Hey everybody, I am thinking of getting an R61 14" Widescreen with the x1300 integrated card. Just a few questions after the specs:
Intel® Core 2 Duo processor T8100 (2.1GHz 800MHz 3MBL2)[1]
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic[12]
14.1 WXGA+ TFT
Intel GMA X3100 GM965 w/ 1394
2 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)[8]
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad)
120GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm[4]
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Enhanced[5]
ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless LAN Mini-PCIe US/EMEA/LA/ANZ[10]
Integrated Bluetooth PAN
6 cell Li-Ion Battery[60]
1. Is a 7200 rpm drive going to offer much greater performance for regular tasks (ie. office, browsing...). Searching the forums gave a bit of wisdom on this, but just wanted to make sure. Also, how much more of a hit is it going to take on battery life?
2. From what I understand, vista premium only gives you better media center stuff, and automated backups (both of which I dont care for). I could care less about aero, and would rather stick with xp, but dont care to pay more for it and dont want to deal too much with driver and reinstallation stuff with that. So is there anything else compelling that I am forgetting about home premium (from experience with both)?
3. Is two gigs of ram sufficient? I have seen vista machines crawl before and it just makes me nervous..
4. Accessory wise, I was thinking of getting the case logic sleeve (14"). Is that going to fit with the 6 cell battery? Or should I go for the belkin sleeve (15")?
5. About how much more battery life would I be getting with the 6 cell battery over the 4 cell battery (real world wise)?
Thanks for reading all this, if you did, any answers would be appreciated.
Also, are there any coupons or sales I should know about?
I only know of the visa sale (same as education), and the USXTRIPLESAVINGS code. Anybody with insight into lenovo's upcoming product lines?
Thanks guys (and gals!)
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If you're going to be performing normal office tasks like internet surfing and word processing, I would say save some money and get the 5400rpm drive.
2GB is recommended amount of memory to run Vista.
With the X3100 video cards, you will get about 1hr to 1hr15min extra by switching from the 4-cell to the 6-cell.
6-cell will give you about 4 hours 15 min.
4-cell will give you about 3 hours 15 min. -
Thank you, Arkit3kt, very helpful answers.
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I just got the same machine you're considering, with the smaller hard disk. That is, T8100 processor, 5400rpm drive, x3100 video, 2GB RAM, 6-cell battery (I wanted the flush look of the 4-cell, but the 50% increase in capacity was just too good to pass up for $14 or so). I also paid the $20 for XP, which by all reports is faster than Vista.
But the important part is I like it a lot. Pull the trigger--you'll be pleased. I am. -
And how did you get the option for xp for 20 dollars? I think when i looked at it, it was about 56 or so more for xp.
Now that you have it, anything good? bad? about the machine? -
I just bought one and I love it more than anything. ('cept my wife, she'd kill me if I didn't get that in there!)
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Never mind about the xp. Its 20 dollars more than home premium, which makes xp 56 dollars more than vista basic.
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what if he get the nvs 140m? how will that affect his battery life?
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just got an 14" widescreen R61 with NVS140 and a 6 cell battery. i get a little over 2 hours with undervolting and about 60% brightness with wireless on. Im happy with it and do not regret not getting a T61. If your not going to do any gaming at all then the integrated is fine, if you play a few games here and there the discrete graphics is the way to go. Ram and Hard drive upgrades are way cheaper getting elsewhere.
As far as sleeves go I would consider a shinza (zeroshock III) sleeve. they are rigid enough to use as a solid surface like on your bed or a cushion, and protect better than anything else ive ever used. -
Now that I have it, I like it a lot. It's a bit larger than I expected--coming from an old 14" non-widescreen Dell--but the build quality is very nice. Keyboard is excellent, the touchpad very responsive and the WXGA screen is a nice compromise that fits my needs--sharp with large enough text and icons.
I didn't like the Norton crap and the 60-day trial of Office2007 that came preinstalled (the Office was a surprise). Although I uninstalled both, I am going to do a custom factory install this coming weekend to clean more from it. -
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I would change only a couple things:
1) I would upgrade to the 160GB with Full Disk Encryption. You *WILL* notice a difference between hardware and software FDE, and you do need FDE on a laptop.
2) If you are worried about memory, select the 2GB on 1 SO-DIMM package so you can upgrade to 3 or 4GB later. Don't go above this though, or the prices don't stand up to after market RAM.
3) I would dump the DVD writable drive unless you like to make DVD movies a lot. DVD backups are a joke and the upgrade is kind of pricey if you just *maybe* might want to make a DVD someday with that computer. I have had a computer with a DVD writer in it for years and never used it. If you find you need to make DVDs later you can always use a full size DVD writer in an enclosure or you can simply transfer the file to a computer that can make DVD's. DVD ultrabay drives on ebay are cheap too.
Finally, about the difference between the 5200 and the 7200 drives: unless you're using your laptop as a corporate file server or a gaming machine (loading maps and such) you won't notice squat between them. I can think of two instances where you would notice a difference: when you're loading very large files like 3d terrain maps in games (which with your GFX you probably won't be) and when you are making system backups on a very high speed backup disk (which would be a waste of money).
Under normal usage patterns just invest in more ram to keep the swap down.
Oh, and you're going to want that FDE.
Thinking of buying an R61- thoughts?
Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by pinkwabbit, Feb 29, 2008.