Is the T61 really cool and quiet?

Don't get me started on the Vostro. I know a guy who has one and all I can say is the screen is just plain terrible. And you thought the dimness on some thinkpads are bad. I don't know how anyone can put up with those screens. The thinkpad screen which are traditionally the main weak point of thinkpads still trounces vostro's anyday.

 

how is the keyboard and track pad on the vostro?

 

I didn't get a chance to try it. I mean its a Vostro -_-

 

honestly, i have yet to see any strength from T61 so far, let alone to buy it. screen? too dark. system benchmark? never get any advantage from ibm. thermal design? failure.

 

system benchmarks?
i'm willing to bet it will outperform the vostro with a clean install
thermal design?
i can't even hear the fan when it's running at full speed and on top of that, the fan is rarely running and the laptop does not get hot.
screen too dark?
i don't know what kind of screens you're used to, but the screen is definitely bright enough for me.
reliability and build quality?
IBM 100% hands down.

 

I am afraid that your first argument is subjective as you can get different screens and whats too dim for some may be just fine, or too bright for others. system benchmarks are subjective because that depends on your hardware, not the fact that its a thinkpad. there may be some t61s out there with thermal design failure but i think the majority of them out there effectively cool the system.

 

If you just do some simple calculation of the volume, you will see that it is 30% larger than the T61. A large case helps in cooling of course. If you install all the internal part of your Vistro into a desktop case, you will see it runs even cooler.

Also, for the ACPI temp, you have no idea where the ACPI thermal sensors are located in these two machines, so it doesn't make any sense to compare the ACPI temp. If the sensors are located in different places, how can you compare the readings?

And one more thing, you have no idea how Intel determines the TDP for the entire product line. TDP does give some idea about how hot a model of chip will run, but it will never tell you how much heat can be generated by a specific chip. And if you believe that a cpu with 20% lower frequency and 2MB L2 cache will generate the same amount of heat as a CPU with the same core stepping but 20% higher frequency and 4MB L2 cache does, I can only say that you have a lot to learn about hardware.

 

Thank you ^^

 

check two system's internal thermal design(photos available from web), you will realize which system has more thermal resistance.

 

regardless where the thermal sensors located

 

I would like to add that the core temps of my T7500 seem to be quite erratic. Today my T7500 has been running anywhere from 42-45C with firefox open, moving GBs of data from system disk to external, writing in Word, downloading 8 torrents, checking email. This is extremely cool for me as I have seen this machine run idle at 70C and above. I am not sure if I got a recent update that has fixed the cooling system, but it just recently started running this cool. When I play a game such as HL2 or counterstrike source the temp can reach 90C! All these temps are in a non-air conditioned dorm room with an average ambient temp of about 75F. Though how much the ambient temp affects my core temps is, as I stated, erratic. I am very confused about how well my specific system is moving heat away.

 

How do you monitor the temps?

 

RM cpu clock. intel TAT gives me a temp of about 2-3C higher than what RM reads.

 

What energy settings are you using? You know that if you have it set to energy star and you have your battery unplugged it will clock down your processor and you will be running very cool... I could see that being a cause of large fluctuations. Also running a game is going to heat up your GPU, and since the processor and GPU share the same cooling system, when one heats up, the other is going to as well.