x86 if you want to be able to install most of the drivers without problems (XP-drivers on the Windows Server 2003). Linux is not so bad choice either, but I have managed to run the Windows Server 2003 x86 with LESS than 100MB even WITH the IIS services running in the background. If you use the x64-version, then it will consume more memory (around 160 MB of your RAM). With Linux (Fedora Core 7 x64) I have not been able to press the memory usage below 180MB, but I have not given it so much time yet.

Just imagine, around only 100MB for the OS and the rest you can put on your virtual machines! If you go for Vista, that blood sucker will steal almost 1GB of your precious memory with all its fancy effects and crapware that you will get tired of already after the second time you boot your machine!

 

Like I said guys...I think this is a troll post...I think he's just trying to amuse himself by getting a reaction out of us

 

Well I work in a server room, where we have virtualized several systems.

It really depends on what Virtualization system you use. If you use Xen even on 32 bit distros you will see 4GB of RAM. The problem with 4GB @32bit comes from kernel stress. But when you use virtualization this changes since your kernel is no longer actively mapping 4GB. If you had 3 Virtual machines each setup for 1GB, and your host OS is desiring 1GB, then your host OS is actually going to map only 1GB, as your hypervisor is going to chop up the remaining 3GB.

Alternatively if you use VMWare on a 32bit OS you will see 3.5GB because VMWare does not modify the kernel like Xen does. Xen = Linux, I only have experience with VMWare on windows. Windows Server supports virtualization as well, and I suspect they are similar to VMWare.

But just because you can use a 32bit OS to see the memory doesn't mean you should, 64bit is a killer for servers. Which is why he needs to plan based on what he is going to do with virtualization, if he wants to do software development I would definitely get a 64bit OS since 32bit is fully backwards compatible, if he is strapped for cash he could go with an older 32bit system and still see cheap thrills though.

 

What I do not like with XEN is that it is slower compared to VMWare and Virtual Server (yeah, I know, Micro$oft, may sound strange but it is true!)

We compared them on Dell PowerEdge 2950 and benchmarked. To our suprise, we saw that Virtual Server was not so far behind VMWare ESX 2.5.3 and some disk operations were even faster than the ESX server!! And about XEN.. arrfff... Maybe it was because of the hardware..?

VirtualBox has a pretty impressive OS-startup speed and the compatibility issues are also very nice, but well inside an OS (tried only Windows Server 2003 x86), it performs worse than VMWare and Virtual Server.

Now I know that this is an unfair comparission, since you can not even install the ESX-server on your R6x machine, but maybe good to know.

 

Well for those of you close to a BestBuy in the US you can probably still buy a T60 4483-gzu for about $999.00 that is list for 1599.00 intel 5500 1 GB mem 15.4 widescreen 1600 resolution. Last week there is still some in there inventory and comes with Vista

 

The problem with that is that there's no bluetooth, no dvd-r, and no wxga+ screen...and it's an older 1.66 processor....I was thinking about getting that computer too..but when you price it out with discounts...you get a better price through lenovo.....unless someone can't wait for shippping

lenovo has seemed to gotten better on shipping...i placed a order on 8/10 and it shipped on 8/13...i was shocked..especially when it said it'll ship on the 30th