T400 or XPS M1330?

I realize this is the Lenovo forum, but I'm looking for some educated opinions. I'm at a toss up between these two laptops. I'm in medical school and use my laptop basically all day every day for all sorts of various things (notes, virtual microscopy, multimedia, lecture videos, etc.). My current Toshiba is starting to show it's age and is cumbersome to carry around. Basically, I'm looking for a well built laptop that will put up with a fair amount of daily abuse, is lightweight, has fairly good battery life, is powerful enough for what I need it for (no gaming essentially), reliable, and won't fall apart like my current laptop. I'm looking to spend under $1000 (either new or refurb), which shouldn't be too much of a problem given the sales that are coming up. TIA

 

the t400 is the perfect match if you get the one with the intel gpu, but i think you may need the dedicated if your programs are graphics intensive.
it has the main advantage because it was made for the light wear-n-tear, and can last around 9 hours with a 9 cell battery,
the m1330 is a big notch down in durability in comparison, but i think it will also show no problem in the programs

 

I cant speak om behalf of dell since I've never owned one. But I do own a T500 which is a bit bigger and more powerful than the T400. I can vouch that the build quality of the T400 will be solid. It is very robust and can take daily abuse. There aren't many notebooks tougher than Lenovo's other than the Toughbook from panasonic.

 

If you don't mind not having an optical drive or the 4:3 screen, the X6x may be worth a look. You might shag a X200 if you can line the coupons up correctly.

 

I agree with ZaZ. If you can find an x series (or x series Tablet) at a decent price (check the Lenovo outlet), I think that would be your best option. They are substantially lighter (always under 4 pounds, sometimes under 3 pounds) than the T series and provide more than adequate performance for your needs.

You can get an x61s with decent specs (look for an 8 cell battery and 1.6GHz C2D) for about $900 from the outlet and it will provide very good mobility and superb durability.

The x61 Tablet will run about $300 more, but it may give you some extra usability. You can get it with a very high resolution (1400x1050) display that is good for medical images, and the ability to annotate your notes is very valuable for a student. Tablets are also quite popular in the medical field, so it may prove useful for you.

The x200 is a worthy upgrade (better chipset, lighter, full keyboard, widescreen) to the x61, but it may be a shade out of your price range.

The T400 is also very good though if you don't mind the weight or find that you really need a touchpad (the X series are TrackPoint only), discrete GPU, or optical drive in the notebook. I would not recommend the Dell. It probably won't survive.

 

Thank you all for your advice. The build quality and durability is the main reason I'm looking at a Lenovo. I really like the x61 and the x61 tablet (I've used both as I know people who have them). A tablet would probably be best, and I also really like the x200. The problem is that I don't know if I could get used to the 4:3 screen (I've always used widescreens), however I know I could get over that. The largest problem is that I need an optical drive in my laptop (I have a lot of images on disc I have to look at). So, it looks like I'm still undecided, maybe the sales in the next few weeks will make up my mind....

 

Is it possible for you to image those optical discs to a file. A USB drive or docking station can provide you the optical drive. You can get the files off those discs pretty quickly, or just image the entire disc to an ISO with IMGBurn. You can then mount them as a virtual drive using Daemon tools.

If you upgrade to a larger hard drive (the x61/x200 series accept standard 2.5" SATA drives) you can fit several dozen DVD images on your computer. This is a cheap, fast, and lightweight alternative to an optical drive.

You can get a much lighter laptop to carry around if you are able to do your optical disc jobs at a desk before you go. I think this is something you should consider as mobility is very important, and optical drives are really only necessary on occasion (for most people).

 

You bring up a very valid point, I never really thought about that before. I guess if I had to estimate I use my optical drive maybe once a week. A USB optical drive would probably be enough for the amount that I have to use the optical drive (although that adds more to the overall price tag of the system). I've never really heard of IMGBurn or Daemon tools, so I might have to look into them.

