Help needed on T400 purchase

Based on the advice I got on my earlier post seeking advice ( link to post) on a home-office laptop, I'm leaning towards purchasing a T400. I'm choosing this over a T500 for portability (e.g. use on planes), and over an E6400 due to better reviews and price (am getting it for $1300 incl tax)

I need additional advice on configuring the system and on choosing peripherals.

A) Configuration: My aim is to configure the system for (a) performance, (b) longer battery life, and (c) future-proofing, in that order. I anticipate using the laptop for MS Office apps, light to medium computations, heavy wireless internet use, and occasionally watching/burning DVDs. I'd appreciate if you can review my choices below and advise:

1) Processor: P8800
Is P8600 good enough? I'm choosing P8800 over the P8600 as it is a cheap upgrade without a power consumption penalty (?). The T9400, SP9400 seemed like overkill for my needs, but maybe worth considering for future proofing?

2) OS: Vista Busines 64-bit with free Win7 64 upgrade
I hope to soon run Win7 64-bit (performance, future proofing). Figured this would be the easiest way to get there.

3) Screen: WXGA+ TFT LED 1440x900
Went with the popular option. Am worried the resolution is a bit high for a screen this size, but am taking a gamble that it's a good trade off and the text is not painfully small to read. Pl. advise.

4) Graphics card: ATI Radeon 3470 + 256 MB
Chose this mainly because of the switchability option to conserve battery life when unplugged, and for future proofing (better Win7 performance?). Have a feeling that it overserves my needs, and the integrated graphics are enough. Comments?

5) Memory: 4GB PC3-8500 (good discount on upgrade from 2GB)

6) Disk Space: 320 GB 7200 rpm (good discount on upgrade from base)

7) Battery: 6 cell Li-ion
Ideally would like the 9-cell Li-ion, but am worried about the weight increase and how much more it will stick out the back. Pl. advise if this is a non-issue.

8) Warranty: 3 yr on-site plus 3yr thinkpad protection
Although a bit pricey and possibly overkill, this sounded like the best combination of quick repairs and accidental damage protection. Please advise.

9) Other DVD R/W 8x, Exp. Card Slot with 7-in-1 card reader, Integrated bluetooth, Intel Wifi 5300, Integrated Widenet upgrade: All seemed like relatively cheap or must-have (e.g. DVD-RW) upgrades for me. I wasn't sure about the fingerprint reader as I've never been able to use it before. Pl. advise.

B) Peripherals:

I'm interested in a good widescreen monitor to use with the T400 in a desk setting. Can you advise on optimal screen size and resolution, and specific monitor models that work particularly well with the T400?

Also, any thoughts on a good keyboard and mouse to go with it? I was particularly interested in the Thinkpad bluetooth laser mouse for desk-use as well as travel use. Any other suggestions on a good keyboard+mouse solution will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

 

I would just go for 2GB of RAM - you can buy an additional 2GB from EPP discount for under $35. The additional L2 cache makes little difference in day-to-day use, so yes the P8x00 is a good choice.

But regardless, good choice on this model. The Dell E6400 has good performance, but the touch pad and especially ergonomics suck big time. Anyways, either way you configure your T400, you're getting an AWESOME laptop. Enjoy.

 

1.- Yes, there is no power consumption penalty. Depending on how much extra cost there is, it may or may not be worth it, though, since little work is bottlenecked by the CPU (but depending on your "computations," that may be, so a CPU upgrade may not be a bad choice in your case).

2.- I agree. That's a good choice.

3.- You can go to the store and look at other laptops to judge if the text will be small. Look for 14" WXGA+ (1440x900) laptops, 15.4" WSXGA+ (1680x1050) laptops, 12" WXGA (1280x800) laptops, or 17" WUXGA (1920x1200) laptops. The 14" WXGA+ will obviously be the closest to the T400's WXGA+ screen, but the 15.4" WSXGA+, 12" WXGA, and 17" WUXGA give good approximations. Text on all of them will be, I believe, slightly smaller than text on the T400 WXGA+ screen.

4.- Basically, if you are not gaming or doing other graphics intensive tasks (it does not look like you are), that upgrade may not have much worth. That said, however, Lenovo uses a weird pricing scheme where increasing specs from the basic integrated model actually adds up to more than increasing specs slightly from the more expensive models (ie: the "Elite" T400). So, play around with pricing and see what comes out to be less.

5.- I don't know whether it is worth it buying from Lenovo without knowing the upgrade costs, but know that Newegg sells DDR3 2GB modules for ~$25.

6.- Generally, Lenovo and all other OEMs tend to rip you off on hard drives. It would likely be cheaper to upgrade it yourself (plus, then you get an external hard drive from the drive you took out).

7.- You can read this thread and see if it is an issue for you: http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T50...e-what-sticks-out-and-what-doesn-t/td-p/40462

8.- Sounds good, if you are willing to pay the price.

9.- I'd say all those are great choices, except the fingerprint reader. I find them rather gimicky, and why would you add another "door" into your system that can be potentially "gamed"? A plain old password is probably more secure.

 

Hey Midnight, imho, I love the fingerprint reader - yeah, gimicky but it makes logging in EASY - none of this ctrl+alt+del nonsense . I've been using a finger print reader on my T61 where as my E6400 doesn't have one and I miss having it everytime I use the Dell. Good thing the T400s has it standard

 

Thanks for the detailed responses. Am going to go physically check out a few retail laptops as suggested to address the resolution/text-size concern. Great link on the battery question - the photos and data for the 6 and 9 cell were very helpful.

Follow-up questions:

-Does swapping out a Lenovo hard drive for a larger one have any impact on warranty?

-What are the most common failures users are reporting for T400 as they start to age (18, 24, 36 months)? This may help me select the right warranty level.

-What is the sweet spot (size, resolution) for an external LCD monitor to connect to a T400?

Thanks!

 

1. No it does not, however with the new hard drive lenovo will not cover that part since it was not provided by them (seems obvious but some people don't understand)

2. I haven't heard anything wide spread, isolated issues maybe due to nothing being 100% reliable. As far as I know there is no serious issues (such as GPU, CPU faults etc) in the year plus that T400/500 series has been launched

3. That is completely up to you since it will depend on desk size, budget, etc.

 

1.- No, the hard drive is a user-replaceable part. In fact, many times, Lenovo support tells you to take out your hard drive and keep it when sending the machine back for repairs.

3.- Right now, I think the most economically "worth-it" monitors are the 21-23" monitors, that have WSXGA+ or WUXGA resolution. Below that size, you can simply add a little bit more money for a larger, much nicer screen. Above that size, the price of the display increases exponentially.