should I get the x301?

Hello

I have the T400 (and an idea pad for email when travelling) and we need another computer.
I've been looking at the x301 that is now on web sale. I'd like to get something a bit lighter than the T400 because I will be travelling with it. And get a slighter larger screen than the x201.

I've been doing some desktop publishing and plan on learning web design using dream weaver and so will put on the Adobe Creative suite (which takes up 24.3 gb. ( I have a large screen at home to use.)

So my questions are:
1. Is 128GB sdd large enough to put on the adobe creative suite and have room left over for MS office and to do work on?

2. Since they are no longer making the x301 will that be a problem in the future?

thanks for your advice.
KD

 

1.yes but 128gb isn't much to do anything.

2.it will not be a problem, if you are weary you should get a 3 year extended warranty.

 

To be honest 128gb is not a lot, you struggle to find space. It would best to wait for the SSD technology to become cheaper.

 

128GB is plenty of space for anyone that's not filling their drive up with music and videos.

 

128GB is 119GB usable. OS 20GB + 24GB+ Office 1G

You should have ~74GB left.

All sizes were the recommended size to install from the manufacturers.

 

128G should be enough without music and vids.

 

I'll have the vids and music on a 500gb external hard drive.
can i install the programs on the external hard drive and use them that way?

 

As a followup to karend's question: Would a SSD-centric set up run something like this: OS+all programs on SSD; All documents, media files on HDD in the DVD bay?

How does this show up on Windows Explorer?

The SSD becomes C:
The HDD becomes...D: (since both are local drives)?

 

I have a 128gb ssd -- it shows 89.9 gb free out of 119 total available -- I have win7, office 2k7, 3-4 movies, 3-4 cds, starcraft2. Basically if you don't horde movies and music, you should be fine..

 

Karend - you could install programs to a harddrive if you plan on always being connected to the external at all times. You also take a performance hit because you are limited to usb speeds. But I don't see why it couldn't be done.

Lines of flight - If you could fit a hdd into the dvd bay then yeah, its possible to do that. Make sure your laptop's motherboard supports another sata connection or whatever it is you need to have connect the extra harddrive. I would think the dvd drive uses sata so maybe you could just use the same connection? I might be wrong. That's how it is in a desktop anyway.

 

I believe putting the HDD into the dvd bay can be done on the R400 that I have. So, this is certainly something I would think long and hard about. The restraining factors at the moment are (1) price (SSDs are expensive); (2) the fact that in case of a failure of the SSD, the recovery of data is supposed to be somewhat more difficult than recovering data from HDDs (at least that is what some of folks here have said); and (3) SSDs are also supposed to have a shorter operational life.

So, maybe in 8-12 months when the technology matures may be a time to go in for the change.