T61 Order Placed: Opinions/Thoughts/Comments welcomed...

I just placed an order for a 14.1'' WXGA+ T61.

Specs are as follows: 2.0ghz, 2gb ram(2 dimms), 80gb hd 5400rpm, cd burner, thinkpad a/b/g/n, nvidia 128mb gfx card, 7cell battery, and Lenovo 3yr warranty service.


Thoughts? I purchased the laptop for law school, so I'm hoping the 5lb weight won't be cumbersome.

Are there any tips or things I should expect? Any input would be much appreciated.

 

a long wait?

 

I would've gone with 1GB (1 DIMM) and bought a second DIMM 1GB elsewhere for much cheaper (at least $100 savings). Not exactly sure why you got nVidia graphics for law school. The 7 cell battery will probably get you at least 4-5 hours which should get you through a couple classes without having to plug in. If you aren't planning to game, you should've gotten integrated graphics to save you another $70 or so.

80GB is decent size if this is a school only laptop for doing Lexis searches and Bluebook papers, but your choice of discrete graphics has me wondering. Upgrading from 60gb to 120gb was fairly cheap as I recall (less than $40), I would've gone that route instead of the RAM.

It's more than 5lb with the 7 cell battery. I'm guessing at least 200 grams more than the 4 cell option, which is at 5lb. Maybe 5.4 or so pounds? This still makes it a little lighter, especially with the small AC adapter, than other notebooks in this size class. Regardless, it's a lot sturdier than others in this group.

If you really want to go lighter, you'll have to pay around a $300 premium for the X series ThinkPads. Those are less than 3 pounds.

If you're using it every day, get a decent laptop backpack so you don't have to carry around two bags. Messenger bags are nice looking, but for every day use where you're walking around big campuses, it can put a lot of strain on your shoulder.

 

I'm going to law school this Summer and I am really considering a t61. My options were very similar, although I opted for the integrated gfx, 100gb hd, and 1gb of ram. Our law school does not use Vista Business, so I didn't get the hd ram upgrade. Btw, can I install that manually at some later point?

If you don't mind me asking, what school are you going to be attending?

 

5 lbs is pretty light and it's a 14.1", so it won't be cumbersome. I also ordered a T61 for law school. When's your est. ship date? Mine's 5/28. I ordered on 5/9.

And where are you going to law school, fuzzler and tikigod? I'll be at Stanford this Fall.

 

I never thought that $100 could be saved, just by buying RAM elsewhere. What type of RAM would you suggest?

I just received an e-mail from Lenovo stating there were some issues with my CC, so it seems I'll get a chance to do this over . The reason I went with the integrated gfx was the price(as well as rare, and I mean rare, gaming), it was only about $30 dollars more in the end, so I figured why the hell not, it was within my budget.

Oh, and Vermicious, thank you for your input..


Tikigod: Tier 2, you?

 

I'm also going to be attending law school starting august. I purchased the t61 on friday, but I was confused on what version of windows I should get. Right now I have vista business, but maybe I should change that. What version of windows did you guys order? If vista, which one?

 

I got Vista Home Basic because it was the cheapest option and I already have a copy of XP Pro that I'm going to install on it.

There's no need to have Vista for law school. And if I want to get Vista later on, I can buy a copy from school for $5.

That's why I went the cheap route for OS.

 

I have XP Pro already, so I chose the Windows version which was the cheapest and subtracted from the total amount.

 

The T61 is looking much better than the crappy Dell latitudes my school offers. I'm just concerned about battery life. My school also starts this Summer.

fuzzler: I'm T2 as well.

Edit: I'm also concerned about the warranty. Is it worth it to get a 3 year? How is Lenovo's warranty service in case my computer crashes a few weeks before finals?

 

I would get another 1GB of RAM, hopefully you opted to get the 1GB of RAM as one stick and not two (most laptops only have two RAM slots). If you plan on using Vista, I would still get at least 2GB of RAM regardless of whether or not you're using Business or Home Premiere. You can install it manually later, but honestly if you do plan to convert to Business later, it'll be much cheaper to buy it now than to buy a whole new copy. Unless of course you have options like buying Vista Business for $5 from school.

As I stated in my PM to you, many people recommend this one from NewEgg:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820231069

All specs seem to match the T61's, but neither specify CAS latency. Still, it should suffice. It's even cheaper now, it used to be $50, now $41.

You mean you went with discrete graphics, right? I don't see how it was only $30 more, the base configurations are the same and you pay around $70 more for the 140 than the X3100. Unless they have different prices for component upgrades between the two models of the T61 but that seems odd to me.

You're welcome.

I would go with either Home Premium or Vista Business. Do not get the 64 bit edition of Business though, some applications you already have may not work.
Home Premium has more multimedia options, and is cheaper, while Business has more security and networking options. So, it depends on what you need. Google around for specific differences and see what's important for your use. If it's for normal school use, and a non-science like law, I don't think you really need business. Home Premium has the fun gimmicks in Vista like the Aero interface and all the media options.

If you're going XP Pro, I hope you didn't opt for Intel Turbo Memory, because it does not function under XP.

Latitudes are decent, but the price is comparable to a ThinkPad with current discounts, so it's a no brainer. As for battery life, upgrade to a 6 or 7 cell battery, and if you need more, get the modular bay 3 cell battery later.

Lenovo offers the best warranty from a notebook manufacturer, although that's not saying much. Still, they are less likely to give you the run around on repairs. The warranty basically breaks down to $50 a year for the two extra years on top of the one you get standard. So you have to ask yourself if that $50 is worth it.

An extra note, many credit cards offer free warranty extensions if you purchase laptops entirely on their credit line. There's a thread about it in the forums somewhere.

 

vermicious, it seems you know your stuff well. I think I'm gonna stick with vista business because the price increase between vista business and vista home premium is marginal. I prefer the business edition because it comes with less of the multimedia software that I don't need. I'm also opting for the intel turbo memory. Lets say later on I switch back to xp pro because of compatability issues at school. Obviously the turbo memory wouldn't work with xp. I'm wondering if any problems would be caused with the functioning of my computer just by the hardware being there.

As I understand it, the multimedia you're talking about that home premium has over vista business is the media center, dvd maker, and the movie makers. Is their anything else?

 

That's about it, really. You may want to save your upgrade money for a 64bit version of Windows Vista later.