which thinkpad options to choose?

I'm going to be a first year engineering student and have decided on purchasing a 15.4" t61p through the educational site, but i'm not sure which options to choose.

Money is important (when isn't it?), but i'm willing to pay more if it will last longer/ fit my needs better.

I know that some of these topics are discussed in other threads (and i have read all those threads), but the questions are related to me and my personal circumstance, so i feel a new thread is warranted.

First question: Warranty

I get a free upgrade to 4-yr onsite warranty, but the thinkpad protection confuses me.

1) what is the difference between the two options? I called customer service, but the guy i got sounded like he didn't know what i was talking about and said the difference was onsite or depot.
2) Is the tpp worth $120? I'm not a clumsy person, but i'm gonna be living in a tiny dorm room.....

Display


1)I'm going to be playing some games and I've heard that i won't be able to use the native resolution of wuxga on newer games, and that if i do use a lower resolution that it will appear fuzzy. Is that true? Which would be better for games/ movies?
2) i've heard that the quality of the wsxga+ screen varies a lot and haven't heard that about the wuxga, any suggestions for quality?

memory:


should i upgrade to 2gb for $53 or should i do it myself? Do i need 2gb or 3?

wireless:


Thinkpad or Intel wireless for a college network (Ohio State University? I've checked and both should work, but which will work better? use less energy(i've read intel uses less energy, but aren't they coming out with an updated atheros card? will that be any different?)

hard drive:


is upgrading to the 7200rpm drive worth $53? What real performance gain is there? I plan on eventually switching to the sdd when they become cheaper.

bluetooth:


do i really need it?

battery:
Is the 9 cell's increased power worth the extra weight and the unsightly bulge out the back?

and finally shipping date:

9/18 for the wsxga+ and 10/02 for the wuxga. I realize i won't have it for the start of school (9/16), but is 10/02 really a realistic date for the wuxga?

thanks for all your help. Any suggestions are helpful.

 

1) I'm not so sure about this one

2)WSXGA will be great for you, unless you saw a WUXGA and play with it, I wouldn't suggest that option. You can check out the T61p review for some idea on the WUXGA screen

3) Ram is demanded. I assume you're gonna do a lot of works on computer since you're major is engineering...It depends on your need if you should get more ram, but commonly 2Gb is enough.

4) it's up to you, I heard good things about the Atheros card. and the thinkpad a/b/g/n is what I would get...

5) you can either get a 100GB 7200 for performence or a 160Gb for more space...it's up to you too.

6)If you have bluetooth devices, yeah, it's worth to get one

7) if you're gonna use your laptop to take notes in class, I would suggest a 9 Cell battery.

8) I don't know about the shipping date so can't tell you that

 

the bluetooth is worth it, the hard drive is fine you can always get an external USB if you really need more data storage, might want to upgrade to 2gb of ram, the screen is nice, and the wireless is fine....and the 9cell battery is worth it I think, because when you are at school you cant always find an outlet, or when you do sometimes someone else is using it, I guess you could just see and if it does suck then just order another later

and here is a document to help you decide on the warranty plan

http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/accessories/services/thinkplus.html

 

1) I would, but ultimately it's up to you.
2) Yes it will be fuzzy and yes it will be harder to power games in high resolution. I would get WSXGA+.
3) I would do it yourself. 2 gigs should be enough.
4) Won't matter TOO much.
5) Do you have or will have lots of video files?? Is this going to be your only computer? If so I would go for larger storage.
6) Depends on your devices and how you use them.
7) I don't like extended batteries, I especially wouldn't like it on an already larger laptop... but it's up to you. If you've visited campus already then you should know how easy it is to access an outlet.
(as for notes... I've yet to be in a class where it would be easier/better to type up notes, most people just play games or surf the web if they bring laptops)
8) It might be, there are alot of people still waiting. I'm assuming WSXGA+ will ship relatively fast (like SXGA+) since they just put it up after taking down lots of other options.

