I just ordered my t400 with discrete (non-integrated) graphics, bad move?

Edit: Thanks for all the help. I finally got to use my laptop a few days ago (was away when it arrived) and it does have switchable graphics like I originally thought. Definitely not happy with the guy I talked to when I bought it, he told me it did not have 'switchable graphics'. Very happy it does. So this post was pointless, but I'll leave it here anyway.



Originally , my primary concern was battery life, secondary concern price. Eventually I figured that since the starting price of the t400 is so high I might as well get everything I want with it, but battery life was still my main concern.

For a while I was under the impression that it would have switchable graphics, so I planned on getting the ATI Mobility Radeon 3470 (w/ 256mb).

When I called, they told me that this wasn't true, but that I could achieve the same battery life as with the GMA X4500 integrated GPU by tweaking the settings.

It's probably not too late to change this (I'm already trying to change the RAM I chose from 2 GB to 4 GB). But I'd like to get some advice from fellow t400 owners before I do anything else.

Oh, and the upgraded GPU only ended up being $50 extra so price didn't affect that part very much (only got expensive because it was $15 here, $70 there, etc etc).

Basically : t400, integrated or discrete? How much of an effect on my battery life will I have to deal with if I stick to discrete graphics?

And here's more info on what I ordered btw.

P8600 (2.40 GHZ, 3mb L2 cache)
1440 x 900 Matte LED Backlit Screen
250 GB HDD 5400 RPM w/ 2 GB Flash Memory cache
2 GB DDR3 RAM

Okay, trying to remember the specs is taking too long and I wanna post now (brb). But ask if you wanna know anything. Thanks in advance for any replies.

PS. Okay, this was a really messy post. But I think I got my basic question through. Just having a bit of buyer's regret about certain parts of the machine and want more info about the graphics part.

 

not a problem at all...? the T400 has a hybrid video card. If you ordered discrete, it comes with the integrated card as well and you can switch between the two anytime you want.

Battery life between the two from my experience is:
Intel 4500HD - ~6 hours
ATI Radeon 3470 - ~4 hours

I use the 4500HD for class and switch to the 3470 at home when i want to play games.

 

For as far as I know, all T400 laptops have both the integrated and discrete cards.

 

The guy on the phone said the feature I was talking about is only available in the W series.

A lot of stuff in Australia has inconsistencies with stuff you guys can get in the U.S.

I know what you guys are talking about because that's what I thought it had, but if it doesn't, then can I still do something to the discrete GPU to bring down the performance and up the battery life, or should I be checking this out and considering changing my order to one for an integrated GPU?

 

Just out of curiosity, what was the final price on your build?

You said you went with discrete graphics because it was only $50 more? I ended up sticking with integrated because adding discrete to my build made it $200 more. I spent a rather long time watching prices and waiting for a good deal, so needless to say, Im a bit confused.

 

The T series has switchable graphics period.

 

As far as I know all Tx00 laptop's have the switchable graphics when ordering the discreet graphics. Here is a picture of my laptop.