New 410 or upgrade my 400?

I don't think it a good idea to wait for disasters to come and recover your data from a failure disk. BACKUP YOUR DATA, to wherever you can and whenever you can, regardless SSD or HDD. I usually replicate my personal data at least three times, and it may be not enough.

@Tony: SSD clear/write cycle is a little complicated, I'll explain to you later. In simplest, SLC chip is faster and lasts longer, but SSDs depends mainly on controllers, and now we have MLC SSDs which is faster than most SLC SSD.

SSD is just another storage device, so you can backup data to anything you need. You can use a 64/128GB SSD as boot drive, and a 2nd HDD (ultrabay) or external HDD, whatever you would like.

@lines of sight: ...some 64/80GB SSDs have already been cheap enough (below 200$) to get them. I would buy the G.Skill Phoenix Pro 60GB for 150$, it can hit 50.000 (50 thousands) IOPS, which is really impressive.

 

I see in your sig you haven't 'undervolted' your T9400. What does this accomplish, exactly? (less power of course... but)

 

Sorry for diverting the main issue concerning this thread. But, thanks. Yes, FoxitReader does not look bad at all. I'll check on their Phantom. My work involves, inter alia, editing PDFs, inserting comments etc in PDFs, which is why the editing package is essential.

Also, I removed those programs that you suggested (with the exception of OneNote) from the startup. Slight (but not much) difference.

 

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll look into this. But at $150 for 60GB it is still expensive - at least for me. The second-gen Intel SSDs have also been highly recommended.

I wonder if in the interim moving to a 7200rpm HDD would be wiser. I am sure a faster spinning HDD will have an impact on battery life (which is important but not critical). The question is: to what extent?

Also, a faster spinning HDD does not generate more heat than a 5400rpm drive does it?

 

And also generates less heat, I would guess.

 

the sig was not edited long time ago, the CPU has been undervolted

///for Foxit Reader: I refused to use it the first time because I think its GUI is ugly. But now I can't work without it. fast, tab-based, needed-functions, what do you need more?

 

hehe. Figured you had done it by now. But is that the benefits: Less heat and less power (more batt life)?

 

well, 2.5$/GB is much more expensive than HDD, but in term of "value of use", I think it cheap. I'm using some "big" software, such as Visual Studio 2008, and when I open a large project, the HDD drives me crazy. IMO, SSD is not faster, but it probably save you from getting stress. Live better, work faster, feel happier, WOW!

7200rpm HDD is not more power-consumption than 5400 rpm one. it requires more power to work, but it works faster, and overall, the difference is insignificant.

 

Cutting out the startup is one thing, switching off services is another. This can be messy because different users have different needs so I can't just blindly tell you to turn off some services that you may actually need (just like the OneNote incident ). Though I probably can say you can turn off the Tablet PC Input Service on your R400 and the Parental Controls!

You can try visiting this site which tells you which services are vital to leave on and which are not necessary. They will even tell you what each service does specifically so you can make your mind up whether it's necessary or not. It may be long winded but once done you should be able to trim a number of resources that load up on your computer everytime.

 

my CPU has been undervolted from 1.1875v to 1.075v (worse than the old one), and it gets about 5-7 Celsius drop. In term of battery life, I didn't measure it but I think I can get 15-20 minutes longer

 

@hearst555 & vimvq1987...thanks! Foxit looks good. I downloaded and installed the PDF Viewer, which has all the commenting stuff. Am testing it now, but it looks good.

@hearst555...thanks for the link! Very helpful.

@vimvq1987...re: HDD (7200rpm)...thanks for the clarification.

 

The vid card is good, a very nice machine but I could not stand a 1280x screen in the year 2010.

 

That is my huge pause. Plus, the T400's on ebay and the like are going SO CHEAP! It is ridonkulous!

I don't remember which video I went with.. I have to believe I went discrete since I do game on occasion (much less than I used to)

So, I think I will go with an upgrade to my existing system...

 

The T410 seems "bigger" than the T400 (bulkier). I would prefer slimmer..My fingers get stuck on the texture on the track pad. More Plastic feel. Biggest positive is better battery life compared to T400.

My gripes with T60: Absolutely useless core solo model, would blue screen every time I plug in external projector. Loud fan, screen yellowish (underpowered, completely useless, would take 20 min to boot WxP despite 7200 rpm disk.)

T60p: Buggy graphics driver, battery life 30 mins on 6 cell, blue screens randomly, loud fan. Screen better than T60. Runs hot and Flaky. (unreliable)

T61: Reliability improvement compared to T60/60p. Screen yellowish. Eats battery despite slow CPU and no Graphics. (booring)

T400: Physically like the T61 but improved in every area, trackpad, graphics, screen, 802.3n WLAN, despite high frequency still runs cool and quiet!

 

Thank you good tip! but why do the icons become 3x3 pixel content and 30x30 pixel background? Its much better now though...

 

T410 is only slightly thicker, but other dimensions should be pretty much the same.

T60... a classic Thinkpad. Regarding Core Solo model, most of the T60 were sold with Core Duo or Core 2 Duo. Whether or not T60 had the Core Solo CPU really doesn't affect you, unless you got it thinking it was a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo.

BSOD prblem with external projector sounds like a driver problem or a vga cable problem.

