Just ordered X300 with huge discount!

Bought my X61s about a year ago and love it. Wife wants a new laptop and luckily I held out on buying one until after christmas. The new Lenovo coupons are outrageous. 30% off of already discounted price. saved a total of $1500 off my order . Would have loved to get the X301 but wifey wouldn't let me , plus it's still overpriced.

Anyways my question to fellow forum members is:

Is the 64gb solid drive upgradeable? I use vista ultimate and know that it takes up a lot of space, but i couldn't upgrade the x300 to the 128gb ssd drive only the x301's can.

Can anyone share there experience with their 64gb ssd. Does it provide enough storage space for other things or are you at the limit most of the time?

 

Yes it is upgradeable, but it's a 1.8" drive which complicates things because they don't make near as many of them. You can slim down Vista using vLite if you have the install disc. Congrats on the machine.

 

I'm thinking about selling my T400 and order a X300 because T400 is not portable carrying to university everyday. But I hear that the screen on X300 is horrible, the fan is loud and the processor is slow. How is the screen of X300 in comparison with T400. I like 13.3" display, 14.1" is little big and 12" is too small. Any advice??

 

I'm currently using the x61s. Screen is standard vs wide so it took a little getting used to. Plus it doesn't have that bright gloss or shine that many other laptops have...it's rather a dull finish but it does the job. The processor is slower because of the form factor and to save battery power. These are ultraportables and aren't meant for gaming. Can't wait to get the x300....been waiting a long time for a reason to get another laptop!

 

Not sure where you heard that about the screen but mine is fine. The CPU being slow just depends on what your doing. I loved mine so much and lets not forget the coffie spill story that I ordered another one. If they keep the 30% coupon I will make the X300 our standered deployed laptop. As far as the HD size, well ya 64 gigs isn't much but you have to rem what "line of work" this laptop fits in. For us its perfect.

ym

 

My screen is fine; my fan is silent; my processor is fine for what I use the system for.

 

hey ym did you reformat after you got yours? I'm wondering how much space that would free up?

 

and the patience and waiting game begins. The order tracking system on lenovo is kinda worthless. It just says in process, they should at least add more detail such as in what process it's at....

 

, that's a really good offer, it's a shame Lenovo don't have that kind of offer over here in the UK

 

To XG1,
yes no and other wise. Mine came with the XP downgrade. Which was fine but got boring so I grabbed the restore disks that came with it and installed vista. Which as much as I hate it, its actually grown on me. Then there's windows 7 build 7000 that i just got done playing with. "side note" not impressed at all. Simply just a face lift to vista. Only bonus was its not a ram hog. Anyway moving on I'm back on vista for now. Who knows maybe I will go totally retro and install win95 hehe. But seriously I have fallen in love with my X300. Even though my Dell 2400 is my work horse.

ym

 

Where is the coupon? I think it should be mandatory to mention where to get the coupon if a coupon is mentioned so that we do not have to go trapsing all over the place to scout it out. Dave

 

The reason is much cheaper because they replace the cheap MLC SSD instead of SLC, but it's ok, since the price is low.
the coupon code is USPX300DEC15

 

Is that confirmed that the current x300s are shipping MLC SSDs instead of SLC SSDs???

 

If it is indeed shipping with an MLC SSD that cools the deal significantly. Kind of a bait & switch if you ask me. I've said it before - manufacturers should be required to tell consumers what kind of SSD is included in the system. There is a *huge* amount of variation in performance among SSDs and it is misleading to simply list a notebook as having an "XXX GB SSD!!!!!" and play off of the marketing hype. They would never get away with listing a HDD as "100GB HDD" without rpm info but this is essentially what they are doing with SSDs.

