Ok I just ordered a new T42 - some final questions

Boy am I excited! I just ordered a Thinkpad T42 2379DXU. I ordered it with a 15" screen, Pentium M 735 1.7, 1 gig of RAM, 64 megs of video ram (ATI Mobile Radeon 9600), 60 gig hard drive (7200 rpm)and it comes with Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG. Some questions:

1) I know IBM says that one can get around 4 or more hours of battery life on the standard battery. Given that I chose the 7200 rpm hard drive, will this drain the battery quicker? Any ideas how many hours I'll get out of a charge?

2) The machine comes with Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG - is this better than "IBM 11b/g WIFI wireless" or are they the same thing quality and feature-wise?

3) As I mentioned, this model comes with a Pentium M 735 1.7ghz processor, 1 gig of RAM, 64 meg video card, 7200 rpm hard drive. I'm curious.. the desktop I currently own has an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 1.67ghz processor with 1.5 gigs of RAM, a 128 meg video card, and a 7200 rpm hard drive. Would one expect me to see a noticeable increase or decrease in performance in the Thinkpad in comparison? I'm assuming games would run better on my desktop, but will they be acceptable on the Thinkpad?

4) How is the sound quality of the audio card and speakers?

5) I have a 2.4ghz cordless phone - has anyone had trouble with WIFI interference from cordless phones? I'm wondering if I should have got WIFI type a since it runs on 5.0ghz instead of 2.4...

6) What is a token-ring card-bus adapter?

7) What do people typically find effective for security solutions? The IBM website seems to sell a whole bunch of options...

8) Any comments re: this model? It looks like a great set up to me, I'm excited to get it!

Jeremy

 

Hi jeremy31,

1. The 7200 drive won't change the amount of time by more than 5 minutes on the battery. don't know how long, my R40 was just as described 6 hours 20 min. If IBM says 4 hours it will be pretty close to that.

2. I think the Intel cards are probably better, but not enough to make a noticable difference.

3. checkout this thread. It compares different processors speeds to calc pi to 2 million places, it will give an idea of how it will perform.
http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2657
I can't say if games will run better on your desktop, your notebook processor will perform better, but the graphics chip in your notebook is not as good as the video card I would guess(you don't give a model)

4.They don't have audio cards, it is just a chip on the motherboard. To tell you the truth, the audio is the worst part of the whole notebook, IBM machines are not ment for gaming or music really. They are more a number cruncher/business system. If you use headphones you will be ok I suppose, but the sound coming out of the speakers is neither very load or really high quality. If your not an audiophile at all, it is acceptable for watching film clips and movies if your right in front of the notebook.

5. No it doesn't matter.

6. Something you don't need to worry about, an old type of network card used in business a long time ago. I suppose some still use them.

7. I set the BIOS& supervisor passwords, as well as set the hard drive passwords and set passwords for the XP login and use the security chip too. With this set, if anyone takes the notebook they will never be able to use it or the hard drive. With the hard drive locked, it can't even be formatted or read or written at the lowest level and with the security chip set, they only way is to replace the security chip and they are not cheap; like $150 or more + labor and IBM won't even touch the security chip unless you can prove onwership. Basically they would have stolen a brick that they can take and sell the memory out of cause that is the only thing that will work until they invest in a new motheboard if they can get IBM to just sell them one. This is one of the coolest features I think, use it! don't make it easy for the the people stealing them.

8. Looks great, wish I had it and you should be excited!

Jack


The color of justice in america is green.
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

Congrats jeremy31, I just ordered my T42 23733UU and should get it Monday, so I share your excitement! Sounds like our T's have a lot in common with the exception of your 15.0 screen, I opted for the 14.1. I think you HD is 20gigs bigger as well, sounds like a nice machine;-)

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T42 2373-3UU