New laptop

[Tannin]

Readers of my other thread will remember that my Thinkpad had a weird problem - viz, it would only start up off batteries, not i it was plugged in to the mains adaptor. The moment it had fired up, you could plug the power back in and it worked fine. Well, two days ago it died completely and now it won't start up at all.

So I spat the dummy and ordered a new one. I'll get the old one fixed (I think it's a motherboard fault so it might cost a fortune) but I can't do my work without one, so something immediate was the only option.

From memory, the old one was:

Thinkpad R51
Pentium M 1.6
1.25GB DDR
120GB (originally 30GB)
DVDRW (originally a combo)
15 inch 1024 x 768
ATI graphics chip (not sure which one)
Firewire

The new one is:

Thinkpad R52
Pentium M 1.86
512MB DDR2 (I'll upgrade it to 1.5GB)
80GB (more on this shortly)
DVDRW
15 inch 1400 x 1050
Intel on-board graphics chip
Firewire

Did I make a wise decision?

I'd like a dual core CPU, but the cost of the dual core models is way too much at present. I'd like a bigger screen, but there seems to be no such thing (only so-called "wide screen" models, which is a euphemism for the actual fact of the matter, which is that it has a very shallow screen in a fairly useless shape).

I'd like bigger than 80GB, but the 120GB models are way too dear, and I can upgrade the drive later cheaply enough. Besides, I ordered the Ultrabay HDD adaptor, so I'm going to take the DVDRW out and replace it with a 120GB hard drive. For backup on the road, I'm mostly using external 2.5 inch USB hard drives now, so not having instant access to the DVD burner is OK.

The on-board Intel graphics chip should be OK, I think. I don't play games and the most demanding thing I do on the graphics side is Photoshop. And it will be really nice to have a stable of systems that is once again entirely ATI-free. (I had a heap of trouble with the old system until I finally found an ATI driver that atually worked without crashing all the time.)

OS? It comes with XP Pro. I'm sort of leaning towads leaving that on, at least to start with, just stripping the crap out of it. If I can't get comfortable with the extra XP crud, I'll format it and replace with Windows 2000 again. (Yes, Lenovo support W2K on this model.)

All up, it's only a marginal improvement on the old one: a fraction faster CPU, DDR-2 instead of DDR. The biggest difference will be the screen. 1400 seems like a sensible compromise between stodgy old 1024 and runny glass 1600x in a 15 inch unit. It's costing about AU$2300, which seems not too bad, though not fantastic. Should arrive on Friday or Monday.

 

[LiamC]

In my hunting around for laptops, I've come across HP and DELL laptops with Core Duo's for AUD$2000, though I get the impression that most here think of both brands as crud. Smaller HDD though.

 

[Tannin]

Essentially, Bill, yes. I won't buy a Dell product because you can only buy them from Dell - and why on earth would I pay retail prices when I'm in the trade? That's a no-brainer. Besides, Dell products are the ultimate in mediocrity when they are good, and worse than that when they are bad.

As for HP ... not a chance. Given their appalling record over the last 5 years or so, I wouldn't buy an HP bootlace.

No two ways about it though, Thinkpads are expensive. You don't get a lot considering the price they charge. But I like their quality, their attention to detail, their considerably-more-than-usual ruggeddedness. I really like the keyboard light (no other laptop has this, and I use it a lot in the field), and I have a substantial investment in Thinkpad accessories: three mains adaptors, two docking stations, spare combo and DVD-RW drives.

The only other things I considered were Merc's beloved T-Series Thinkpads. I was in a hurry and might have looked harder than I did, but just the same, I couldn't find any particular reason amongst the T Series range to pay the extra money. (Not that I had the extra money.)

PS: I corrected a typo just now: Writing about Dell, I wrote "the dultimate" when I meant "the ultimate". Maybe I should have let it stand.

 

[timwhit]

I like the T series too. I would have seriously looked at a T42 or T43 or the new T60 which I haven't seen before.

 

[Tannin]

Tim, if you take away the marginally lighter weight (which doesn't matter in the slightest to me) what does the T Series offer that I don't get with the R Series? Bear it in mind that I sell a reasonable number of Thinkpads, so I could probably move this R52 on to a new owner without financial pain if there was any reason to switch to a T Series unit instead.

 

[timwhit]

I couldn't tell you. I have never used an R series before. I bet Mercutio knows.

