R52 or T43p

Hi,
My school is currently offering two IBM notebooks, an R52 and a T43p. If I wouldn't care about the cost I would of course go for the T43p, but I'm on a tight budget and only want to pay so much money if it's really justified. So I want to know if it's really worth paying the extra money for the T43p or if the R52 will be sufficient for my needs and last 3-4 years.

I'm going to use it for various things, but mainly programming (Java, .NET, PHP), graphic design (Photoshop, Illustrator) and casual gaming and watching a DVD. I'll also install a dual or triple boot on it (winXP/a linux flavour/solaris.

Here are the specs/price (took out the specs that are the same for both):

IBM R52
1.163 € inc VAT
3 years next business day on-site warranty
Intel Pentium M 740 1.73Ghz
512MB memory
40GB ATA-100 5.200rpm
15" XGA 1024x768
Intel 855GME Shared Video Memory (UMA)
CD-RW/DVD-RW Multiburner
4.5h battery life (6 cell)

IBM T43p
1.795 € inc VAT
3 years next business day on-site warranty
Intel Pentium M 760 2.0Ghz
1024MB memory
60GB ATA-100 7.200rpm
15" UXGA 1600x1200
ATI Mobility Fire GL V3200 128MB
DVD-RW
3.5h battery life (6 cell) battery pack

 

Well the UXGA screen is a hell of a lot better than the other. Also the T43 is a stand out, but of course it costs a lot more. You have to ask yourself, do you need all that... and you can also ask, do I WANT all that? For me, I'd get the T43. Awesome system, and excellent build, plus there are nothing but excellent reviews on it.

 

Do you have the ability to customize them? 2.0 ghz is prbably much more than you need for schooling needs. Lowering that to a 1.86 ghz processor could save you a good amount of money.

 

Nope, can't customize them unfortunatly.

@madmike
Of course I want all that, but I don't need it. I do need a higher resolution than 1024x768 and a GPU that isn't integrated, but although I can find something cheaper than 1800€ with all that I doubt I can find something with that price tag including 3 years on-site warranty and being very durable. Durability, battery life, a good keyboard and weight are my priorities so I guess I'll have to stick with these two IBMs to get that for a reasonable price.

I was also wondering what the difference exactly is between an R52 and a T43 with for example the same specs (memory, HD, CPU and GPU)? Is the T43 of better quality or is there only a slight difference?

 

Quality build is just about the same. Not much of a difference. It's the insides and the screen that brings the price tag up. IBM make there laptops all the same, which looks pretty boring. That's why they're in the business market. No bells and whistles there.

Question. Are you stuck on only these laptops? If you're into multimedia or entertainment on a laptop and fancy lights and shortcuts on the casing- there are many other laptops out there that are more affordable.

 

They also offer two Toshibas, but one has a celeron CPU and the other one has comparable specs as the T43p (15.4" WXGA, 2.0Ghz PM, 512MB ram, 100GB 5200HD, ATI X600 SE 128MB) but it's heavier (3kg) and has less battery life (3h according to Toshiba, 2h according to school). The last Toshiba is 1.550 euro, but I rather pay a bit more for a more durable lappy with better battery life and a better screen (UXGA vs WXGA on the toshiba, I don't care about widescreen).
The Toshiba definately looks better but I don't care about that either. I'll have to carry it around a lot from home to college, on my bike, on the bus and on the train 4 days/week, so I can't stress the importance of good build quality enough
Multimedia isn't such a big deal either, as long as I can play a DVD and do some photoshopping on it. But the thing is that I'm doing computer science, so when we cover the subject of for example 3D programming a good GPU will be quite handy.

So to summarize I'm not looking for a multimedia notebook but rather a workstation notebook.

 

Well, while a good graphical unit is always a plus, I'm not sure it's that useful for computer science. You're going to learn how to program 3d stuff, of course, but I doubt they'll ask you to make the equivalent of Doom3. Basically, once you know how to make 1000-polygons objects, you know how to make 10000000-polygons objects too .

You should probably try to contact the professors that teaches those 3d programming classes, though.

How much would it cost you to up the RAM on the R52? That's the one thing that jumped at me: 512 megs will be used pretty fast if you run Photoshop and some programmer stuff.

Also, if you want three OS, you'll probably want more than 40G hard disk space. You know your computer usage better than anyone else, but 40G is really the minimum available right now and it'll be used up pretty fast if you load three OS, all the Microsoft bloatware the school will want you to have, your various school projects, and so on. I'm not sure if the R52 has a hard-drive expansion bay, which would allow you to add a second HD, but if it doesn't you'll be stuck on an external HD pretty fast, and those suck

Overall, I think you need better than the R52 the school offers. Thinkpads are great notebooks overall, but the config sucks on this one.

 

Yeah, I won't need an X800 for 3D programming but a recent GPU would be nice for DX9c programming and support for vertex shaders. Although those new integrated Intel cards are compatible with DX9c they don't support vertex shaders AFAIK.

Yep it's sad they don't offer a better R52. Another school offers a very good one with 60GB HD and 1GB RAM for €1500 and I suggested my school to offer that one too but instead they offered a Toshiba multimedia system for that price. Not really my cup of tea because I want a relieable notebook for atleast 3-4 years.

I could of course upgrade the R52 afterwards with a bigger HD and extra memory, but since these things are quite expensive where I live (Belgium, 21% VAT :/) I think it'll be better to buy the T43p.