General Question: Is Purchasing a W7xx "Reasonable" These Days?

[ArtShapiro]

I've had a hankering for a big screen Thinkpad, meaning a W700 or W701.

Right now I'm using an R61 and a couple troublesome T60p machines.

Are there any reasons such as technical obsolescence or frequent hardware issues that would make this a poor decision? Are there any "gotchas" that, having never seen one of these beasts, one should consider? And is the newer 701 automatically a better choice than the 700?

About the only thing I know right now is that I wouldn't want the silly 900 pixel vertical resolution - seemingly a crime against humanity for such a big screen.

Pontification welcome.

Art

[brchan]

A high spec W701 will be quite faster than a high spec W700. You can also upgrade to 32GB ram, vs 8GB on the W700. As far as prices, they seem to be all over the place. The DS models that have dual screens even more so. This is probably since they are so rare.

If I were to get a W7xx model, it would need to be a DS model.

[Qing Dao]

If you just have to have a 17" Thinkpad, these are the only ones available. If cost or performance are of any concern to you, just stay away.

A high spec W701 will be quite faster than a high spec W700. You can also upgrade to 32GB ram, vs 8GB on the W700. As far as prices, they seem to be all over the place. The DS models that have dual screens even more so. This is probably since they are so rare.

If I were to get a W7xx model, it would need to be a DS model.

The W701 only supports 16GB of RAM. Intel's support for 8GB modules only came with the next generation of processors.

[brchan]

The W701 can take 32 GB of ram. At the time no 8GB sticks existed. See here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lead_org/7601812452/

[ajkula66]

I've had a hankering for a big screen Thinkpad, meaning a W700 or W701.

Similar in size and price, but with FAR superior screen and GPU options - presuming a DreamColor-equipped unit - is HP's 8740W which I would take over any W7** any day of the week and any hour of the day.

Personally, I never understood the magic of dual screen option.

Are there any reasons such as technical obsolescence or frequent hardware issues that would make this a poor decision? Are there any "gotchas" that, having never seen one of these beasts, one should consider? And is the newer 701 automatically a better choice than the 700?

The only real, known "gotcha" were the GPUs but these are thankfully swappable. Parts for W7** units are not all that easy to come by and tend to be on the expensive side.

If I were picking one for myself nowadays, it would be a non-DS W701.

[Saucey]

Given that I had an HP 8740W for a few weeks for flipping, I liked that machine quite a bit.
I mean I love my W700ds, it takes about 25 minutes to an hour or so to render a 10-15 minute 1080p video.
I got it because, well it was pretty unconventional and out there. I think a W520 has nearly twice of its performance within half of its price I paid for it.

But as Ajkula66 says, the HP 8740w would be a better pick.
W701 is limited to the Quadro 3800m and 2800m, the HP has those as well as an FirePro M7820, and a Quadro 5000m.
I've yet to see a DreamColor display, but those models cost about the same price of a W701ds, I find it absurd they've kept their value.
I think the 8740w is smaller because it has one big heat sink fan but two separate heatsinks, rather than two fans apart from each other.

Only problem is that HP decided to put 2 different motherboards on these machines. Dualcores get only 2 ram slots, quadcores only get four.
Not sure what the W701 is limited to, I'm stuck with 8GB but quite content with it.
Though ram and ssd doesn't make a difference as my 701C can boot up to the desktop seconds before the W700ds can. Guess I'll have to switch to Linux.

[ArtShapiro]

But as Ajkula66 says, the HP 8740w would be a better pick.

Thanks, but isn't that HP one of those wretched 16:9 machines? That's a show-stopper in my book.

Art

[pianowizard]

Thanks, but isn't that HP one of those wretched 16:9 machines? That's a show-stopper in my book.

No, it's 16:10, with up to 1920x1200 resolution.

BTW, I have an 8740w and hate its mouse buttons (both trackpoint and touchpad), and I also dislike the strong blue tint of its TN screen. But ajkula66 has assured me more than once that had I seen the DreamColor panel, I would have liked the 8740w much more.

[ajkula66]

The perfect 17" system would be a W701 with a DC panel, but that hack is not for the faint at heart. It is my understanding that one of the senior folks at Chinese 51nb forum has managed to get this done, but a *LOT* went into that project.

I was toying with the idea of doing exactly the same until the folks with deeper knowledge of both of these systems than myself explained what the mod in question would entail...

As for 8740W, keyboard is a clear loser when compared to the ThinkPad one. The trackpoint - presuming one uses a ThinkPad cap - is more than acceptable. But the DC screen is just...OMG and then some.

