Questions Before Ordering

I use a five year old R50p, primarily for business use, and have been considering replacing it with a newer Lenovo now that the warranty has run out (and I assume a newer notebook will perform better).

I noticed that they are advertising a discount through March 9. I'm wondering if people here have been watching Lenovo and have a feeling as to whether this is a real discount I should grab or if I wait a couple weeks to decide there will be similar discounts repeated. (I suspect that in the current economy there will be plenty of discount offers in the future if I don't get an order in fast enough to take advantage of the current offer.)

Any advice as to which model, or comments on the differences? Are there any tremendous differences between the different series I should consider. I currently use a 15 inch screen so I imagine I should go with the 15.4 inch to have something close to what I am used to working on (with change to wide screen).

I also have an ultrabay which I sometimes use to insert a second hard drive on the R50p. It looks like the R, T, and W series can use this but not the SL. Is that correct? If so I'm tempted to exclude the SL from consideration unless there are any advantages to it which override this.

I currently use Win XP Pro and have limited experience using Vista on other computers. I am tempted to order the Win XP downgrade. Any reasons why I should go with Vista instead?

Is the Intel® Turbo Memory hard drive cache worth adding on. Is it of value with XP or only with Vista. If only with Vista, is there enough performance improvement to warrant going with Vista instead of XP?

Which WiFi card? I currently have an old WiFi setup at home and office, along with often using WiFi when traveling. I'm wondering if it is worth getting the WiMAX even though it isn't currently available around me for future use. Am I correct in assuming that the more expensive card is also backwards compatible with older WiFi networks? Other than potentially wasting money if I never use the faster systems, is there any reason not to ad the WiMAX card?

Any recommendations on the 6 cell or 9 cell battery. Does the 9 cell last about 50% longer corresponding to size. How is overall battery life on these models? Is the 9 cell significantly larger and is this an issue?

 

I am not sure about the new one, but the ultrabay on R-series does not fit on T-series. Which model are you getting?

 

That's untrue. While the optical drive for the R series is taller than the T series and will not fit in a T series notebook, I believe they use the same ultrabay hard drive adapter.

What are you doing with the machine that makes you think a new machine will improve your performance? An R50p will have an IPS FlexView screen. Any notebook you buy now other than perhaps a W700 with the WUXGA screen is going to be a significant step down in screen quality. Almost all notebooks sold now, with the exception of a few tablets, use junky TN panels.

 

Does that included the X41 tablet?

 

If your R50p has a FlexView display then it may be worth holding onto. However, if you do want a new model I have the following recommendations:

Avoid the SL series. It is a ThinkPad in name only. It only has a 6 row keyboard, uses a glossy screen, lacks the rollcage, and is generally inferior (it's more like an IdeaPad with a TrackPoint).

The T400/T500 would probably be the premier choice. This will offer good performance, decent displays (albeit not as good as a FlexView), and pretty good flexibility. Note, that you will need to buy new accessories (docks, ultrabay adapters, chargers, etc.) as the new models use different interfaces than your R50.

The R400/R500 is a great choice if you would like to save a bit of money. They are a shade thicker than the T series, and only offer integrated GPUs (not good for games), but they are nonetheless a very good choice.

You could also look at a T61 or R61 from the Lenovo outlet. This should be cheaper, and will still be substantially faster than your R50.

I have the Intel Wi-Fi 5100 card in my x200 Tablet and am generally satisfied with it. Because you have an older network, you may be fine with the BroadCom B/G card (both Intel Cards support 802.11A, 802.11N; the Broadcom does not). The Intel 5350 is the same as the 5300 except it also supports WiMax. I am still not sold on the future of WiMax (it's only in Baltimore and Portland right now), and it may not be worth the investment at present.

On the 15" models, the 6 cell battery sits flush, the 9 cell will stick out a little less than an inch. On the 14.1" models, the 4 cell battery sits flush, the 6 cell sticks out, the 9 cell sticks out even more and is curved upwards to reduce the depth.

I do not believe in Intel Turbo Memory. I think you can get the same effect (admittedly small) from a <$10 2GB SD card instead. Also note that Turbo Memory only works in Vista.

Lenovo offers an interesting OS choice. If you order Vista Business, you can get XP Pro recovery discs for free. This is the path I would recommend. You can start out with Vista and see if it suits your needs (in my experience Vista SP1 is stable and compatible with the vast majority of software/devices). If for some reason Vista doesn't work out, you can easily switch to XP Pro.

Yes, the x41 Tablet (like the x60, x61, and x200) uses an FFS display ( ThinkPad display chart). This stands for Fringe-Field switching and is an improved variant of IPS. The main difference is in viewing angles and color stability (tilt your tablet display backwards and see how the colors hold; compare this to any other notebook and you will see the colors invert).

