Planning on getting a T500, need some advice.

Ok basically I'm not sure what I want.. and was hoping people has some advice.

1. Between Intel Core 2 Duo processor P8700 / T9400 which would be better?
2. Should I downgrade to XP (not a particular fan of vista, and not sure how windows 7 would compare)
3. Is the LED screen worth downgrading resolution from a WSXGA+ to WSGA?
4. Memory, I want to get 4gb, but I dont think it's really all that necessary, and between 3gb and 2gb, I'm thinking of getting 2gb. But should I get 2dimmed or 1 dimmed. I'm thinking of 1 dimmed so in case if I want to upgrade it to 4, I can just slot another one in.
5. Fingerprint / camera - useful or useless?
6. Turbo - is it any help? from what I read, people had troubles with it D:
7. Any existing users, is this a good machine?

Thanks in advance, laptop buying is so much more complicated than desktops D:

 

Maybe give my review a read-through (link is in my signature); that'll give you some more information.

1.- For 95% of users, I would recommend the P8700. Less heat, less power usage (longer battery lifetime) and cheaper. The only con is that it performs a tiny bit worse than the T9400 due to the difference in L2 cache, but that'll likely only be noticeable in benchmarks. But, the thing is, if you really do need a ton of CPU power (ie: video encoding), you should opt for a much more powerful CPU anyway (ie: T9600).

2.- No. Vista gets better battery life, and allows you to use the switchable graphics feature. XP doesnt. Besides, you can order the free Windows XP recovery disks, which you can use to install XP if you would like. Also, if you buy a T500 now, you will get a Windows 7 upgrade kit for free when it is released, so in effect, you will get three operating systems if you order Vista.

3.- The LED screen, from what I heard, is only marginally brighter. Not worth losing all the resolution. I would recommend going with the WSXGA+ CCFL screen.

4.- Get the 2GB of RAM in 1 DIMM. That way, you can, just as you said, buy another 2GB module when you need it (currently ~$25 on Newegg) and install it.

5.- The camera wil be useful if you webcam/use VOIP, otherwise, it's probably not worth it. The fingerprint reader is gimmicky in my opinion, and a pointless waste of money.

6.- No, it's not worth it. Much more worth the money to invest in a faster hard drive, or perhaps an SSD - it will give a much larger boost in performance than Turbo Memory.

7.- Definitely

 

Thanks, and great review, answered a lot of my questions.

Prob end up getting the same specs as you had, but maybe a 6cell instead. Or would you recommend a 9cell?

Also, it appears that the turbo is free..Iunno if I should get it or not but yah..

 

Personally, I would recommend a 9-cell, but that largely depends on your battery life needs. If it's 3-5 hours on integrated graphics, get the 6-cell. If it's more, get the 9-cell.

Well, if it really is free, I would get it. Worst case, it proves to be annoying or doesn't play nice driver-wise and you just remove it (or disable it in Device Manager).

 

I agree with 95% of what 'MidnightSun' wrote except:

If you set a complex user ID and password on your account (good idea for a portable), the fingerprint reader is a huge timesaver and I use it all the time.

 

i agree with midnightsun about the fingerprint reader. i just dont think any of these electrostatic fingerprint readers are anygood. my friend got into my client security authentication with his fingers and i highly doubt we have the same fingerprint but it goes to show unreliability. i think its gimmicky in general. better to save the 20-50 bucks whatever it costs (unless you really like it)

the good finger printer readers are the ones you place your entire thumb on a slide where the computer scans the entire print. then its up to the software for security, but basically its more reliable than the ones they put in most laptops nowadays

 

1) T-series has a much bigger cache, but a higher potential power level. most users will not find much difference. at high needs, the T-series will use more power but will also move things around quicker.
2) if you mostly run on the mains, you don't need the 9-cell battery. if you run on the battery a lot, you will.
3) xp uses much less resources than vista. but it cannot switch between gpu's without rebooting and changing the bios setting(s). a pain, if you intend to switch gpu's. with a good cpu and plenty of ram (3GB+), vista runs very quickly. you may not notice much difference...
3) when i enquired about the xp disks (I have a xp-downgrade from vista business), I was told it would cost me A$86; not free. maybe it is different elsewhere?

 

So it is possible to define which graphics card you want to use in the bios, vista is not necessary to switch (although much more convenient)?

 

Correct. Vista/Lenovo have drivers for the switchable graphics in Vista. I've read you can't do that in XP and you cannot currently do it in Windows 7 (which I run).

You can change the graphic options in the BIOS. This is what I do with Windows 7. I mostly use the integrated graphics and then switch the option in the BIOS when I game to use the discrete ati option.