Lenovo T410

[birthdaymonkey]

Lenovo Canada currently has a sale on the T-series of laptops. I'm seriously tempted to pass along my ASUS UL80 and get one of these. I have a couple of questions though, about upgrades:

1. Their RAM upgrade prices are really high. Would it be a good idea to get the lowest memory option and just buy more DDR3 SODIMMS myself? Do Lenovos require special RAM?

2. Do these take regular 2.5" hard drives? I'd be looking to buy the cheapest one and upgrade to an SSD before too long.

Anybody have one of these? Opinions? This would be my first "business" latop, and I'm looking for build quality, battery life, and ergonomics above all else. Tired of cheap plasticky notebooks.

 

[BlueWeasel]

I'm in the same boat as you. I've never used the T-series but have always heard great things about them. I'm interested to see what others say.

Damn, those are some nice prices. I could get a T410 with a 2.67 i5, 1400x900 display, discrete Nvidia 3100m Optimus graphics, and 9-cell battery for $1000. That seems like a hell of a deal given the reputation and durability of the Thinkpad line.

I'm torn, though -- take advantage of the current deals or wait for the Sandy Bridge T420? It would appear that Lenovo is clearing out their stock for the newer laptops to become available in a few weeks.

 

[BlueWeasel]

As to your questions:

I'm pretty sure the T410 uses standard laptop RAM. You can upgrade it yourself.

The laptop uses 2.5" HDDs. You can also take the DVD drive out and switch it with an Ultrabay adapter that lets you add another SATA HDD. I'm thinking of getting a small SSD to use as a boot drive and put the spindle drive in as additional storage.

There is an additional stacking coupon "USPSAVEMORE" that can be used if you can get your order to $1249 or more. With the additional discounts already in place, you can add features for essentially no change in cost.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

As to your questions:

I'm pretty sure the T410 uses standard laptop RAM. You can upgrade it yourself.

The laptop uses 2.5" HDDs. You can also take the DVD drive out and switch it with an Ultrabay adapter that lets you add another SATA HDD. I'm thinking of getting a small SSD to use as a boot drive and put the spindle drive in as additional storage.

There is an additional stacking coupon "USPSAVEMORE" that can be used if you can get your order to $1249 or more. With the additional discounts already in place, you can add features for essentially no change in cost.

Thanks for the info. I tried that coupon code but it told me it wasn't valid for my current order. Maybe because I'm on the Canadian site? I had the order up to $1259, so it wouldn't been the price.

When it comes to mobile is there much difference between the i3 and the i5 models? The cheaper i3 is 266MHz slower than the i5 option, but other than that is the CPU the same?

 

[BlueWeasel]

Thanks for the info. I tried that coupon code but it told me it wasn't valid for my current order. Maybe because I'm on the Canadian site? I had the order up to $1259, so it wouldn't been the price.

When it comes to mobile is there much difference between the i3 and the i5 models? The cheaper i3 is 266MHz slower than the i5 option, but other than that is the CPU the same?

I think the coupon code only works for the T410 and T510 lines.

The i3 is the lowest end of the i3/i5/i7 family. It doesn't have turbo mode but is still a nice dual-core chip. If all you need is basic use (word processing, browsing, email, etc.) and only need integrated graphics, then the i3 is probably fine for you. However, if the price difference isn't much, I'd go with the highest clocked i5 you can afford because of the turbo mode.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I think the coupon code only works for the T410 and T510 lines.

The i3 is the lowest end of the i3/i5/i7 family. It doesn't have turbo mode but is still a nice dual-core chip. If all you need is basic use (word processing, browsing, email, etc.) and only need integrated graphics, then the i3 is probably fine for you. However, if the price difference isn't much, I'd go with the highest clocked i5 you can afford because of the turbo mode.

Well, I pulled the trigger. I have my desktops for intensive crunching and games--notebook is just for office and internet use, so I figured the i3 370 would be more than adequate. I've been using a 1.3GHz CULV processor for the last year, so 2.4GHz will be quite an upgrade.

Thanks for the input... I just went with the 2GB RAM option. Seems smarter to buy another 2GB module on the egg for $30 than to pay them $80 to stick one in before they ship it.

 

[BlueWeasel]

For just office and internet use, you'll be very happy with the 2.4Ghz i3. Congrats! Which specific model did you get?

I'm not far behind you from pulling the trigger. I'm leaning toward the T410 with the i7-620m. I told myself to wait on the T420's just around the corner, but I don't think I can pass up these prices.

 

[ctk1981]

If you have a visa card there is a special section of their site that gives discounts for visa card holders....basically all the upgrades have reduced prices also, but still not cheap enough to validate any of the HDD or memory upgrades. They also advertise a 10% coupon that is stackable with the visa discount.

I went for an i5 model 560, 3GB ram, 250GB HD, nVidia optimus graphics, fingerprint reader, bluetooth, Centrino ultimate 3x3 wireless, smart card, windows 7 premium 64 and 9 cell battery. Total came to ~1050 with tax and everything.

 

[hans007]

If you have a visa card there is a special section of their site that gives discounts for visa card holders....basically all the upgrades have reduced prices also, but still not cheap enough to validate any of the HDD or memory upgrades. They also advertise a 10% coupon that is stackable with the visa discount.

I went for an i5 model 560, 3GB ram, 250GB HD, nVidia optimus graphics, fingerprint reader, bluetooth, Centrino ultimate 3x3 wireless, smart card, windows 7 premium 64 and 9 cell battery. Total came to ~1050 with tax and everything.

we have a bunch of these at work, the t410 that is. pretty solid machines.

and yeah they take standard dimms, and 2.5" sata. the visa site is lenovo.com/visa i think, its got basically the same prices as employee purchase (i have employee purchase and EPP might save you another dollar or something comared to the visa site.)

 

[Praxis1452]

If you have a visa card there is a special section of their site that gives discounts for visa card holders....basically all the upgrades have reduced prices also, but still not cheap enough to validate any of the HDD or memory upgrades. They also advertise a 10% coupon that is stackable with the visa discount.

I went for an i5 model 560, 3GB ram, 250GB HD, nVidia optimus graphics, fingerprint reader, bluetooth, Centrino ultimate 3x3 wireless, smart card, windows 7 premium 64 and 9 cell battery. Total came to ~1050 with tax and everything.

There is also a program for shareholders of lenovo or IBM. I'm not one but I tried to order it through them. We'll see if they check for it. Worst comes to worst it simply gets canceled.

I got pretty much the same thing except no bluetooth, smart card 9 cell, or 3x3 wireless for $650 + Tax. Hopefully they ship it.

 

[ctk1981]

Shipping is rather odd from lenovo....one thing I noticed when configuring my laptop is adding the smart card automatically pushed the build date out to 3-15-11. I ordered the laptop on 2-25. It was shipped out today so not so bad, but I could have lived without the smart card honestly. Sometimes they ship out sooner like in my case, others have complained they keep getting ship dates pushed back a week at a time