T61p to T500 upgrade; thoughts?

I'm bouncing this thread off the forums I read for differing viewpoints. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Those that have migrated from a T61 to a T500, your opinions are especially welcome.

I've sold off a gaming laptop & a high end desktop, but never bought myself a replacement. It's time I do so.

Currently, I have a T61p Specs are as follows:

Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5ghz
4gb 800mhz DDR2, running at 667mhz
15.4" WUXGA LCD (175 nit, 500:1 contrast)
256mb Quadro 570m (8600 GT equivalent)
Intel X25m 80gb SSD
WD 320gb 7200rpm drive in Ultrabay hdd adapter (SATA to PATA)
DVD+-DL
Intel 4965AGN
Bluetooth
Wireless USB (pulled from unit)
1gb TurboMemory (pulled from unit)
Vista 64 bit Business (Will upgrade to Win7 when it releases on Technet)
9 cell battery
3 year Accidental warranty through 04/11

It's sitting in an Advanced dock, letting me access the DVD and HDD simultaneously. I have 2 spare 9 cell batteries, unused.

It works perfectly, and handles my gaming needs without issue, although the T6x series is limited to SATA 1 speeds, making my X25m run at 100MB/s instead of up to 200.

The replacement I'm looking at is a T500 @ $1,399.56

Core 2 Duo T9400 2.53ghz
2gb 1066mhz DDR3
15.4" WSXGA+ LCD (200 Nit, 500:1 contrast)
256mb Radeon HD 3650 + Intel integrated switchable
250gb 5400rpm
Ultrabay hdd adapter (SATA to mini-SATA)
DVD+-DL
Intel 5300AGN
Bluetooth
Vista 64 bit Business (Will upgrade to Win7 when it releases on Technet)
6 cell battery
3 year Accidental Warranty


I'll make some aftermarket purchases, and swaps that will leave the systems like this:
The T61p will be downgraded to the 200gb 7200rpm drive I have in an enclosure, the 250gb 5400rpm will replace it. I'll continue to use it for multi-boot needs. The old Ultrabay adapter may be sold, or moved to the docking station.

The T500 will be upgraded to 4gb RAM, the 80gb SSD will be moved here, the 320gb 7200rpm will be moved into the new Ultrabay adapter.


The pros of this move are:
Better battery life
Better harddrive performance
High quality secondary laptop
Maintains compatability with (most) peripherals, which I might not get if I were to buy another system.
DisplayPort (to HDMI w/ adapter) would give me HD video output potential the T61p lacks.

The cons of this move are:
No real step up in non-HDD based performance. Video & CPU are practically the same.
Still no eSATA.
Core i7 is around the corner...but likely 8 months away.
I could buy a faster computer (Core 2 Quad, GT260) for about the same price, but would lose out on the docking station, keyboard, build quality, and warranty.

 

I don't see the t500 as a huge upgrade performance wise. You might want to ensure you have warranty while you have the t61 with the nVidia card.

 

True, I'm not getting much of a performance upgrade.

If I went through another vendor for performance, I'd likely lose many of the things I love about my Thinkpad: the relatively small size compared to other 15.4" notebooks, dual harddrive support, Trackpoint, docking station support, etc.

This "upgrade" is really a sideways step. I'm moving down in resolution (no big deal, I still have 1920x1080 on my LCD). Moving up in battery life will be nice. Moving up in HDD performance would validate the $400 I spent on the X25m.

More than anything, I'd be replacing my primary/docked system with a more powerful one, and getting a known-good system now for experimenting and the work that I don't want to have my primary system down for.

I don't foresee a real upgrade until Lenovo releases i7s in 15.4". I don't want the 17" (well, I do...but I don't want it's extra size compared to my wife's 17").

 

They're pretty identical systems. I haven't owned the T61p since Lenovo canceled it, but I can say having the peace of mind the Nvidia graphics aren't going to spontaneously melt on me is almost worth the runaround they gave me. The 6 hour battery life puts it over the top.

 

I'd say wait for end of this year, coz according to the raod map, that would be new T510 on the way juat around the corner.

 

Thinking very seriously about it. The desire for Quad core is painfully strong...and I know that when I do go with the next generation Thinkpad, I'll have the added expense of a new docking station...I can't live without one any more.

At any rate, I do need another laptop...maybe I'll just hit up ebay for something that does DDR2 and SATA for sake of cheap upgrades.

 

If you want a 15" display, I'd be tempted to wait for the T510.

I'm a user that went from the T61 to the T400. In my case, I went up in resolution (WXGA to WXGA+) with a brighter display (even as a CCFL, it's brighter than my 15" from the T61) and added smaller size, better battery life, nicer WiFi (under Windows, at least), and a webcam. IMO, I'm also better off with ATI graphics; that's a matter of user opinion, but nVidia has let me down more recently, and with more products (for reference, my first ATI product was a VGA Wonder 512k ISA in `93, my first nVidia card a Diamond Viper V330 Riva128 in `97).

I'm very happy with my upgrade; though my T61 wasn't a bad laptop, this one is better. In your case, I think the drop in resolution is easier when you're going portable, and the ATI graphics is an improvement. Otherwise, you aren't gaining much, and in your case, waiting might bring you more.

