Thinkpads Forum

I am looking to get a good laptop to try to help out with a very difficult situation I am dealing with. My daughter is at children's hospital and I am trying to go back and fourth daily (about 120 miles). I really could use a laptop in order to help with keeping up with work and updating family and friends of my daughter's condition. My dilema is that with all my money going to gas and the ever mounting medical bills (over $50,000) so far I am very very short on money.

I am looking for a nice laptop that would help me with my needs. I would prefer a laptop with built in wireless card and one thing that would really be nice would be a screen with a higher resolution.

I worked at a company that had thinkpads we had t41 through t43s and I have always thought it was the best computer I ever had. I would love to get one like the t42p that I had, but any of the t4x or t6x would be fine. I remember though disliking the xga 1024x768 screen.

I am looking to spend around 200 dollars but not sure that getting a nice thinkpad with a better screen is possible in that price range.

neutrinofdl wrote:I am looking to get a good laptop to try to help out with a very difficult situation I am dealing with. My daughter is at children's hospital and I am trying to go back and fourth daily (about 120 miles). I really could use a laptop in order to help with keeping up with work and updating family and friends of my daughter's condition. My dilema is that with all my money going to gas and the ever mounting medical bills (over $50,000) so far I am very very short on money.

I am looking for a nice laptop that would help me with my needs. I would prefer a laptop with built in wireless card and one thing that would really be nice would be a screen with a higher resolution.

I worked at a company that had thinkpads we had t41 through t43s and I have always thought it was the best computer I ever had. I would love to get one like the t42p that I had, but any of the t4x or t6x would be fine. I remember though disliking the xga 1024x768 screen.

I am looking to spend around 200 dollars but not sure that getting a nice thinkpad with a better screen is possible in that price range.

I am sorry to hear about your daughter, I hope she gets better soon. Health means everything in this world and without it we have nothing.

If you are looking to save money, I would suggest looking on ebay for a good Dell/HP model that fits your needs. I to have been looking to get a laptop for use as my primary machine and have found that thinkpads command a price premium while providing no additional functions.

This is kind of like buying a Toyota vs BMW. They both do the same things about as well but, one has more creature comforts.

Thus, if you a looking to save money, go with a toyota. Find one that meets your cpu/ram/hd/screen requirements. I have found some very reasonable laptops from Dell/HP in the $150-$200 range. Another advantage of Dell/HP is that there a lot more of them for sale. So if one laptop that you like goes out of your price range, there are usually many more just a click away.

Hope that helps,

postdiction

Sorry to hear that your daughter and family are suffering - I hope it can pass on through soon... happens to all of us sometime or another in life.

postdiction wrote: If you are looking to save money, I would suggest looking on ebay for a good Dell/HP model that fits your needs. I to have been looking to get a laptop for use as my primary machine and have found that thinkpads command a price premium while providing no additional functions.

I disagree on both counts. I consider good hinges, a quality keyboard, active disk protection, swappable ultrabay, trackpoint and especially flexview screen to be important advantages of Thinkpads. You just have to know how to buy. You can get a great Thinkpad with that wonderful flexview screen (like your T42p) for around $300 and you will be much happier using it. There was a time when they cost a lot more than the consumer brands but once they get a few years older you start to find amazing machines for 30 % more than disposable consumer laptops.

Look for an R50p on Ebay if you want everything your T42p had for the lowest price. They are way undervalued. Heck even the T42s are not that expensive now.

Oh, here's a GREAT price on a T43 with a flexview right here in marketplace: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=76331 $230 shipped (without drive). Just pay a bit more for a drive and you are good.

Or make an offer in the range I mentioned to this guy for his T42p: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=76414

Or make an offer to Brad for one of his T42 flexviews here. http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=68526

And for postdiction; if you want a simple but good XGA Thinkpad for around $200, search for R51 Thinkpads on Ebay. If you look at which machines are coming off of corporate lease at any given time you will see that the market is flooded with them. The R51s were very common and you can find parts everywhere.

