Help Me Choose a Laptop

[ExodusC]

Hey guys... It's really about time I got a laptop. While it is not going to be geared toward gaming, I am going in favor of getting a discrete graphics chip with it. My budget is $500-800, maybe a little more depending on what I can get.

I've looked around a bit, and I'm not sure exactly what to go with, but I have constantly been told a Lenovo Thinkpad would be the best choice. So I am currently looking at the ThinkPad SL500 (15.4" screen) model.

The bare minimum specs for $715 are:
CPU: T5670 at 1.86GHz
GPU: NVIDIA 9300M 256MB
RAM: 1GB DDR2 667
HDD: 80GB 5400RPM HDD
OS: Windows Vista Basic
LCD: 15.4" WXGA (Doesn't specify, but I assume 1280x800 resolution)
WiFi: Integrated 11b/g WLAN Adapter
Battery: 6 Cell 2.4 Amp
CD/DVD Drive: CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive (24X/24X/24X/8X Max)

Now the CPU is a little slower than I would have liked, but I can upgrade it to a T5870 at 2.0GHz for $50 more. Not sure if this laptop has any overclocking features, though if it did I'd probably bump the T5670 up to 2.0GHz. The GPU seems fair for what I'm looking for, it's the main reason I chose this laptop. I'm disappointed at the RAM, but I guess it's not a big deal as I'll buy a 2x2GB kit for it anyways. The hard drive is also small, but for $30 more I can get a 160GB drive, which I probably will end up doing. Choosing Vista Basic over Vista Home Premium dropped the price by $50. This isn't a problem for me as I'll probably end up putting XP or Linux on it. The screen is plenty big for me. Integrated WiFi is something I was looking for, though it seems almost all modern laptops have it. The Battery can be upgraded to a 9 Cell model for $80 more, but that doesn't seem worth it to me. The DVD drive for $15 more can be upgraded to be able to burn dual-layers, but I figure I'll stick to doing my burning on my desktop. The laptop also comes with a 1 year warranty through Lenovo.

Anyone else have this laptop, or a similar model? I'd like to hear what you guys think, or if you have a better suggestion, please let me know!

[man_bear_pig]

Never owned that lenovo, but I am salivating over this one.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8892825&st=gateway&lp=3&type=product&cp=1&id=1211587727985

[villa1n]

Hey guys... It's really about time I got a laptop. While it is not going to be geared toward gaming, I am going in favor of getting a discrete graphics chip with it. My budget is $500-800, maybe a little more depending on what I can get.

I've looked around a bit, and I'm not sure exactly what to go with, but I have constantly been told a Lenovo Thinkpad would be the best choice. So I am currently looking at the ThinkPad SL500 (15.4" screen) model.

The bare minimum specs for $715 are:
CPU: T5670 at 1.86GHz
GPU: NVIDIA 9300M 256MB
RAM: 1GB DDR2 667
HDD: 80GB 5400RPM HDD
OS: Windows Vista Basic
LCD: 15.4" WXGA (Doesn't specify, but I assume 1280x800 resolution)
WiFi: Integrated 11b/g WLAN Adapter
Battery: 6 Cell 2.4 Amp
CD/DVD Drive: CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive (24X/24X/24X/8X Max)

Now the CPU is a little slower than I would have liked, but I can upgrade it to a T5870 at 2.0GHz for $50 more. Not sure if this laptop has any overclocking features, though if it did I'd probably bump the T5670 up to 2.0GHz. The GPU seems fair for what I'm looking for, it's the main reason I chose this laptop. I'm disappointed at the RAM, but I guess it's not a big deal as I'll buy a 2x2GB kit for it anyways. The hard drive is also small, but for $30 more I can get a 160GB drive, which I probably will end up doing. Choosing Vista Basic over Vista Home Premium dropped the price by $50. This isn't a problem for me as I'll probably end up putting XP or Linux on it. The screen is plenty big for me. Integrated WiFi is something I was looking for, though it seems almost all modern laptops have it. The Battery can be upgraded to a 9 Cell model for $80 more, but that doesn't seem worth it to me. The DVD drive for $15 more can be upgraded to be able to burn dual-layers, but I figure I'll stick to doing my burning on my desktop. The laptop also comes with a 1 year warranty through Lenovo.

