Couple of T400 questions

Looking to get one in the near future but have a couple of questions, hope you guys can help out:

Looking through the regular Lenovo site, the only graphics option is "ATI Mobility Radeon 3470 with 256MB". I noticed they didn't mention switchable graphics. Is this inherent in all Thinkpads with discrete cards that they don't have to mention it?

Also, it will cost $225 to upgrade from a P8600 (2.40GHz 1066MHz 3MBL2) 25W processor to a P9500 (2.53GHz 1066MHz 6MBL2) 25W processor. I'm wondering whether this price will justify the extra 3MB of L2 cache? Most of the time I'm surfing the web and doing some programming, but sometimes I also have some CPU-demanding tasks such as:
- running my Ubuntu VMWare image
- watching flash videos
- compiling C++ programs
- gaming
I'm wondering how much that extra 3MB of cache will help with performance/battery life/heat? Also will multitasking be noticeably smoother?

Thanks for your help!

 

Yeah, all T400's with the dedicated ATi graphics have the switchable capability.

As far as the upgrade to the cpu is concerned, I have used both the P8600 and currently use the T9400 and unless you sit and benchmark every day the perormance differences for $225 are not that great. For the uses you listed the P8400 should be more than fine. I would go with the P8600 and probably spend the extra $$ on getting a faster HDD and more RAM rather than the cpu.

 

I actually have two Dell Latitude E6400s at the moment- one for work, one for person use. My work system has the P9500 processor and dedicated 256mb nVIDIA graphics (basically as 9300M GS). My personal system has the P8600 processor and integrated graphics.

Honestly, I'm a pretty demanding user and I can't differentiate between the two in terms of performance. The P8600, especially paired with the ATI HD 3470 graphics, will be plenty of power for your needs! You'll notice a much greater difference multi-tasking by increasing from 2GB to 3GB of RAM. Or from 3GB to 4GB. Of course, order it with the minimum amount possible and upgrade it yourself!

 

Thanks for your replies! Also, I've heard you have to take off the keyboard to replace the HDD. Is this true? Will replacing the HDD and RAM void your warranty in any way?

 

No, you dont have the remove the keyboard for the HDD and nor the RAM. The RAM however is located underneath the front palm rest and is considered to be a customer replaceable part and so wont void your warranty.

 

Yeah, HDD replacement is a piece of cake. One screw to open the cover, four screws on the caddy.

Memory is also easy. Just make sure you have a decent small phillips screwdriver meant for working on this stuff. Not a place to cheap out with some junk $5 "computer repair toolkit"