 

I have the plain WXGA, and I am very happy. The higher resolutions strain my eyes.

Important Question:
Are you planning to use the Laptop screen as your primary screen? If you plan to play the games in your dorm, you may consider getting a nice LCD monitor (I bought a 22"). I use this 99% of the time, and since it was only $200, I get the higher resolution, more options, and it was not much more than paying for the higher resolution but smaller screen size on the laptop itself.

If you are planning to game, hard disk capacity may matter more. Lenovo will sell you a 80 GB drive, 6GB will be hidden for the restore partition, 2GB will be taken for Virtual Memory, 15GB will be taken for OS. You can trim this down by deleting the 6GB, and removing unwanted programs, but still you are will be sitting with around 60 available GBs, which can go very fast if you fileshare and play games.

If you are on a budget go for the cheaper higher capacity at the lower RPM. If you want your games to load a little faster go with the faster RPM, but then you lose space.

RAM:
$53 for 1 GB of RAM is a pretty good deal. If you bought that at crucial or newegg you would probably pay $50 but have to pay shipping + tax. I would get the RAM for $53 that seems like a good price and you don't have to worry about it.

Wireless....... I have the Thinkpad 11a/b/g US/EMEA, it works fine with my my university and it doesn't seem to hurt the battery life too much..... The 9 cell lasts a fairly long time, and I have not had an issue where I was using the battery and had the 'oh ****' feeling.

I haven't found a use for bluetooth, but if you are a PDA, Cellphone user most of these devices can interface with bluetooth. I still haven't ever needed it though.

What graphics option are you getting? The Quadro 140 seems to hold up well for Oblivion and Silverfall. Titan Quest also runs fine on it. I have 2GB RAM too.

 

Hmm how does everyone feel about having a 15.4 on a college classroom desk? Should i sacrifice the Widescreen and better graphics for portability in the classroom? Argh such hard decisions. lol. I will like to play games when I want to.

 

i plan on getting a 500gb external hard drive for all my music and stuff.

i'm getting the quadro 570m. I'm not sure what engineering i'm going in to, but i know i will be using some graphic intense modeling applications and such/ games.

Will this laptop last me a couple of years?

 

Depends on your university and the building. At mine there are both old (school founded in 1800s) and new (built within the last 2 years). The newer buildings have plenty of room since they use basically tables. The older buildings (as in everything that wasn't built in the past 10 years) all have the chair/desk combo which only has room for a notebook. A non opened notebook!

As I said earlier... the vast majority of the time (might depend on your major) there are absolutely no benefits to typing up your notes. If anything it's a hassle for figures/diagrams and anything other than straight text notes. I personally think that writing helps you learn better also.

Other than a few people I know that use tablets for notes, everyone I've seen with a laptop in a classroom use it for games, internet, AIM, or other time wasters.

In my opinion I would just get a 15.4" if you like it, and not bother bringing it to class.

For engineering most likely yes. For games most likely no.

 

Have you compared the educational price to the normal current discount on the 14" T61 models?

Just wondering, how are you getting to these education options? I don't see them on the lenovo education link from their main page.

 

through ohio state you get 34% off laptops. The current deal is better (25% plus 20% on 14" non-wides) for 14" laptops than the educational discount.

I guess the free upgrade to 4 yr onsite warranty ended(don't know if it was only thru osu or what), because when i was trying to figure out prices today (to make this thread) it wouldn't give me that option. I had to edit a quote from a couple of days ago to get the free warranty upgrade. also, on 14" models i have always had to pay to upgrade from the one year warranty (the educational site makes no sense!!)

 

I wonder if they validate if you're really a student there.....

As to the edu site making no sense, I don't think any of the lenovo site makes any sense. Options apear and disapear or just hard to find.

Edit: They validate by the domain of the email address you use. Oh well, so much for getting the thinkpad 11a/b/g/n card

 

you need to enter an osu email address.