Ready to Order T61-14" - Questions

Hey all, newbie here, typing on my antiquated budget special Gateway, ready to order a new T61. Was going to wait for T400, but deals are too good to pass up on t61. Questions....
-I don't do, nor do I plan to do, any gaming. I watch movies, vids, etc., should I save my money and get integrated graphics or pay the money for dedicated?
-Is the WXGA+ screen ok for watching movies, vids, etc? I don't really have a better choice here I guess, just looking for reassurance.
-Any idea on actual weight of the 14.1 widescreen with a 6 cell battery? I've found and read several reviews, but can't seem to find a definitive answer. Also, does the 6 cell stick out noticeably at the back?
Any other tips are appreciated. I was thinking about this seriously yesterday, and got a coupon for Lenovo Canada this AM for an additional 10%, which is all I needed to push me over the edge.
Thanks, John

 

The dedicated card will help with HD videos. But then, you will have to give up on the battery life. I haven't tested it myself, but some people claimed that the IGP has a much better battery life than the dedicated GPU. As for watching movies and vids, youu won't have any problem with the WXGA+ screen.

 

I'm still thinking about returning my XPS for the Lenovo T61, can you give me the coupon as well? That'd be awesome.

 

CAPSAVE10XT
According to the site, only good till August 10th

 

I actually had a pretty good deal going. Maybe I'll use that 10% to counteract my restocking fee for the XPS. This is a really hard choice.

 

One other final question, should I buy the T61 with the amount of RAM that I'm looking for or get it base and purchase separately? Or get 1 2gig stick and purchase a second? Thx

 

I would say get the least amount of RAM from Lenovo(your choice ofcourse), but make sure you have it as 1 DIMM, so your other slot is free. Then you can buy aftermarket RAM much cheaper. I would also get the highest res screen you can, since you like to watch movies and don't game much. The higher the res, the smaller everything on the screen, but the more screen real estate and finer the picture. If you have to read text, you have to use one of the methods to zoom.

Also in regards to your harddrive, you could go after market and install that yourself as well. If you go with a discrete GPU you will get good 3D performance but you lose on battery life. With Integrated GPU it is vice versa.

How long do you want to keep the machine?

 

"but make sure you have it as 1 DIMM, so your other slot is free. Then you can buy aftermarket RAM much cheaper"
Or not.

Currently, 2 GB is enough. And by the time that you will need to upgrade to, let's say 8GB, RAM's price will have fallen and 8GB of tomorrow will cost the same than 2GB of today.

"Also in regards to your harddrive, you could go after market and install that yourself as well."
If you buy a new harddrive, it wont be cheaper. If you buy second hand, then your HDD wont last as long.

I mean, lenovo's upgrade on the T61 is very affordable so it does not really worth it to upgrade after (we are not dealing with Apple here).

 

Thanks for the helpful hints. I'll probably try to get a couple of years out of it. I'll probably get the smallest amount of ram and upgrade myself, but likely buy the hard drive from them as it's only $60 to get a 160gb 7200rpm drive. I'm still stuck on the graphics issue, because I like the idea of getting a better picture, but I will not be gaming and would appreciate the additional battery life.

 

How's the screen brightness on the T61? I've read some reviews on other Thinkpad's (i think it was the SL400) saying that the screen lacked brightness.

Does anybody have any experience with this?

Also, that same review stated that the hinges on the SL400 were rather flimsy and allowed some movement when shaken slightly. Is this the same case with the T61?

Thanks for the help

Does anybody have any experience with this?

 

Well, my T61p isn't as bright as a Sony or a Dell, I have a WXGA+ Samsung. It depends if your screen is by Samsung or LG. My screen also has some considerable light leakage and some very uneven lighting. There's some pictures of it in my link in my sig.

 

It looks like screen quality and brightness can be highly variable. I too was worried about screen brightness when I was shopping for mine. I had seen a couple of Thinkpads that had mediocre screen brightness, in person. But I am very happy with my screen brightness and clarity.

From the specs that I have read about the SL series and others comments, the SL series is not in the same league as the T series. One example being lack of Roll cage.

 

I don't know anything about HD Video, but from what I have read and was told the discrete GPU does not impact image quality for normal movies but does have a big impact on battery life. How are you going to watch movies, just by putting a DVD in your drive in the machine? Web Tv?

I would say that if you are sure that you won't be using your machine for games or other 3D content, then go for the integrated GPU. Since you are concerned with battery life, it would help with that.

 

How do you know what is enough for someone else? Where did you get the idea that 2 GB is "enough"? My system is using 1.32GB just on idle. 2GB is needed to just get Vista to respond normally and if you are running any applications that are real memory intensive, then the extra memory becomes a necessity.

Also it is a well known fact that aftermarket RAM is cheaper than RAM bought from the manufacturer. If you want less for your money go ahead and buy the RAM from Lenovo. Lenovo has 4GB of RAM upgrade for a T61 for $147 and you can get 4GB from places like Newegg for less than $70.

As far as the hardrive, if you shop around carefully a new hardrive can most definitely be cheaper. I just got my Hitachi 7k200 for $92 brand new, Lenovo has a 200GB 7200rpm drive for $196 for a T61.