Thinkpad Edge 13 with SU7300 possible buyers remorse!

Hello again! I was browsing ebay and stumbled across a Thinkpad Edge 13 with a SU7300 Processor and Intel GMA4500MHD graphics. I got it at what I thought at the time was a good price $300. Although all I will be doing with it is surfing, youtube videos and some music, I'm not so sure that 720p or 1080p flash videos may be too much for the SU7300. I searched around and found mixed reviews in that regard and now with flash player 10.3 out, I'm really not so sure. I have not received it yet so I'm able to test as of now. So I guess I'm asking for opinions. Should I keep it or sell it and get something more capable? I do have a T61 that handles video playback very well, I just like to try different things. Any opinions good or bad are very much appreciated. Thanks! I may just be paranoid. One more thing i forgot to mention, it has 3 gigs of ram, 320gig 7200 rpm hard drive and Windows 7 Pro 32 bit. Also would and ssd help things out?

 

you can definitely play 1080p flash movies perfectly well with the SU7300 and GMA4500MHD graphics.

an SSD wont help with video playback, but yes, in terms of boot time, application loading etc it will make enormous difference.

about whether you should keep it or not, cant say unless you give more details of what you use it for etc

 

Thanks for the reply. Uses will be just for web surfing, youtube and listening to music. I'm not really a gamer, just the video playback was my main concern. Just wasn't sure if 720p or 1080p videos would stress the cpu too much or not since most would be flash based.

 

My netbook (Atom N270) can play 720p video locally fine. Flash is jerky, though. So I'm guessing the SU7300, which much better than an Atom, should be fast enough for 720p and 1080p videos. If nothing else, the GMA 4500HD supports hardware acceleration for ~1080p H.264 videos.

 

My Latitude 13 with similar specs runs 1080p just fine and can even do light gaming.

 

Thanks! I feel a little better for the purchase, besides $300 for a barely used machine is not too bad I guess. Just have to test it and see how it goes.

 

300 is really nice for that machine. i would definitely pick one up at that price

 

Well thanks! I feel much better about it now and if I don't like it, I can always sell it lol.

 

That's a good price. Keep in mind the Edge's build is not as rugged.

 

Yes they are not as rugged as say my T61, but still should be better built than most consumer brands.It will just be my entertainment notebook, my T61 is basically my desktop.

 

I bought a Dell Latitude E4200 ultraportable with similar processor specs for a friend. It has no problem doing 720p Flash playback. For your listed uses, the Edge should work without issue.

The E4200 came stock with a 64GB SSD, which made the system quite speedy. However, my friend's needs were for quick boot and app-load times and easy access to documents, not high-volume storage. If you want to carry around a 20-40GB MP3 collection, a hard drive is a cheaper way to do it.

 

Thanks Lonewolf! I would love to have an ssd, but I also like the space as well.

 

Update: I received the Edge and it does perform pretty well and flash video play smoothly. Only thing, when playing 720p or 1080p youtube videos, the cpu usage gets on up there[anywhere from 75% to 95%]. Which with the SU7300, that is to be expected I'm sure. I may mess with it a few more days and see how it goes and then I may sell it and get one with an I3 processor.
It does perform well for what it is. Thanks for all the replies!

 

Make sure you have the latest graphics drivers, and that you have updated to the latest Flash 10.3.

Use the ones from Intel's website, which are the most frequently updated.

Intel 4500 Graphics Drivers

 

Thanks Lonewolf! I have updated to flash 10.3 and the latest Intel graphics driver. Everything is working pretty good. Also the Cpu is staying pretty cool, idling at the high 30s and not getting much over 50c.

 

Was going to post when I had a su7300 it was more then enough for HD video. Its a solid little CPU as long as you dont have to use too many VMs (well beyond its design).