Anyone else have this laptop, or a similar model? I'd like to hear what you guys think, or if you have a better suggestion, please let me know!

With the screen res so low, there isn't much point in having a dedicated, considering the 3d06 of that particular card with that proc, will approximate around 1800 marks. scores (http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9300M-GS.9452.0.html) Its in that funny zone of being better than an IGP but not good enough to use for any sort of gaming etc, all the things you would probably use it for, could be achieved by a ati 3200, or an intel x4500... which rounds to the processor. If your going to be using it on battery a lot, you ll want a backlit LCD, as well as many cell batt, and an igp will be more power effiecient, along with a newer chipset, montevina, vs the old napa or i guess this may be santa rosa, but with a 667 fsb.
As well in the price bracket your looking at, amd and a puma lappy may have some more economical ie price/performance options vs intel, but again it depends on your use... if your gonna be doing ripping, encoding, etc, intel the way to go, but for a netbook, with a couple apps, maybe movies, amd might be viable..as well size is an issue too? big or small, how portable hehe, hope that can clarify...

This might be a bit out of your budget, although being Canada, it should be cheaper in the states :D sony 16 inch (http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10108934&catid=#) its a nice media pc, and at 6 lbs not overly heavy, if you do want to move it..
also, with linux you ll want to be careful and buy generic, one of my lappies is an hp, and i had mega problems getting a distro on, and working...most took tonnes of compiling custom drivers for.. which sucked because i m a linux noob. Suse10 and mint linux dual booted, but regular ubuntu, mandriva, and fedora all crapped out on me.. so with linux you ll want to buy highly supported models.. like dell, and thinkpad i m sure would be no problem as well. and fyi, Vista64 isn't so bad, vs xp :P, its shinier.

[TRF-Inferno]

Now the CPU is a little slower than I would have liked, but I can upgrade it to a T5870 at 2.0GHz for $50 more.
If you don't mind potentially voiding the warranty and upgrading it yourself, you might be able to snag a T7200 for $80-$100. If you don't want to deal with it, go for the T5870.



Not sure if this laptop has any overclocking features, though if it did I'd probably bump the T5670 up to 2.0GHz.
Very, very few laptops have overclocking abilities. The only one I can think of right now is the ASUS C90.



I'm disappointed at the RAM, but I guess it's not a big deal as I'll buy a 2x2GB kit for it anyways. The hard drive is also small, but for $30 more I can get a 160GB drive, which I probably will end up doing.
Good idea on upgrading RAM on your own. For some reason Lenovo charges abnormally high for 2x2GB RAM.



Anyone else have this laptop, or a similar model? I'd like to hear what you guys think, or if you have a better suggestion, please let me know!
I don't have one, but Lenovos are quite commonplace at my work and I think they are very well built machines. The ones I've played with (Ideapad Y510 and the Thinkpad T61) are pretty nice. I'm not too crazy on the Thinkpad series' off-center screen placement, but it doesn't bother most people.

[ExodusC]

If you don't mind potentially voiding the warranty and upgrading it yourself, you might be able to snag a T7200 for $80-$100. If you don't want to deal with it, go for the T5870.
Wouldn't the T5870 be the better choice though? It has half the cache (2MB) of the T7200, but it has an 800MHz FSB. More importantly, it is only $50 for an upgrade to it, and I'd keep my warranty.[/quote]


Very, very few laptops have overclocking abilities. The only one I can think of right now is the ASUS C90.
I figured as much.


Good idea on upgrading RAM on your own. For some reason Lenovo charges abnormally high for 2x2GB RAM.
Yes, RAM through OEMs generally is a lot more expensive, I'll just get my own 2x2GB kit.


I don't have one, but Lenovos are quite commonplace at my work and I think they are very well built machines. The ones I've played with (Ideapad Y510 and the Thinkpad T61) are pretty nice. I'm not too crazy on the Thinkpad series' off-center screen placement, but it doesn't bother most people.
Good to hear, but what is this "off-center screen placement" you speak of?


