Hmmm.. keep T500 or upgrade?

Well, I hate to admit that seeing all this new info about the upcoming Sandy Bridge ThinkPads is quite exciting. Great battery life coupled with high-performance CPUs and all of that fun stuff has made me consider upgrading. Firstly, I'm keeping my X200; it serves its given purpose wonderfully and I don't really see the need to go to an X220 as long as I have it(that and I really dislike that 1366x768 resolution).

Gadget lust has seriously struck me and I'm on the fence between throwing some upgrades onto my T500(extra RAM, perhaps a WUXGA display, maybe a Momentus XT HDD or even an SSD?) or biting the bullet, saving a little while and going for a W520.

I use the T500 mainly around the house with a few forays out and about(my X200 does most of my mobile work, though). that machine's main usage profile is tinkering with Photoshop, learning some programming and some 3D modeling apps, as well as gaming and watching video, either pushing it out to my HDTV or on the internal LCD. I also have a dock in my office where I attach it to some multiple monitors and etc.

My main attraction to the W520 is the fact it will likely come with a pretty decent GPU; I'm assuming the Quadro 2000 will give some decent performance increases over the W510, which was roughly only 50% more powerful than the T500's HD3650 in 3Dmark06 tests. I'm assuming the better processor options will help out some of my more intense tasks, which I find the T500's base P8400 CPU kinda lacking. Right now I'm aiming for a W520 with a 1920x1080 display, the Quadro 2000 GPU, and likely the base i7 quad CPU. I've no idea how much that'll run but my assumption is a bit north of $2K.

I'll admit that a lot of this is gadget lust talking, and I'm still really on the fence. Playing around with my T500 will likely be much less expensive, and the WUXGA display would offer a bit more real estate than the W520... but I'm assuming the gaming performance would suffer significantly(I only play games on native resolution). I'm fairly happy with the system as-is, but if I decide to keep it I'd like to boost it up as far as I could really go in order to extend its usable life as long as I could.

Any suggestions?

 

I mean if the T500 does everything you need, no need to spend that money.

Buy what you need with what you have is all I can say.

 

Eaxctly what im thinking. Unless there is a need to upgrade save your money. If the x200 is working well for you then Im sure the much more powerful t500 is more then enough.

 

I look on the screen upgrade as being the one upgrade that doesn't bring the return on the investment. By the time you've spent the cash, you've paid a not-insignificant amount towards a newer laptop.

The RAM and the hard drive are reasonably priced, and can be swapped into a newer machine. I went with a Scorpio Black (at the time, the Momentus XT was not reviewing well on NewEgg due to firmware issues causing odd spinup/spindown behavior and a lot of DOA complaints) and 8GB of RAM because the price was right. If I bought a T420, I could always swap those in.

 

if not broken don't fix it.

I mean they will bring new toy to sell but if you need one sure you can exchange some parts as mention in this thread to save some $$

 

Could replace the T500 and X200 with a X220 + US$180 GTX460 DIY ViDock + external LCD. You'd have covered all desirable peformance and functionality features with a single pocket rocket.

While the X220 looks impressive I am still keen to see HP's 12" 2560P and Dell's 12" E6220.

 

Well some people like to have the shiniest new toy. Mass media convinces us we need the fastest and bestest new product out there. For some people who have untold sums of money, then okay but not all of us are like that.

 

This is definitely true. There are things where I do push the performance envelope of the T500, though. I am leaning a bit towards keeping it but upgrading some of the internals. Not the least expensive thing to do, but it would be much less expensive than a new notebook with much more grunt behind it. There's also the possibility of attaching a ViDock with this model; something which would be pretty interesting to do(and would extend to my X200 as well).

I'm using the X200 primarily as a netbook alternative; I like the full-sized keyboard, larger display and higher resolution. I really don't do most of my higher-performance apps on here as many of them do benefit from a more potent GPU.

 

I mean if you do tons of rendering and other CPU intensive tasks then jumping to a W510/W520 maybe worth the cost. You could sell your T500 and not put that huge of a dent in your bank account. Only you can judge whether or not you have the budget vs productivity gained from upgrading to an entirely new platform. The jump from Montevina to Huron River is more of a time warp, huge implications for multi-threaded applications.

 

Running games under WUXGA is fantastic! What drives them is mainly the gpu, so if that is good enough, then no worries. strong cpu, more ram and SSD also help, as always...Of course some games are more demanding than others

 

Well, considering you're running a W500 with a WUXGA, what are your findings, and what do you play, if anything?

I haven't tried out too too many titles on my T500, but I know it plays MW2 on high settings with acceptable performance.

 

I don't play anything now, but played heaps of flying machine games (moderate requirements - not basic, not extra-ordinary) on my last 3 laptops, all UXGA or WUXGA every earlier generation running far inferior gpu's and cpu's to the W500. There is always a trade-off - the more pixels the more power needed, but the better the image - but a decent gpu should do the job, IMHO. When I played games I never had to go away from native resolution, never had a problem with speed. Maybe I was undemanding. But I did always chose the best possible gpu available in each case. But with these things there has to be comprise as well as a personal judgement every time. I am sure the WUXGA is more stressful for the gpu, but what amazing images! In the end, the W-series are not designed for gaming, but for moderate needs should most most people happy. I have never needed more than a top business laptop for my needs. f you want the best possible gaming machine, you don't get a laptop; you get a desktop with the best possible gpu(s) and you get a huge screen(s) with maximum possible ppi.... But for me. I am happy with the restrictions of a laptop; I love the HD screens, I like playing games on them if I feel like it. These amazing screens screens are not a negative in any way to me - I hate to look at anything on any lesser screen. ...Over the years the screens have not changed much; every generation of gpu has got more powerful (and yes, the games have got more demanding....)