Considering purchasing an IBM T41

JBx · 03-04-2004, 05:26 PM

I'm trying to find a good laptop for me. I want a thin and light. I will be using it for college, but I also want to be able to play games like battlefield 1942 and unreal tournament. First, with all the reviews and chatter I can't figure out exactly how good laptops are at playing games. I understand they can't perform as well as desktops but if I install ut2k on a ibm t41 is it going to play pretty well or be laggy and slow?

When I first started looking at laptops I like the fujitsu s6000, I owned a fujitsu several years ago, however Im starting to fall in love with the t series because of the 1 inch thickness and sturdy build.

The setup I'm looking is a t41 with 512mb ram, 40 gig drive, 1.6 with intels wifi, and an extra battery costing 2,120 including shipping plus tax. Does this seem like a reasonable setup?

I saw another post that said to get a t40 however it appears that the most t40s have the radeon 7500(32mb) instead of the 9000(32mb) which is what comes with mine. Also, the price apears to be just as much for the t40? Perhaps I'm looking at something wrong.

Thanks for your advice and good reviews!

Andrew · 03-05-2004, 01:10 AM

hi JBx. If you're trying to find a good laptop and you're looking at the T41 then you are most definitely looking at the right machine. I have the T40 myself and purchased it when the T41 was available, graphics weren't a big deal for me and I happened to find a good deal on the T40. The T40 is great for what I call "getting work done". It's so ergonomic and allows me to be as productive as I can. The machine is fast (1.6 Pentium M, 512MB RAM, 80GB/5400 HD) and the SXGA screen I have allows me to comfortably view two applications at once. If you'll using this to get work done and play some games, I highly recommend an SXGA screen if you can afford it.

Just because there's a general assumption laptops are terrible at playing games, you'll probably be surprised at the performance you'll get from a Pentium M 1.6 GHz chip and a good amount of RAM (512 is good). You certainly won't see a laggy slow game but rather probably will get close or equal to what you're used to seeing on a desktop.

Search the site and forums for folks takes on the T41/T40 notebook model as you should find a good amount of info.

neosynthesis · 03-06-2004, 03:45 AM

Hi JBx. I'm sure by now you've heard how good the T40/41s are. They are truely good laptops for most people who can afford it.

We all know abaxter owns one and is quite an advocate for the laptop, and I do agree with him in most cases but to say that "You certainly won't see a laggy slow game but rather probably will get close or equal to what you're used to seeing on a desktop" on a laptop is something I can't imagine myself agreeing with. Especially since the games you've metioned you'll be playing games like UT2k (the original UT rules, by the way [

]) and he's advising you to get an SXGA resloution. You have better try this out for youself first.

I just can't imagine how the ATI Mobile 9000 with 32MB of video RAM on a laptop running such high resolution as SXGA can be similar in performance against a desktop with ATI Radeon 9800XT with 256MB of video RAM! It won't! Not even if the IBM T41 is equipped with the ATI Radeon GL with 128MB of RAM. Reviews I've read still shows that the GL IBM uses still lags behind the ATI Mobile 9600Pro with 128MB of video RAM you find in other laptops like Dell and HP.

The other major factor you'll have to keep in mind is the LCD response time. I would not have any idea whether the IBM T41 LCD can give you better performance than 50-60 fps, even if the graphics sub-system can! And at 50fps, you will definitely notice a difference than a desktop CRT monitor that can give you 100fps or better!

Like what I say to most people: there's no perfect laptop, so try it before you know you're willing to settle for it.

Good luck hunting for a thin and light 3D-intense gamer's notebook. So far, I haven't come across one that I can actually recommend or buy. If you do find one, share your story with us! [

]

JBx · 03-07-2004, 11:40 AM

Thanks both of you for your advice..

I'm ordering a t41 tommorow I've decided, it seems the best option for me. I have came to realize to that there is always tradeoffs with laptops. I'm not looking for a laptop just for gaming though, I just want the ability to load one and have some fun when I want to, so hopefully it will do good enough, if not I will mail it back. The price of t41 seems right in line with the s6000 and 600m to me, perhaps slightly more expensive.

