Thinkpads Forum

I want to purchase a used T43 but I cannot afford going above 900-1000 USD.

Any CPU
DDR2 RAM 512 MB
Any graphics but SXGA
Any HDD size but 5400rpm+

Please advise me. Thanks.

http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/store ... ct=2576394

Click on 'notebooks' and scroll to the bottom - there are certified used T42's starting at around $950 there with 6 month warranties from IBM. If you are willing to accept 3 month warranty (and a little slower ram), they have T40's for a few hundred less and T30's for even less than that.

Good luck...

If you cannot affort going over $900~$1000 then I would say that you probably can't afford a T43.

I'd just say grab one of those refurbished T42's anway.

IMO, the T42 has been the best T series made thus far, which the possible exception of the T60, which is too early to judge.

What is best cannot be defined in a general sense when it comes to computers, especially laptops; what one person says is the best thing ever could very well turn out to be something else entirely. There might be a few T43s going around on eBay in that price range, though at this point, it doesn't matter if you get a T43 or a T42 since, within that range, they will have very similar specs. Go with what you think would be right for you.

Is the following very unusual?

"Someone gets a good conditioned (new/used/whatever) Thinkpad and replaces internal components with cheaper/lowscale components such as RAM, HDD, WLAN card and sells at the same price and incurs a little profit on it"

Counter arguments:

1. Why would you go to such a length unless you are doing this in a warehouse to hundreds of Thinkpads?
2. Thinkpads do not accept "any other generic" components and stop working.
3. After all this effort even with a bundle of Thinkpads the profits are so less that it is not financially feasible.

Thoughts?

bilalmuddassir wrote:Is the following very unusual?

"Someone gets a good conditioned (new/used/whatever) Thinkpad and replaces internal components with cheaper/lowscale components such as RAM, HDD, WLAN card and sells at the same price and incurs a little profit on it"

Counter arguments: [...]

The internals of TPs are very well documented, and verifying what parts are built into a TP is easily possible (chuck in some Linux/FreeBSD boot CD and watch the boot msgs). If s/o sells a 'downgraded' machine claiming that it's the 'real' thing, he'll be found out in basically no time, and he'll get his 'original' TP slapped into the face left and right (legally, and/or physically).

Edit: This is getting so off-topic that the moderators are going to slap me left and right with this posting. I'll just start a new thread in the 'General Hardware/Software' Forum, ok?

cheers,
-- fish

Any Windows utility that can give you detail info on the hardware components inside your laptop?