Thinking about a T61 help

I want to get a T61, and am wondering if its going to be much better to wait longer for the T400 and pay more for a less discounted item.

Right now I'm looking at getting

2.4 C2d with 3mb cache
3gb ram
DVD RW
160gb 7200rpm
WXGA with camera
Discrete Graphics
14.1" screen
Fingerprint Reader
Bluetooth
9 Cell
3 Year with Accidental
Advanced Minidock
Vista Basic, but upgrading to Ultimate through school for cheap

With SPP I can get all that stuff above for like 1450ish. I really don't want to spend any more than that. List price without the SPP dicounts is like 2100, so thats with sales/SPP, so would the T400 be a lot more? Should I just get the T61. Will I be unhappy with it and kick myself that I didnt wait, and cheaped out? or is this a good computer that I wont regret

I looked at the spec sheets for the T400 and I need a laptop before school, I could use my brothers 1.2 celeron laptop for however long, but I'd really like a new one. I wouldnt spend money on the upgrade for the Led screen, could care less about wwan, dont need N. The only thing is the faster processor and memory, but my friends telling me and i seem to agree that you won't really notice the difference.

Also, I called Lenovo today about the T400 release date, and some guy that seemed to know what he was saying but not really, said end of August. I have no clue how accurate that is at all, just saying what he told me.

Thanx.

 

For a decent T400 it will be around 2000 just my guess. I went ahead and bought a T61 for 1180$ thats with a 2.5 cpu dvd/rw 2gig of ram intel wifi wxga+ and so on.

 

I think you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the 2.4GHz and 2.53GHz cpu's in general usage; and I doubt most could tell the difference even to the 2.8GHz without running benchmarks.

I'm on the fence between T61 and T400 too, and the factors for me have been LED display, hybrid graphics, and lower power usage by CPU for the T400. On the other hand, my campus store person asked Lenovo (after I asked him) when they'd be orderable and he said Aug 5th... two days after the state sales tax holiday ends. Another factor is the T61 is a known quantity, bugs are worked out or worked around. T400 will be a Rev A system in some areas; looking at how well the Turbo Memory works, I question the hybrid graphics and their stability.

More I think about it the more I'm leaning to the T61 and use that for a couple of years.

I'd love to hear thoughts to the contrary. I'm going to wait a couple weeks anyway even if I go T61 since the sales tax holiday savings would pay for an extra power adapter and an ultrabay HDD adapter.

 

Yeah I am on the fence as well, I am leaning more and more to just getting a T61 as I don't think I'll notice the difference anyway and I don't need the graphics capabilities that the new line will offer.

 

The reason to wait would be the LED screen or lower power CPUs, which should give you some better battery life if that's what you need. As noted the performance difference will be very small if any.

 

One thing about laptops is there's always the waiting and waiting and waiting. Then what will happen is, you will hear about a new graphics card or something, So you wait and wait and wait, It will never stop. The very best time to buy a laptop (T61) is now there cheap all bugs have been worked out and they have a strong following.

 

I am on the fence also. Battery is going to very important for me since I will be on the go everyday. Weight is also an issue, its suppose to weight about 0.5lbs less with the 9-cell battery on the T400

 

That's the reason I decided to go for getting a T61 14.1". I was worried about the screen quality considering all of the negative reviews out there and thought that the L.E.D is brighter and what not but considering I got a very decent laptop for 822 ( T8300, 1gb RAM, 120 HD, intergrated graphics, 9 cell) and that the battery life is already 5+ hours est. I decided to pull the trigger. I mean for my price range (under 900) and what I needed it for (word, programming) the updates wouldn't do much for me.

So I say go for it. Plus right now your on a time line because if you notice the avaible options are dwindling down (4cell battery or 9 cell when there used to be more, etc...) so don't wait until the options you want are gone.

If you unsure still, consider getting a price quote (go to check out and on the screen where you fill out your information click, at the bottom, "Convert my order into a price quote"). That'll give you 30 days to decide if you want it or not, and it'll be an exact quote with all your options and coupons. I needed it now so I got it now. Good luck.

 

Another question, I do photoshop on occasion and have to take a CAD class next year, would you suggest getting the discrete or integrated graphics? I dont play games but is it still worth the extra money for the nvidia card?

 

Yes. It's better to go discreet anyhow, because CAD uses a lot of graphic RAM. Using a discreet graphics card will also help in other stuff like movies, photoshop, etc.