As well in the price bracket your looking at, amd and a puma lappy may have some more economical ie price/performance options vs intel, but again it depends on your use...
I've heard so much about the AMD Puma laptops, but I know so little. Can you elaborate?

[villa1n]

Well the puma laptops , processor wise, the new x2's havent changed that much, performance is a bit better, but power consumption wise they have, as they now have split powerplanes, so battery life goes up. As well, they support hybrid Xfire, so if you get a puma, plus discrete it will switch back and forth..but in your price range, the puma, will probably have the ati 3200 igp, which is on 55nm so less power, and scores pretty high on 3dmark, highest for an igp, and more than double intels x3100, and about 50% more than x4500.. off the top of my head, but you can always look em up on notebookcheck.net . The added goodness, is the hdmi out, and eSATA ports so you can hook up external hdds at fast speeds, and plug into your tv :D and for the same overall performance intel in that range, the lower end, 500-800 is usually 100$ more for the same features/performance. Although i m not sure about the OEM's bundling the 3GB with amd procs... the imc forces it into single channel mode :/ while intel has its Flex technology, so the peformance hit isnt as bad, but still if your using an IGP you ll want dual channel ram, and seeing as your getting a 4gb kit no worries there :).
toshiba has a nice looking puma A305d i believe.
But in looking for the laptop... the igp ati 3100 is a far cry for the 3200... the 3100 is closer to an x4500 gma, and in that case probably better to go with intel.. as for proc's a 2ghz amd is probably a 1.8ghz intel in most cases, but on laptop apps, probably negligble, aside encoding.

[ExodusC]

Hmm, I'm still really interested in this ThinkPad... That Sony laptop is really tempting, but it's $1000, I think it's a bit out of my budget...

[villa1n]

Hmm, I'm still really interested in this ThinkPad... That Sony laptop is really tempting, but it's $1000, I think it's a bit out of my budget...

hehe yeah that is a really good deal for the price, and the build quality of the thinkpads at least are pretty good. I am only leery at the moment about anything with an nvidia gpu on the mobile side because of the materials issue..as one of my laptops withh a 6150go mobile igp regularly gets up to 70C when watching high res video h.264 mkv's and judging by your logo, you may watch fan subs too hehe. here s the story nvidia mobile chips (http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/39045/135/) The solution was apparently to release bios fixes, which basically jack the fan up to full speed.. which may keep it cool, but will also be noisy and a drain on battery life.

ThinkPad SL500 2746

ThinkPad SL500 Series - 1Year Depot
2746CTO $749.00 1 $749.00
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo processor P8400 (2.26GHz 1066MHz 3MBL2) 1
Operating system: Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic 1
Operating system Language: Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic - English 1
Display type: 15.4 WXGA VibrantView 1
System graphics: Intel GMA X4500 1
Total memory: 1 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 (1 DIMM) 1
Keyboard Language: US English Keyboard 1
Hard drive: 80GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm 1
Optical device: CD-RW/DVD-ROM, Fixed 1
Bluetooth: None 1
WiFi wireless LAN adapters: ThinkPad 11b/g III Wi-Fi wireless LAN Mini-PCIe 1
Modem: Yes - AMoM 1
Battery: 9 cell Li-Ion Battery 1
Modem (RJ-11) cord: Modem Code; US Type 1
AC Adapter, Power Code: 65W AC Adapter; NA, LA, (2pin) 1
Publication Language: English US Publication 1
** Cannot find variable: Feature.Box.Name **: None 1
** Cannot find variable: Feature.Box.Name **: None 1
Adobe Elements: None 1
Vital Source Technologies: None
A much better processor, and better 9cell batt, if you choose the intel igp, which will definately get better battery life since it will be montevina platform versus santa rosa. Personally though, i just find the way ibm lappies look, so boring hehe, i like toshiba's new shiny look, or acer's gemstone, or hp/compaqs new look as well. But value wise, this is a good deal.