[RMSMajestic]

"Yes it's reasonable" if you only want one for collection.
"No you are crazy" if you want to actually USE it, but I believe not many people on this forum are not crazy

W7** has even lower performance per dollar than a Macbook. If you really expect some serious performance from it, better hands off. And also if you really want a W7** to USE (I mean, undergoes tears and wears and all sorts of damage for a normal laptop), you'd better think twice cos the parts for W7** are extremely hard to find at reasonable prices, especially those in good conditions. My W701 is in overall 9/10 condtion and I have a lot of tapes covering the areas which are likely to suffer tears and wears

As for the Dual screen models, I'd say COLLECTION ONLY.
The existence of the secondary screen just make W7**ds looks a lot more thicker and ugly than the ordinary W7**. And the secodnary screen is just S***, not only in terms of the color and view angle, but also for it's size--- you can probably put a doc file or a task manager to that secondary screen but that's just it. Moreover my W701ds can't connect to the external VGA if The secondary screen is on. (Not sure if FX3800m is limited to only two screens output). Another drawback is that when the secondary is on, the graphics card is locked to its maximum clock and will become quite hot. It might be also worth mentioning that, when I got my W701ds, the secondary is full of dust, an obvious sign of not being used for a long long time.
But the W7**ds is a nice idea. If lenovo ever makes a 16:10 W702ds with HV150UX2 as the secondary screen and make the top assembly at least 5 mm thinner, I'd not hesitate to put some $4k into it.

Regarding the performance between W700 and W701, If you need more than 8GB RAM or demand high Memory speed, then get the W701.
There isn't any fundamental difference between a W700 and W701, both of them are a far cry from any modernday machine which are much cheaper than W7**, for example, the clevo P150em.

Although an i7 920xm can outperform a QX9300, on W7** it's not the case due to the cooling. Cooling on W701 can handle only 2.8Ghz on all four cores, and scores about 20x in Fritz Chess benchmark. But you can easily overclock a QX9300 to 3.6Ghz on W700 and that is also about 20x.
On stock, a QX9300 will score 14.6-15, and an i7-920xm is just slightly above 15.

For the graphics, FX2700m<FX2800m=FX3700m<FX3800m, but none of the cards have DX11 support and even the FX3800m scores lower than the Iris Pro 5200. You might be able to get the N10E-GLM4 (FX3800m GPU core) on W700 using a BGA rework station.

For the screens, I can't say anything cos I have never owned a W700. But the UXGA AFFS screen on my T63p looks poor when comparing to my W701

As for the stability/hardware issues, W700 is another victim of Nvidia, just like the T61p. Also you might encounter some BSoD...... cos W7** just put so many things together that the chance for something to go wrong is higher, statistically.

[kitor]

To be honest, I bought my W700 for work, in November last year. Have almost maxed configuration (excluding CPU, now T9600). Even got third hard disk in place of DVD. And it runs fine, was able to complete latest Tomb Raider on this "old, not usable and non-dx11 capable" FX3700m. I don't know why, but I don't have any overheating issues, it indeed run hot, but I never seen over 80 degrees on GPU.
I'm using it for photos (Lightroom, I work as reporter), also some video production in Sony Vegas and it's huge display rocks when I'm not home with my 6 cores and 3 displays.
It's indeed heavy and work less than 2 hours on battery, but this class of devices was never supposed to compete with ultrabooks. Only thing that works far worse than my expectation was is Wacom tablet, but it's due to it's size and placement (I used typical TabletPCs with wacom in LCD until now).

[TuuS]

I have a couple W700 units here, nice if you like thinkpads, but the HPs do have better screen options. I have an HP 8740w and 8760w Dreamcolor. The DC screen is the best, no question there, but if the keyboard and mouse is important to you as well as a nice widescreen display and cost effective you might consider an 8710w. I have a couple and if you find one with the right screen and motherboard combination it makes a very nice affordable mobile workstation. I sold several of them here a year or two ago, all had the Wide Viewing Angle screen (1920x1200) which is nicer than the W700 and Penryn motherboard, real keyboards like a thinkpad with touchpad and trackpoint, and were under $300 compared to $1000-2000 and up that you'll spend on a nice W701 or Dreamcolor model.

I also tried an HP DV7-6000 series a couple years back and hated it. It looked good, price was good, but was the worse design I've seen in a modern laptop IMO.

[ronfe]

I've had a hankering for a big screen Thinkpad, meaning a W700 or W701.

Right now I have exactly the same need for w7** as you were.

I am currently working as a web developer, and using a 13-inch rMBP. But soon I discovered that the real bottleneck of my computer was the screen scale. In most cases, a screen with 13-inch was definitely inappropriate and I had to switch between several apps frequently.

Then a desire to use a computer with larger screen fostered in my mind.

Actually I don't need so much graphic power, but again, a large screen and 8G RAM would bear my attention.

