x201 or W700?

I thought that headline would grab your attention. But seriously, as nutty as it sounds -- I was looking to buy a portable Thinkpad, but then noticed the W700s deep-discounted on the Outlet and... I've never owned a powerhouse computer. And I'm beginning to wonder how much fun it would be to actually do some serious photo and video management/editing on a machine with that much testosterone.

Anyone have the quad W700 (release year was 2008) and have thoughts you'd care to post on that machine?

Thanks in advance.

 

I think you should decide what your needs are and find the machine that best meets them. If that's the W700 go for it. The W700 is a fine machine and certainly has a nice screen, but if you need any portability at all, the W700 is going to be an impediment to it.

 

Thanks; I know the W700 is not exactly the kind of thing you slip into a sleeve and go. It sounds transportable, though -- from room to room, or in the car trunk, between work and home?
Still -- interested in people's hands on experience with image and video editing.

 

when you say image editing and video editing, what is the file size are we talking about here? if you only do this occasionally and not as a professional, then the X201 is okay. But if you are serious professional or semi-professional whom lives and die by this sort of thing, then i would recommend the the W700 with quad core cpu.

 

It also depends on how much portability is an issue. The X201 isn't going ot be all that larger than a netbook, and I believe the 8-cell will give you between 7-10 hours of battery life depending on usage. After having an X61s for a little bit, I'd be the first to say that if you want to carry your notebook everywhere, it would be my first recommendation.

I used to own a Dell XPS M1730, which is around the same size/weight of a W700. I was planning on using it for college, but the size, weight, noise, and battery life made it completely impractical. It was simply too much computer for me.

If you need a mobile computer that will do just about anything you'd need to do on a desktop workstation, like major programming, professional grade video and photo editing, and the like... the W700 will do it for you with no problems, at the cost of its size and weight. However, if you're going to be running around quite a bit, the X201 will likely be the more practical machine.

 

I was doing the same thing as you, i didn't want to get another T61p because of the graphics defect, but nothing in between that and the current T series had any actual graphics horsepower, so i figured i'd move right up, since i too saw W700's on the outlet going for as low as 1100, brand new. Of course you have to deal with the hassle of ordering and shipping, and so i bought my W700 off eBay, brand new, for 1300 with a built in webcam (too lazy to list specs...). I'd go for the W700.. you only live once buddy.

Plus i didn't want to go with anything other than a ThinkPad, but still wanted to game, and a bonus is that the W700 is quite upgradeable, you could buy it without the Wacom digitizer and just buy a palmrest with one and install yourself for far cheaper. GPU is MXM, and i think an FX 3800M would fit in there, or even a GTX 280M (my dream). Also futureproof seeing as it'll take any mobile Core 2 Quad.

 

W700 for 1300 USD, what a steal....

 

^ Yes it is. On a level even I'll admit it's pretty tempting.

 

I got mine from some college kid that wanted a macbook instead for school. He bought it new in December, I got it in March for 900 bones. W700 is AWESOME. Get one.

 

900 dollars... oh you people stop tempting me...

 

:laugh:

Get both.

 

Lol, i sure think i got a great deal, even to relatively max my W700 out (quad core Q9000 OC'ed to 2.5 or more, GTX 280M if it would work either that or a 3700M or 3800M, or 9800M GTX, 2x500GB RAID0) would only be maybe 500-600$, which is still drastically lower than a maxed out W700 from Lenovo was back in 2008 (5000+ for a maxed one).

Edit: oh and a palmrest with the digitizer and calibrator.. still cheap.

 

how much did you get he palmrest with the digitizer and calibrator? my friend's W700 doesn't have one, so if it is around 100 to 200 USD, he can probably get my other friend to get one when he is over at USA.

 

Too heavy, but that is a pretty good deal.

 

It isn't that heavy. I carry mine daily to work and back.

 

I wouldn't define to and from your car as carry, but glad it worked out for you.

 

Boy you sure told me, huh skeeter?

 

There's no need to be rude. I was not. I was merely pointing out most people wouldn't consider taking to and from you car to be the same as having it on your shoulder all day.

P.S. - Watch the language. Just cause I apparently hurt your feeling doesn't mean it's OK to bypass the language filter.

 

Yes you were rude.

24k posts means you get to be rude, good to know.

 

That's your opinion and I don't think it would be shared by many others, but please do enlighten me as to how my post was so rude that you felt compelled to start name calling and by-passing the language filter? Now this post, and the one above it are a bit tart, but I give what I get. To answer your question no, 24k posts doesn't mean you get to be rude, but I don't think a reasonable person would call my posts rude.

 

Using such language on the streets would probably result in a few permanent scars.
The mere fact that we can't be held responsible for bad manners on this forum (other than being warned and then banned) doesn't mean we absolutely must jump on every opportunity to transmit our negative energy over the web.
There is plenty of online FPS games for that purpose

No offense and have a good one!

 

Yes, maybe snarky or snobby at the most

 

Zaz once gave me neg-rep for noting that "irregardless" is not a word (all I did was in my reply quote that part and put *regardless, which he said is "poor manners"), so I have to have a bit of a chuckle at someone being oversensitive to a comment of his.

 

i find Zaz to be pretty good in terms of handling insults and smart-derriere (Latin for behind, you probably all know) remarks....

But at the end of the day, we are all human, and no one is perfect. Maybe just be a bit more understanding of each other's boundary and sensitivity, then we would be all okay.

 

You're hanging onto something from four years ago? A little bitter are we? I think I it's unlikely I would give negative rep for pointing out a grammatical error. I probably give the least infractions/bad reps of any mod here. There was something else going on, but my brain can't conjure up the details.

Now, back on topic.

 

Haha, no, I only discovered it recently because I was sitting here thinking "I wonder what this 'rep power' comes from?"

 

while, slightly off topic, how does one give negative rep?

 

You cannot. Back in the day you could give positive or negative rep to anyone, but the system was being abused by a few malcontents. It was eventually taken away, even for mods, but we can still give infractions.