Help me decide on T400 configuration

1. Lenovo wants $50 for a 2.53GHz processor vs. 2.4GHZ
I can't imagine a noticable difference in performance
2. Should i go WXGA or WXGA+
some of the options have "Hi nit" next to them
ex:14.1 WXGA TFT High Nit, w/ LED Backlight [add $150.00]
what does that mean?
3. Does anyone actually use their fingerprint reader?
Not sure if I should dump $30 for this
4. 5200 vs 7200 speed hard drive.
Any noticable improvement in performance of system with 7200
Im sure you take a big hit in battery life
5. I have an option to have a card reader instead of a PC slot.
Is there any need for a PC slot anymore?
6. difference between Intel WIFI 5100 and Intel WIFI 5300?
80211 card. $20 difference
7. did anyone pick the 9-cell vs. 6 cell? Does it stick out too much or add an uncomfortable amount of weight?
8. graphics: intel integrated vs. ATI Mobility Radeon 3470 with 256MB
I don't expect to play too many games, but I do want seamless DVD, Tivo file playback

Thanks

 

Highnit means brighter. You don't really need the high nit unless you want to try and use the laptop in sunlight. Just go off of resolution first.

I use the fingerprint reader, but depends if you think you would.

7200rpm is faster in seek, but 5400rpm drives are decently fast now-a-days. Sometimes it is worth it to replace the drive on your own.

You don't need PC slot unless you specifically have something you intend to use with it.

wifi5100 is fine. the 5300 has more antennas but the 5100 has been perfectly adequate for everyone. You could just opt for the standard wifi chip as well.

The 9 and 6 cell both stick out on the t400. Look at pictures and weight specs and decide if it is worth the battery life/weight/bulk ratio.

If you don't play any games go with integrated. The discrete graphics does not add any benefit to video file playback (intel chip already has hardware acceleration for HD video, etc).

 

I would suggest the 5300, because I heard some people had problems with the 5100.

 

I only ever saw people posting about issues with the 5300, but I haven't seen anything lately. What issues were reported?

 

Just some thread from a while ago stuck in my mind.

 

Cant really speak for others. But my T400 with the 5100 wifi works fine with no drop out issues. I have connected several (mainly wifi g) networks at different places and the connections have been good. Personally, I dont think its worth paying the $20 for the 5300. Even the broadcom wifi which is the base issue should also work fine i you are on a tight budget.

 

(1) At best you'd see a 5% gain in performance of cpu-bound tasks. I'd venture to say that outside of numerical simulations and certain other cpu-intensive tasks, most bottlenecks will be in other subsystems than the CPU and that the difference between a 2.4 and 2.53GHz cpu will be virtually unnoticeable.

(2) WXGA+ -- but that's really a subjective choice

(3) Yes, all the time.

(4) Depends on the price difference. I'd go with a larger 5400 drive from Lenovo, replace the primary drive with an aftermarket large 7200rpm drive and use the original drive in a SATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter.

Battery life differences between 5400 & 7200 drives are not that much these days; see the hard drive comparison/test pages at Tom's Hardware.

(5) That depends on your needs. I have no use for a PC card slot and went with the 4-in-1 reader. No regrets.

(6) Google. I chose the 5300 and have been very happy. Had some early troubles back in August but since the drivers were updated shortly after I bought my T400 it's been rock solid.

(7) I chose the 6-cell. 9-cell too ungainly and I don't need that much battery life.

(8) Go with the ATI -- then you have the hybrid graphics and can switch between the Intel and ATI as you desire. I typically just use the Intel side and have no problem with Tivo or DVD playback. I don't think those have much to do with graphics processing capability; certainly anything they need is being handled fine by the Intel chipset.

 

HARD DRIVE. I switched my 5400 rpm drive to a 7200 rpm drive on my T61 and found it much snappier. No change in battery life either. I am now using a T400 with a 7200 rpm drive. Go for 7200.

BATTERY. The Lenovo ThinkPads are not great at battery life in any configuration I've seen so far. The T400 has better life than the T61, but I wold still go with the 9 cell. Sure it extends out the back and doesn't look great, but the 6-cell extends out the back and doesn't look great. But in either case the computer fits in my Samsonite computer case fine. I've never wanted shorter battery life in a notebook. So I'll take the longest I can get.

 

1) The price difference is probably not worth it for basic office/internet stuff.

2) I like WXGA+ because you get more resolution (1440x900) vs. WXGA (1280x800). Then get LED if you can over regular CCFL. High-nit is for people that use their laptops outside a lot.

3) IMHO the fingerprint reader is not really that useful. You only use it for logons and possibly websites on your browser (i.e Firefox or IE8).

4) I like the speed of 7200rpm. Boot-up times are faster with a 7200rpm drive. Also defragmenting the hard drive is much faster. Hitachi drives are also fairly power efficient for 7200rpm drives. You might want to consider purchasing a third party hard drive instead of directly from Lenovo.