Just as a side note, this is the T400 I configured last night with the 20% off coupon that was valid yesterday:

ThinkPad T400 - 1 Yr Depot Warranty
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26GHz 1066MHz 3MBL2) 25W1
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic
14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
1 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
250 GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo 24X/24X/24X/8X Max, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA)
No Bluetooth
ThinkPad 11b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Express Adapter III10
Integrated Mobile Broadband upgradable
6 cell Li-Ion Battery
7417: 1 Year Depot Warranty - TopSeller7
3 year depot 9x5 Next Business Day

The total came out to $908.45 pre-tax and pre-shipping. I would throw in an extra stick of 2GB RAM when I got it. I didn't think this was a bad deal so I saved it to my cart incase I can't find anything better in the next couple weeks.

 

Don't get vista home basic....upgrade to vista home premium or business.

 

He might be able to get a license from school/work.

 

If you only need an optical drive once a week, then you can definitely get by without one.

You can actually get an external drive for a pretty low price.

A full size option that would sit at your desk is as low as $50 for this quality Samsung model from Newegg.

A slim USB powered model is more expensive but you can take it with you when you need an optical drive. $100 from Newegg.

The cheapest option is to harvest the drive from your existing Toshiba. If it uses a standard notebook drive you can put it in a cheap enclosure ( I use this $12 option). This gives you the same performance as the $100 option above, but is much cheaper. However, this will destroy what little resale value your Toshiba has (I took mine from a broken Acer).

I definitely recommend you consider a laptop without an optical drive (x61, x200, or other). Optical drives add weight, use a substantial amount of power, and are rarely required. You can get a 5400 RPM 320GB Hitachi drive for $60 after rebate (this is the drive I use). Image the drive that comes with the Notebook (assume 80GB) to the new one and you are left with 240GB. This 240GB is enough to hold ISO images of 51 single layer DVDs at maximum capacity. This is far superior to having to carry those discs, and the drive to read them, with you on a daily basis.

 

I would just say that go for the T400, since the XPS M1330 is based on an older platform, is not very power efficient as compared to the T400, and the dedicated GPU overheats badly.

Alright, sorry for the hijacking, but can somebody with a T400 (H/G HD 3450) lemme know which chipset their notebook has ? (CPU-Z will help)

 

maybe a smaller but faster hd?

 

Wow, that's a lot of excellent, relevant information, thanks! I appreciate your help. If I go that route, I'll probably get an external or portable optical drive as I'm going to keep my current laptop for light use and as a backup. I think it will all depend on the sales that Lenovo has during Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 

Another 20% coupon came out today, just FYI. After all this advice, I'd really like to get a x200, but it seems like the T400 is more affordable (coupon isn't applicable to x200). Here are the two configurations I made, let me know what you think (I'm also thinking about the x61s).....

ThinkPad T400 - 1 Yr Depot Warranty
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26GHz 1066MHz 3MBL2) 25W
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ LED Backlight
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
1 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
250 GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm4
CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo 24X/24X/24X/8X Max, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA)
Integrated Bluetooth PAN
ThinkPad 11b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Express Adapter III10
Integrated Mobile Broadband upgradable
9 cell Li-Ion Battery
7417: 1 Year Depot Warranty - TopSeller
3 year depot 9x5 Next Business Day

Total: $1098.05


ThinkPad X61s - 1 Year Depot Warranty
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo L7500 LV (1.6GHz, 4MB L2, 800MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista Business
12.1" XGA TMD Ultralight, 2x3 UltraConnect II antenna
1 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
TrackPoint with Fingerprint Reader
160GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm with Disk Encryption
Integrated Bluetooth PAN
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
ThinkPad X61s 8 Cell High Capacity Battery
7668: Express - 1 Year Depot Warranty
3 year depot 9x5 Next Business Day

Total: $1166.85


Overall, both nicely configured (for my needs anyways) run almost the same. The x61 runs about $70 more, but I also have to figure in about $100 more with the x61 for an external portable optical drive. I'd be adding 2GB to both when I got them. Any thoughts?

