New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Sentia or IBM Thinkpad T41?

post #1 of 42
6/22/04 at 3:51pm
Thread Starter 
I know this the Alienware forum, so lots of people are going to tell me that Alienware is the coolest and I should buy one. However, The IBM looks to be pretty similar in specs once I customize both, but the IBM costs about $250 less. There are some extra port thingies that the IBM can have attached to it, which would cost $200 more. I'm not sure if the Sentia already has those ports, since it looks like it has a lot.

I need a laptop for law school. It's got to last me four years. I want a tough case, a full-size keyboard, wireless, something that doesn't weigh a ton, and long battery life. That's really all I want. I don't care about style or making a statement.

Is the Sentia actually better in substance and not just style? I read a review that said it was way overpriced for what it was. I've also read that the customer support sucks. I would prefer something highly ranked in reliability, like IBM and Toshiba (from what I've read, anyway). What does everyone think? Is it worth the extra money? I'll spend basically as much as I have to to get a decent machine that will last me my four years. Well, under $2500. I just want a lot for my money.
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 42
6/22/04 at 4:11pm
You could always look at a sager, such as the 5690 or 8790.

The 5690 isnt too bad, but the 8790 is butt ugly. The 8790 is, however, the fastest smokingest laptop you'll get, cheaper than a 51m, but with worse customer service, warranties, massively huge (T-rex size) and a shorter battery life. It will, however, support dual hard drives, RAID, a TV tuner, remote, digital out, internal bluetooth and a bonanza of other goodies (plus itll beat a 51m by 400 or so points in 3dmark03).

It all depends what you want, AW is elite. If you dont care about having a computer you can be proud of on the outside as well as the inside, go for Sager or a Dell Inspiron XPS.

My 2 cents (i think im going to go AW 51m or maybe Sentia )

-Stu

Edit: Oops, didnt read the under $2500 lol. You prolly can config a Sager for that, but im not sure. www.pctorque.com if your interested is apparently one of the best resellers. Check the Sager forums on here.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 42
6/22/04 at 4:20pm
Oh well, heres one i made for ya:

Sager 8790

Display: 17" WSXGA+ LCD (Widescreen 1680x1050)
Processor: P4 3.4Ghz Northwood CPU
Video: 256mb ATI Radeon Mobility 9700
RAM: 1GB 400DDR Dual Channel (2x512mb)
Main hard drive: 60GB 7200RPM
Media drive: 8x DVD/24x10x24 CDRW Combo Drive
Bay 2 Hard Drive: Bracket for 2nd hard drive
RAID: No (but supported)
Battery: 8 cell battery + inbuilt subwoofer (add $18 for the 12 cell, but lose the subwoofer OR you can get a TV tuner for more $$)
OS: None
Modem: 56K modem
Network card: 10/100/1000 NIC
Case: Black business case
Wireless: Internal 802.11g TURBO (108Mbps)
Bluetooth: No (add $52 for it)
Warranty: 1 year warranty, lifetime tech support

This system will set you back $2587.00 but thats without shipping.

Battery life is about 1 hour...weight is 4.76kg with battery. It also boasts an integrated 7-in-1 card reader and digital camera.

-Stu
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 42
6/22/04 at 4:27pm
if you dont care dont bother with AW, you dont fit in.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 42
6/22/04 at 4:29pm
Customer support? well...alienware has definately treated me right. For example, i e-mail them like 10 times a day about my shipping statues, and they still keep e-mailing me back. All i can say is that there service is wayyy better than my last laptop's service, compaq.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 42
6/22/04 at 4:50pm
Thread Starter 
"if you dont care dont bother with AW, you dont fit in."

That is funny on so many levels. *whooosh* That's the sound of it going right over your head, dude.



Thanks SMG. I'm checking out Sager now, too. I think I'd probably opt for the IBM over the Sager since both are ugly. IBM's customer support is supposed to be decent, while I haven't heard much about Sagers, but you said it wasn't good. I like that it's got bluetooth. I've already ruled out Dell because they suck.

artzilla03, I know Compaq's customer support sucks, but that's what I'd expect for an extreme budget model. I'm avoiding Compaq. Alienware is charging a premium price, but I want premium quality and support for that price. I'm glad yours was good, so I'll add it to the pile of complaints and see which way the equation balances.


I'd still like to know: IBM vs. Sentia, preferably from someone who's tried both. I've never seen a Sentia in real life, and it's difficult to compare the two from .jpgs.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 42
6/22/04 at 4:55pm
The clincher for me to go with AW was the lack of tax AND free shipping. That way, I was able to use the 200+ dollars that I was going to be charged from Sony and put it ALL towards the laptop. Every last red cent of my money went to my laptop.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 42
6/22/04 at 5:07pm
Thread Starter 
I have a $100 rebate for Alienware, too, which makes it about the same cost as an IBM. I'm not really so concerned about the cost, I just want a good machine. I'm reading so many complaints about Alienware, but they must do something well or else there wouldn't be so much conversation about them. It might just be marketing, but I'm trying to look past that. Epinions has ranked 51m with only two stars, which surprised me, given the glowing reviews on some computer sites. The low rankings for Sentia that I've seen mostly had to do with people complaining about the price, not the quality.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 42
6/22/04 at 5:40pm
The bad you hear is from the outsiders mostly I've not had but one issue in 6 months and they walked me throught settings to correct it. I would say well above average customer support, No company is perfect.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 42
6/22/04 at 5:48pm
Thread Starter 
Outsiders? I'm reading them from people who own Alienware products. Try typing in 51m to google groups. I know every company gets a lot of complaints, which is why I'm still considering Alienware.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 42
6/22/04 at 6:25pm
* On the note of "outsiders"
I found one review of the Sentia from a well recognized organization which gave the Sentia a "BLAH" report. But reading into the details, the writer mentions that BIOS update on the Sentia will change the LED lights of the Alien head. Which leads me to believe that the reviewer wrote about something that was not reviewed in person, or was writtren purely on other peoples reviews. Some reviewers do not really even see the laptop, and just write about it, pulling opinions out of their arse.
(There is no bios update to change the eyes on the Sentia.)

