Thinkpads Forum

Hey all

I'm the proud owner of a T42 that I bought from Bill in October of '04. Still works flawlessly. I am in law school and I take most of my exams on the laptop, plus the normal use for notes, briefs, outlines, etc.

However, I am considering purchasing a used TP for backup purposes in case something happens to this one, such as theft, fire, accident, bear attack and I'm looking to spend anywhere from $200-$400. I don't need too much whizbang in the backup, but I'd at least like wi-fi functionality and enough processor and memory capability to run 2K or XP. This is merely a feeler at this time to get an idea from other members what I could pick up for that price.

Thanks in advance

I used to do sales in Vacaville - door to door stuff. . .fun times -

Looking at eBay - theres some good deals on T20's and T23's for less than 400.

T21
R51
T23

Some good deals - all Buy It Nows.

Also theres one IBM available on Retrobox for 181 - no OS though and no Power Supply (dunno if that means no battery).

I've bought two 600E's in the past month from Ebay for $100 each. Of course I spent $100 on one to upgrade the memory, hard drive, processor, and a new battery. The other came with enough memory and a good size hard drive, so just $20 to upgrade the processor. Just a thought.

I would definately consider a T23 for that price range. The 1.133GHz and 1.2GHz processor can easily out perform some of the early P4 processors.

You have the ability to reach 1GB ram, if needed/wanted.

I would get something with an internal optical drive. The T23 sounds like the best choice. Make sure you don't put the two laptops together, e.g. put one at home and the other at work, so that if there is a fire/theft/etc., you won't lose both.