Did I make a mistake? Picked up an X301!

I just pressed the BUY IT NOW button on a new X301 off of ebay!

I currently have an x200 (P8600, 4gb ram, 500gb harddrive, 9 cell battery), that I got when the system first came out and have been drooling over the X301 after positive reviews and careful comparisons. I have been following discussions here on the forums, and for the most part people love the X200, and there isn't as much lovin for the X301 because of the price differential. At any rate, I picked one up at what I think is a good deal, and will be comparing both to see which one is better for my needs. I am a student and need portability because I essentially carry my laptop everywhere. I need good batterylife, but most importantly I need a good screen resolution to view webcasted lectures side by side with my note taking program (one note). This was the main reason why I pulled the trigger.

I got the 1.4ghz, 4gb ram, DVDRW, 6 cell battery, 128gb SSD version with vista for $1200. What do you guys think? How much can I sell my current x200 for, on ebay and on the marketplace here?

 

I sold my X200 with the P8400, 3GB RAM, 6 cell battery and only 5 months old at the time for roughly $850USD, so I'd say that what you would be looking at. Looks like you got a really good deal on the X301, they usually go for much more than that.

 

Now mail me your x200, and Ill say you did the right thing.

 

You won't get $850 for an x200. Look at the outlet and all the sales that have brought the x200 and x200s down to pretty darn good pricing.

 

Yeah that estimate seemed high, but I am fine with leaving my 500gb hdd and 4gb of ram in the machine if that would increase how much I get for the x200.

I am hoping I do not see that much of a drop in performance in the X301 because of the processor. From what I have read, I probably will not be able to tell because of what I will be using the x301 for. Hope I made the right decision to do this "side"grade!

 

Ya the 500gig will help. Do you have BT? That always help resell value for laptops.

 

Yep, I have BT included on this machine. Just no fingerprint scanner, which I decided not to get because I find them useless.

That is good to hear about the drive. I might stick a 320gb in here instead so I can keep the 500gb. I am not sure if that will cut down the price significantly if I do that though.

 

Great price on the X301! I'm sure you won't notice the CPU speed decrease, but on the other hand I think you'll notice the SSD when launcing applications. As a student I'm very happy with my X300. If you invest in the UltraBay battery, you could probably make it through an entire day at the university without AC adapter. I'm gratefull for being able to do that.

 

Hi Itrich, is that a Buy IT Now Price of 1200 or did you win the auction bid?
can you tell us which seller? i 'd be keen to spend 1200 on an x301 with the specs you have. cheers.

 

Hey Ascend,

That was a buy it now price with a paypal coupon and 8% cash back.

The price before coupon was actually 1250 or something like that.

Esben, do you mean that the SSD is a good thing when launching applications? The unit I got has a DVDRW drive, and I am tempted now, to look into getting an ultrabay battery! Does it add significant weight?

 

Here is the seller - sorry forgot that part - marcinyt

I wasn't really going to get the x301 but the price was kind of too good to pass up. It was really hard to decide whether or not to go for it since there are no thinkpads in stores really to try out. I guess I shall see. My x200 is great! But I went for ssd, screen size, resolution, trackpad, and beauty ahaha.

 

yep, x301 is rare as diamond in most retail shops (i am in Kuala Lumpur). But lately, i've been able to 'examine' the x301 and it's a very very nice machine. Solidly built, nice rubberised surface on both the LCD shell and keyboard palmrest (the 400s has matt plastic on the palmrest). I have always been a sony fan and was looking forward to purchasing the Z series but decided it's not for me as its screen is very flexi. Keyboard is acceptable but x301 keyboard is still the best bar none.
As you may be aware, the Z has much higher specced processor and an Nvidia graphics card.

I hardly ever used my laptop for video or graphics intensive app and so i might forgo the Vaio Z and go for the solid build, keyboard of the z301.

do write a brief review.

 

That's an excellent price for an X301. I ended up paying ~$1100 after cashback for my X301, but mine only has the 64GB SSD and 2GB RAM. Though that was several months ago...

I'm sure you'll love it!

 

I have been out of the notebook game since I got my x200 and I didn't have any idea about the price of ssds these days! I will definitely post some thoughts comparing the two, and will probably post a youtube video too.

I do some video editing - but I mostly use my macbook pro for that. I would be doing some light photo editing on the x301 but I doubt that it would hurt that much.

Looking forward to dual booting windows 7 and xp on the x301. I hope that windows 7 can make the computer run processes efficiently and speed things up.

 

Yes it definitely works wonders when launcing applications and booting your computer. The occasions when you're waiting for your computer is often when launching applications, so reducing that time makes a great difference in how 'snappy' it feels.
The UltraBay battery I think adds about 100 grams to the weight, but I haven't measured. It does weigh more than the DVD-RW, but if you like an extra 3 hours battery life, the extra weight is nothing to worry about.

 

anyone knows whether the X301 SU9400 processor is fast enough for MS Office and PDF files, and huge excel files? would it be worthwhile to spend a little more for the SU9600 processor (it's rare to see this processor on preconf x301)

 

The SU9400 is plenty powerful for all those things. If you run A LOT of high end calculations in Excel or are constantly doing OCR in Adobe than the SU9600 will do things a bit faster, but either should be more than fast enough for that workload.

 

I have read that you the SSD can be bogged down and slowed down if you fill it to capacity. I am going from a 500gb drive down to a 128gb! So is this true guys? How do I avoid this and make my x301 run efficiently as possible?