Just purchased my first Thinkpad - a T61p - how did I do?

Well I just made my first Lenovo Thinkpad purchase. I have an old Dell 700m that I have been using for the past 2.5 years and I need more performance out of a laptop. After reading a ton of reviews and laptop information I settled on the Lenovo T61p because it seems to be one of the fastest and well built 15.4 inch widescreen lappys available, plus I got it for a great price.

6459CTO ThinkPad T61p 15 Widescreen

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz 800MHz 4MBL2)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic
15.4 WSXGA+ TFT
NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256MB Open GL)
1 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
100GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo 24X/24X/24X/8X Max, Ultrabay Slim
Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 4965AGN (supporting Centrino Pro)
9 cell Li-Ion Battery
2 year depot 9x5 Next Business Day

$1308.95

The current savings are only good through the 25th of Nov. and there is a 2-3 week build time for the configuration that I wanted. I ordered today to take advantage of the savings and ensure that we will have it buy Christmas.

I plan to install Vista Enterprise ed. from my MSDN subscription and am going to order this additional 2GB of memory from Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145172

How did I do? Any recommendations from current T61p owners?

 

so so
good enough to keep order, no bragging rights at that price lol.

 

Decent price for a thinpad. You could have gotten a little better price through cpp. I would highly suggest you get the accidental damage coverage though.

 

FYI, there is a good chance the actual ship time may be much faster that the current estimated ship date on your order. I just ordered a T61p on 11/15, with an original estimated ship date of 12/11.

However, it actually shipped on 11/17 and is currently scheduled to arrive 11/19 (although I'll believe that when I see the UPS truck stop in front of my house).

 

An excellent deal...can you just tell us *how* you got it? I just tried going to the Lenovo web site and configuring an identical system, and it comes out to $1,594.00...I can't get the "holiday savings" to apply to a custom configured T61p, it only shows up for their T61 systems. I only ask because I purchased exactly the same T61p configuration two weeks ago (with a 3 year depot warranty instead of 2 year depot), and mine was $116 more, even with a 10% discount code. I'd sure love to know how you got a quote for $1308, it'd save me some money via price matching!

 

I got min for $1,550 with tax and 3 year depot warranty. Check my sig for specs.

 

I did order through CPP. How would you get a better price?

 

Just go to http://www.lenovo.com/cpp and use access code: 992299
Then configure the T61p as above.

 

What's the CPP?
Also I am concerned about nice price.
Would you tell me how can I make nice deal?
I just hope nice price after thanksgiving...

 

Nice specs, is it possible for you to have gone for 2 gigs of RAM and vista home premium?

 

I am buying an additional 2GB stick of Memory from Newegg for 1/4 of the price so I will have 3GB total.

I also have an MSDN subscription, so I will wipe Vista Basic and install Vista Enterprise when I get the T61p.

 

How does one qualify for CPP?

 

I cant signin when I use CCP.
I think I should not use CCP.. but, very cheap it's true!!
Hey schnieds. Can I use CCP? I didn't make contract.
And should I order same spec?

 

you have to use the code to sign in. Ill post if I get any deals.

 

Can I order diffrent spec or X-series??

 

That looks like a big change from your previous laptop. Any reason why you decided to go with a much larger screen?

It looks pretty good to me, but I would hold off on Vista until SP1 comes out.

 

The CPP code that I posted is open to friends and family of CPP members (IBM or Lenovo contractors.) Since it is friends and family anyone can use it.

 

Sure, it applies to any Lenovo item. Log in and check it out.

 

I got the thin & light Dell 700m because I was taking it with me to develop my business application before work for about a year. I was willing to sacrifice speed & performance for the portability. Now I only need to travel with the laptop about a month a year, during which I don't mind carrying the larger machine around. This will primarily give me a workstation / gaming machine to use while my wife is playing with pictures of our son on our desktop.

 

Thanks schnieds, now I understand how you got such a good deal! I doubt I'd be able to get a price match on mine, but I can live with the small difference. Nice find, and if I might say, excellent build configuration. It shows you really understand what's important and what's not really a "must have" upgrade. Now excuse me while I go overclock my fingerprint reader.

 

There is also a link to the "outlet" on the main page once you log into cpp. It has some really good deals on t60 and t61's.