 

I'd love to go down to a T400. I loved the WXGA+ 14" T61 widescreen I had (mother-in-law bought it off me when her tower died). The only real reason I'm leaning towards the T500 is Display port (minimal importance, as it doesn't do audio) and the fact I've got 2 9 cell batteries for the 15.4" models. I suppose I could try to trade them for the 14" versions.

I wouldn't mind the drop in performance from the T61p's Quadro to the T400's 3470, as I'd still be able to use the T61p for any gaming, and could leave the T400 to my VMWare and portable needs.

The smart money is on waiting for the next generation, I suppose.

 

If you'd love to go down in size, then I'd be tempted to bite now. Hard for me to describe, but it's so absolutely worth it IMO. I love the WXGA+ screen, and while the first-gens had a reputation for keyboard flex, mine (which arrived a couple of weeks ago) has a keyboard that's more solid than my T61. I absolutely love this laptop, and while I liked my T61 (which is now going to my wife), for my uses, the T400 beats it in every way. I now believe that 14" displays are really the sweet spot for laptops when it comes to usability and portability. Of course, I rarely use my ThinkPad with an external display.

I'm running Windows 7 RC 64-bit. I've made it a member of my work domain, and used the beta Remote Server Admin Tools, which have been flawless. VMWare Player runs fine (I need to get Workstation though), as does VMWare Console.

 

Wait for the T510. If the T510 follows the T400s path, it may include an ESATA port. I read somewhere that the next implementation of display port may include Audio. T510 may also include an updated version of ATI graphics.

If 4GB DDR3 goes cheaper in the next 6 months, 6-8GB DDR3 will become a reality.

Who knows maybe Lenovo could introduce an option for LED WSXGA+

 

Wait a minute, lets not get crazy here.

 

It is step of logical evolution, there is no LED backlit option for the T61 before T400/T500. But experience dictates lenovo follows devolution with no logic like the move from IPS screens and the T400/T500 Keyboards.

There are already screens(16:9) that are of similar resolutions and LED backlight. so who knows.

 

Well, against my more rational and intelligent thoughts, I've ordered a Thinkpad.

I ended up finding a redistributed W500 on the outlet for less than the setup I was looking for.


Core 2 Duo T9400 2.53ghz
3gb 1066mhz DDR3 (will sell off the 1gb module, replace with 2)
15.4" WSXGA+ LCD (200 Nit, 500:1 contrast)
512mb FireGL V5700 + Intel integrated switchable
160GB 7200
Ultrabay hdd adapter (SATA to mini-SATA) (bought off ebay for $20)
DVD+-DL
Intel 5350AGN
Bluetooth
XP Pro (Will upgrade to Win7 when it releases on Technet)
6 cell battery
3 year Accidental Warranty

All in all, it'll come out to $60 cheaper than what I was looking at on a T500 CTO build. I don't know if it'll have a webcam, or whether it comes with a smartcard or PCMCIA slot, but neither of those features mean that much to me anyway.

What I'm looking at doing instead is selling off my T61p and NC10 netbook, and buying a gaming-oriented laptop. It's probably cost me more effort and money in the end, but I sold off my quad tower, an Athlon desktop, and an MSI MS-1651 for roughly $2000 and never had anything to show for it.

Ideally, I'll end up looking at something like the W500 for my work, and an Asus G51 for my play.

 

Nice purchase. Make sure you follow up with some nice pics and a review comparing your new Thinkpad to the T61p, some folks says the W series is a step down on build quality compared to the T61 series.

 

t30power,

I'd say it.

-Renee

 

That will be unfortunate if so. The T400 I worked on a month or 2 ago actually seemed better built than the 14" T61 I worked on the next day.

 

I went from a 15" T43P to a 14" T61P, loved going down in size, that T61p was the longest Thinkpad I ever owned at just over a year. A couple of months ago I went for the W500. I wanted the WUXGA screen since I was going back up to 15". IMO, after replacing the flexi keyboard with a better one, the W500 is as good my T61p was. No noticable difference in day to day usage for me and I spend a good 6 hours a day on it docked and another 6 hours on it undocked and again, no worse that I can tell. I used to be a huge fan of the 4:3 screen but I've really grown to like the wide screen format, not for the screen itself, but because it makes the laptop a little wider which means it's more comfortable on my lap. Also, the biggest advantage in my W500 is that it runs much cooler than any Thinkpad I've owned. It my be the P series processor I opted for (the P9500 I think it is) but this thing is great on heat and battery life...been using the 6 cell with it.

I would say anyone going from a T61p to a W500 should be quite satisfied.

 

I agree completely with kevroc's post. The WUXGA W500 is a beauty. I have a T-series, and no problems with heat. It runs very cool and very quiet. Even more so with a SSD in place of a HHD. But the original 7200rpm HHD was very good to. I have found the machine runs much quieter and cooler of course using the integrated gpu. I switch to the dedicated gpu only when necessary. It almost immediately gets the fan running. Otherwise system is 99% of the time without fan running. Utterly quiet. A wonderful experience.

 

Can you buy accidental warranty directly from the outlet?