Thinking about buying a Z series ThinkPad, have questions

I've been hearing alot about how ThinkPads are very tough and will last a while, and I really need something like that after my last notebook crapped out on me after about a year. Anyhow, I pretty much already decided on the Z series, just not the model yet. The newest one, the Z61 looks good, and I would definitely like a dual core, but with Merom coming out soon, and hearing that it won't be in ThinkPads until after October (I think), would I be better off getting a cheaper Pentium M right now and maybe upgrading later?

Does Lenovo/IBM's warrenty let users upgrade the RAM without voiding it?

Do ThinkPads really last as long as users say? (Hopefully for at least 2 years)

For any existing owners of a Z60-61, how's the gaming on it? I don't wanna heavily game, just WoW and probably CS:S.

Thanks in advance.

 

I don't think you'll be able to upgrade a Pentium M chip to Merom. But many here know more about that I do.

Also, I was in the same boat re: wait or buy. I bought, because most of what I read suggests that Merom is only an incremental upgrade.

Chris

 

When Merom comes out at first they'll use the same chipsets as Yonah is so buying a Yonah and Upgrading to merom will offer the same thing as when merom first comes out, the true Merom is Santa Rosa with its own chipset coming out next year or so. So, you'd be MUCH better off getting a Core Duo now and upgrading to Merom at some point rather than just a cheaper Pentium M.

I'm pretty sure it does, RAM upgrading isn't a complicated procedure that could really hurt the machine too much.

A Thinkpad will last for much longer than two years, even budget notebooks will last two years nowaday.

Z60-61 what? z61m or z61t? The former is a 15.4" Widescreen available with an X1400 GPU, the latter is a 14" Widescreen available with only an integrated GPU, so the former would be justy fine and the latter would play WoW on low settings, but I'm not so sure on CS:S.

 

Ah, sorry about that, yeah, it'll be the Z61m. 14 inches is a bit small for me, too.

Thanks guys, I'll prolly buy it within the next few days.

 

mine from the earlier 1990's are still running strong... using OS/2 heheh
They've accompanied me to every continent except Antarctica

 

Yeah, the Z61m would be fine for those games, the x1400 is a pretty good GPU despite what some may say,it's quite capable of playing every game currently out there, and probably a good amount of the ones to come.

 

They will probably upgrade the T first as they just did the Z, but have no inside information.

 

Yes, upgrading the RAM does not void the warranty.