T410 - last minute buying advice?

Hi,

I'm about to place an order for a Lenovo T410 and I was wondering if I could get some final feedback first.

I'm starting uni in a week and I'll be using this notebook mainly for taking notes during lectures, Java programming, some movie watching, general productivity and maybe an odd game or so. That said, my main gaming rig (Phenom II 920, 8GB, GTX 285) is more than sufficient. So would it be recommended that I get the Quadro 3100M anyway?

As for storage options, would a 5400rpm drive use substantially more power than a 7200rpm one? I will be buying the T410 with Core i5-540M and the 9-cell battery, so will I see much a difference? Minutes/hours?

Does the lid still come with the rubberized paint or is it just matte ABS plastic like the R61?

Since NBR review of the T410 obviously stressed the system, will general use heat up the system much? whether integrated or discrete graphics installed?

Say a workload is a word doc with Netblocks IDE running in the background with some music, would the cooling fan be quite high/pitched?

 

The GPU decision is totally up to you. If it were me, and I already had a dedicated gaming machine, I'd just get integrated graphics on the notebook. Dedicated graphics will add cost, weight, and reduce battery life.

No, a 5400rpm drive would use less power than a 7200rpm drive. You'd probably notice a difference in battery life, but I can't tell you exactly how many minutes. Just a few, though - nothing excessive probably.

Lid is still classic thinkpad texture.

General use should not overheat your laptop.

I can't answer your fan noise question - it does seem like the t410 fan is more noticeable than previous models, but that's just from reading the comments here.

 

Oh yes...whoops I was going to say whether a 7200rpm drive used more power than a 5400rpm.

As for the graphics, I think the Intel HD Graphics will be just fine then.

 

the difference between power consumption for 7k2 drives and 5k4 drives are not that much...no more than a few % difference - certainly not enough to choose a 5k4 drive over a 7k2, assuming the same everything else (size, cache, platter density, etc)

 

Now onto a closely related matter...are Lenovo carrying cases reliable? From pictures, they seem dodgy like my old free Asus case. I'm deciding between the Lenovo Business Messenger Case or an STM Medium Alley case.

 

Dedicated graphics, always IMO. Especially if you want to game now and then.....I have an Intel x4500HD in this Vostro 12 incher...it will run my strat games OK, but it would be much nicer to have an nvidia card. Just my .02.

 

Hmmmm. I think I'll manage with the latest generation of Intel Graphics though. I haven't played a game on my laptop for about a year plus now, so Intel HD would offer me greater battery life and less cost overall too.

 

I just said that because I've intel graphics in this vostro, it DOES play my strat games pretty good believe it not...no settings options in the games, but at least I can play them decently..but, I DO wish I had just a minimal Nvidia card though...would make it perfect for travel...just my .02

 

You never know if you'll find a game in the future that you'll want to play on your lenovo. Future-proof it, and make it the most flexible machine that you can.

 

As a university student, I think you will appreciate the extra battery lifetime the integrated graphics will give you - I would suggest skipping the discrete graphics. Besides, you already have a very powerful desktop you can use for gaming.

 

you'll never know when you'll need that extra battery life
future-proof it and get the integrated graphics

 

I would completely concur with this statement.

Thinkpads are productivity machines (hence the name), gaming should be the last thing you do on it.