New R61 Purchase, Did I do OK?

I had a hard time making a decision, but with the pricing I didn't want to miss the current pricing. I could not find a laptop with a bluray drive for anywhere near this price. Only down side is a lack of an HDMI port, but I can live with that. I went with the R series since the laptop is used at home and don't need the roll cage. I think this should be fine for light video editing and general use. I used a corporate discount site + the USXTHRESHOLD coupon.

What do you think?

ThinkPad R61 Series - 1 Year Express Warranty -$1212.43

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T9300 (2.5GHz 800MHz 6MBL2)1
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium12
15.4" WSXGA+,Camera,BT
nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M, PC Card/ PCIe
3 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)8
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad)
160GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm4
ThinkPad Blu-ray Recordable Ultrabay Enhanced Drive5
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (supporting Centrino Pro)10
Integrated Bluetooth PAN
6 cell Li-Ion Battery ( 2.4 Ah )60
8918: 1Year Express Warranty

 

With the specs and the quality of the build I have not seen another quality notebook come any where near this price.


You got a great deal IMO.

 

I agree with SonDa5. You picked up a very good deal, especially with the BlueRay.

 

Wow, very nice deal indeed!

 

I am so BLOODY jealous. Nice.

 

wow man i paid like the same thing for my r61 and it only came with 1 gig from lenovo so i bought a 2 gig stick from newegg for like 100 bucks when i bought it. now the same 2 gig stick from newegg is only like 40 bucks. thats a great deal man does it burn blueray disks or is it just a dvd burner with a blueray drive?

 

I'm right there with you,been sweating it most of the day,took it right down to the wire and decided to go with a T61,I've owned probably a dozen IBM/Lenovo's over the years,and have absolutly loved every one.I've got a Dell M1530 now,and as sleek as it is,just doesn't have the quality/feel of the Lenovo's.Congrats on your purchase

 

The drive is a bluray burner. They were offering $200 off on the drive!

 

Great setup, though I would have ordered the RAM from NewEgg for cheaper. I have the same config except without the Camera, and I have the 80 GB HDD which I will upgrade later to something else. I will say, that the 80 GB 5400 is pretty darn slow. So getting a 7200 would have been my next choice, like the 160 GB 7200. BUT, if you only use a certain % of the 160 GB drive, you should be doing alright. Great purchase though, as I do love mine.

Two things though...and I will be curious to know how you fare:

My latches do not stay shut very well, and I can actually open the cover without using the release. I would say with about 5 LBS of pressure. In addition, I get that pesky whine on high performance mode coming out of the rear vent. Both of these problems "should" be able to be resolved if I send it in for warranty work. BUT, just giving a heads up to look out for those two issues. A few other threads speak to these.

 

I'm considering a very similar setup. I'm just debating between integrated or discreet graphics cards. Will Blu-Ray and other movies play fine on integrated? I'm not planning on gaming - just surfing, movies, etc..

 

I thought about getting the RAM from NewEgg, but the Lenovo prices were OK, plus I didn't have to open the laptop and it will be covered by warranty. If I was going for 4G, I would have certainly purchased from NewEgg, since it would be much cheaper.

I was on the fence about getting a 7200 160G drive, but I have a 120G 5400 in my HP dv6244 and I can live with the performance. Should also cut down on the heat.

I am disappointed to hear of the lid problems, guess I'll see when I get it. I had the CPU whine in my HP, but was able to get rid of it with a BIOS setting. Hope I don't have that issue, it was very annoying.

Just to let everyone know, I had a friend who is an IBM employee price this laptop out with his EPP, my price was $6 less. It looks like the current pricing is very, very good.

 

Even with the surfing, movie watching, etc., I would still go with the Discreet card, in this case, the NVS 140M. Plenty good for everything, even light gaming. If you do hard core gaming, and 3d rendering, then go with a T series.

 

Good deal with the RAM, though I am pretty sure if you go to 4 GB later on, opening up to replace the RAM does not void your warranty. Yeah let me know once you get it on the lid. I havn't gotten good word from anyone else on the lids not closing properly, but we shall see...