T60 had many different screens, 15 inch model with the SXGA+ should be IPS, which is the best screen possible.

20 min boot time? whoa you must have heavy stuff running in the background. It should not take more than 5 minutes, if it is a new install 3 minutes is the typical bootup time.

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T60p graphic driver is okay under XP, 30 min under 6 cells? You must be performing some heavy graphical work with 7200 rpm running at full throttle. Usually it is 90 minutes battery time under a new 6 cells.

BSOD is usually a driver related problem.

Running hot is due to the T7xxx and the FireGL graphics card, it is a workstation grade laptop. Also, i don't think you can get any better screen than the IPS on the T60p.
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T61 screen quality depends on whether you got the Samsung or the LG panel, LG panel is much better and have less colour shift/tinge issues.

T61 had either the Nvidia or Intel GPU. Regarding CPU speed this depends on what you have. T61 were available with the T9xxx CPU, so they are not really that slow.
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T400 does have a better trackpad. Graphics card is a ATI 3470 which is not a lot of improvement over the Nvidia issue in terms of performance. Screen wise that depends on which one you got, some of the T400 LCD were directly derived from the T61 stockpile.

T61 also had the wireless-n WLAN.

T400 doesn't run any cooler than a T61 with a T8xxx or T9xxx CPU and intel GPU.

 

SO... the Processes killing me?

Kaspersky (thought this was supposed to be a good one)
And, Host process for WIndows services

Kaspersky can hit 75% and higher while updating.

Um... Eset seems to work better on my other systems.
What about Microsofts new free security software? any good?

Thanks
T

 

@tony487...Microsoft's MSE is quite good actually and lightweight too. But it is NOT a full suite like Kaspersky or other comparable AVs.

I use MSE on my machines and have not had a problem. There are extensive threads discussing MSE on the AV section of NBR...you should check them out.

 

I will be checking that out.

So, if I am pulling this thing apart, should I consider a keyboard replacement? I don't know if I am not used to what it should be, but the board seems solid to me. Maybe an 'if it ain't broke don't fix it?"

 

@tony487...if you don't have a problem with the keyboard why would you want to change it?

 

I tried all different kind of drivers, the integrated graphics seems extremely fragile here. Presenting at customers you don't have much choice. Embarrassing to the extreme when the customer would pull out his HP/Dell and no issues. The T42 seemed much better also.

You are correct, all machines have the 14" 1400x1000/900

On my T60p the problems are random in nature, tried to always update drivers, but still suffer issues. As for stability, Second life would 100% kill the machine, same as "Volvo the game". I am sure more recent non-lenovo drivers could improve the situation, but I am not that inclined to mess the machine up.

You are correct, my T61 have the Intel GPU, 20% of the times coming out of standby the screen have ghosting, requiring a reboot to clear. (7300 CPU)

Looking at them side by side makes it obvious that my T61 is not sharing panel with my T400. T400 and T410 are similar though. As for graphics performance the T60p have so many issues, that both T400/T410 lack. They both provide good enough graphics performance for me without all the issues.

For the Intel GPU models I have (t60/t61) both have one issue or the other, either projector BSOD or ghosting.

Thats why in my case the T400 is a relief. I would not discard the T61p either which seems better compared to my T61/T60p versions.


My dream ThinkPad would have the T410 Core 7 internals in a T400 housing and with the T61 keyboard.

 

If you get the T9900 CPU in the T400, the speed performance should be comparable to a i5-540m.

The only thing i like about the T410 is the eSATA/usb port and the displayport. But the one piece palmrest and keyboard bezel really sucks, since this prevents user from changing the palmrest by themselves.

 

Cuz I have read over and over that it is flex-y. Course, it isn't to me so... changing it would be silly.

I guess part of it is that I never knew how springy other keyboards were until I had this one... and, wow, what if changing it would be even better.

I do see some flex in certain areas, but I have to specifically push hard, trying to cause flex... not really a 'real-use' concern.I do get a creak under my right palm.

 

New thought... if I were to order the T410, can I switch out the screens?

I have the WXGA+ (1440x900) on my T400 but the T410 is either unconfigurable with that OR, if it is an option, it will delay shipping by at least 4 weeks.

 

but that will void your warranty, also is your T400 LED LCD or the CCFL LCD?

 

LED (the paperwork says LEDB (LED Backlit?)
I added the details to my sig (finally). I think I only had the 1 year warranty...

 

Installs differently? How? Is there something special I would need to do?

Thanks!

 

When you install Windows 7 the procedures will exactly be the same as you're installing on a normal HDD. Though the only minor intervention you'll need to do with a SSD is that you'll need to load the Intel Rapid Storage drivers first before installing the OS (some people report better SSD performance doing this way). Windows 7 will automatically detect the SSD and tweak the OS accordingly for you (i.e. disable Disk Defragment) so you don't need to do anything on this part.

Though not all options will be fully optimised for SSD use (i.e. disable Hibernate mode as this dumps an image of the desktop on your SSD when not in use = more wear), you can check some sites (such as this) or some SSD threads on this site that can tell you which options/services you can turn off safely on the system.

 

So, the Intel Rapid Storage drivers are not autoinstalled? Will it be obvious when I do this?
Thanks

 

So, my NewEgg package arrived and I will be getting my machine apart and upgraded this evening. I will keep you all posted.

Thanks for all the help and advice