lenovo t61 with wuxga

I posted a while back about a new laptop. I'm very interested in the lenovo t61 with wuxga (1920x1200) with the NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M, primarily for gaming and some other applications (presentations, basic office stuff).

Questions:

1. the nvidia is good for gaming? equivalent to 8700? 8800?
2. I remember reading the only way to get this system is going through lenovo website > education > California. Is this still true? Most of the lenovo site doesn't have the wuxga as an option except going through the CA sub-site. If I live in NY and order it through this site, will it be problematic since it's a CA specific ordering site?
3. Been trying to find info on the newer intel chips, specifically the T9XXX, T8XXX, which are offered on this model. Any advice regarding these vs the T7700 - T7800.

Thanks for the help.

 

1) The FX570 is equivalent to an 8600M GT.
2) Nah, I think that the only way to get a WUXGA screen is if you order a T61p. See here (start with either 15.4" model).
3) The T9300 is probably the best bang for your buck. Any Penryn chip will offer better battery life. I think it offers slightly better performance, but I'm not sure there. Definitely go for the newer Penryns over the Merom chips.

 

One question I forgot, is the intel turbo memory hard drive cache worth anything? Thanks again

 

I'd skip it, everything shows that it offers little to no benefit while causing a number of problems.

 

Lenovo often has some very good deals through their wesite.

ThinkPad T61 15 Widescreen - 1 Yr Depot Warranty
Ships within 1-2 weeks** $1,938.00
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T9300 (2.5GHz 800MHz 6MBL2)[1]
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium[12]
15.4 WUXGA TFT 1900x1200
NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256MB Open GL)
2 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
100GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm[4]
CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo 24X/24X/24X/8X Max, Ultrabay Slim[
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (supporting Centrino Pro)
6 cell Li-Ion Battery
6459: Express - 1 Yr Depot Warranty

 

The FX570 has the same gpu and graphics memory as the 8600M GT, but a different BIOS. It was not really meant for gaming, but can do a very good job with the right driver, and with certain games. You have to actually mod the installation script to get standard Nvidia drivers to install, which most people do in order to game.

So to answer the question you asked, it is pretty good for gaming if you monkey around with the drivers, but it wasn't really meant for it. If gaming is your number one requirement, then you should take a look at Alienware, or some of the higher-end Dells (of course, Alienware now IS the higher-end Dell...).

You have to get the FX570M to order the WUXGA, so that makes it a T61p by default. It is on their regular website now, so no, you don't have to order through California.


The T9300 definitely seems to be the sweet spot in the T61 lineup now.

I have Turbo, and it has caused me absolutely no problems, but I have nothing to compare it to, so I can't tell you if it was worth it...

 

1. You state that it's not difficult to change the installation script and drivers in order to game with the FX570. Do you know where I can find information on exactly how to do this? I don't want to buy the machine and then be SOL. I am minimally computer saavy. Should I just not bother?

2. Does anyone think that the WUXGA (1920x1200) is crucial to optimize the gaming experience on a 15" machine? Friends always tell me that res is huge for gaming, but I'm wondering if the lower res of the xps 1530 (1440x900 or 1680x1050) is still fine for this size laptop. I guess the main thing is, will I be able to play something like crysis on a higher end xps 1530 (T7700, 1680x1050, 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT, 2-4G RAM)? Or should I bite the bullet and get the T61p and update the drivers for gaming? Hmmmm.... BTW, I think the alienware might be a little too pricey still, want to spend under $2500...

 

Way to much FUD going around about the FX570... Its the same thing as a 8600, its not nerfed or gimped. Its not magically a lot slower in some games because it says Quadro on it. Because it is a Quadro, you can use some neat features in 3D apps solely because Nvidia enables the feature in the Quadro drivers (like hardware AA'd lines for vector models). There used to be easy ways to make a GeForce act just like a Quadro, so it goes both ways...

Also, the manufacturer provided drivers (from all companies) are typically crap anyway, and you would end up installing better drivers.

Tomin... Getting the newer drivers installed basically takes about 3 brain cells. You download a driver and a modified INF file from laptopvideo2go. The INF file is nothing more than a text file with hardware IDs in it, including your card. This is the installation process:

-Extract driver to a folder
-Copy the INF file into the same folder, overwrite the old INF file
-Run the driver setup in that folder
-Done

Thats it.

 

This thread has detailed instructions, and some discussion:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=209796

My opinion, you probably don't need the WUXGA res for gaming, and will probably end up turning it down in favor of frame-rate, so WSXGA+ is probably a good compromise.