Please share your thoughts on the T500

I'm currently shopping for a notebook for my dad and I have absolutely no experience with Lenovo other than reading what a few people on here have said.

My dad currently has an old Toshiba Satellite with very average specs but he loves that thing. He is very business oriented and quality is his biggest concern in a notebook, hence why I'm interested in a Lenovo. I think I'd get him the T500 with discrete graphics as he likes to play some older games once in a long while.

My questions for you guys are:

Given his primary concern about quality, would Lenovo be my best bet? He wants something to last him a very long time with no problems.

How is the build quality and heat in the T500 with the ATI 3650? The build quality and the way a notebook cools itself is extremely important to me. I'd prefer something that is very efficient in this area without having to purchase a notebook cooler.

Lastly, is there any particular components that you would recommend getting when I'm purchasing my notebook? I'm thinking of getting the LED screen and the Intel 5300 wifi card, while keeping my RAM and hard drive stock so that I could upgrade these on my own.

Thanks for all the help.

 

I can highly recommend the T500 - although it is my first Lenovo and I did not have it for long, I am very satisfied with it. Build quality is excellent in my opinion (although you might read that compared to older ThinkPads the quality is just not the same ... I think it is still above competition).

The cooling is excellent I too sometimes game with it and there is no problem with heat. Of course it blows out hot air while you are gaming. I have it on a table at these times, so I am not really experienced if you could have it in your lap while gaming.

Lenovo upgradeability really blows away others. There are even video tutorials how to perform upgrades, like removing the hard drive or adding more RAM. You can find these in the sticky threads of the Lenovo forums.

I myself do not have the LED screen. And besides, I prefer the higher resolution on this one. Brightness is quite good - for example compared with my previous notebook (an Acer) the T500 is so much brighter.

Others in the forums can probably tell you how long a ThinkPad can last. But need I say more that by default ThinkPads are the only notebooks you get 3 years of warranty with by default (in Finland, at least).

Do you have any other models/brands in mind that you are looking at also?

 

Thanks for the response.

I don't really have any other models I'm looking at. I was just going to buy whatever I found the best deal on, provided the notebook was more or less reliable. Then I kinda switched gears and started looking at the T500. I'd pay a little more but that's fine as long as the quality is top notch and it lasts for years.

And I'm pretty sure that US has only 1 year standard warranty - if it had 3, I'd be all over that thing.

 

Another thing, do you guys anticipate the prices dropping anytime soon?

Have you seen any better sales than the current coupon?

I'm not in a rush to buy this thing, I got a couple of months to go.

 

Does Dad need the 3650 GPU? It generates a lot of heat. If he's not gaming it's probably unwarranted.

Getting the lowest price is tough to do. Prices yin and yang all the time. About the best you can do is watch for a while so you'll know when it's relatively low if you're not in a hurry.

If I were in the market I'd seriously look at the Dell E6500. They're fairly similar quality wise unless you need the GPU, where the T500 is superior. Dell has a three year warranty standard and a much more forgiving return policy should things not work out as planned.

 

He doesn't really need the GPU but it would have a few uses. He's not anything remotely close to a gamer but he does enjoy FPS titles once in a while.

Is the heat output really that significant? I have a 9600M GT in my notebook and it idles at 55C or so. Is the 3650 worse than this in terms of heat output?

 

In the T500, the heat is better-controlled than in most other notebooks. Lenovo has a very efficient cooling system in the T500. For more thermal details, scroll down to near the bottom in this review from NotebookCheck.

 

Thanks for the link!

I think I'll be getting it as soon as I see a big enough sale.

 

There is a sale right now:

http://www.ecoupons.com/

20% off T-series Lenovo Thinkpads. Pretty good deal I think.

 

I get this configuration for $965:


Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26GHz 1066MHz 3MBL2) 25W1
Genuine Windows Vista Business 64
15.4 WXGA TFT, w/ LED Backlight
ATI Mobility Radeon 3650 with 256MB
1 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)8
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad)
80 GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm4
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA)5
No Bluetooth
Intel WiFi Link 5300 (AGN)10
Integrated AT&T Mobile Broadband (3G)65
6 cell Li-Ion Battery60
2081: 1 Year Depot Warranty - TopSeller7

It's decent but nothing dramatic.

 

If you do purchase that configuration, make sure you later upgrade to at least 2GB of RAM, although preferably more. Vista runs best at >2GB of RAM.

 

Yeah I know, I'll be upgrading both the RAM (to 4GB) and the hard drive (to 200GB 7200RPM) myself. It's way too overpriced on the Lenovo site.

 

It's a relative thing, but as noted ThinkPad have better cooling than other notebooks. I only asked about the GPU since in my experience most aren't playing the kinds of games than need a really good GPU, though I suppose that's changing. Plus the integrated options costs less.

 

Oh, sorry, missed that in your original post.
Looks like a good configuration

 

check the lenovo outlet. there are some pretty good t500

 

That's a pretty good config. First check the prices of DDR3 memory just to make sure it is cheaper to upgrade it yourself (ironically for a while it was not because Lenovo's prices were cheaper). Second do you want the N wifi? I ask this because the Intel cards have exhibited some strange behavior for people (almost always fixed by messing around with the setings in the drivers and/or installing drivers from Intel). If you wantN, you have the right choice as the 5300 seems to perform a bit better than the 5100. I haven't run into any stories about the G card giving anyone any problems, it's just it uses a bit more power than the Intel ones.

Otherwise that is a great config, before or after you finish tricking it out yourself.

 

Yeah I definitely want N because my home network is running N only at 5Ghz. I just upgraded to the Intel 5300 wifi card myself and I'm very happy with it's performance.

I know exactly what you mean about the DDR3 RAM. It definitely used to be a lot more expensive but now, I can find 4GBs for $90, which is way cheaper than the $200 price tag Lenovo is offering for the same amount of RAM.

And for those interested, a Lenovo rep has informed me that they're anticipating another big sale around January 29-30th.

 

That's very good to hear - even more so since I'm planning to get myself a T500 in the next few weeks. Thanks for the information!