Planning to upgrade 2 yrs old R61..

M

mehrotra.akash

Adept
I have a Lenovo R61 provided by our college.

the current config is

C2D - T5670 1.8Ghz

2GB RAM(DDR 2 667Mhz)

160 HDD

Am planning to upgrade it in Dec this yr, with the following upgrades

4GB RAM

500 GB WD SCORPIO BLACK

2 years warranty extension

I know that the warranty extension costs about 2.5k per year(Student discount)

need to know the following:

1) Will the upgrade give any significant performance benefit?(primary use is developing small apps using VS 2010 and some work on photoshop -- none of them seem to max out the CPU, but spend most of the time on reading from HDD and generally run out of RAM)

2)What would be the approx. cost of the ram and hdd?

3)Will the HDD cause any issues with the laptop(heat,noise,vibration and battery consumption are not an issue)

4)Would I be better off selling this one and getting a new T410 with i3 and 4GB ram at 60K?

warranty extension is needed as, in the past 2 years, I have had the following stuff replaced in the machine

2xpower adapter

1xLCD cable

1xKeyboard

1xDVD Drive

1xMotherboard

and I think the screen is on its way out..
 
the processors seems to have decent processing power.

4gb only helpful if u r using 64-bit OS otherwise upgrade to 1gb ram

(heat,noise,vibration and battery consumption are not an issue)
Click to expand...

Hdd wil not create any such issue.

cost of 1gb ram around rs.1200 for 2gb rs.2100-2200 and for normal HDD around rs.2700-2800

if u concern about performance it will not improve much as u have 2gb ram which is enough to check cpu execution power u only benefited with large storage space by adding HDD.
 
Thx, guess I'll upgrade one of the 1GB sticks to a 2GB one for (2+1=3GB)

Any ideas about rates for wd scorpio BLACK?(going with WD for the onsite warranty support)
 
The number of replacements u have made in the past 2 years are a bit unreasonable. As u had to change the mobo, it indicates serious quality issues. Moreover, the screen is acting up, it seems.

Personally, I wouldn't stick to a Lappy that has such quality issues even if the repairs are covered under warranty.

A better option would be to upgrade to a better lappy in the Core i3/i5 series. Preferably the Dell Inspiron/Studio series. They are bulletproof!!! :p

But in case u really want to upgrade, I guess about 3GB RAM & the 500 Gig HDD would be it. I really don't think u need a WD Black. Any normal Laptop HDD is fine.
 
The replacements were partially my fault too.(24x7 operation for weeks at an end, encoding movies with laptop on bed,etc)

Have seen the studio series, dont seem as solid as the thinkpad's, you can pickup thinkpads by 1 corner and they wont flex at all.

In comparison the R61 has been dropped from the bed a few times, a bottle of water spilled on it, got drenched in the rain and still survived..

The problem with the screen is that the backlight inverter seems to be getting really hot(enough to deform the plastic covering it a bit).

wont a 7200 RPM HDD give a significant performance benefit over a 5400 RPM one, dont really need the excess space, but need faster read speeds, SSD is not a choice

@Teja

Will look at the XT as well, thx for the suggestion. Seems like a good option
 
Well, if u can afford the Thinkpad, there is no looking away from it. It'll last u till eternity!!! Lol :D

But I personally prefer changing Laptops/Desktops every 2 years or so. So, paying the premium to get a laptop that lasts years in not my way of doing things. ;)

Yes, a 7200 RPM would be faster than a 5400 RPM but the question is whether you really need that type of a performance increase for the things u do on ur lappy.

IMHO, VS 2010 & Photoshop should work fine with a 5400RPM drive.
 
nehaladsul said:
Well, if u can afford the Thinkpad, there is no looking away from it. It'll last u till eternity!!! Lol :D

But I personally prefer changing Laptops/Desktops every 2 years or so. So, paying the premium to get a laptop that lasts years in not my way of doing things. ;)

Yes, a 7200 RPM would be faster than a 5400 RPM but the question is whether you really need that type of a performance increase for the things u do on ur lappy.

IMHO, VS 2010 & Photoshop should work fine with a 5400RPM drive.
Click to expand...
Guess will go for a RAM upgrade only then..

Will take it to 4GB since I plan on using this lappy for atleast 2-3 more years.

Most of the heavy work will shift over to the desktop in 2 years(once I'm out of my hostel)..

PS: I do remember seeing a Thinkpad with a floppy drive a few weeks back. And it was functional..(with Win 98)
 
I am about to buy the XPS 15

it has got great reviews

Starts at 45K

If you wanna buy a good lappy go for it
 
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