T410s - worth it?

Hey folks! Still agonizing over my purchase decision. Since there's an extra 15% coupon floating around out there that works on the T410s I'm seriously considering it. How does this compare to the regular T410? What's the main advantage? Just the size?

I like that I can get the core i7 and a larger hard drive, on the 410, but do I really need that power? Is the 410s that much lighter?

Does anyone have any experience with the 410s?

 

T410s is thinner and sexier, although much more expensive and fewer upgradeable options compared to T410.

What do you intend to do with your laptop? Given that Core 2 Duo is already much more powerful than enough for average users, and Core i5 is significantly faster than Core 2 Duo at the same clock speed, you may want to look into whether you really need Core i7 on your laptop. If you play a lot of games and do a lot of video encoding, then yes you want Core i7 (and a discrete graphic card too, probably more important than the CPU choice).

Yes, T410s is much lighter and thinner, but that comes at a cost. It is more expensive and uses 1.8" hard drives. You don't have a lot of choices with 1.8" hard drives. If you go SSD, then there is no speed difference between 2.5" and 1.8" SSDs. But if you decides to stay with traditional spinning hard drives, then 1.8" hard drives are much slower than their 2.5" counterparts.

 

Thanks - I want this laptop to stand the test of time for a few years. I guess for what I'm doing the i7 is overkill!


Not sure I understand what you're saying about the hard drives though...is the 1.8" SSD as fast as the 2.5" spinning drives on the T410? What is the main advantage of a SSD?

What's the main diff between the 250gb 5400rpm option and the SSDs?

 

SSD consumes less power and it's faster than usual hds --> more expensive. but u better read a lil bit about them. as far as i know there is no big difference in writing compared to the fastest hds, but if it comes to reading it's a new era.

 

the ssd's would be much faster than any spinning drives on anything

 

Thanks. That's what I thought and then I thought I read somewhere that it wasn't that much of a difference.

 

The lighter weight and thinner profile along with a premium finish are the main benefits of the T410s. The SSD provides benefits such as faster bootup and no worrying about hard drive failing due to bumps/drops since there's no read and write head involved with storage.

From a practical standpoint it's easier to travel with the T410s, for some people having a thin laptop that's light is just a must. The trade off is of course the fact you can't cram the same powerful components into a thinner frame. So if power is what you need or just floats your boat then go with the T410, but if you put a high premium on thin and light and some extra spit and polish on the look then the T410s may be worth it. I personally always lean towards thin and light, I certainly don't need a Core i7.

 

I take this laptop in and out of the apartment constantly. I always have it on trips with me. It's always on the plane with me. Basically it's always with me. So I guess I should put more of a premium on the weight.

Thanks folks this is really helping quite a bit.

 

The T400s is cheaper and its processor seems to be good enough for most users.

 

imho if you're gonna use it for a long time (i.e. not just getting a new laptop for fun), then i don't see why you would get the t400s over a t410s.

if paying more means it'd get obsolete less sooner, than i'd definitely be willing to pay more

however, t410 vs t410s is a different matter. i prefer, like andrew, thin and light...the only reason i didn't get an x300 is because there's a bit too much compromise performance-wise. if you want absolute performance, t410. if you want good performance but with an extra bit of lightness, t410s.

 

I have only had one SSD on a sony vaio z. All I can tell you is that it made a huge difference in the speed and bootup times, and it was safely out of the realm of imagination. Not all SSDs are created equal, but if you get a good one, it's a very nice boost in performance. I will wait until they get down to 256 gb for a reasonable price.

 

Traditional hard drives has mechanical parts. Roughly speaking, due to the smaller form factor, the motor on a 1.8" hard drivers cannot spin as fast as their 2.5" counterparts.

SSD has no moving parts on it. It basically just contain a bunch of NAND flash memory and a controller. SSD are much faster than traditional hard drives, although they are much more expensive and have smaller capacity. For SSD, there is basically no speed difference between a 1.8" SSD and a 2.5" SSD (provided that they use the same type of controller and memory).

 

I would second looking at a T400s. There are some fantastic deals on those and could very well be worth the savings depending on your system usage, especially since the only difference between the 400s and 410s is the cpu/integrated graphics. The C2D is within 20% of the i7 in the t400s for most operations save 3d rendering or video encoding. So if you don't do the latter, and dont plan on gaming, the t400s may be compelling to you. However, if you do those things and game, you'll want to skip the 410s and get the discrete card in the t410.

 

If you haven't made a decision yet and can hold out a little longer, the T410s with switchable graphics should be out soon. That will definitely help future-proof the laptop, since the integrated / discrete graphics cards in the upcoming release are much better than what is available in the T400s.

That's what I'm waiting on and when it becomes available, I'll be ordering a T410s.

 

well strictly speaking it does depend on drives...some ssd's (Intel/Indilinx-based) are MUCH better than others (Samsung/JMicron-based), but even the worst current gen ssd's are better than anything that spins

the "wasn't that much of a difference" ssd's are the early models, e.g. the one on the 1st gen macbook air, or the x300. go to anandtech.com and read anand's ssd articles (at least 3,4 or them) if you really want to know the details

 

yea...there are now 5,400rpm 1.8" hdd's, but it still feels slower than a 5,400rpm 2.5" hdd

slow enough for me to seriously consider buying a x18-m for my t400s

 

If portability is your main concern you may also want to consider the X200, X200s, they use a 12" screen so are a bit easier to carry around.

Some people claim that getting a discrete GPU helps make your laptop "future proof". This may be because Vista had higher graphics demands than XP. In my opinion any computer with integrated graphics will be just find for 3-4 years. Except if you really want 3D games on your notebook then, or some other programs that require 3d graphics. But it is always much cheaper to use a desktop computer to good 3d gaming performance.


Sometimes it is better to buy the notebook with a harddrive and buy the SSD from an online retailer. That way you get the drive you want, usually at a better price, not sure if this is still the case.

Provantage hass the second generation 1.8" intel SSD, x18-m G2
They use to have the best price, selection, not sure if they still do.

x18-m G2, 80GB: $230 USD
X18-m G2, 160GB: $500 USD

http://www.provantage.com/scripts/search.dll?QUERY=x18-m&Submit.x=0&Submit.y=0

 

It's not just for 3D gaming. Adobe and Nvidia are working on Flash acceleration.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1243934217700.html

The web is quickly evolving with more immersive technologies etc. I'd much rather have the option to switch between integrated and discrete graphics in a laptop I plan on owning for more than a year.