Example:
http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-THINKPAD-R51-DV ... 2|294%3A50


Steve

neutrinofdl wrote:...
I am looking for a nice laptop that would help me with my needs. I would prefer a laptop with built in wireless card and one thing that would really be nice would be a screen with a higher resolution.

I am looking to spend around 200 dollars but not sure that getting a nice thinkpad with a better screen is possible in that price range.

Considering your situation you may not want to buy a $200 laptop that's over 4 years old and after upgrading/replacing parts ended up having spent $400 on it when you could have bought a brand new(refurbished) Lenovo,Dell or HP with W{S}XGA, a faster dual core cpu, more ram, bigger HD, DVD Burner, USB 2.0, WiFi, Cellular Broadband, a battery that lasts for hrs not mins, webcam for video conf, and a Warranty w/phone support for the same money that you can always sell for $200 or more...



You can find plenty of new or mfg refurbished laptops under $300 on DealNews and often on the Mfg Outlet sites

IBM ThinkPad T42 Pentium M 1.7GHz 14.1" Notebook for $279.99. With free shipping
T42 w/wireless & 1GB $329


IBM Certified Used

Lenovo Outlet

SL8 wrote: Considering your situation you may not want to buy a $200 laptop that's over 4 years old and after upgrading/replacing parts ended up having spent $400 on it when you could have bought a brand new(refurbished) Lenovo,Dell or HP with W{S}XGA, a faster dual core cpu, more ram, bigger HD, DVD Burner, USB 2.0, WiFi, Cellular Broadband, a battery that lasts for hrs not mins, webcam for video conf, and a Warranty w/phone support for the same money that you can always sell for $200 or more...

Sorry to be contentious again but I think that you are making assumptions about buying used Thinkpads that can be true on Ebay, but not on this forum. There is a school of thought (influenced by marketers) that believes "new and improved" is where the value is, but as somebody who respects quality over "new features" or "brand new" , I disagree.

A used Thinkpad bought from a reputable seller here will be just as they say and they will have personally assured that it works right before shipping. They know their machines. If you want special features like a dvdburner or cellular broadband, yes you can buy them on a new or used laptop. But believe me, that new Dell for $500 only cost $250-300 to build and it will show. A $1800 Thinkpad that cost $1200 to manufacter will naturally be better built. It costs less because it has depreciated, not because it's built cheap from the start. And good luck trying to maintain one of 50 Dells sold over the last five years.

My take away from a few years of experience: If you want a good laptop, get a business-class model from your preferred brand, not their consumer disposable line. If you are low budget then buy a used business class. You will have state of the art quality machine from 2005, 06,07 and that is good enough for 80% of the users. Faster CPUs are always nice, but the only critical advances I can see in recent years is USB2 and built-in wifi. Anything sold after 2004 will have these.

That said, buying a refurbished from one of those links is a good option, I suppose, IF the OP had not specified that he wants a higher res screen. Those you linked to are XGA screens. And with a few exceptions, they don't put quality screens on modern laptops. Certainly on nothing under $500. Too expensive. And almost nothing compares to a Flexview.

The cheapest flexview at the IBM outlet is this T43p for over $600: http://www-304.ibm.com/shop/americas/we ... logId=-840

We just bought the same machine (T43p) for a friend from a frequent seller here at TP.com for $420. It arrived in flawless condition and he started it right up and has been using it since with no problem. Battery is decent, though not new - you have a good point there. But it has a flexview UXGA, bluetooth, Wifi, USB 2 a snappy CPU, 1 GB ram, it's all there.

I have friends who have brand new Dell Inspirons even one that bought a brand new Dell Inspiron 15. I have tried it and I never thought a laptop could feel so cheap. I hate every bit of it. I want something of qualityI could care less if it is new. My wife said she would never want that laptop she said it felt like it was made by little tykes or something. There is a reason why old Thinkpads are still sought after and are still worth some money after being 4 to 6 years old.