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T41p or Z60m ?

post #1 of 8
5/13/06 at 6:42pm
Thread Starter 
Both of these are offered (new) at the same ballpark, differ by configuration:
T41p is Pentium M 735 1.7Ghz, 60 GB 7200 rpm HDD, 14.1" SXGA 1400x1050 driven by FireGLT2 128 MB graphics, DVD/CDRW (not a DVD burner), all the regular wire and wireless connectivity and XP PRO.
Z60m is Pentium M 740 1.86 GHz, 80 GB 5400 rpm HDD, 15.4" widescreen 1280x800 driven by ATI x300 64 MB graphics, DVD burner x8, all the regular wire and wireless connectivity and XP Home and other bells and whistles (such as card reader which is of little importance for me)
My needs encompass technical computing (study), web, emalis, some occasional entertainment (perhaps movies) and rare gaming (if any), though the main workload will be MATLAB. I'll need to lug it in the campus, here and there.
For better portability the T41p seems to suit - it is lighter by about 0.5 kg then Z60m and perhaps a bit smaller footprint-wise, however Z60m offers slightly newer CPU and chipset, wider screen (not sure of its importance for my needs) somewhat larger HDD (albeit slower) and DVD burner.

The graphics of T41p seems a bit better, am I wrong ?
What would you choose and why ?
How large is the difference between CPUs and chipsets performance-wise ?
Another half kg of weight od Z60m doesn't scare me away, 3 kg vs 2.5 kg on my back isn't going to be a deal braker (unless I intend to go with laptop mountain climbing which I do not).
Hard to decide...
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post #2 of 8
5/14/06 at 1:51am
Those are in different categories: one is a mainstream laptop (T41p) and the other is a desktop replacement (Z60m).

Altough I think performance is secondary to size and format, I will begin with it.

Sonoma laptops aren't specially fast compared to previous generations. In benchmarks you see like 15-20% increase in performance between a 1.7 GHz Banias (the T41p I am typing on right now) and the 1.86 GHz Sonoma in my Dell M70. However, I am unable to notice the difference in performance in the real world.

The Mobility FireGL T2 on the T41p is nearly twice as fast as the X300. It's mostly because the FireGL has twice the memory (128MB against 64MB) but most important because its memory bus is 128 bits wide while the bus on the X300 is only 64 bits wide. Thus, half bandwidth to work width.

Size, format, screen resolution, ergonomics and battery life are the most important concerns for any laptop decisions. Thinkpads often fill quite good the ergonomics and battery life areas, so I will focus on the rest.

The T41p is a mainstream laptop. Not too big, not too small, it just seems to be well balanced when it comes to size. 15.4" laptops are quite big to be really portable, to be honest, that is why I have both sizes.

The format, however, is quite important to me. My way of working (always one instant messenger window to the right and the window's start bar to the left) is much better suited with a wide format.

To make the long history short, I recommend you the T41p over the Z60m. You will miss some screen size (but not screen real state), but a laptop is a laptop after all and portability is important.

Also, T41p is a workstation class laptop. It comes loaded with everything (bluetooth, for example) and is very well rounded (the 7200rpm hard drive, for example).
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post #3 of 8
5/14/06 at 3:28am
Thread Starter 
Thansks, understood.
Just noticed, this T410 comes refubrished (though woth extended, 3 years IBm warranty). Would you still vote for it ? Or in such case Z60m will be better choice (once again - both are priced at about the same ballpark) ?
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post #4 of 8
5/15/06 at 4:16pm
Refurbished means nothing. They are requiered by law to label that way any product which is returned for any reason. They are tested and requiered to meet the specifications of a new product.

They are cheaper because most people, like you, thinks that refurbished means lower quality.
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post #5 of 8
5/15/06 at 5:49pm
Thread Starter 
Yes, cannot disagree with you - refubrished doesn't necessary mean potentially lower quality as long as they sold covered by IBM warranty.
My concern is rather limited warranty IBM is offering for their refubrished laptops - 1 year at most for the same product that is 3-years covered being brand new.
In my case, would IBM offer 3 years coverage for that T41p I was refering above, just like on their new products, I would take it with heartbeat.
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post #6 of 8
5/16/06 at 11:07pm
Ah, sorry, didin't read it completelly.

Don't worry much about the warranty. The truth is that they are offering only one year because that model went out of production a long time ago and they don't want to have spares and such for so long (it's like 2 years old already, plus 3 years it would be 5 years total and that's too much in the computer industry).

I recommend you to buy the T41p with one year warranty and save the money of the extended warranty to buy a newer model when the warranty is about to expire. There will be Santa Rosa, Merom based laptops by then and will be much, much better than anything you can buy now.

If you decide that the difference for a newer model is too much by then you can always extend the warranty on the last moment.
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post #7 of 8
6/4/06 at 6:01am
hope everything turned out ok
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post #8 of 8
6/4/06 at 9:08am
Thread Starter 
Well, turned over and made up my mind going a third choice - acquired a brand new T43 in US that is on its way to me right now. Has no more then ATI x300 graphics which will apparently more then sufficient for engineering use (MATLAB, web, email,...)
Even including S&H and our local import TAX (actually only VAT) - turns out about 500$ cheaper then similar machine would it bought locally in country or about 350$ cheaper then either new Z60m or this refubrished T41p.

Thank you guys for sharing with me your opinions.

Alex
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