Has anyone else ordered a W500?

I ordered a W500 a couple of weeks ago instead of a T61p (when the 570m was still available) with a 20% off coupon. A maxed out W500 was only $200 or so more expensive than a heavily discounted maxed out T61p. I need to be able to run the next few new yearly editions of 3d CAD programs like solidworks/inventor, so naturally i opted for the more powerful machine. There is a lot of hype surrounding the t400/t500, but I think the w500 simply blows them out of the water for a not much greater cost. I'd like to find out more information concerning the W500, but most people seem to be more interested in the T series and the W700. Are there any reviews available for the W500? Also, I cannot find detailed specifications on the new ATI GPU in the W500. It wasn't even listed on the ATI site last time i looked.

 

Hello,

I ordered a W500 the first day (August 5th) and still have an 8/25 est. ship date, but I called this morning and they told me it should ship out any day this week (supposedly before the 23rd).

I had a T60 some time ago - which I loved - but needed UXGA and Blu-Ray and a bigger hard drive, etc., which sadly could not be done with a ThinkPad at the time (late last year), so I got an HP 8510w.

Once I saw a new workstation level ThinkPad was coming with UXGA, etc., I was eager to place my order. The 8510w is a great machine, but IMO nothing beats a ThinkPad.

To me, of all the choices of the new systems, the W500 best suits my needs (though no Blu-Ray option yet, I figure it will be available separately soon). I'm very eager to check it out.

Also, last week I reconfigured my same system ordered on their site and it was hundreds of dollars cheaper, so they are supposed to credit me back the difference from my original order.

Jason

 

I also ordered the W500 on launch day, though i haven't called to check on ship date. I hope since everyone went with T-series that the W-series wont be as back ordered. I am as baffled as you to the graphics in this laptop from the name (AMD M86GL HYBRID 512MB or ATI FireGL V5700) to the lack of drivers on the ATI site. First thing I plan on doing it is running a bunch of benchmarks and I will be sure to post them.

 

The M86GL is an ATi/AMD chip, based on the Mobility FireGL V5700. So architecturally, it should be quite similiar to running a Mobility Radeon HD 3650.