Questions for t400s and x200s users

Hello all

I'm buying either a t400s or an x200s, and would appreciate some answers to a few questions that I have on both machines. FYI, I am coming from a Dell X1, so that would be my nearest comparison machine.

Firstly - noise. I know both machines are comparably quiet. However, there's been reports on electronic noise on both machines, but from what I can gather more people report it with the t400s. My X1 has this problem too, but it may be more pronounced on the new lenovos. Is the noise present, and if so do you find it disturbing?

Secondly - screen. Has anyone had opportunity to compare the WXGA+ screen of the x200s to the screen of the t400s? If not, have you got a hunch how they compare quality-wise (outdoor usability, contrast, viewing angles etc).

Thirdly - is the transfer rate of the ultrabay interface on the t400s capped? I.e., will a 2.5 hdd/sdd have access to the same transfer rates as the 1.8 drive does? (i.e., is it feasible to install a 2.5 drive and use it as an app/os drive).

Hdd - just how slow do you expect the 1.8 hdd in the t400s to be? I've not been able to find any benchmarks on that (only the SSD). Without reboothing and +4gb, would the speed of the HDD be _that_ critical?

More generally - what are peoples views on choosing either model? For my uses (office, adobe, matlab, visual express etc - I don't need superfast, got a desktop, and I dont' think 2.13 vs 2.4 ghz is going to make much difference anyway) I could do about equally well with both machines. Being in the UK however, I can get the x200s with a high res screen, 4gb ram and SSD for ~£1400, whilst getting the t400s for the same amount will limit me to the hdd option. Alternatively, I can get the x200s with a hdd for a little over £1000.


Finally - there are rumors about a x210s, which presumably would have more modern connections (digital display out, esata etc) and be sweetly thin (?).... any idea at all when it is expected?

Thanks for your help!

 

Use the search function, all your questions have been answered already. Many people are interested in the T400s and the X200/s/t. Just off the top of my head, new models come out early 2010 and all of the new models fully support SATA/300. Also, if you get a 1.8" drive, get a SSD or your notebook speed will be crippled since a 1.8" HDD will be by far the slowest component.

 

I can't answer all your questions, but I can tell you the x200s that I got is absolutely silent, at least on battery. I'm a bit of a nut-case about noise, and I've been through a series of laptops trying to find one to suit me in this regard, and the x200s with an SSD is it. I had an x200 for awhile, and while it was a really nice machine, I was bothered by a weird kind of electronic buzz/hum coming from near the battery (bum voltage regulator?). The x200s has none of this. I've only had it for a couple of weeks, but I ran it on AC power when setting it up and it was pretty much silent then, too. But since then I've not been running it at all on AC, since I've been getting 11-12 hours of battery life (with the 9 cell), wireless on, brightness at 10/15, and using the Energy Star setting (BTW, I'm running XP). I'm pretty much of a word processor with a little number crunching thrown in, and the screen works really well for me. Did I mention that I really like this computer?

 

sgogeta4 -

I've pretty much read any post on t400s and x200s on this forum and on http://forum.thinkpads.com/. I wanted opinions from people in general, not those few who complain about their machines...

Noise - I have read those posts, and like I said t400s seems to suffer more problems (judging by the number of posts).

Screen - I have not come across a direct comparison of the two screens yet - if you know one, I'd most appreciate if you pointed me to it (the high res x200s version vs t400s).

Transfer rate in bay - I've seen one poster "thinking" that it is capped. But "thinking" doesn't help me. Again if you can point me to a post with that info, I'd be most thankful.

X200S vs T400S - I've seen that post here. But I wanted peoples opinion specifically on whether t400s with no SSD was to be preferred to x200s with one (as the cost is equivalent)

I know the speed will be slower with a 1.8 hdd ... but I haven't seen any posts with benchmarks of the 1.8 hdd, or real world usage reports.


deepsouth -

thanks for the info! really helpful, pretty impressive up-times you are getting....

I'd be interested to know, just how widespread buzzing electronics is ... and whether it is specific to certain machines. I.e., did you get a bum X200, but a sweet X200s ... or are X200s just less susceptible to that problem (I've found more posts on t400s and that problem than x200s, but perhaps I haven't looked far enough back in time...). Not that I expect anyone to know these things... but it'd be good to know....

 

Do you mean the high pitch noise?

yes, T400s has a very loud high pitch noise

But it's not a problem , go to config, choose disable all power managerment. This is a common problem from INTEL CPU, but it depend on what CPU is.

From my experience, the low votage or slim CPU tend to have louder high pitch noise

So don't worry, after you disable them, the battery life is still good while the t400s likely dead slient.

