t61p vs t61

My use for a laptop includes primarily ms office products, Photoshop (with image ready) and Adobe Premiere (video editing). I work with a lot of hi-res photos. I don't do any gaming. I am currently upgrading from a 4 year old Presario x1000.

Should I be considering the T or P versions? Are the nvidia cards between these two machines comparable? (in some place I have read that they are). Do they make a difference in these programs? Would they make a difference in the time it take to render a video?

In the forums I don't really see a lot of discussion about non-gaming issues - so any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

You should buy the T61 with Intel integrated graphics. For the things you do, you won't be benefiting from a dedicated graphics card. You'll get longer battery life and a cooler (temp wise) laptop with an integrated solution.

Dedicated graphics card are primarily used for gaming and 3D rendering (CAD).

 

You will see a noticeable difference in the image rendering (speed wise) by getting a thinkpad with the FX570 chip. The real limiting factor though is the screen. On the 14.1 T61p's the screen will not render the "true" color of the images displayed, so it will be very difficult to color match when you print. The 15.4 screens are better in this respect. I would not recommend getting a thinkpad for this type of work, you would be better off getting a Macbook/MBP.

 

Video editing...from what I've been told...does more work on the cpu than the gpu than most people think. If you do go with a dedicated card go with the 128 not the 256...you won't need it.

 

Hey Nozmo, I was looking for something very similar. I do photoshop, video editing, motion graphics and some light 3d stuff. I just ordered the T61p. I know the MBP is the standard choice for this type of work, but for the price, the T61p won me over. I was able to configure the T61p with a T7800, 200GB HD, the Quadro 570m, 4gig Ram, 9cell battery, and DVD-R DL for under $2100.

Premiere Pro v2.0 and Premiere CS3 take advantage of GPU accelerated playback. You should see an improvement with the 570m over the integrated chip if you are using either of these versions.

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/products/premiere/pdfs/prem_CS3_chart_ue.pdf


I hope this helps!

 

Thanks, that sounds like pretty much like the way I will be using the machine as well. Your config is almost exactly what I was considering.

 

One other question - what is the performance differences in a HD at 5400 rpm vs one at 7200 rpm? Is there any issues with noise or heat?

 

7200RPM always

and both nVidia cards are good

 

I agree you always need to get the faster HD