 

Im going to check this HD info and see. My lappy was from the depot which oddly enough came with 3 restore disks. The one I order with that coupon didn't come with any so it looks like I will have to burn them. But I can and will check and see if the new one came with a different HD type.

ym

Edit, well its looks like its true. Mine has a P/N of 42T1897 and just says 64GBSSD. The new one has a P/N 41w0517 and clearly states its a MLC drive.
However with both atto and HDscan there isn't much difference if at all. If anything the MLC shows its slightly faster.

 

The one problem with MLC drives (especially the cheap ones w/ JMicron controllers [e.g. OCZ core]) was their performance with lots of small simultaneous writes.

I think the newer MLC drives (Intel 80GB, G-Skill 64/128GB, and others) are a lot better in this regard (almost on par for writes with the 64GB Samsung SLC that the x300 originally had) and actually outperform SLC drives for reads (especially sequential reads).

I have also read that MLC drives have a lower number of maximum write cycles, but I have not heard of any failing.

The new MLC drive is probably fine (and is one of the key ways the price of the x300 is going down as the 64GB SLC drive that shipped with the x300 retailed for ≈$800), but computer makers definitely should list whether SSDs are SLC or MLC (and ideally manufacturer and model as well, although I think this can vary).

 

I agree they should have listed it. It still wouldn't have kept me from buying the 2nd one though knowing it was MLC. BTW there both samsung drives. Shrug.

 

This seriously makes me happy that I have secured for myself two SLC 1.8" SSD from Lenovo along with two 2.5" adapter.

By the way, the MLC version of the Samsung SSD is at least 10MB/sec slower than the SLC counterpart with regards to read/write.

 

I'd like to order an X300 today. I've done a ton of research, but I have two questions:

1. Is it worth buying it at CompUSA or OfficeDepot for the on-location service plan?

2. Do the ones at CompUSA/OfficeDepot have the SLC SSD, or do all of the ones being sold have the MLC?

Thanks very much,
RS

 

To Zephir. you said "By the way, the MLC version of the Samsung SSD is at least 10MB/sec slower than the SLC counterpart with regards to read/write."

From my tests its actually the opposite. And no where near a 10mb difference.

 

I have a 128GB Samsung MLC, which is essentially identical in spec with the Samsung MLC that Lenovo is using now, and I observe a decrease of about 12MB/sec for both read and write in the MLC compared to the SLC.
Are you sure you are doing a comparison between MLC and SLC SSD?

 

AS far as I can tell yes. The newer one clearly states its a MLC drive where the older one doesn't. Checking the P/N of the older one which I listed in my other posts is over 1700 bucks so I would think its the SLC version.

ym

 

I wouldn't buy from CompUSA/OfficeDepot for a "on-location service plan". The warranties offered by retailers are almost never worth it. I have always had good luck with IBM/Lenovo's depot service. If you buy from a retailer (brick and mortar or online) you should make sure you get one with a decent warranty [3 year depot, or on-site (from Lenovo) if you want], just check the type number against the Tabook for details on specs/warranty.

There is a chance the ones at CompUSA/OfficeDepot models may have the SLC SSD (only way to be sure is pull the drive in the store and check the part number) as they may have older stock when the SLC was still standard.

 

Wait wasn't CompUSA going out of Biz? I know they closed every store here in ATL. Other minds want to know.

ym

 

Jon, thanks for your answer. As you can see from the other thread, I'm ordering from Lenovo.

 

I just received my X300 a couple of days ago. Bought it during the lenovo 48 hr sale.

Configuration:
OS: Vista Business x86
RAM: 2 GB DDR2 (upgraded to 4 GB aftermarket)
Battery: 6-cell
Optical Drive: DVD-Writer
WWAN: none

Here are my thoughts so far:

The good:
1. the battery life is good (4.5 hrs web surfing, some installing)
2. the ssd is "snappy" (Vista boot in ~40s)
3. it's light as a feather
4. robustly built
5. stereo speakers
6. powerful power management configurations. You can set thresholds for charging so you don't overcycle your battery, configure lots of power management settings. Pity you can't control the fan speed (see below)

