IBM T40

[Bloodstein]

Ok, I'm trying to configure a T40. A few things...

Firstly, why is the IBM site soooooo annoying! I dunno if this is also the case with US but in the NZ site, when purchasing the T40, ur not given the option of purchasing a DVD/CD-RW! The standard untrabay device is DVD-ROM. If u want the combo, you gotta purchase an additional Untrabay Slim Drive...which is ridiculous (what am i gonna do wif 2 DVD-ROMs?).

And the same for the battery. What i want is just the High Capacity Li-Ion Battery. Dun want anything else. However, the standard battery is a 6-Cell Li-Ion battery. If i want the High-Capacity one, gotta buy another battery! So I'll have 2 batteries....grr...!

Secondly, what's this - "Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 3B Mini PCI adapter"? Howz it different from the standard 802.11b wireless card that's installed?

Thirdly, my biggest concern - display. It seems that the T40 has a max res of 1024x768. Now, I like high resolutions. I'm not too sure if this is good enough for me. It definitely is not on my desktop. However, i dunno how this looks like on a 14.1". Could someone tell me if they were disappointed with the resolution?

I also noticed that the graphics card is not too hot. It's a Radeon 7500. I dun do much gaming so its not so much of an issue for me. However, I do a bit of OpenGL from time to time. Could anyone tell me if Radeon 7500 sounds ok? Jus to put things in perspective, I've got a GeForce MX440 on my PC. And it handles my OpenGL stuff ok. What would the performance of the Radeon 7500 be relative to my desktop GeForce?

The next level up from this particular model is the T40P. That solves almost the problems I outlined above.....at a heavy price! Dunno if paying NZ$1500 is really worth the 'P'!

 

[johngalt9999]

no check the IBM us site, all ur listed problemz are non-existence for the us model (well, except the price part)

 

[OldSpooky]

However, i dunno how this looks like on a 14.1". Could someone tell me if they were disappointed with the resolution?

I have a T40 (Model 2373-12U) with XGA screen. It looks fine to me I've seen the SXGA+ screens on Dell Laptops (14.1" models) and everything looks very small. I'd go to a computer store and look at different resolutions since it really is a personal preference.

I also noticed that the graphics card is not too hot. It's a Radeon 7500. I dun do much gaming so its not so much of an issue for me. However, I do a bit of OpenGL from time to time. Could anyone tell me if Radeon 7500 sounds ok?

The Mobile Radeon 7500 gets about 4100 under 3DMark 2001SE. The Mobile Radeon 9000 in my Dell Latitude D600 (returned this machine to Dell) got about 4800 under the same test.

Dunno if paying NZ$1500 is really worth the 'P'!

Yeah, the T40p was waaaay outside my price range. About $1500 outside my price range P stands for "power" and "price" I guess.

 

[Bloodstein]

Oh my gawd...the IBM site is soooooo confusing

First, they have all these complicated numbers representing the diff models of T40 they hve...
Then, their "shoppers" interface totally stinks....very confusing and offers very lil help...defies every rule on "building a good user interface"

But anywyz, i realised they do have other models besides the 3 listed P). I had to click a small tab that i didn't see before.

But none of the models listed had radeon 9000. Looks like it's either fireGl or 7500 for me. I might try calling IBM to see if they can release a special T40 model for me .

And I think I must mention a fact that doesn't apply to residents of USA. For me, living outside USA (or Canada for that matter), the prices of all laptops are pretty much the same. For the specs I'm looking for, almost all the main laptop brands (Dell inclusive) are about the same price. T40 is more expensive...but only by an extremely small margin. I thought it's worth mentioning cuz heaps of u guys complain 'bout T40 being very expensive and all. For us all laptops are about the price of a T40 .

Anywayz, i'm still a bit concerned about the screen and graphics. That's 'bout my only concern. The benchmark tests for Radeon 7500 is not bad compared to Radeon 9000. So I guess its kindda soothing there. And I think it's a good idea for me to go to a store and see how 1024x768 looks like on 14.1.

One more thing, I know this issue has been really covered to death in these forums but..
Do you guys think i should go wif the Intel Wireless card and get a "Centrino" or is the IBM card more worthwhile. I mean, they're both the same price here. If the IBM card is EXACTLY the same as Intel, I would prolly jus go wif the Intel. I get the Centrino sticker for free

And I'm planning on getting 256RAM on the base machine and adding another 256MB later. IBM's RAM is pretty expensive. I've never upgraded or even opened a laptop before. You reckon it'd be not too complicated? How do these laptop RAMs work....do I need to buy RAM from IBM or can any SoDIMM PC2100 DDR RAM work?

 

[OldSpooky]

Do you guys think i should go wif the Intel Wireless card and get a "Centrino" or is the IBM card more worthwhile. I mean, they're both the same price here. If the IBM card is EXACTLY the same as Intel, I would prolly jus go wif the Intel.

I'm not exactly sure, but I think the IBM wireless card supports both 802.11a and 802.11b standards. The Intel card I know for sure only supports 802.11b. For most people, 802.11a is not terribly useful (802.11a is mainly for corporate use).

How do these laptop RAMs work....do I need to buy RAM from IBM or can any SoDIMM PC2100 DDR RAM work?

It's pretty easy to install a soDIMM. I had a 256 MB PC2100 soDIMM that I had purchased from Dell for use in my D600. Well, the D600 went back and the soDIMM went into my T40. No problems at all. Actually, the soDIMM that came with my T40 and the Dell soDIMM were the same (micron chips), except one had a Dell certified sticker on it. This stuff is all pretty standardized - just buy from a reputable company and you should be set.

 

[alfatekpt]

The Mobile Radeon 7500 gets about 4100 under 3DMark 2001SE. The Mobile Radeon 9000 in my Dell Latitude D600 (returned this machine to Dell) got about 4800 under the same test.

i don't think the diff between 7500 and 9000 is only that... maybe it's just because of other parts of hardware: cpu & stuff???

 

[ES135]

Based on your questions, if you can afford it, I highly recomment the T40P...I just picked one up and love it
so far. Part number 2373G1U.

Pluses(Stock):

* XGA+ Awesome! - Probaly best display in the market for 14.1....Also, you can change font settings without reducing
native resolution to get the characters larger and looking excellant! Many reviews have already been done on this
website(seach on T40 in all forums)

* The FireGL outperforms the radeon 9000 (32mb/32 bit path) as the GL has 64MB VRAM an a 128Bit data path.
Additionally, has the GL drivers as you know.

* 1.6M processor is very fast

* Highly reccomend at least 512K Ram(1 DIM socket)...This way you can buy another 512k brd for $132 US from Crucial
when you can afford it an have 1 gig of ram.

* Comes with the faster 40MB hard drive 5400 vs 4200(which means acessing your data on the HD will be faster

***Keep in mind, a systems performance is the combination of all its componets ie ram, processor, video ram(and its
data path) and H.drive

Theres more, butall I can thinkof at the moment.

Good Luck.

*

 

[Bloodstein]

Well...

my only attraction to the T40P is really the screen res (maybe to a certain extent the Graphics card). However, really contemplating if that's worth NZ$1500 more.

I checked the 1080x768 resolution on 15" screens in the shop. They really are not mine. I like my fonts, etc much smaller than that....

so yeah, in a small dilemma..