I plan to buy a secondhand w700ds, insert a RAM, and change the OS into some linux.

ronfe

[Medessec]

"No you are crazy" if you want to actually USE it, but I believe not many people on this forum are not crazy

^ YES, sir.

I own a W700ds, and actually use it. I carry it to class, power brick and all. I have a dock for it back here. There are a bagillion other laptops that will do the job better, but not many other laptops are a Thinkpad W700ds.

As for the OP, how they are and what you should buy- A low-spec W700 with a nice WUXGA can be had for $300-$500, and I'm sure a few members on here have a couple you can buy. Great if you want a big screen and a big, burly, sturdy chassis with the Thinkpad aesthetic.

Any W700/W701 will be powerful, but if it's raw power, modern go-factor, power consumption and efficiency you're after, you'll want a W701. They're quite a bit more rare.

The DS models, as already stated, are strictly novelty. Some people would probably be insane enough to have a second screen on their laptop, at the cost of an extra 3 lbs, extra 0.8" thickness, extra tensed screen hinges and that second screen being 768x1280 and mediocre quality(It's basically just a 11.6" netbook screen from Lenovo's extra junk pile flipped sideways), but I figure most would not be.

[Saucey]

Sadly I don't think there is a OEM ThinkPad bag that can swallow a W700ds
I have a few bags could fit it, but due to its thicker lid it cannot be zipped up.

I don't want to say that the HP 8740w had a bad keyboard, I thought I was just mistyping a lot due to being used to Thinkpad keyboards.
But its flat buttons are a bit awkward, but having a 3 button touchpad was awesome.

Yeah the second screen isn't great, pretty lackluster, still its awesome when its doing its business.

[RMSMajestic]

^ YES, sir.

I own a W700ds, and actually use it. I carry it to class, power brick and all. I have a dock for it back here. There are a bagillion other laptops that will do the job better, but not many other laptops are a Thinkpad W700ds.

As for the OP, how they are and what you should buy- A low-spec W700 with a nice WUXGA can be had for $300-$500, and I'm sure a few members on here have a couple you can buy. Great if you want a big screen and a big, burly, sturdy chassis with the Thinkpad aesthetic.

Any W700/W701 will be powerful, but if it's raw power, modern go-factor, power consumption and efficiency you're after, you'll want a W701. They're quite a bit more rare.

The DS models, as already stated, are strictly novelty. Some people would probably be insane enough to have a second screen on their laptop, at the cost of an extra 3 lbs, extra 0.8" thickness, extra tensed screen hinges and that second screen being 768x1280 and mediocre quality(It's basically just a 11.6" netbook screen from Lenovo's extra junk pile flipped sideways), but I figure most would not be.

When I carried my W701ds to class, (overall condition 7/10 from a perfectionist's point of view, and that's why I carry it outside my apartment lol). My friends gave comments such as 'Is that a suitcase' or 'Did you just glued two laptops together'

But they all stopped laughing when I pulled the second screen out and use the digitizer XD

W701 are less than 15% more powerful than W700 overall.... And I think anyone who can be served well by 8GB or less RAM should go for W700 instead of W701.... (I need to run VMs and manipulate databases so I went for W701)

[FryPpy]

'Did you just glued two laptops together'

I haven't any DS but yes my W700 it very thick and don't want to live in big thinkpad toploader bag, which can handle T601 + X201 and some more parts;)

When I carried my W701ds to class

When i am travelling with T601 i taking my car, otherwise i take X61.
Going to college with this behemoth in backpack on foot is like a suicide

[Medessec]

But they all stopped laughing when I pulled the second screen out and use the digitizer XD

Absolutely all the same for me. The attention with these laptops amongst Alienwares, Dell Precisions, and HP Elitebooks is unreal. I think the funnies moment I had was in animation class where we learned the Graph Editor in Maya, and I could put the 3D preview on my second screen. Everyone was horribly dumbfounded/jealous.

W701 are less than 15% more powerful than W700 overall.... And I think anyone who can be served well by 8GB or less RAM should go for W700 instead of W701.... (I need to run VMs and manipulate databases so I went for W701)

Main reason I opted for the W700DS. I'll probably hunt down a W701DS if I ever get a stable job and living- but I'll have to wait and see. The W700DS is more than suitable for the role of crazy ridiculous oversized novelty workstation laptop.

When i am travelling with T601 i taking my car, otherwise i take X61.
Going to college with this behemoth in backpack on foot is like a suicide

When I bought my D900F secondhand- the man was nice enough to include a gigantic Targus backpack, which he mentioned was the only backpack he could find to fit the thing. The D900F fits nicely, but the W700DS fits just barely. Very snug. (The W700DS is a little bit bigger in every dimension relative to the D900F)

I biked to school almost daily last semester with it riding on my back. Everytime I rode my bike without my backpack, it felt like I could just float away into the clouds.