5) The card reader means you will get a plastic blank in the express card slot instead of the flap over the express card + pc card slot. If you think you will use the card reader more than the pc card, get the card reader. The pc card slot is there for people who still have those expansion devices (i.e. sound card).

6) The Wifi 5300 is mostly worth it for people that have a wireless N network. You get a better wireless N signal with the Wifi 5300 over the 5100 due to an extra antenna. If you just have a wireless G network, the price difference is not worth it as much.

7) The 6 and 9 cell batteries both stick out. I would only get the 9 cell if you need to be from the power outlet for a really long time (like 9 hours). The 6 cell will give you about 5 hours of battery life. The 4 cell only gives you about 3 hours of battery life.

8) Both Intel and ATI can display DVD and TiVo well. However, if you ever watch HD video (720p or 1080p), there will be some differences. The Intel graphics will only hardware accelerate certain HD files in VISTA only! The ATI can accelerate more HD files in VISTA and XP. Unless you just have to save money, I would get the ATI + Intel hybrid graphics.

 

1) The 2.53 GHz part is probably the T9400 right? If so, it has a 10w higher TDP and you would take a hit in battery life as well. I generally don't recommend the T9400 (people that need the performance are better served by the T9600 anyway).

2) High nit is a REALLY BRIGHT LED display. If you want to use the T400 with sunlight directly hitting the screen it can be useful. Otherwise, any of the other options will be bright enough.

3) The fingerprint reader can be nice for a tablet PC (no keyboard in slate mode). However, for a normal notebook I don't think it's that valuable.

4) 7200RPM drives are primarily faster in seek. There is a heat/energy difference but it's smaller than you might think. Personally I would recommend getting the 5400RPM drive and consider replacing or augmenting it with an SSD in the future.

5) If you have existing PCMCIA cards (e.g. a Creative Audigy ZS) it's useful. Otherwise, the SD reader has move value.

6) I have been perfectly satisfied with the 5100. I use it with 802.11N and get great results. See the 802.11N link in my sig for detailed specs. I started that thread to see if anyone with a 5300 could do better (no one ever did).

7) The 9 cell only sticks out a bit farther than the 6 cell. However, the 9 cell slants upward and prevents you from tilting the LCD all the way back (capped at about 165 degrees).

8) The T400 has switchable graphics so there really isn't a downside (aside from cost) of getting both. I have generally been satisfied with the desktop level performance of the x4500MHD on my x200T, but it does have its limitations (mainly poor Intel drivers).

 

The T400 has hybrid graphics? So you can switch from the 3470 to the Intel and vice versa?

I didn't know this, it isn't advertised on Lenovo's site (or at least the Canada site).

 

Yes. You can switch without rebooting (Vista/7 only). This is one of the best new features of the T400 (also applies to T500 and w500). You no longer have to lock yourself in to reduced GPU performance of integrated permanently to have the option of superior battery life.

 

4. WHATEVER YOU DO get the cheapest hd possible and upgrade yourself to a 7200 3.0gb/s drive from newegg or something. The drive that my t400 came with was a 160gb 7200rpm BUT 1.5 gb/s seagate momentus that literally ruined my life due to spikes for about 3 weeks. I upgraded to a 320gb 7200pm 3.0 gb/s western digital scorpio which is OUTSTANDING. I highly recommend that you just get the cheapest thing possible, get the scorpio, then use the stock drive as a storage device with a cheap enclosure or something.

8. if you don't wanna have problems with aero and soon windows 7 visual effects along with moderate gaming and just usual stuff nowadays, get the discrete card. You won't regret it

 

How you made upgrade, I mean how you transfered data between two disks (LENOVO hidden partition, Windows partition)?

 

just do a clean install on the new drive. I don't even have the Lenovo partition anymore.

 

I'd ammend this to suggest you look at your expected needs and see what best meets them rather than just go with the base drive.

When I ordered my T400 last summer I added the $55 to upgrade it to the 250GB/5400 rpm drive and bought an WD Scorpio Black 7200rpm drive from newegg. The Seagate 250GB drive went into my SATA hard drive bay adapter.

The base 160GB drive would have been too small for what I needed and the $55 upgrade cost was less expensive than buying a decent 250Gb drive. Even if you use the stock drive in a USB enclosure for backups, it's smarter to think through your needs than just blindly go for lowest initial price.

 

To clone one drive to the other, something like Acronis True Image works well. Since it's smart to do periodic backups, you should consider this or comparable software anyway.

First thing I did when I received my T400 was to make a full backup of the laptop -- it only took up about 16Gb on an external drive, and I have that in case I ever need to "start over"

Actually came in handy one day when I needed to reinstall Roxio Creator and the on-disk files were messed up/missing. Went back to that archive and found the install files. Sure there's probably better software but RC does what little I need it to do and it's already paid for.