T61 New vs T61p ebay vs SL500

Hey guys,

Been looking around and been really impressed with the conversations and help you guys have been giving to everyone asking questions so I thought I would ask for the public opinion on mine.

Just placed an order for a new T61 with discrete graphics and suse linux OS... total came to about 1188 (+tax) + 80 bucks at newegg for 4 gigs of CAS 4 RAM.
T9300 + 128mb NVidia Quadro NVS 140m

Was super happy but got the 256mg graphics card bug in me. Started looking around again and found T61p loaded on ebay for US $1,399.00 (+ tax).
T7700 + 256MB nVIDIA Quadro FX 570M http://http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-ThinkPad-T61p-T7700-2-4GHz-4GB-DVDRW-15-4-WUXGA_W0QQitemZ220271783877QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item220271783877&_trkparms=39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A15%7C240%3A1309&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

KEPT looking around and found the new SL500's with 256mb cards configured with the T9400 for 1189(+ tax). + RAM + harddrive upgrade.
Note: Can the SL500 take 1066Mhz RAM? and what about solid state drives?

Any help or suggestions you guys could give would be VERY appreciated. I already have the first order in... so yeah would have to upset Lenovo with a cancellation. But yeah... Thanks!

-Garrett

 

I too am interested in the 256 card in a lenovo T61. My biggest concern is that one week ago I did a practice configuration on lenovos website (T9300,4 gigs Ram, 160 GB 7200 rpm hd, wuxg screen, 256 video card, blue tooth, XP Pro Downgrade) and the price was approx. $1550--- and this week the same configuration is aprox. $ 2000!! I am not sure of how to time it for when it will be most practical to get this computer. P. S. I dont think there is any difference between the T61 & the T61p if you order either model with the exact same specs., but I could be wrong.

 

Fulltilt,

The T61 is only capable of having the 128mb Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M while the t61p comes with the Nvidia Quadro FX5?0M. (at least now with the them on their way out)

Make sure you order your laptop with as LITTLE RAM as you can (1 gig for the T61's) and then buy and install the 4 gig upgrade yourself. You will save about $80-$100.

Another thought I was curious about maybe ordering a baseline HD and then upgrading to one of the new intel SSD's. Something I've been considering, not sure if you would want to as well.

 

Every time I go back to lenovo's website they have the same and /or different options at/or the same or different prices. Several times they offered the 256 video card on the T61 if you ordered the 15.4 WUXGA display, but the graphics card was not revealed until it was in the pre-checkout summary list. And at other times , only the 15.4 WXGA TFT or the 15.4 WSXGA+ TFT is offered, in which case the only option is the NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M (128MB). At any rate I believe they are playing a stock market type game, keeping a close watch on daily sales as they are phasing out the T61,counting thier chips, keeping a daily average of estamated values and adjusting the prices of individual options as they estimate to be most cost beneficial to them.