T61 - Where is the eSATA?

eSATA would be sweet on the T61, but I have doubts that we will even see it. It is obviously a possibility since it comes standard on the new ASUS G1S 15.4" santa rosa. (Not to mention it has built in webcam, HDMI, and GeForce 8600GT).

eSata would be pretty awesome and have benefits on a business machine. It would allow for an external hard drive at speeds greater than anything you come put internally in laptop (ie a 10,000 RPM raptor HDD). Video editing programs like Adobe Premiere Pro would greatly benefit from a fast external drive (it's almost a requirement). You just can't get anywhere close the transfer speed through IEEE 1394 or USB 2.0 as you could with eSATA!!! And, yes this would be a big advantage for you gamers out there!

The problem? The ASUS G1S is a little too pricey for me at $1930. Especially considering you can't find "deals" on these. $1930 is the absolute lowest I've seen them: http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=G1S-A1&Store_Code=GPS

Only one other thing I can see that is discouraging about this laptop is lack of turbo memory, but since its performance is skeptical at this point I don't think it would be a deal breaker. I'm sure Intel Turbo Memory will be available to consumers in the very near future and it could be easily added (provided you have an open PCIe slot).

 

DVI would be nice too. So would HDMI and heck why not firewire 800. Unfortunately these aren't things business users want. The G1S is a GAMING machine. ThinkPads, although you might not know it from its popularity is a BUSINESS machine. Business users tend to be slower in adopting new technologies and don't care about playing games. Therefore you're left with a low end graphics card, a dim screen, and antiquated connection options. However, they tend to be higher quality in both design and components.

 

If you're interested in a serious gaming notebook though, look at the ASUS C90S. The thing looks ugly and has bland case design at best, but is the best midrange gaming machine if you don't mind the monsterous fans sticking out the back. But it's cheap and extremely fast.

 

I believe these notebooks are designed for business use. For gaming stuff, you should see some other brands that offer the options you are looking for.

 

Well, the Dell XPS M1710 can be configured with a 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX graphics card, plus it can also be configured with a 17inch WUXGA screen.

But both the Dell XPS and the Asus are gaming notebooks, not business class notebooks.

 

Outside of a small minority though, who would really care about HDD speeds for a machine to be used primarily and almost exclusively for business?

The same could be said of putting a decent GPU into the T series...I'd love it, but for most people who are in the market for a Thinkpad, it's not useful.

 

You could always just use an eSata expresscard.

 

Geeeze! I wish I would have left my one little comment about gaming out of my above comment. I focused on business use.

eSATA does not = gaming

Let's suppose video editing is your business. You would greatly benefit from having several HDDs on your system. eSATA would allow for that. They wouldn't have to be the fastest HDDs out there, but they would need to be much faster than what an external HDD with IEEE 1394 or USB 2.0 would allow with slow transfer speeds.

@dietcokefiend - good point. A video editing business user with a T61 could do that. Thanks! I'll have to look and see if express card has an effect (slows down) the transfer speeds. If you happen to know, let me know.

Basically what I was saying is that it would be nice to have eSATA on the T61. Nothing wrong with having as many options as possible.

 

Like dietcokefiend said, if you want eSATA that badly just buy the expresscard - it isn't that expensive and I have seen some that offer dual ports AND RAID! (not like the "typical" user would want to RAID two external HDDs together in the first place)

 

eSATA doesn't make sense in a business notebook. Don't get me wrong, I would like it as well, but there's no demand. Anyone doing serious video editing is likely on a desktop. I don't know of anyone who needs portable video editing. But it's also that businesses don't adopt new technology quickly. In addition, there are very few external enclosures that offer eSATA. I have one sitting on my desk right now, but it's one of the only ones out there. On top of that, like people were saying, if you need it that bad, just get an expresscard. That's why they come with an expresscard slot.

 

That's not true at all. There are eSATA offerings from WD and Seagate along with many, many enclosures that carry eSATA (eBay).

 

Yeah, They were not easy to find a year or two ago, but they are readily available now. Newegg has 11 eSATA enclosures. That's not to mention all of the external HDD with eSATA that WD and Seagate have to offer. I'm sure there are lots more. I found those with one search.

I already thanked dietcokefiend in post #6 for reminding me about the expesscard option. I'll just repeat what I said in post #6. "Nothing wrong with having as many options as possible."

The lack of eSATA is not a deal breaker for me, it would just be nice to have. It would be nice if it was built-in instead of having to spend ~$70 on an express card adapter that I will have to fumble around with. I just did some reading on some of them and there are still often driver issues with XP! I'm just sure they work silky smooth on Vista (sarcasm).

 

I agree. I'd love it if they had HDMI, DVI, 6/8-pin firewire, and higher brightness screens. It's too bad that there are almost no manufactures that offer decent midrange gaming/workstation machines. Dell seems to think that you should buy a low end graphics card or high end, but nothing in between. It's too bad there is not more demand for a gaming/work machine. Something that is solid, has a midrange GPU, fast processor options, and all of the latest external connections. It seems to be either all gaudy game machines or gimped "average user" machines. The G1S would come close if they didn't decide that plastic faux buttons and ugly lights were in style.

 

Yeah, ASUS almost got it right. Nice looking carbon fiber case, but some of the funny lookin' buttons and lights gotta go. I did read somewhere however that the lights only light up while gaming. They are triggered in someway when Directx is in use. So at least you wouldn't be drawing to much attention if using it for a business laptop.

HP has a nice looking laptop, but I'm more concerned about performance and build quality... a laptop that can handle a lot of travel. Looks isn't much of a factor.

If it looks like a gaming machine and it's built tough and able to perform that's fine with me. If it looks like a 15 year old laptop (Lenovo), but it is built tough and able to perform that's fine too. Unfortunately the ASUS laptops are probably not that "tough" so Lenovo wins. Or at least they will win when the T61p comes out.

 

Ya the HP consumer machines are decent looking, but feel cheap. I don't know about their build quality, but I assume it's low. too many unnecessary curves and things. The macbook/pro and thinkpad are on the right track. Just make it simple and functional. I don't need ugly plastic boarder decorations, or decorative dips in the plastic. Function should always follow form, but it's not hard to do both.

 

I have an idea to use a bay for a second hard disk as converter to eSATA. I don't have such a notebook now, so I can't implement this at the moment.

But the idea is very attractive for me. Just to buy an adapter for the second hard disk and then connect an SATA to eSATA adapter. It will require some work most likely, but it should be worth the effort.