T41 vs. T42 vs. T43

Aside from specs (ie. processor speed, hd capacity, etc.) are there any differences between these machines (ie. what justifies - if anything - the difference in model number)?

 

T41 - Banias (old) Pentium M, i855PM (old) chipset, AGP graphics, DDR memory.
T42 - Dothan (new) Pentium M, i855PM (old) chipset, AGP graphics, DDR memory.
T43 - Dothan (new) Pentium M, i915PM (new) chipset, PCI-e graphics, DDR2 memory.

 

/me is confused
One TP I'm looking at is a T41 that the seller claims has a P-M 735, which would be a Dothan..

don't the latest IBM's use Sonoma?

 

Yes, the T43 uses Sonoma - that's the i915PM chipset, combined with a Dothan Pentium M and an Intel WiFi card.

Get the type/model on the T41 (the seven character code that identifies the laptop configuration - for example, this X21's type/model is 266266U). I would not be surprised if it's one of the following:

1. A scam.
2. Someone who doesn't know that they've got a T42, and not a T41.
3. Someone who assumes that a P-M 735 is any 1.7GHz P-M, and not just the Dothans. That would mean it's a 1.7 Banias - the fastest CPU in the T41.
4. Someone who upgraded their T41 to a P-M 735, which is entirely possible - Banias and Dothan use the same socket, and the T41 and T42 even use the same mobo, IIRC.

Also, get the serial number (another seven character code), and check the type and serial at this site:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/warranty/warranty.vm

That will tell you if it's still in warranty, if it's been stolen, etc., etc. If they don't give you the serial on request, be very afraid.

 

I'd vote for the T42. Better battery life, runs cooler, less noisy, but performance is not quite as good as T43. You can probably get a better deal on a T42. That is what I spent my money on asyway.

 

Not even sure about that. The T42s are configurable with 400MHz Dothans ranging from 1.6GHz to 2.1GHz (With 2/2.1GHz being offered on the P-models only, though), while the T43s are configurable with 533MHz Dothans ranging from 1.6GHz to 2.26GHz (the last on P-models only). So while the fastest T43 will definitely outperform the fastest T42, there is a big overlap between the performance ranges, and depending on budget, one can just select the fastest processor he is willing to pay for, either on a T42 or a T43. And I'm at all not confident that, say, a 1.73GHz T43 will outperform a 1.8GHz T42.

 

All things being equal, which they never are.

 

For what it's worth, I recently got a T41p, and aside from a little hard drive issue which IBM resolved quit quickly I've been very happy. About the only thing it doesn't have that I'd kind of like is the fingerprint scanner, but that's definitely something I can live without.
As far as speed goes its plenty fast, I mostly do word processing and the like, but I also have done some gaming (vampire:bloodlines) and the laptop held up admirably. Overall I'd say pick whichever best fits your budget, provided you can get an IBM warranty with it.

 

As mentioned, T43 uses DDR2 and PCI graphics.. this will give a boost in performance...

 

I thought Sonoma was the 533MHz FSB P-Ms? (ref: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2516&article=Intel+Centrino+Guide)

 

Sonoma is the codename for the Centrino platform that those 533MHz FSB CPUs use.

Sonoma is made up of:

533MHz FSB Dothan
i915GM or i915PM
2915ABG WiFi

It's still Centrino if it's missing one of those, just not Sonoma Centrino (although if it's got the 533FSB Dothan, it's usually still called Sonoma...)

 

PCI-E and DDR2 on themselves give ZERO performance boost. It all depends on the speed of the RAM (DDR2-533 is not always faster than DDR-400) and the actual graphics card used. And the X300 offered on many T43s is slower than the 9600 offered on many T42s.

 

if you are saying 1GB DDR is going to boost better than 512 DDR2 for large application, that is true

 

No, I'm saying that 512MB DDR-400 might be faster in certain cases than 512MB DDR2-533, due to the higher latencies of DDR2 RAM.

 

Exactly. If you're jumping around RAM a lot (most things), the DDR-400 will be faster.

If you're putting a continuous stream of data into RAM (think multimedia stuff), the DDR2-533 will be faster.

 

Would CPU-Z be able to differentiate between a 1.7GHz Banias and 1.7GHz Dothan?

Edit: As a more general question, what should I do, at purchase time, to verify all of the specs provided (ie. processor speed, hd size and speed, etc.)?

 

CPU-Z will be able to differentiate between the processors. CPU-Z will also provide info on your RAM (amount, speed, configuration) and motherboard.