Yeah, so I finally buckled and ordered a new ThinkPad. What can I say? Lenovo sucker punched me with an uber-discount that they threw at Microsoft employees. And they dropped it some more by the time I decided to finally order, so it dropped the price substantially. As is no new to anyone that’s been to the site before, I’ve had a T41 for over two years now and have been pretty pleased with IBM’s support over that span, but now Lenovo is calling the shots.
How do they stack up for service so far?
Strangely enough, I recently noticed that the keyboard on my T41 was getting worn and the touch pad was smooth again, so I decided to call in for a warranty repair/parts replacement. In the past, IBM had gotten me in-stock parts by the next day and never gave me any trouble. Only once did they recommend I send the machine in for the repair; I told them that I had done the same repair before and they let it go. When I called into Lenovo tech support, I explained the situation: they sent me the parts straightaway. That’s promising.
The new ThinkPad is a 14.1″ T60p – model 2007-83U – and it’s packed with features. Core Duo T2600 (2.16GHz), 1GB RAM, 100GB HDD, 256MB FireGL V5200, DVD burner, Intel 802.11abg, 9 cell battery, etc. Vista capable, to be sure. 0.3 pounds heavier than the T41 with 50-70% more battery time, based on the specs of both machines.
So, what’s the good, the bad, and the ugly?
The good: I ordered an extra AC Adapter and the notebook at the same time, back on the 19th. The AC Adapter shipped that day and they told me the notebook would ship on Jun-08. I skimped on shipping and went with Ground for both… the adapter will be here today. Then I got an email yesterday telling me that the notebook had shipped. Got the tracking number for it and took a look… it was in Hong Kong on 05/24/2006 at 12:46 AM (all times are local to the place). Then it went to Anchorage, AK on 05/24/2006 at 12:54 PM. Then it went to Louisville, KY where it arrived on 05/24/2006 at 10:42 PM, so that the FDA could inspect the packge. Yes, that FDA. After all of that, it’s currently on a truck in Redmond (WA) for delivery today. It might even beat the AC Adapter to my mailbox. That’s good. That’s very good. IBM used to do stuff like this to me all the time and it speaks well of Lenovo if that trend continues; after all, I’d rather get it early than find out it’ll be late.
The bad: I think I’m going to regret getting the Intel WiFi card. When I first got the T41 I had a lot of problems with my original WiFi card. It was an Intel b/g card, making it a true Centrino. After living through daily BSoD problems – caused by Intel drivers – I bought an IBM a/b/g card which cleared the problems up. After tooling around the TP forums I’ve seeing that Intel drivers haven’t gotten better… that would be bad. I can’t pull the card from the T41 – they changed the design of the cards – but if it’s that bad, I’ll just pony up another $50 for the IBMThinkPad card. Once it’s in stock, anyway.
The ugly: New machine means a whole lotta house cleaning in the form of a repave… ThinkPads come with more digital goo on the hard drive than you can imagine and uninstalling simply doesn’t get it all off. I remember this well from my first months with the T41. First step will be to burn a copy of the restore discs from the “super secret hidden partition” that ThinkPads have. After that, I should back off the \Drivers and whatever software directories there are, so I have a copy of the drivers handy. Should be easier with the DVD burner than it was with the CD burner. Oh, and since it’s an SATA drive, there will be an install driver issue, too… I might have to slipstream an XP disc for this one, or at lesat have a USB floppy drive handy.
There might be an easier way out, though, since Levono has updated their “software driver” stuff… it connects online and lets you install selected drivers – that might be the easiest way to get the box up and running, first go around, if I can get XP installed without a problem and have LAN access. Why is it t3h ugly then? Because I forsee a number different XP-installs over the next few days and that just blows.
The best thing is that I didn’t have to hock my old notebook before getting the new one… I have a portable machine I can use to get updates from!
And once all this is working, I have to see what will happen with Ghost (SATA drive, remember?) and consider flinging Vista on it, but for right now I’m sorta stoked that Lenovo is upholding the IBM traditions of surprisingly quick and solid service. The other stuff can wait :)
Should be an interesting trip.
Not bad at all. But I heard Vista is going to need 512 RAM just to boot comfortably, it seems like a memory hog. Is 1 GB gonna cut it or do you have upgrade options just in case down the road?
On a similar note, I’m finally finishing up my machine. It’s an Intel (arggh) But I got a good deal on the parts ;)
Intel D945GNT motherboard
Intel Pentium D 830 3.0GHz @ 3.6GHz
4 GB of DDR2 533 Kingston RAM
2 75GB Seagate Barracuda’s in RAID 0 (for WinXP)
200 GB Maxtor Diamond PRO (for SuSE 10.1)
Nvidia 6600LE
And a DVD-RW
Not much of a gaming rig, but it’ll run my porn just fine.
From what I’ve read online, 1GB is “recommended” for the “full” Vista experience. Make of it what you will :) FWIW, I found that it’s one app at a time on OSX with 0.5GB too, so I’d say it’s “in line” with what we’re seeing today.
Personally, I’d advice people to be more concerned with Video hardware than CPU or Memory if they want the whole shplat from Vista. You done good with the 6600LE, in any event! I’ve been running it pretty well on the T41 but it’s a little sluggish (non-retail build) and there’s no “cool” graphics stuffs showing. That’s 1GB but it’s a Pentium M 1.6GHz: not that zippy, but memory won’t fix that – and it’s still usable, which isn’t bad for 2 year old hardware.
It’s like back when they told me OS/2 would fly with 16MB: I unloaded a shit load of cash for it and it still took 2 minutes to boot. The RAM didn’t help in that case.
Well, the GHz wars are officially over. Intel has realized that, so your 2.14 GHz Core Duo will fly. But I got a feeling your gonna need about an extra GB once Vista finalizes to keep running at your comfort level. Because your a Geek, and Geeks aren’t satisfied with the “recommended specs” performance.
The 6600LE is okay, it’s mid-range. It will handle Vista just fine. And I’m over clocking this shit out of it. It won’t run DOOM 3 cranked up all the way, but it will keep me happy. My computer sounds like a god damn airplane with all the fans I have had to use, I think I have spent over 200 dollars on just cooling fans. Money well spent in my opinion.
The GHz wars were over before they began – the public just never realized it. Back in the days of the 286 vs 386DX the MHz meant a lot, because the two didn’t overlap. Then the 386SX hit and people freaked that it was scaling up to 40MHz when the 386DX topped out at 33 – they didn’t get that the family of chip had changed. Same thing when the 386DX 40MHz was out around the same time as the 486DX 33MHz: the 486 kicked the crap outta the 386 family, but no one got it. Same thing happened with Celeron vs Pentium vs Pentium M.
As to the fans money VERY well spent. People laugh at me for the cyclone at home but I once lost a DVD player (like a regular home video one) to heat… that’s all it took. :)
Delicious hardware. I guess this toy has enough horse power to satisfy even any self respected game player with fetish for mobility.
Ya, it’s a pretty good line up. One thing that I have heard is that the FireGL is just “ok” for gaming, since its primary focus is OpenGL graphics. There’s also a T60 or T60p model that uses the ATI X1600 (with 128MB) that can handle gaming pretty well, too – I just wanted it more for business reasons :)