Thinkpads Forum

Let me start with a trick question here:

Do you remember what these machines looked like, felt like and smelled like when you first pulled them out of the box?

If you do, feel free to re-visit all of these sensations as you're reading this post since I'm in possession of what most likely is the world's best-kept 15.4" T61p. Being dead serious here.

This particular unit was delivered in late August of 2008, pulled out of the box, had the Lenovo sticker taken off, corporate OS loaded, then placed in storage area and completely forgotten about for almost five years...

Think I'm kidding? Think again. I had to go for a puff of Albuterol after dusting the poor thing off...something that I resort to no more than twice a year.

The hard drive had seized from lack of use. The battery was drained and dead for good. The BIOS version was 2.07

Timewarp? You bet. And a *very* loaded one at that...


6458-CTO:

T9500(2.6GHz)
2GB RAM.......................now 4GB (2x2GB)
160GB 7200rpm HD........Nope. That one had an urgent meeting with the previous owner's hardware shredder. Many others available.
15.4in 1920x1200 LCD..............LG Philips. Flawless. Period.
256MB nVIDIA Quadro FX 570M
CDRW/DVDRW
Intel 802.11agn wireless
AT&T WWAN (no bump on the lid)
Modem
1Gb Ethernet
UltraNav
Secure chip
Fingerprint reader
9c Li-Ion..........................Panasonic, in "green".
WinXP Pro
90W AC adapter


So, what did I do with this stunner after sanitizing it?

a) Looked at in absolute amazement for about three days straight.

b) Sighed, opened it up, cleaned the interior, upgraded the RAM to 4GB and threw in a SSD

c) Loaded Middleton's BIOS and then W7

d) Abused the living daylight out of it for well over a week, with Furmark, Freestone and Prime 95. Not a hickup, let alone a BSOD.


the bad:

1) I really, *really* wish I had the original box for this ThinkPad. I don't. Sigh.

2) I'm not giving it away. Read on.

the good:

I) Everything else, really. Unless you have access to a factory-sealed example of a similar vintage, this is as good as it's ever going to get, period.

II) The fact that I'm actually reasonable enough to consider parting with this thing of beauty. All jokes aside, this one belongs in a museum and failing that option, someplace where it's going to get the attention it will never receive in this household. I felt bad while typing on it, as minimally as I did during the testing sessions.


Now, in our special edition of "Skeptic's Corner" we have two important sets of data from Lenovo's own website, the first one being (for some reason incomplete or it just seems that way to silly old me) the parts lookup for the machine in question:

Mfg P/N FRU P/N Description Serviceable
39T0494 39T0495 ADAPTR Adonis MDC-1.5 Yes
41R0595 40Y8404 MODULE 2GB PC2 5300NP Yes
41U5947 42W7961 CDPOP T9500 Screened Yes
41W1343 41W1499 CDPOP USB Sub Card Yes
42T0360 42T0361 PANEL FRU 15.4 WUXGA Yes
42T0864 42T0865 ADAPTR FRU Kedron_N Yes
42T1057 42T1461 HRD DSK DR TRYS C160 HGST Yes
42T2506 39T2851 CDROM UBSS Rambo6PCC Yes
42T3177 42T3209 KEYBD KBD ALPS US Yes
42V8638 0000000 BOMS, NOT SHIPPABLE ACROSS BORDERS; 15 W No
42W3007 - - Yes
44C3930 44C3931 SYSTMBRD P GL. W/AMT15 Yes
45R6131 - - Yes
92P1105 42T5000 ADAPTR Astec90W20V2p Yes
92P1132 42T4619 BATRYO Sanyo 9cell Yes

Then, as a valuable addition, here's the info on the laptop's original - long since expired - warranty:

Product ID: Type-Model: Serial number:
6458CTO 6458-CTO ajkula66

Location: Expiration date:
USA 2011-08-29
Description:
This product has a Global Model Plus special bid three year limited warranty. This product is entitled to parts, labor and on-site repair service (9x5 next business day) in approved locations. Thinkpad batteries have a one year warranty.


Pictures? You don't need no stinkin' pictures... ...seriously. Just pull any web image of a brand new 15.4" T61p and that's exactly how this one looks.

If you *absolutely must* see the pictures, I'll take them but be forewarned that no amateur photography will do justice to this thing of beauty. And Margaret Bourke-White's resurrection wasn't something I was able to schedule for this occasion either...

Now comes the *really* difficult part, as in: rare bird that flyeth away must, how do I price thee?

If I were in the possession of the original box for this unique piece of ThinkPad history, I'd be asking at least a grand. Unfortunately for me, I'm not.


I am open to the concept of selling the machine with no hard drive, battery or AC adapter, but am NOT in the least interested in downgrading it in other respects. You'd have to make an extremely strong case for me to even contemplate bringing a screwdriver to it again.

Given the uniqueness of the item offered, I reserve the right to sell it to whom I deem fit. "First come first served" may or may not apply to this particular sale. A lot - make that "an awful lot" - will depend on who you are and how well I know you.

PM or email me directly to tataslonATaol.com with any questions/concerns.

i dont think it will wait for too long and in the mean time i cant gather enought money to buy it i wish i could.
but whoever buys it he/she must use it with dock/external keyboard etc. so this T61p can keep clean

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone got $650 to spare?

What a sweet machine.