The link to that review is in this forum soemwhere.

I have Sentia which I am very happy with.
I use it everyday.
I abuse it sometimes.
I have installed games on it, to the benefit of those in this forum who ask if the game is playable.
I take no special interest funds to sway my review for the good or the bad.
I keep no interns under my desk to entertain me. (Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of Clinton)
I have no militant groups to obey my bidding.
I - uhm, what were we talking about???

Oh back to the Sentia vs. IBM T41
I have not tried the IBM in person, so I can't do a comparison the way you want it.
I vote the Setia. How's that for unbiased advice. :-)
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 42
6/22/04 at 6:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by booga
* On the note of "outsiders"
I found one review of the Sentia from a well recognized organization which gave the Sentia a "BLAH" report. But reading into the details, the writer mentions that BIOS update on the Sentia will change the LED lights of the Alien head. Which leads me to believe that the reviewer wrote about something that was not reviewed in person, or was writtren purely on other peoples reviews. Some reviewers do not really even see the laptop, and just about it, pulling opinions out of their arse.
(There is no bios update to change the eyes on the Sentia.)

The link to that review is in this forum soemwhere.

I have Sentia which I am very happy with.
I use it everyday.
I abuse it sometimes.
I have installed games on it, to the benefit of those in this forum who ask if the game is playable.
I take no special interest funds to sway my review for the good or the bad.
I keep no interns under my desk to entertain me. (Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of Clinton)
I have no militant groups to obey my bidding.
I - uhm, what were we talking about???

Oh back to the Sentia vs. IBM T41
I have not tried the IBM in person, so I can't do a comparison the way you want it.
I vote the Setia. How's that for unbiased advice. :-)
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 42
6/22/04 at 8:24pm
Go with the Alienware. Its a sexy beast. Or the Dell D600, but thats a step down in build quality.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 42
6/22/04 at 8:32pm
Thread Starter 
Q: What runs hot, has a flimsy case and problems with warped keyboards?

A: A Dell D600.


No Dell. They are not the same as they used to be. Same with HP. It all comes down to IBM or AW.

How is the keyboard on the Sentia? Is it comfortable for long, 2-hour periods of solid typing?
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 42
6/22/04 at 9:14pm
Outsiders is all you got from my post? Keep reading for the answer to his question!
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 42
6/23/04 at 1:29am
Nah - I got more than just outsiders from your post. But my mind was all over the place. Thought process was not organized enough to make clear what I am trying to say. If I remember it before the edit, I got into something political, some mention of DarthBeavis as my attack dog. It was far from the subject not that my post was all on topic either, but the edit did take away a lot.
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 42
6/23/04 at 3:16am
CC: I think its still way over your head if your trying to pit a sentia vs a thinkpad
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 42
6/23/04 at 3:57am
you said you typed 51m into google? that's not the laptop you'd be looking at. the sentia is great.
before i got mine, i was reading reviews and seeing people bitch and moan about alienware. most of the people who say AW sucks don't own alienware themselves. the people who got the 51m should have known when they bought it, it's not for transport, it's considered a "desktop replacement".

i have never had a problem with AW customer support. not really. they've helped me with many problems, and when something is/was wrong with my sentia, they paid for shipping and are fixing the problem at no cost to me. everyone will complain about whatever customer support they have once in a while because if you have to call cust support then something is wrong (user, hardware or otherwise) and you're probably grumpy anyway.

AW is something you can keep for a long while. i'd be apprehensive getting one only if it would be used in the "professional world" since i would think many corporations and businesses would be unhappy by the alienhead with the glowing eyes.

i don't look at my AW as a 'statement' but more as a demonstration that i KNOW my computers. when i've had problems with other computer stuff and i call the place i bought it they ask what i'm running and the second i say AW they say i should bring the machine down and they can check it out for me. if i call again, same or similar problem, and say HP, Dell, Compaq or IBM (i've done it, to test my theory) they'll walk me through the problem on the phone. Computer people know the quality of an AW, and if you get one, or even try one out, you'll recognize it as well.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 42
6/23/04 at 5:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by CountChocula
Q: What runs hot, has a flimsy case and problems with warped keyboards?

A: A Dell D600.


No Dell. They are not the same as they used to be. Same with HP. It all comes down to IBM or AW.

How is the keyboard on the Sentia? Is it comfortable for long, 2-hour periods of solid typing?
Have you owned a D600? I not trying to insult you or anything, its just that I've talked to D600 owners on the Dell forums, and they have not mentioned any of these problems.
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 42
6/23/04 at 11:19am
Thread Starter 
"they ask what i'm running and the second i say AW they say i should bring the machine down and they can check it out for me."

Scudmuffin, that's 'cause they want to see your stylin laptop! Everybody wants to touch it... *L*

Wooster: I was thinking that the D600 and the 600m were the same. I thought it was D600m, and people said one or the other, like it was a nickname. It looks like the 600m replaced the D600, because they aren't selling new D600s any more. From what I now understand, the D600 shares most of the same parts, but there is some difference that I don't really see yet. The 600m is really the only recent Dell model I've used, and it gets HOT under your left wrist. (ETA - To be fair, I only used one 600m, so it could be a problem specific to that machine. Do I want to risk it? No.) Dell CS was prompt and helpful when I called to check them out, (IBMs pretty much sucked-guess they're only nice to corporates), but they've got to have a good product to get me to buy it.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Alienware Sentia, M11x and M14x