Anyways Ill post on how it does when I get it [8D]

JBx · 03-11-2004, 10:02 AM

Well Monday I ordered it
1.6 centrino with the radeon 9000 sxga+
40gb drive / 768mb ram
extra battery & mini dock

Cost 2300 w/tax & shipping
I found a code to enter that saved me 300 bucks and they're currently having a special on batteries so the cost ended up being exactly what I was looking at paying for a less nicer notebook. It says ships within 2 weeks so I guess I'll see if I made the right decision then..

Brian · 03-11-2004, 10:29 AM

I think you'll be happy, good luck and be sure to post your thoughts when it arrives!

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

kf_man · 03-11-2004, 11:44 AM

JBx, which model is it? I have been looking for some time at the one for $1939 on the IBM site. The only two issues I found with it were that I would really like the 60GB 7200RPM drive and the IBM a/b/g wireless ethernet. I'm on edge though because inorder to get a thinkpad with those things, it costs almost $1000 more. That seems stupid to me. Anyone have any opinions on this? Should I look elsewhere or is this a good laptop for me. Currently I have 4 perspective notebooks, the T41, Fujitsu P5020D, Fujitsu S6120D, and the HP zt3000. I would be nice to play a few games when I'm out and about as well. That's why I've ruled out the P5020D and the zt3000 for the most part (widescreen sucks for Warcraft 3 and most other games). So that pretty much leaves me with the T41 and the S6120D, but the T41 has dedicated video. So I guess when it comes down to it, the T41 is the one for me. Would it be worth trying to get the added harddrive and network? I really dont' want to pay almost $3000, but if it were worth it, I definately would.

-Kyle

JBx · 03-12-2004, 10:41 PM

Well I can't really tell you if its the right one for you as I haven't got to hold it yet, and aparantly will be a couple weeks before I get it.

You can get the 60 gig drive and the a/b/g without paying that much extra. I believe you would have to go with the 1.5ghz processor (it seems like thats the only one that doesnt immediately swith to the "express models" (I got an express model- ones that you dont get as much configuartion choice). Basically go to the site, customize a 1.5 with a/b/g and configure everything. You're looking at paying a couple hundred more, the 60 gig drive is a 200$ upgrade from the 40, plus the prices aren't quite as good as the express models.

Doing it this way will allow you to get a free extra battery (rather than the 69$ special for express models), so there is some savings there. Bottom line: You can get the abg and 60 gig drive for about 300 extra but sacrifice a little bit of processor.

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=18&threadid=265789&highlight_key=y&keyword1=ibm

has a code to save you between 10 and 15 percent. I believe this code will expire at the end of the month.

A note on the wifi upgrade. 802.11b will work with all b and g access points, and vice versa. I'm quite certain that the speed is not any faster with g (it has a wider pipe, but a basic web page will not load any faster). Basically, if your using the wifi for sharing large files around the lan then you probably want g, but for me I will be using wifi for internet, and at home on the network a docking station which has gig ethernet. I dont see that much advantage for g, its really only about twice as fast as B. B & G are more than fast enough for internet access, and both pretty slow for transfering large files across a lan. I suppose A could be quite useful if you have a private setup with it.

Sorry if I ramble a little, just trying to give my opinion on everything...

JBx · 03-12-2004, 10:42 PM

Quick note: To customize one at the ibm site get to the page where all the series are listed "x series, t series, etc" and DONT click on t series, look a little below on the right you'll see "Let me build it". This might be obvious however it took me a while to figure out.

JBx · 04-13-2004, 03:13 PM

Well I'm typing on it now, have been using it for sometime. Overall I really like it. Its not a ragin gaming machine, but can play new games such as battle field vietnam fine on medium settings; and all my strategy games much faster than my desktop which had a larger graphics card. It gets good battery life, and when opening applications at resoulions other than the native they are resized to use the entire screen (don't know if this is with all new laptops, but I know my old one would have black bars all around the program). The sound quality is fine for applications but definately laptop speakers, I use headphones for music. I disabled the hard drive movement notice thing as soon as I got it, and I haven't noticed any problems while the protection system has been enabled. I setup the embedded security subsystem to protect some of my files and remember passwords for a lot of sites, this allows me to use random passwords for every site and just click the lock to login, while having the confidence its fairly secure. The system is very stable, I've had no freezes or lock ups, except when fooling around with some things I shouldn't have. I think the size of the machine and the keyboard is perfect. Overall I don't think I could have made a better decision and would recommend this to people considering it.