 

Both are solid options. The x61s is much lighter than the T400, and the only major performance difference is the graphics card (x4500 can accelerate decoding of HD video, x3100 can't) and a 40% bump in clockspeed but this probably doesn't matter.

You should be able to get a better price on the x61s. You have an encrypting hard drive in that configuration ( TrueCrypt is a free alternative if you want to do this). That will boos price substantially and you probably don't need it. You are better off with the smallest drive option and adding a 160GB or larger drive (I use a 320GB Hitachi 5k320) yourself aftermarket.

This x61s from the outlet is a very similar config and is only $870. The hard drive is only 80GB (easily swapped), and the only thing it lacks is Bluetooth (none of the outlet items seem to have this). You probably don't need Bluetooth, and if you decide you do later, it is easy to add with a USB solution ( or you can crack it open and put in yourself). This only comes with a 1 year warranty, but you could probably upgrade it if you wanted.

If you want to consider the x61 Tablet (I think you should). This well configured model is only $1180 from the outlet. It has an L7500 (1.6GHz C2D), Vista Business, 1 GB DDR2, 100GB 7200RPM, SXGA+ (1400x1050) FFS display with active digitizer [better than everything except x200t], 802.11ABG, 8 Cell battery.

You should also be aware that the x61 series use DDR2 memory. The x200/T400 use DDR3. DDR2 is currently much cheaper ( <$25 for 2GB), and DDR3 advantages are limited (theoretically more bandwidth, lower power consumption). This will make it much cheaper to max out the memory on an x61 than a T400 (I am waiting until prices drop to max out my x200).

 

u have 1gb listed, are you planning to buy a new 2 x 2gb kit yourself?

all else looks good.

 

Well if you're comfortable purchasing from ebay and have a paypal account,
there's a few nicely spec'd t400 on ebay.
I was looking a couple from seller id: Bunnypan

Looks like an authorized lenovo reseller and with the live.com cashback
and current ebay holiday coupons, you can get around $300 off plus
free shipping and no sales tax for U.S. orders for the most part.

 

Don't forget to check the Lenovo CPP site for better prices. It's a 15% discount but it's on EVERYTHING.
The X200 starts at $950 or so...

 

Before I got my T400 the M1330 was one of the computers I really considered. I checked out the M1330 at a couple of stores and didn't like the build quality. I'm usually not too picky about things like that, but all the M1330s had noticeable bulges in the keyboards. They also have glossy screens which had a lot of glare. Plus no trackpoint. I would definitely go with the T400.

The other thing I like is the 14.1" backlight. It's really a good compromise size for carrying and viewing. I think it's a good idea to get the largest screen you feel comfortable carrying around, since it's what you'll be looking at all the time. The only advantage I can think of for a smaller screen is when you aren't using it (sorry if that's stating the obvious). I haven't used the x series, but 12" is pretty small. Unless you are 5 feet tall 14.1" isn't hard to carry around.

Oh and like has already been mentioned..try CPP!

 

Lot's of good info - I'm learning a lot I thought about upgrading the HDD with an aftermarket one to save money, my only concerns are 1) I've never cloned a HDD before (I'm sure I could figure it out) and 2) I assume if anything went wrong and I had to send my lappy into Lenovo I'd have to put the OEM HDD back in, just like aftermarket RAM upgrades? I've been keeping my eye on the outlet and waiting for a refresh to see what's available. I've also kept my eye on ebay, but I'm always a little suspicious to buying expensive things on ebay (although that live.com cashback thing would be nice). I never really knew what CPP was until I just looked it up. Are any coupons stackable with the CPP discount? That would be fantastic?

 

Can't hurt to try, but I could never get any to work (and I tried a lot). On the bright side, CPP price was always lower than the best coupon when I was buying.

 

There's usually one a month that is stackable with the cpp, none at this moment for the t400 but there's one for the u330 for an additional 6% I believe.