X200s!!

So I finally made my decision: X200s

I bought a Latitude E6400 (specs below) but was not particularly happy with my purchase. I realized I wanted something smaller and lighter since I always have my laptop with me, but I still wanted to have a machine that could handle a strong work load when I need it to. With just the E6400 in my backpack I was good. Add a single book or too much junk and it was unconfortable.
I'm also sick of hunting down outlets and *having* to always have my power adapter with me. I was also not happy with the keyboard and prefer the legendary Thinkpad keyboard.

After debating the X200, X200s, X200t, X300, X301, and T400. They were cut out based on the following
X200: Low-res screen (I originally came from a Macbook and DO NOT want to go back to 1280x1024/800 resolution)
X200t: Cost (dang they're expensive), speed (I want a 6MB L2 & >800 MHz FSB), Low-res screen
X300: speed, no express card slot
X301: cost, no express card slot
T400: size (almost exactly the same size as the E6400, which I'm replacing cause it's too much)

The X200s won for me with the following:

• Size/weight: Should be small enough to use more comfortably on the fly and as light as possible.
• Screen res: I love 1440x900, I just hope it's not too small on 12.1"
• Power: both battery and cpu. I would love to be able to use my laptop all day without my power brick/cord in tow.
• Roll-cage: I expect this laptop to undergo some abuse and withstand it
• LED Backlit screen: I would like to use my laptop outside more so this was a requirement as I decided on mine. Otherwise I might have gone with the older & less expensive X60s or X61s.
• No optic drive: yes, I *didn't* want an optical drive. 99.9% I don't need it and it happens to be one of the largest parts of laptops.
• No trackpad: again, I *didn't* want a trackpad. I love the Trackpoint when I'm typing and I use a bluetooth mouse otherwise.

Here it is, with student discount.

The biggest drag is that the X200s can't have a webcam. Other than that I hope to order my new Thinkpad as soon as my E6400 is sold (Monday).

I'm also going to get the following to go with it:
64-GB SSD I <3 SSD
22" Monitor
4-GB RAM
USB DVD-burner Black = good

I know I probably should get the X200 Ultrabase but I think it's overpriced for a glorified usb hub. The USB DVD-burner will be less to carry should I ever need it on the go. I can't recall ever having to use my optical drive on the go. I probably would consider it if it still had parallel and serial ports because I occasionally have to use these to program micro-controllers. USB or Express Card adapters will have to do.

I made this lengthy post mostly as an introduction to y'all as I come from the "E6400 Owner's Lounge" to here.

Before I made my decision I did a lot of research on this forum. I thank and have rep'ed up those whose contributions helped me the most.

I have yet to make my purchase so any comments/suggestions are welcome.

 

Looks like a very well reasoned decision to me.

Just one note, if you plan on using 4GB of RAM you MUST select a 64-bit OS. Vista/7 32-Bit top out at 3GB (I have tested Win 7 32-bit on my x200T).

I think you also made a wise choice to get your upgrades aftermarket.

My only concern would be that the SSD you chose has a JMicron controller and may be prone to stuttering. I think the 64GB Samsung SLC drive is a better choice (hopefully it will be back in stock soon). If you decide to wait for the Samsung drive you will also need the 1.8" to 2.5" SSD adapter from Lenovo (FRU 42W8019) to make it work in the x200s.

You may also want to consider upgrading to a 3 year depot warranty. Lenovo tends to price these reasonably and if you plan on keeping the x200s a while it's better safe than sorry.

Other than that, everything looks good. Enjoy!!!

 

The prize for the Samsung SLC SSD looks great, clearly the better choice.

I have a MLC SSD with a JMicron controller in my X41 tablet (because of the rare interface the choices were limited) and I found out two interesting things: For Windows XP there is new SSD driver called FlashPoint. It uses 32MB RAM cache and improves write throughput (for most drives) a lot and eliminates stuttering as well. For me however, write throughput decreased actually, might be because it's still beta. But the stuttering was gone.

I do now use Windows 7 and I can say this: For me, there is no more stuttering at all. Zero. And compared to Windows XP installations go much faster, and even under heavy disk load the machine stays responsive. There is no big improvement benchmark wise between XP and Win 7 for me, but I notized that while 4k writes fluctuate every now and then (sometimes I get 0,8MB/s and then again the normal 3,8MB/s) Win 7 gave always the same results.

So in conclusion I'd say, it would be interesting to see if this whole stuttering thing will just be gone with Win 7. For me it is. It seems to be a caching/driver thing more than the fault of the drives, as FlashPoint improves the matter under XP as well. Even though benchmarks don't show that much of an improvement, for me there definitively was an improvement and many things like Office installations go a lot faster than before.

 

Thanks.
I plan on using Windows 7 x64.
Thanks for the advice about the JMircon controller and the 3 yr warranty.