 

That is disappointing to read that the display will be worse on a new model. In the past whenever I've updated notebooks I've had a considerable increase in performance and quality. I thought that after five years there should be a noticeable improvement in buying a newer model.

One issue is that the warranty (with on site service) has now ended and I do not want to risk being without a notebook. Buying a new notebook now would mean getting a new warranty. In addition, if I buy a new one while the current one is still working I will have a decent back up while waiting the brief time for service.

Another consideration I've had was to buy an inexpensive notebook (possibly a net book) which I can have on standby in case I have to go a week or two to either repair or replace the current one if it goes. The price of an inexpensive backup would be considerably less than a new notebook and on-site warranty. I'd then use that for traveling, reducing potential wear on the older notebook. This would also save me the cost of a new travel bag as I don't think my current one would hold a wide screen. (I have a padded backpack I use for traveling which holds both the notebook and camera with accessories.) The big question, which is unanswerable, is how much longer the current notebook will last.

With regards to performance, most of the time the speed of the R50p is sufficient. There are delays with some programs such as in photo editing. This is tolerable but some more speed would be of use.

My biggest problem comes when I have multiple programs running (which is often the case.) This is largely a Windows issue and I don't know if upgrading will necessarily solve the problem. I also find that as I get newer versions of software I sometimes run into problems. For example I recently upgraded versions of Quicken for the first time in a few years. The newer version probably requires more memory and I often have to reboot if I try using it after the notebook has been running a long time.

I wonder if more memory can be added, and if it makes sense to put more money into a notebook this old. I have 1 GB. Can the R50p handle more memory. Anyone buying memory recently know around how much this would cost, and whether it is likely to help?

I was hoping that the accessories would be compatible but that is a minor part of the charge. There are contradictory posts as to whether I can use the ultrabay with a second hard drive or if I will need a new one. At least that isn't very expensive. I don't use a dock so the only other charge will be AC adapters. I assume one comes with the on line price, but I would buy a second to have one at home and one at the office. That shouldn't be very expensive either.

 

More memory would make a big difference where multi-tasking is concerned. Also, you could consider upgrading your HDD to an SSD model. The reports I've read indicate that doing so provides a heretofore unheard of improvement to system performance.

That R50 could be brought up to near-current standards of performance with the combination of 2GB or RAM (total) and an SSD. That said, SSD's are still somewhat expensive, so that option would have to be weighed against what a new machine would cost you.

Regarding sales, I believe the current sale is 10%-off on ThinkPads. That's a pretty good sale, if you're waiting for one. I wouldn't expect anything better to come around in the next couple of weeks, but who knows. One option would be to configure the machine you're interested in and then convert it to a quote. That quoted order will be good for 30 days, if you don't see any better deals in that time. Just call them up and ask them to convert the quote to an order.

 

I have upgraded hard drives a couple of times, most recently last summer. I don't know what type it is but each time I purchased I went with the largest and fastest offered.

Checking quickly it looks like replacing my current memory with a pair of 1 GB would cost a little over $100. That's not bad if it would improve performance (and I wouldn't be out much if I wound up deciding to replace this later this year).

Interesting to hear that the quote would be good for thirty days. It wouldn't hurt to have the quote to leave the option.

I also like the suggestion someone gave above to get the Vista if it comes with free XP recovery discs. I'm also thinking of trying drivers for some of the older equipment and some of the older software I still use on my wife's notebook which does have Vista. That way I'd know for sure if Vista will work (but there isn't time to do this if I wanted to get the order in for the current discount).

At the moment it seems best to hold off on buying, perhaps trying the memory upgrade, and to put in a quote as a back up plan. Over the weekend, besides looking into a replacement, I've also been trying some changes in the programs I constantly keep open, finding some ways to reduce memory use without seriously compromising functionality. I'll have to see during the work week whether this results in any improvement in performance.

 

Two of these would run $70 for 2GB total.

 

Thanks for the link. I did a very quick search while working figuring I'd look more before buying. If Newegg has a cheaper price than I initially found I will probably just go with them--I doubt I'll do significantly better.

Anyone happen to have a link for a solid state drive which I also might consider? While the memory is cheap, I fear that replacing the drive again would be significantly more expensive.

 

USPTHINKBIG coupon code is good for 20% off T series, but I believe it expires at midnight

 

Don't order XP, as it's an old technology.
-Renee

 

Definitely get a quote now at the very least.

 

Yes, it certainly makes sense to have a quote in the system if they will honor it for thirty days. I just ordered 2 GB of new memory and will see how that works.

 

Also, make sure you keep your HDD's defragged (except for SSD's).

The defrag tool I generally use is from Auslogics. It seems to be much faster and more effective than Microsoft's defrag tool.

 

I have the defrag tool downloaded and running. In the distant past I had Norton Utilities installed but got rid of it because I thought all the memory it used might have been slowing down the system. More recently I've only used Microsoft's defrag.

