My employers have graciously offered to purchase a laptop for me. I don’t really need one for work, but they’ve mentioned that at some point I can do some telecommuting instead of driving the 8(!) miles to work each day, and several other employees have them. I do desperately need a new laptop at home, as mine is about 6 years old and wasn’t any great shakes even when it was new. So, I told my bosses that I was also looking for a new laptop for home use (surfing and gaming), and could I kill 2 birds with 1 stone by getting a notebook that was a halfway decent gaming rig? Luckily, the VP is a gamer so he said it was fine by him, and the Prez didn’t seem to care one way or another.
Their only requests were to try and get one through CDW (an approved vendor), and try to get a Lenovo brand (I think they get a discount because we exclusively use Lenovos now.) Also, try to cap the price at about $1700.
I’ve narrowed it down to two models:
Lenovo ThinkPad T61 6460 - Core 2 Duo T7700 2.4 GHz
4 MB L2 cache, NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256 MB)
15.4" Widescreen TFT 1920 x 1200
(link)
Lenovo ThinkPad T61p 6460 - Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5 GHz
6 MB L2 cache, NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256 MB) w/ Turbocache
15.4" Widescreen TFT 1680 x 1050
(link)
Both notebooks have 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HD, XP Pro, etc. Both are just under $1800 (if the bosses won’t spring for the extra cost I’ll cover it myself.)
I imagine either would be perfectly fine for non-gaming apps, I just don’t know which is the superior gaming machine. The T61p is slightly faster with a bigger cache, and the turbocache on the graphics processor should have a minimal effect with 2 GB system memory (I assume.) I don’t know if the lower resolution screen would be a problem, though. I’m not looking to play Crysis; I’m mostly a strategy and RPG player (Civ4, Neverwinter Nights (the first one), Witcher, etc.) but I’m not averse to throwing on a shooter to exercise my aggression.
I therefore ask the audience: which is the better gaming notebook? Which would you get?
Thanks!
Their only requests were to try and get one through CDW (an approved vendor), and try to get a Lenovo brand (I think they get a discount because we exclusively use Lenovos now.) Also, try to cap the price at about $1700.
I’ve narrowed it down to two models:
Lenovo ThinkPad T61 6460 - Core 2 Duo T7700 2.4 GHz
4 MB L2 cache, NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256 MB)
15.4" Widescreen TFT 1920 x 1200
(link)
Lenovo ThinkPad T61p 6460 - Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5 GHz
6 MB L2 cache, NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256 MB) w/ Turbocache
15.4" Widescreen TFT 1680 x 1050
(link)
Both notebooks have 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HD, XP Pro, etc. Both are just under $1800 (if the bosses won’t spring for the extra cost I’ll cover it myself.)
I imagine either would be perfectly fine for non-gaming apps, I just don’t know which is the superior gaming machine. The T61p is slightly faster with a bigger cache, and the turbocache on the graphics processor should have a minimal effect with 2 GB system memory (I assume.) I don’t know if the lower resolution screen would be a problem, though. I’m not looking to play Crysis; I’m mostly a strategy and RPG player (Civ4, Neverwinter Nights (the first one), Witcher, etc.) but I’m not averse to throwing on a shooter to exercise my aggression.
I therefore ask the audience: which is the better gaming notebook? Which would you get?
Thanks!
