Benefits of waiting for montevina?

It seems like many people here are eagerly awaiting the release of the new TP series. My question is that is there a major benefit of waiting for the release of the new platform? I consider myself a casual user - web browsing, photo editing, dvds, office, and statistical programming (no gaming). Would I see a significant increase in performace by waiting for the new series? The hard drive is failing on my current T30 so I am eager to replace it. Also, is the form factor of the new T series going to be significantly smaller? I am currently on the fence between the T61 and X61 and if the T400 is a lot smaller that would make the decision easier for me.

Thanks!

 

Since you didn't say benefits of montevina but rather the benefits of waiting for it, the major one is... even if you don't get it, the older laptops will be cheaper .

If you plan on viewing HD content and don't have an ATI gpu, you may see some benefits (since NVIDIA cards don't offload the processor as much as ATI cards... even my T7500 with an 8600m gt ddr3 lagged some 1080p content), but that's due more to higher clockspeeds than the platform itself.

Also, you might see a benefit from the higher fsb, so Vista might start up somewhat faster and games will load faster... but since you don't game, nothing major.

 

The chipset may give a lower power consumption, especially if Lenovo couples the P8400 or P8600 cpu in lieu of the T-series cpus. The higher fsb speed may give some benefit, but the use of DDR3 ram will hurt the wallet a bit if you're going to expand.

Mostly for me I'm waiting more to see the features of the new models from Lenovo and Dell slated to use the montevina chipset. Stuff like LED-backlit lcd panels, switchable integrated or discrete graphics, etc. Since in theory it's only a couple of weeks away anyhow, why not wait. Another factor is that where I live we have a sales-tax holiday at the start of August.

On the flip side though the new systems will be effectively Rev A systems and we all know how that can work out. Always the question: less expensive tried and true previous generation or cutting edge new stuff with the new bells and whistles.

 

Shift from 35W to 25W CPU's is reason enough. Even intel's post montevina CPU releases are back to 35W. LED, switchable integrated or discrete graphics!

 

ATI's graphics use both integrated and dedicated to give you high performance when you need it and good battery life at the same time. Add to that the lower consumption LED screens and the lower consumption Intel chips and you should see a good boost in battery life.

 

I totally agree with this; however, and my question is to anyone, when does "cutting edge" actually become "tried and true?" In other words, when will we know that Montevina is actually reliable and the kinks have been worked out, if any?

 

You wanna' buy Rev 1.0? How many BIOS and driver upgrades will it take until they get all the kinks worked out by us, the customer quality assurance squad. You don't expect Lenovo or Dell or HP to be able to test everything?

 

when will we know that Montevina is actually reliable and the kinks have been worked out, if any?

Probably sometime around the release of Calpella ...

 

Oh, gotcha.

 

Hopefully the battery won't stick out so badly on the T400. Only the 4 cell is flush on the 14" WS T61. I think I read somewhere that the 9 cell will be flush, but I find that hard to believe, but I'd guess that at least the 6 cell will be flush on the t400.

 

It depends on where the battery is mounted. If it's in the back like the current models, everything but the smallest battery will probably stick out. The second size up may just protrude down to tilt the keyboard toward you, however.

On the other hand, if it's like the X300 nothing will stick out the back. It's just going to make the front a little thicker, which would suggest the back starting out significantly thicker to allow the big 9 cell option. Otherwise you'd have the keyboard tilting away from you, probably limiting them to 6 cell.

I want to know how Panasonic pulls so much battery life on the Y series while everyone else struggles so much.