 

Yeah, I've heard that Norton's products are much better about that these days, but I still prefer other alternatives.

One thing I always noticed about MS defrag, was that I would have to run it 2, 3, even 4 consecutive times before it appeared that it had done about all it could. With Auslogics, I've never had to run it more than once. Any time I ran it a second time just to check, it basically didn't find any more files to defrag.

 

I just put in an order with the coupon and saved the shopping cart. Hopefully, should I decide in the next thirty days that I do need a new notebook, they will really honor this (or have an even better deal). The discount was actually 10%.

There's one good thing about computer hardware. While still somewhat expensive, it costs far less than I paid for my R50p five years ago.

That defrag program is still running, but it looks like it is near the end. Hopefully this will improve performance, and I'm even more hopeful that the increased memory I ordered will keep my old notebook working longer. One day might not be a fair test, but it also seems to be working better after some of the changes I made over the weekend.

 

Having 2gigs on Xp would be a significant upgrade if you multitask heavily. Also if your XP install is a few years old that can also attribute to the slowness. 10% off is not that amazing, but it really depends on how long you are willing to wait and if you need a new machine immediately vs later.

 

That won't save the deal. You actually have to proceed to checkout and go through all the steps as if you were making the purchase today. When you get to the page where you would enter your credit card info, scroll to the bottom, check the "Agree to the terms and conditions" box and click the "Convert to quote" link. *That* will generate the quote that they will honor for 30 days. Keep in mind that they will only honor it as-is. Changes can be made if you decide to convert it to an order later, but you will lose any discounts that are no longer available at that time.

Ain't that the truth. It's a double-edged sword, though. Some would argue that none of the new machines quite match the build quality of those expensive IBM ThinkPads.

I'm surprised that it's taken this long. Sounds like you were long overdue for a defrag. I'm guessing you will see an immediate improvement in performance. The additional RAM could possibly double that performance increase.

 

It has now finished defraging. Back when I had more defrag programs on my computer I found that if I defragged with one and then used another it would still take a while. I assume that different ones try to put things in different places and you only get the benefit of quick defrags when using the same program.

I went back and saved the order as a quote. Most likely I'll never use it (figuring there will be other deals and lower prices in the future) but it will save me from kicking myself if my notebook dies next week and I wish I had taken advantage of the discount. Besides the 10% coupon there are other savings in the order. I don't know if these savings are always there, but at least I have this price if I need it.

 

Never hurts to grab a quote. I had about 14 of them in my Inbox when I finally got around to placing my order, and even then, I ended up configuring it from scratch.

 

In regards to the discount...I just checked and UPSTHINKBIG is good for 20% off T Series Notebooks, USPTHINKPADWEEK is only 10% off maybe that was the issue, but sometimes the discounts vary depending on the product line so if you chose a different model that could be it too.

 

A used T60 might be another option for you. It was the last middleweight ThinkPad offered with the FlexView screen. Since many were sold with three warranties, a lot of them are still under warranty, which means you could extend the warranty an additional two years. You can find them on eBay of course. The Marketplace forum on ThinkPads.com. is another option.

SSDs are a mixed bag in my experience. They are fast, but even the good ones can hiccup while writing, which is annoying.

 

MoffiaJ,

I believe I did use the UPSTHINKBIG and got 10%, but it might have been because of the model I picked. (Or, as I copied and pasted in the discount maybe I did get the wrong one). Regardless, it's too late to do anything about that now as it is expired.

ZaZ,

I'd prefer not to get a used one--and it might be difficult to find the exact configuration I want as well as being certain I can get warranty with on-site service.

It is sure frustrating to find that buying a new notebook also means a lower quality screen, but this is sure a great screen on my current notebook.

I am seriously considering buying something inexpensive for travel and as a backup should I have problems with this notebook now that I no longer have a warranty and on site service.

 

As I suspected, they have a new round of discounts for St. Patrick's day to replace those which expired yesterday.

 

Hello!

I hope you could help for me. I bought a new Lenovo X200 notebook but it hasn't got WLAN card. So I have to buy a mini PCI-E WLAN card. In my notebook there is a webcam so I find only 2 wlan cable (1 black and 1 grey). The question is: witch is the best WLAN card for me?



Intel 5100

Intel 5300

or

ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Express Adapter

Please help me.

I can use intel 5300 (it has 3 connection port) if I have only 2 cable?

What is the correct FRU number for Intel 5100 or Intel 5300 for my computer?

Thank you

Peter

 

What you just did there is known as thread hi-jacking, where you post in someone else's thread asking your own unrelated questions. It's usually frowned upon, and you're better off creating your own thread for your own interests to be served.

That said, I can't answer your question, but a quick call to Lenovo sales should fix you right up.

Oh, and welcome to NBR.

 

You can upgrade the warranty of any macine that is still under warranty, but I hear you.