Looking to buy a cheap Thinkpad.

[Lovele]

Hi guys.

I want to buy an old Thinkpad for portability. My budget allows me to buy 1 at around 100 bucks, was looking at T400 and T61 models.
What I am interested in is witch Thinkpad has the better CPU/VGA card because I will use it for some online serials.
Can you please help me out? Thanks.

[BillMorrow]

hello and welcome to the forum..

take a look in the marketplace..

[Johan]

Welcome to the forum!

Just a few hints: While ThinkPad's are most often cheaper in the USA (e.g. at The Marketplace on this friendly forum!), compared to the prices here in Europe, you will have to add two things to the US-salesprice: a) The shipping-cost (perhaps even incl. expensive Insurance, if you request that?) and: b) The import-duty (tax!) upon import from "outside-Europe" and into the EU. In Denmark the import-duty (if buying stuff from outside the EU) is 25 %, with an additional import-fee on top of that of approx. 25 USD (!).

Therefore you *might* find a better deal, all-in-all, if buying from within Europe. My advice would thefore be: Keep an eye at the German Thinkpads forum and also at the European eBay's (.de and .co.uk) and not the least the German ebay "Kleinanzeigen" At the latter site you'll find *very* good deals, but not always with too precise descriptions.

Buying stuff via eBay is sometimes risky (people on eBay often are NOT precise with respect to the description, and some people are even not honest!), but you may find very good deals on eBay, in particular if you hang around and then hit in the right moment! In contrast, buying ThinkPad's via this forum is a (99.9 %) guarantee that you are buying from very knowledgeable and trustworthy sellers, so that's a good place to hang around (because there are also European sellers on this forum!).

Good luck with your hunt...

Johan

[Lovele]

I found a Thinkpad T400 for 80 bucks without HDD ( I have a spare SSD), with 4GB DDR3 Ram installed, intel gma 4500MHD VGA, with 6 months of warranty(online shop). I think it's a good deal, and as I've read the T400(P8600) processor is better than the T61(T7300) processor.
I am still researching about their VGA card as I want to watch youtube.

What do you guys think about it?

[brchan]

A T400 (probably even base model) with intel graphics will handle 1080p video well. T61 on the other hand will require at least a T7700, but preferably T9300 CPU to make up for the poor iGPU performance.

[Whitieiii]

I got my T410 for $100 on eBay with original hdd and factory build of windows 7

[TonyJZX]

I think in most western nations you can get a decent T400 with 4gb and a 320gb hdd inc/ charger for about $100 usd.

Just depends how long you have to wait and how much trouble you have to pick it up.

eg. you may have to pick it up from someones house etc. ebay shenangians

I have to drive accross town to pick my stuff up from some exlease places.

I would assume non developed western nations could be even worse for supply... ironically I heard that some 3rd world nations have a premium on even older tech like T400 as they keep them longer and its not like their companies get rid of things at 3yrs.