Ordering a T500, quick question ....

I've decided to order a T500 for my company.

Trying to decide on the 2.5 or 2.8 mghz, I don't mind the extra power but I'm wondering if it will make the notebook run hotter or drain the battery faster and will I notice any benefit of getting the 2.8 processor.

Also, is the Turbo memory option worth it? I'm going to go for the 320gb 5400 hard drive as well.

Any other do's / don'ts / suggestions?

Prices are really good on the T500's right now, (Lenovo Canada).

 

You wont notice a difference between 2.5 and 2.8ghz speed wise, but temperature and battery life maybe slightly (not worth it). Don't get turbo memory. DO get 64bit windows so you can register 4g of ram if the upgrade is free. Make sure to get 1 DIMM 2g memory if you do get 2g.

 

Thanks, how come the turbo memory is a bad idea?

I was going to get Vista Ultimate, maybe 64 bit Vista business is a better idea, is there many benefits to it?

 

ah, I understand you now on the turbo memory, the search button works wonders, I think I'll stick with the 2.5 mghz.

I didn't consider the 7200 rpm HD because of concerns of heat and battery drain and I've read 320gb/5400 rpm drives are just as fast?

CHK - how are you liking your T500 so far, I'm typing on a x301 right now, love it but the screen isn't that great imo ...

 

T9600 v. T9400: Both have the same TDP, so they will run at almost the exact same termperature and consume the exact same battery. The extra clock speed, in the majority of cases, is not worth the price premium. Lenovo recently added the option of the P8700 to the T500 series, which run at 2.53ghz, the same as the T9400. It has, however, half the L2 cache, at 3MB. But, it also runs at a lower TDP, of 25W, giving better battery life, at a lower price. There is, however, a delay of 3-4 weeks if you select this option. I would suggest that you do, if you do not mind the delay, because it is a very good deal.

7200RPM v. 5400RPM: With 7200RPM disks, random reads will always be faster than 5400RPM disks. However, in sustained transfer speeds, a large, high-density 5400RPM disk will perform roughly the same as a lower density 7200RPM disk. But, most of the observed "speed" of a computer depends on random read speeds, so a 7200RPM disk will be a better choice. Heat and battery life differences between 7200RPM and 5400RPM disks are pretty negligible.

Turbo Memory: The performance increase is generally thought to be not worth the money - user pinning of programs does make them launch faster, though.

 

If you aren't afraid of upgrading it yourself, a user bought hard drive is the best way to go. You can get a quality 320GB 7200RPM drive for ≈$100, or a god 320GB 5400RPM drive for ≈$70. Just get the cheapest drive available and swap it yourself (you may also need a USB SATA enclosure to clone the drives).

MidnightSun is right that a 7200RPM drive will have a faster seek speed. A high density 5400RPM drive will equal or exceed a low density 7200RPM drive for sequential transfers however. Power and noise impacts are minimal as long as you pick a quality drive (I have the Hitachi 5k320 5400RPM drive, and the general preference among 7200RPM drives for power/heat/noise is the Seagate 7200.3).

Turbo memory is almost certainly a waste of money, and its performance impact is minimal. If you want to get the same thing on the cheap, just buy a 2GB SD card for ≈$10 and use it for ReadyBoost.

The P8700 is probably a great choice if you can wait. If you can't wait, and heat/battery life is important to you, I would just get the P8600.

 

Finally ordered my T500 -

ThinkPad T500
Intel Core 2 Duo processor T9400 (2.53GHz, 6MB L2,1066MHz)1
Genuine Windows Vista Business 64
15.4" WXGA TFT with LED Backlight
ATI Mobility Radeon 3650 with 256MB
4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 (2 DIMM)
Integrated fingerprint reader
320GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm4
DVD Recordable, Ultrabay Slim5
6 cell Li-Ion Battery60
Camera Integrated Camera Module
Express Card & Smart Card Slots
Bluetooth
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters Intel WiFi Link 5300
Mobile Broadband Integrated WWAN upgradable
3 Year EasyServ + 3 Year ThinkPad Protection for 1 Year EasyServ
- added > Lenovo Wireless Keyboard and Mouse - US
Subtotal: $2,951.00
Sale price: $2,309.75
[CAP48HOURSALE] -$442.66
Shipping and handling: $0.00
GST: $93.35
PST: $149.37
Estimated total: $2,109.81*

Total savings $1,083.91

Hard to say no to that price, glad I waited for this sale too