The bad:
1. cooling fan from hell: the fan ramps up from 1900 rpm to 5000 rpm, and doesn't come down afterwards, even once the CPU cools down. The noise was annoying enough that I ended up using a 3rd party program to slow the fan the down to its minimum 1900 rpm, at which pint it was silent and still more than adequately cool.
2. the screen is quite dim and grainy. It's very bright on full, but there isn't a good in-between. As mentioned in the nbr review, the backlight is not very even. I didn't have problems with vertical viewing angles unlike other reviewers, but then I use a PVA on the desktop and adjust my expectations for TN screens (like we see on the x300).
3. the rubberised surface is a fingerprint/bodily oils magnet. I thought only macbooks suffer from this kind of stupidity (wishing for the grainy plastic on thinkpads of yore)
4. no multitouch. lenovo it's 2009, get with the program (fyi multitouch was invented in 1982). The trackpad is too shallow (up/down movements with the mouse are much more common than left/right, what with menus and the start button being at the bottom of the screen). And yes, I do use both the trackpoint and the trackpad as appropriate.
5. A zillion useless startup programs and services. Diskeeper? Hard drive collision sensor? This is a solid state drive for crying out loud!
6. fingerprint scanner seems slower than the one on my toshiba M500

I haven't considered any of the "negatives" that could be construed from system specs - lack of expansion, docking port etc., as a potential buyer ought to have reviewed the specs and would be willing to make those compromises if they were buying one.

All in all, I'm reasonably happy with the machine after tweaking the hell out of it, but for the price, the x300 falls short of perfect in some silly and completely avoidable ways. I seriously hope they have fixed these issues in the x301, because the long list of flaws makes it impossible for me to recommend the x300 to a friend - there are just too many compromises and hidden caveats.

 

In regards to #5 under "the bad", you should use rescue and recovery at bootup and do a "custom restore". This will allow you to do a factory restore and de-select any thinkvantage utilities that you don't want to use (like the collision sensor, access connections, etc) as well as 3rd party apps (diskeeper, etc) while retaining the stability of the factory driver setup. It takes maybe 10 minutes to set up and then let the notebook do it's thing for another 20-30 and then you have a factory fresh clean install.

 

I just used a combination of services.msc, regedit, msconfig and Task Scheduler to weed through the startup programs and services.

However, the point remains that the factory configuration of the X300 is less than optimal. For a stripped down ultraportable such as this, they should have cut the fat out of the operating system as well .

 

What program are you using to make the fan silent?
I am surprised at the fan noise b/c the w500 i have is literally the quietest computer that I've ever owned, and the x200 is reportedly nearly dead silent as well. I have not heard a quieter computer and I'm wondering if the x300 has the "owl-like" fan design.

The second-quietest computer I've had was the macbook pro 15.4 penryn. Although, macs run hot hot, so they probably just adjust the threshold high before the fan kicks in.

 

If you touch X300, it runs pretty cool, the only area you might feel warm is the the top of left. Even the CPU is running at 60 degree C, most areas stay like 28-30 C.

I owned x61s before, it runs pretty quite, but most areas are very warm.

I guess lenovo just want to keep against the damage of motherboard due to the temp

 

TPFanControl

It works with older thinkpad models as well (I know it works with T61, may work with even older models). According to Design Matters on the lenovoblogs, the X300 does use the "owl-like" fan. I guess they never told us it was modelled on the Screeching Owl.

Bear in mind that the X200 chassis is much thicker, so the fan blades will be much wider, which is probably why it is supposed to be quieter.

 

FWIW my x300, built 1/20/2009 has the following under parts lookup:

Mfg/ FRU / Description
42T1897 42T1898 64GB SOLID STATE DRIVE FRU, SAMSUNG, 1.8

Of course, have not opened it up to double check ....

 

thanks for sharing
So....Is this one SLC or MLC?

 

MLC

you are paying much less than before, what would you expect, a SLC????

 

Per an earlier post mine is the SLC version.