I hope you find a nice buyer for that piece of hardware.

TBH though, why not keep it for yourself?

Really nice specced laptop and all, but I'm just thinking:
Why not a fully specced W500 instead? They've got switchable graphics = runs cooler, uses less power (I managed to get 6hrs 30mins from my W500 on the onboard Intel card), and doesn't have any problems whatsoever.
Also, it natively supports more RAM (IIRC).

Cola wrote:Really nice specced laptop and all, but I'm just thinking:
Why not a fully specced W500 instead? They've got switchable graphics = runs cooler, uses less power (I managed to get 6hrs 30mins from my W500 on the onboard Intel card), and doesn't have any problems whatsoever.

Well, I believe you're missing the point here, severely so:

a) Good luck finding a W500 in comparable condition. For any type of money.

b) FX570M will beat the living daylight out of ATi V5700 on W500. No ifs ands or buts.

c) This is an 08/08 machine. 'Nuff said.

Also, it natively supports more RAM (IIRC).

Nope, both max out at 8GB.

Honestly, your post is borderline "thread crapping". If you want to re-visit the T61p vs. W500 discussion, by all means do so but NOT in my FS thread.

ajkula66 wrote: If you want to re-visit the T61p vs. W500 discussion, by all means do so but NOT in my FS thread.

I agree with everything George said, but most notably this.


ps. it's very possible that I've had more of these 08/08 machines than anyone in the forum and I've had some pretty [censored] fine ones, but nothing specced out like this one. It's definitely something for a collector.

The ThinkPad T61p was one of the best 15 inch released by Lenovo. I had 2, which i sold at a loss when i found out about the nvidia gpu failure all those years ago. W500 is great but it also has a detaching ATI GPU problem, and there is also a batch of machines where the USB ports are extremely fragile (T400, T500, R400 and R500 also had this USB problem). The performance difference between the W500 and T61p isn't all that big, like the difference between the W520 and W530.

truly one nice "rare bird" here...

I would sell my T61 and buy this great machine ... but I already had three batteries for my 14.1 wide T61
hopefully it finds the right owner ...

(is there anyone that I can borrow US$650? lol )

good luck with the sale ..

Hmmm... looks like the forum found my "descriptive phrase" offensive. I used the "D" word... didn't think it would be offensive but my apology if it was.

Also, since I'm posting here again I might as well share my feelings about the t/w500 vs T61/p comparison. When Lenovo went from the ATI graphics to nVidia at the introduction of the T61/p series it was a huge leap ahead of the former ATI graphics. nVidia was state of the art, not only did it perform better than the ATI, but also was better supported by Games and 3D graphic apps at the time and even more so today as ATI tends to abandon their Graphic systems after they perceive them as obsolete.

Then came the infamous nVidia GPU failures which I could write an encyclopedia about, but suffice it to say the problem was much smaller then it was made out to be and the only reason it became a major "fail" for Lenovo is because there was no easy way to fix a failed board. This problem was addressed by nVidia in early 2008 and failure rates dropped dramatically, but it wasn't until August 2008 that Lenovo purged all the "suspect" chips from manufacturing, so the only way you can be sure to get the new improved GPU was a unit from 08/08 (or later) that is confirmed to still have the original board. These systems are extremely rare because Lenovo discontinued the series after the end of August. They did continue to make some special order systems, I've had a couple T61p from September (08/09) and currently just got in a T61 from 08/10 (october 2008), but I've only seen a handful of them and have never seen any later units with nVidia graphics. It was sad to see the series end, but the reputation was hurting sales so I guess they had no choice.

Next came the T/W500 series. The ATI graphics were selected because buyers wanted to avoid nVidia so this wasn't a step forward, overall it was more of a step sideways. The graphic systems reverted back, but with the switchable graphic option it made for a more flexible system, although I've owned several systems with switchable graphics and very rarely have bothered to switch them, but for someone who has to run on battery power often this could be a plus. The introduction of DDR3 ram didn't have much advantage at all back in 2008 and if I recall it was also very expensive, however today the DDR3 ram is far cheaper so it can be a cost saving advantage. The 500 series has SATA2 support much like the T61/p series but it doesn't require a 3rd party bios to enable, but in regards to performance there is no advantage either way. The ultrabay drive does have an advantage on the 500 series, but only if you're planning on running a fast harddrive like an SSD in it. I prefer to use a slower more efficient harddrive in my ultabay for data storage so this wouldn't be much of an issue for me. The 500 series also offered the move to a faster bus speed and will accept cpu chips upto 3.06ghz, but few were actually equipped with this chip.

Both models are excellent machines, but the T61 series will always be one of my favorites and this specific unit is probably the best example of one you'll ever find and no series collection of thinkpads could be complete without an 08/08 unit, and I think this is only the second one I've seen that shipped with the T9500 cpu, WUXGA and WWAN. I have a similar one in my collection, but mine isn't in it's original configuration.

To be honest, I'm very tempted to grab this myself, the money itself isn't so much of an issue because if something is this unique I don't mind paying for it, but the fact that I have far to many thinkpads is an issue and I really need to thin out my collection, but I'm sure this will go to a serious collector soon. Finding something this rare in any condition would be a stroke of luck, but to get one virtually NIB condition is unheard of, so some lucky soul will surely grab this.

Sold outside of the forum.