[ltp] Buying a New Thinkpad

[Steven J. Owens]

Folks,

     So, pursuant to previous message, although my thinkpad is now
working again, I'm not going to take it for granted.  I need to buy a
new thinkpad.  Now I just need to figure out 

     a) exactly which model I want to get
     b) the best way to buy it (best price, etc).

     Any particular models to prefer/avoid?  The lenovo website
doesn't seem to clearly lay out the different lines and their
advantages.  I've heard I should avoid the SL series (uses the
not-well-supported IdeaPad BIOS) and the newer Edge and L series.
I've been very happy with the T series, and in general I want
something optimized for toughness and portability.  I've heard good
things about the T420, T520, and X200.

     My old thinkpad is a 15" t43p.  I'm leaning towards upgrading to
a 17", after years of screen-size-envy :-).  Any reasons to avoid the
17" models?  Are 17" screens available in the T series?  This review
raved about the W701d, but I'm not familiar with the W series at all:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-W701ds_Laptop_review

     This is going to be my primary machine, both desktop and on the
road.  Besides the usual everyday stuff, I'm using it for software
development (mostly java, with a heavy secondary emphasis on web
stuff; php, and the odd ruby and perl).

     OS: I'm planning to run Linux pretty much exclusively.  If I end
up having to pay the windows tax anyway, I might keep a small windows
partition around for odd special situations.

     RAM: I'm certainly going to max out the RAM; on my t43p it was
quite easy to upgrade the RAM myself, I'm assuming this is still the
case.

     SSD: I'm seriously considering getting an SSD drive as the boot
device.  I don't know if it's possible to get that as a stock option.
Based on a recent post here, I'll probably get a mushkin or intel g2
SSD.

     Video Card: I have mixed feelings.  There are all sorts of
reasons not to get an NVidia, but I think I'm going to be getting into
CUDA development in the near future, which of course requires NVidia.

     Other recommendations I've seen include:

     - prefer intel wifi over atheros (the upgrade to intel wifi
       is free, so why not?)
     - prefer broadcom bluetooth
     - get the LED screen

-- 
Steven J. Owens
puff@darksleep.com / (412) 401-8060 cell 
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