 

[Tannin]

You are right. When it comes to Thinkpads, Merc is da man.

 

[Mercutio]

I think the T-series does a little bit better on battery life and they're about 1lb. lighter on average. They also have the stupid fingerprint scanner. They support more memory (T60 does 4GB!) and have vastly superior internal construction.

So...
Lighter
Better Battery
Better chassis
More RAM

The prices on the T60 are in my opinion a lot more competitive than the T40-series were. Office Depot had a 512MB 1.67 Dual Core for US$1500 a couple weeks ago. I'm sure Rs are still less expensive but considering that my loaded T40 was north of $3000, I'd say that Lenovo is playing a different game these days.

 

[Tannin]

Hmmm ....

Lighter: irrelevant. One pound less meand that I could have te same total weight and carry 70 litres of fuel and 40.5 litres of water on a trip instead of 70 and 40.

Better Battery: is that a better battery, or better battery life from improved power management? My much-used original R Series Thinkpad battery still gives an hour and a half to two hours after a lot of heavy use. The third-part 9-cell battery I bought a few months ago is somewhere between 4 and 5 hours. But more is always welcome, of course.

Better chassis: I'm going to have to look closely at one, as the only impression I have from casually glancing at T Series units that come in for de-spywaring or etc is that they seem even more solid somehow, but I never looked at them carefully.

More RAM: R Series tops out at 2GB. That's enough, but you wouldn't want it to be any less than that. 4GB would be nice for the future, but I'm not thinking of this one as a long-term unit - it's barely any better than my two year old R51. I'm expecting to get about 12 months out of it, then trade up to something with the features I actually want: bigger screen, faster CPU, lots of extra storage. If anyone makes one then, that is. And assuming that they ain't seven grand.

 

[CougTek]

Re : better chassis.

Do you have a 300 pounds guy in your settlement? Just place an R serie and a T serie on the floor next to each other and have the 300 pounder walk on both of them.

Compare afterward.

I know Merc did just that with one of his Thinkpad T and the laptop apparently survived. I don't know about a Thinkpad R.

 

[Mercutio]

To be fair that was a T20, which was several years ago.
But T4xs have a steel frame around everything and are quite rugged. I guess the only way you could really evaluate would be to look at the service manual for both (unless you happened to have one of each in the shop). Plus there's the dynamic shock protection for hard disks on the Ts. Do the Rs do that?

The lightness of a laptop is a HUGE issue for me. I don't like toting around heavy notebooks, particularly if they're untethered from ethernet and power. 5lbs. is kind of an upper limit as far as what I'm happy with. My Gateway AMD notebook is up around 7. It might as well be a desktop for as much as I move it around. It's not an issue that there's some total mass that I'm willing to carry around. It's more, if I'm actually using the damned thing as a portable computer, I want to be comfortable with it in my hand(s) or on my lap.

Battery: Ts use 6 and 9 cell Lithium. I suspect the extra efficiency is simply due to better power management in components. I've heard 5:30 for a 9-cell on a loaded T60 with no wifi running.

 

[Tannin]

I'll have to compare side by side. Certainly the Rs I know well are more solid than anything in a non-Thinkpad (presumably except a Toughbook).

I think they take the same batteries. I'd need tro double check that, but I think it's the same part number.

BTW, I tend to switch most of the power-saving stuff off most of the time, unless I'm in a situation where I'm going to need to go a long while with minimal CPU activity, such as long meetings. I hate standby and suspend functions: they never, ever work quite the way you exxxpect.

Whaaaaaat's with thissss keyboard? I'm getting double letters everrrywhere.

 

[LiamC]

Whaaaaaat's with thissss keyboard? I'm getting double letters everrrywhere.

Stop droooolliinngg in the keyboard and the problem will go away

:mrgrn:

 

[Tannin]

My friend Bill. Always has a kind word for everyone. Usually. Well, mostly usually. Quite a lot of the time, anyway.[/b]

 

[LiamC]

Cantankerous and curmudgeonly in my old age you young whipper snapper!

Well it was either drool or you've been spilling coffee on your keyboard again. Yeah, yeah, I know, it's a hardware fault.



Sorry! Just joking.

 

[P5-133XL]

Have you considered that the duplicate keystrokes may be neuralogic in origin and the solution is -- JUST STOP IT!

 

[Howell]

Just say no - to key repetition.