x201 vs x201s vs t61p

Hi!

I currently own a T61p which I'm passing along to my parents.

I'm thinking about getting the x201s since it has a better screen then the x201 but I'm wondering is the performance difference worth it?

I'm a CS grad student and I do a lot of Latex and Java programming, so screen real-estate is important, the reason for looking at the X series is since I need a light pc (about 1.5 kg).

I usually work from the office where I have a 24" screen and I plan to use the machine screen at home for web browsing, IM, skype, a bit of gaming, etc … and a bit of work.

In terms of performance, my T61p (T9300 2.5ghz, 4GB, 1920x1200) is more then enough for me.
After looking in the web, I found that T61p gets around 5500 PCmarks and the x201s gets 5600 vs 6352 in the x201, seems like I'm getting 2008 performance with the x201s. The 3Dmark of the x201s especially worries me (3757 in my t61p vs 1909 on the x201 and 1516 in the x201s) since in future OS upgrades this might be a problem(?)
Since where I live such machines cost around 2200$ I plan to keep the new machine for a long time (5-6 years)
will the x201s last that long in terms of performance? or should i get the x201?
Is the extra screen space worth it?

Thanks!

 

The lower PC mark score for the x201s is mostly on the 3D side. Your T61P has a powerful dedicated GPU that is faster than any current IGP. Additionally, the IGP in the x201s is clocked slower than the IGP in the x201 to reduce heat and improve battery life.

That being said, the difference in CPU performance between the x201 and x201s is quite small. Further, BOTH have faster CPUs than your T61p. Finally, what little performance benefit the x201 has over the x201s will seem even smaller after 3-4 (or especially 5-6) years at which point they will easily be in the same class.

The primary question comes down to what you value. If you value a small laptop with a high resolution and good performance, then the x201s is a very logical choice. Conversely, if you demand extreme performance (it doesn't seem like that's the case) then you'll need to move up to a machine with a quad core CPU and a CUDA enabled GPU (assuming you want to run HPC applications that utilize a GPU). However, this throws the 1.5kg mark right out the window.

 

the thing that most worries me in terms of graphics the the following issue:

I found in the garbage an old beaten up x40, and after much care and attention i got it working, and tired to install win7 on it, the main reason for going back to xp is the 855 graphics which does not support aero and wide screens.
my friend has a T40 which runs win7 with aero and on a wide external screen without any problems, can this sort of thing happen with the x201s? I mean that in a few years, I won't be able to upgrade the OS with the x201s and it will be possible in the X201 since it has better graphics (or CPU)?

 

the x201 an x201s have the same intel integrated graphics solutions. The only difference is that the x201s graphics core is limited to 250ish Mhz, whereas the x201 base clock for the graphics core is 500ish mhz. (sorry i can't remember exactly). Chances are if the OS isn't running smoothly on the x201s, it isn't running that much better on the x201.

Win7 runs smoothly on even older IGP's, and the new intel IGP is significantly higher performing. I don't think you'll have any issues with the next windows.

 

By the time next windows rolls around, I'm pretty sure you'll be upgrading whatever notebook you have now.

 

haamm... probably not, since they are so expensive here, i keep them for a long time before I replace them. I had my old T40 running from 2003 till 2008 and would of kept is longer except the GPU died

 

you can reflow the area around the T40 GPU to fix the problem. There is tutorial available on youtube and forum.thinkpads.com under T4x section.

 

tried that already, didn't help and the aresome other problems with it sound works sometime and other times the system won't reconzie the HDD

 

that sounds more like the southbridge problem.