Thinkpad T61, Dual Core, 2 GiB RAM, 1680x1050 15.4"
The long-awaited new laptop has arrived at last!
By 'long-awaited', I'm referring to how long I've wanted a new computer and saved for it. I definitely don't mean how long I've waited, after ordering, for it to ship: it was only a week ago today that I placed the order! Since they say it takes 1-2 weeks just to configure it usually, I'd say that's not bad at all.
Here are some relevant specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, 2 MiB L2 cache, 800 MHz FSB
2 GiB RAM
120 GB 5400 RPM hard drive
8x DVD burner
nVidia Quadro NVS 140M, 128 MiB VRAM
15.4" WSXGA+ widescreen, 1680x1050 native resolution
3x USB 2.0 (1.1 was incredibly slow with large amounts of data)
IEEE 1394 (Firewire)
Sundry other features (some kind of card reader, keyboard light, wireless internet, etc.)
There are tons of intangibles about this machine that I just love. The craftsmanship is head and shoulders above the competition -- it's a solidly built machine. (After owning a Dell for 3 years, I came to realize that's important to me!) The sound is surprisingly clear for laptop speakers. And it's so incredibly quiet, too! When I turned it on for the first time, I couldn't even tell whether it was on when I closed my eyes. Last night I thought it was getting rather loud; turns out, the noise was from my other laptop several metres away.
Far and away, the biggest downfall of the computer is Windows Vista. The OS is simply not ready for prime time yet. My system is a beast, and once Vista boots up it runs it well, but it seems to take forever to boot up in the first place. I've even had a blue screen of death already! And several of the features just don't work.
The reason I'm keeping it instead of 'downgrading' to XP is to keep an eye to the future. I've no doubt that, in the 3+ years I'm guaranteed to have this laptop, MS will tweak and patch to the point where Vista's a decent OS, like they did with XP. I'd rather just keep slogging away with Vista until they do.
Of course, what will make it bearable will be the 'other' OS on my system -- Gentoo Linux. I can't wait until I get it installed so I can actually start getting stuff done on my computer. I've never dual booted before, but Thinkpads are supposed to be awesome for Linux and I have extensive day-to-day experience with Gentoo.
In the meantime, at least I have the machine in time for the NIST trip in a week, and the MMM conference at the beginning of next month, where I'll be giving a talk!
