Good Laptop for a College Student/Gamer ??

Here's what I'm thinking about getting at Lenovo.ca:

ThinkPad T61P 15.4'' WSXGA+ TFT
Intel Core 2 Duo processor T9300 (2.5GHz 800MHz 6MBL2)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M 256MB
2 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 (2 DIMM)
160GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD Recordable, Ultrabay Slim
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (US/CAN/LA/AP)
6 cell Li-Ion Battery (They no longer sell 9 cell battery )
1 Year Depot/Express Warranty

Sale Price: $ 1,463.45
[CAXMAY01] -$ 146.35
Visa savings $ 77.05
Estimated total: $ 1,317.10

Do you think I should buy it ?? THX

 

Hey look @ this laptop same price pretty much, more HDD mem, Im pretty sure the video card is better as well, 1gb more ram, this is the laptop ive been looking at for a few days,

http://www.excaliberpc.com/Asus_M50Sv-A1_Notebook/90NEDA1E33BECCQL150Y/partinfo-id-585042.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220279

2nd link is for all specific specs .

 

The hard drive is 5400rpm ... it would be slower than the 7200rpm in the lenovo

I dont know if the Nvidia Geforce 9500M 512MB is better than the NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M 256MB... I dont think so...

 

i would stay away from vista if you can

i have vista business, and it make my comp run the same as my 600x notebook on XP

plus my school's not supporting vista till fall 2009

 

If you have some computer skills, I would order whatever hard drive and OS they throw you, and buy a full copy of XP, and a 7K200 hard drive.

I would get the N wireless, because the upgrading will require an additional antenna.

I would double-check the 9-cell battery situation, as many people buy them.

 

I use mine for cad here at my school and it works great. make sure to check that vista is supported...and that SP1 is supported as well. i prefer vista over xp but then again all the programs i use are compatible. get n wireless...as brendaem said. and unless your specifically looking for a 512 card there is no reason to get one...the t61p is one of the best 15" machines out there.

 

Vista is a weird beast. You love it, the next day you hate it. Overall, I would say I like it pretty much with an IF. In order to have a good time with vista installed, I would recommend turning off as much securities such as UAC and even run as an administrator. I got tired of the little problems with Vista and made that move and now it is very fine. It feels faster and more importantly, smoother than XP. XP is still a short term option, but IMO, you are more future proof going Vista... and I have not found major incompatibilities with 3rd party software. The worst cases require you to run the application as "admin"... which is not an issue if you run an admin account in the first place. Just run a good anti-virus and all will be fine.

The T61p is a viable gamer solution, but battery autonomy is substantially shorter than the T61 so I would make sure you get a 9 cells battery if they make such thing for the T61p. If you favour more autonomy than games (would be a wise thinking IMO), then a T61 is actually a better choice for a student. The 140M card is slower than the 570 of the T61p, but you get more battery life and still can run 3D quite well. I run CAD and games on mine and it is quite decent.

 

5400rpm drive isn't bad if you get a bigger one. My data transfer speeds are pretty good (just seek time is a bit slower than 7200rpm). The heat and noise and battery life are a lot better.

Get 4 gigs of ram ($80 at newegg) and vista really isn't that bad actually. Most of the crap can be turned off, and the extra memory usage isn't even noticable.

 

Check out the new IdeaPads... pretty slick machines especially the Y710

DD

 

i would go with VISTA.if you load it with enough of ram like 2 gig and a 7200 rpm hard and a decent cpu like t9300 you will enjoy vista.you CANT then revert back to xp once you get used to it.mentioning i was one of those who was against vista,till now.but what should we do?we should update ourselves,we cant stop Microsoft.

 

we could say 570m is equivalent to geforce 8600 gt series.the one loaded in that notebook is GeForce 9500M GS 512MB which seems better.overall i would go with lenovo even if i would wait for it to update their gpu series.

 

570m isn't it 8600gt?

 

Yes, 8600GT

 

sorry guys..seems im so tired.yes 8600 GT.i edited that post.

 

Although the T61p is a nice machine, since Montevina is coming out soon and laptops with this platform will fill the market in the back-to-school season by the end of this summer, I'd recommend you wait until school almost starts (or even after it started) as you will get newer hardware with the same price you might pay now for the T61p. The gpu in the T61p is not very powerful (yes I know it's relatively powerful for a laptop, but it really is just a midrange card) and it is likely that you will be able to get a notebook with a more powerful gpu this summer for ths same price.

 

Do you really think you could buy a t61p (or whatever the future model will be) with this low price like 1400$?!!
!im afraid the price is certainly gonna be higher than around 1400$(the price i bought my t61p fully loaded) for a while so you have to wait 2 or three month again for the price to come down.if you want high end machines.
but after all,patience in buying a computer is always recommended unless you get a great discount which is not gonna be offered again!

 

You should wait until there's better coupons available if you want to buy a laptop that's about to have an update in the summer (I think).

I only bought my T61 recently because there was the website 20% off deal and also a 10% off coupon, which made for a very cheap laptop. You seem to be only getting 10% off here.

 

Well of course the price will be higher when the laptop first comes out. But we are assuming that the OP is only interested in a thinkpad, which tends to be more expensive than other brands with comparable hardware. If gaming is what he wants, he's better off buying something like the gateway with the 8800 gts or some montevina laptop with a comparable gpu. I just don't want the OP to get buyer's remorse when montevina machines come out and he realize that they offer much more performance for the same money.

 

even that laptop with 8800 gts is not gonna be on top for more than a short while for heavy graphic gaming....laptop industry is not intended solely for gaming as of its non-upgradeable components but if one wants to get a durable,college student,every day computing machine which is also capable of heavy graphic applications and games (a really multi task system)..then what?invest his money on gateway which is not comparable to thinkpads at all?!
but your statements are true as well.i got my laptop with 40% off!i recommend newbies to buy if 1-they need a system immediately or..2-or if they might need a system in 2-3 months but a great offer is available....otherwise,patience is always the best way to go.