Yes, I still love my Lenovo Thinkpad T400

from JoeUser Forums

Lenovo has come out with the T410 – a major update to their laptop line. It has a better screen. Built in eSATA. High quality camera built in. And of course a massively better processor than what I have in my T400.

But the thing is, my T400, as beat up as it has gotten over the past 2 and a half years, is still ridiculously fast and useful thanks to a few decisions that have really worked out.

First, I got 8 GB of memory and 64-bit Windows (first Vista, now Windows 7). This was a huge deal because after awhile, everything is in the disk cache and I can load up Word or Outlook as fast as those programs take to restore from the taskbar on most computers.

Second, I got an Intel X-25 SSD. When combined with the above, loading programs is instantaneous.

In fact, let me show you:

And mind you, this is a 2.5 year old laptop.

And I didn’t do something special in that video. Heck, you guys know what kind of hit to performance doing a video capture does.

Third, I got the Verizon WAN option which I didn’t think would be nearly as useful as it has been. I use this feature a LOT. There are just so many times when it is a pain to hook up to some WiFi and the Verizon performance is so good that, as a practical matter, it’s “good enough” for whatever it is I have to do.

Put these factors together and the Lenovo ThinkPad T400 is still just a wonderful machine. No new laptop for me but if you’re looking for a new PC that’s USEFUL and not too expensive, check out the new ThinkPad T410.

20,031 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

I'm holding out for cheaper SSD.   That's on my hot-list for techs I think will go up in tech and down in price very quickly.  Right now we're at what, $200 for every 64 Gigs?   Moore's law says it'll be $200 for 128 Gigs in 1 1/2 years.  I think it'll beat Moore's Law.  

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Hm, I'm going to have to keep Lenovo in mind when I'm replacing my laptop. In approximately 8 months I expect mine will die for a second time, at which point it will no longer be cost effective to repair it.

When I was buying my laptop initially, I shied away from Lenovo because (to me anyway) they always had a reputation of being oriented towards big companies and things like that. And their computers were just flat out ugly, but they aren't so much anymore.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Thinkpad series - THE best laptop keyboard design/layout ever in terms of productivity.

 

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Do the newer SSDs still have the problem of write performance collapsing once they hit a certain point?  My fear is that I'll spend all this money on one, get used to awesome performance, and then find it suddenly becomes a much slower machine.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Which point are you referring to?   Saturating the bus, or certain pressure-voltage-temperature limits, or hot-electron degradation over time?   I think you are referring to the latter.   I would be very surprised if the newer SSD's fix that, because electromigration is what makes flash possible.  Kinda hard to get rid of electromigration if that's what it uses to store 1's and 0's.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

And mind you, this is a 2.5 year old laptop.
End of quote

I remember your post about you getting the T400 and I remember being jealous because I had a T60 which was a year old at that time. So I went to my boss and asked about when we might get laptop upgrades and I suggested the T400. He said, 'Maybe in a year'. Well, I'm still using the T60 which makes it a 3.5 year old laptop and it's still running Windows XP. Our company recently determined that 'Laptops can last for 5 years'.

Good thing is that it's still going strong. Thinkpads are ugly as heck but they are great performers. Probably the sturdiest frames too.

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

tetleytea - I'm referring to the slowdown caused once all pages had been written to. Google is my friend: TRIM is supposed to resolve it, if I understand it correctly (which I may not...).  It was the issue caused by needing to read an entire page, delete it, and then write it just to make an update.