Which is the better deal?

Trying to decide what to buy, which is the best deal of these two?

(1)The 266876U (product number) for $1399
(2) or the 2686DGU for $1329

The main differences are the second option has a 7200 speed harddrive instead of a 5400, a DVD-RW drive as opposed to only CD-RW, no imbedded bluetooth, 0.14 gHz less processor speed, and Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG instead of ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi.

 

Unless you need bluetooth or extra hard drive space, I like option two better and it is less expensive. The faster hard drive will give a bigger performance boost htan .14Ghz on the CPU. It is unlikely you'll ever encounter a A network of a/b/g. I have bluetooth on my T42. I do have a bluetooth mouse, but could have easily gotten a wireless usb one. Good Luck.

 

It's worth to point out that option 2 only has 1 year warranty. If you add the 3-year warrany, option 2 will cost more than 1. Should you pay more just for the 60GB 7200RPM and Multi-Burner or pay less to get the Intel® Pentium® M Processor 760 2GHz, 80 GB hard drive, bluetooth, and Atheros a/b/g card.

 

Well, warranty is more or less irrelevant to me, as I live in Canada and have to get this shipped to a relative in the US before it can be shipped to me. The only reason i'm doing it this way is for EPP.

I think the first option might be the better value, but I guess it comes down to what I really need. I don't know when I would use bluetooth or encounter an A network, and I don't really need the extra hard drive space ultimately. So essentially, it's a multiburner + 7200RPM hard drive, against an increase in processor speed + a bunch of features which I 'might' find a use for. Considering the great number of the other features, I'd probably balance those against the multiburner, which I know I would probably use. So I guess the main question is this, which would provide a greater performance increase, the 760 2 gHz or the 7200RPM harddrive?

 

Hard drive.

 

I actually just ordered the 266876U on Monday.

For ME:
1. I have a smartphone and I really want to be able to sync via bluetooth as opposed to the very slow IR port like I do now.
2. The (slow) DVD burner wasn't important to me. I rarely burn DVDs as it is and I can't imaging having to do so on the road. I have a burner on my desktop at home so I'll utilize that if I needed anything burned on DVD off of my laptop.
3. I wanted the drive space. (And I realize I made a sacrifice in performance to get it.)
4. I read some things that didn't make me comfy with the intel card so I wanted whatever laptop I got to have the Atheros card.

So, I basically wanted everything you don't seem to need. My friend who deploys all the IBM laptops at his work highly recommended the 7200RPM drive to increase performance. Sounds to me like you'd want to get the 2686DGU.

 

I think chances are, I will be getting that model. But one question, you said you heard things that didn't make you comfy with the intel card, could you tell me what those things are?

 

Haven't had any problems with my 2200bg. I've found the driver from Intel's website works a little better.

 

ditto, the Intel card works a treat for me.

 

I guess it was just the idea of a possibly shakey connection. I don't remember specifically what I read but I saw mention of issues a few times in different forums. I just found this thread.. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=11402&page=1&pp=10
I'm sure there are others. It's not something I investigated or have dealt with personally tho so...

and as you can see, two of the big guys above me are fairing AOK with theirs.

 

I orderred option 2 on monday as I wanted the faster hard drive. Just got it today and have been working on setting it up for the last hour of so...

So far I really like it but I will built in bluetooth and SD card reader. :decision:

 

damn.. I ordered mine (option 1) on monday, and have to wait a month for it.