 

I have T400s with SP9400 and the system is dead silent. Also, I don't have any CPU or piezoelectric noise. So it is possible that certain batch of CPU's suffer from the noise. I am not sure if this problem could develop later on? (Any comment appreciated)

 

my t400s (w/SSD) is also silent. not to mention snappy. love this machine

I can't imagine how 1440x900 works on a 12" screen, but ymmw.

 

Samsung HS122JF 5400rpm 1.8" 120GB microsata HDD benchmark is here. You'd probably want something like the 1.8"_SSD_Runcore ProIV OR run the system just with a 2.5" SATA HDD in the ultrabay to get some decent performance. Though the 1.8" HDDs are a fraction more battery friendly than 2.5" HDDs.

 

Well here is my hdtune result for T400s. It is 1.8" 5400 rpm

 

^ 2nd that.

 

It's incredible...I finally have a small and light machine with enough pixel real estate to work comfortably. I don't think I could go back to a lo-res screen (and I am over 40 and wear reading glasses.)

 

I think its more of an issue with a screen size rather than resolution. For those who are used to 14"/15" screens - its a downgrade. For those who are permanently attached to their BlackBerry or iPhone - its an upgrade

 

In my opinion both are very good, it's simply a matter of preference.

If you have a need of a 2.4GHz+ CPU, an optical drive, TouchPad, DisplayPort, or the ability to run a main SSD AND a secondary HDD then go for the T400s.

Alternatively, if you prefer a smaller/lighter system and the option for extremely large batteries then the x200s is a better choice.

Both can be effectively silent (but the individual luck of the draw with the CPU matters here), both provide good performance, both are thin and light, both have the same resolution and similar quality displays (adequate, but not exceptional), and both have exceptional keyboards. It's all a matter of preference.

 

thanks for all the comments! much appreciated!

arunmkumaran hdd benchmarks weren't _that_ bad, and better those linked by nando4 (toschiba vs samsung). So I take it, that the 1.8 HDD works quite well (it is roughly twice as fast as the HDD in my old X1 anyway, but only half as fast as my desktop).

I suppose, from my point of view, it depends just how much of an advantage SSD's offer in real world user experience vs hdd's. As noted, it's either a x200s with SSD or a t400s without (at least for the time being). Referring back to the original post - is it peoples experience that it makes much of a difference in real world usage (not counting boot-up times, and loading software for the first time), i.e., not shutting the comp down and having >= 4gb memory.

I realize that boot-times, and hdd intensive apps will run much more smoothly with an ssd (e.g., loading large files into adobe), but outside that usage scenario - would you expect much gain?

I take it now one knows if the ultrabay in the t400s has a capped interface? (relative to the 1.8 slot)

Re noise, it seems like (as jonlumpkin pointed out) luck of the draw determines whether one gets a noisy machine or not (noise unrelated to mechanical components, i.e., hdd and fan)). Then again, perhaps its present in all machines to some extent, it's just that some people are more sensitive to it?

 

Quite surprised myself. The 1.8" Toshiba HDD in the T400s is OK performer. The Samsung benchmark is from a 120GB 1.8" in a HP 2530P. Crystaldiskinfo would give us 4KB/s read speed which would indicate how slow it's random reads would be.

No capping on T400s. It's a SATA optical bay interface. It's only that PATA optical bay systems (ICH8M - X61/R61/T61) that have 1.5Gbps capping on the primary bay, much to the annoyance of their customers and refuse to give a bios update to correct.

 

I can't in good conscience recommend a T400s with a 1.8" HDD. You can get an x200 w/ HDD if you like, but SSD main (and optional secondary bay HDD) is the only way to go for the T400s. Read the SSD link in my sig for more details.

 

It's just a shame the X200s doesn't come with the AFFS+ screen of the X200 Tablet. And also that that AFFS+ screen is not 1440x900.

That's without saying that 1400x1050 (like the X61 had) would even be better.

 

You can find the x61t with SXGA+ in the outlet every now and then...

 

No, I want a X200 with 1400x1050

 

Hasn't Intel or OCZ released any fast 1.8" SSD's yet??

 

On the american lenovo website, wxga+(1440*900) is no longer an option. Does the x200s come with the next gen roll cage? It does not say so anymore on the website.

 

The 1400x900 is still the only option for the T400s (it has the roll cage, too); the X200s has been missing it for a bit, since they were low on stock. I don't know when it will come back.

This page (X-Series -> Compare): http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...29B4ECB9ADAD8E72CF6FD61&tab=3#tab-container-5
says that the X200s has the roll cage on "select" models. Previously that was the Enhanced/Elite, but those were also the ones that had the WXGA+, so perhaps they're linked, somehow. Someone else might know better.

 

Intel has had the X18-M for a while now. OCZ has nothing yet.