Which Old Thinkpad should I buy?

[stanislaw lem]

Hello,

I am a person in the creative industries as a writer, artist and musician I use alot of processor heavy programs for which I bought a powerful desktop computer a few months ago and before that a decent laptop (acer 3935) but my laptop screen is kaput and is now a permanent feature at home.

I am looking for a laptop I can take out and about with me to write and surf the web and store documents I looked into netbooks but decided they were all horribly designed and over priced. I have now begun looking into old laptops that used to be high spec but are now budget prices.

The first one I know of was the HP COMPAQ tc4200 tablet PC which weighs a reasonable 4.8KG with a decent 1.8 processor, great build quality and wifi.

I am now broadening my search to include old thinkpads as they fit all my needs of portable. durable, wifi, budget sexiness.

Any model suggestions and the pros and cons between the older models would be greatly appriciated, I'm living in the UK and hoping to buy from ebay for under a 100 pounds.

I've seen the following models for reasonable prices but don't know the main differences between these : IBM R40E, R31, X40, X60, T21

The X41 seems fairly good.

Thanks alot in advance

[Harryc]

You mentioned a tablet as a seach candidate, then listed several non-tablet Thinkpad models as potentially desireable. Is a tablet a requirement? For any US members, I'll save you the currency translation. 100 Pounds is equal to $165. USD.

[stanislaw lem]

A tablet is in no way a requirement, the tc4200 tablet is probably one of the cheapest wifi tablets with maybe the IBM equivalent being the X41 tablet but that is around 200 pounds which is maybe slightly out of my price range though I might be willing to splash out.

I saw that the X40 and X41 range are compatible with ssd which gave me some food for thought, perhaps buying a X41 minus the hard drive and purchasing an ssd and extended battery any thoughts on putting ssd's in thinkpads?

[RealBlackStuff]

R40e and R31 are almost antiques and were made under license by Acer (junk in other words).
T21 only allows for 512MB RAM and has a slow CPU (less than 1GHz).
There's another and better option (X31 and X32) which would perhaps be the cheap solution you are looking for.
The above machines take (getting scarce) PATA 2.5" hard disks, largest available 2.5" PATA is 320GB.
They could take a PATA SSD.

X40/X41 have very expensive and rare PATA 1.8" hard disks (20/40/60GB @4200rpm, sloooow).
If you want anything faster in there, you need to buy a Zif-adapter and again pay top-dollar (top-pound for you).
Small PATA SSds are available.
Only X41/X41T can be modified to take SATA 1.8" drives, incl. SSDs.

The X60 takes any size 2.5" SATA hard disk (and SATA SSD), and has enough power for your needs.
The X61 (top of that line) can take up to 8GB RAM.
All those X series have a 12" LCD, their tablet versions (X41t/X60t/X61t) have an IPS screen for superior viewing angles.

You want cheap, go for X31/X32 with the biggest CPU you can find (they are soldered, not exchangeable). Up to 2GB RAM.
If you need Core Duo or Core 2 Duo, go for X60/X61, regular or tablet. But they are not cheap (yet).

[Harryc]

... another advantage to the X32 in particular is that it has a Dothan Pentium M CPU (larger L2 cache) vs. a Banias in the X31.

[RealBlackStuff]

Check this X60 out: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=95814
It'll go fast!

[stanislaw lem]

Hi Guys,

If anyone was wondering I bought a really cheap X31 pentium - m 1.7 GHz with 1GB of RAM, 40GB of HDD, minus a wireless card so I bought one separately coming to about £85 which is very cheap though I might have to purchase a battery.

Thanks for the feedback I might still buy an x61 and maybe give away the x31 but I'll see what happens, anything you can tell me about the x31?

thanks from the United kingdom x

[underclocker]

Congrats on the R31. I actually had serveral R30's and a couple of R31's. Others really didn't care for them, but I did. I found them to be good looking and fairly durable. Of course, I dont abuse my machines, so I can't say I stressed them too much, but the hinges and cosmetics certainly held out until I sold them.

The real issue with buying low-cost older laptops is the battery. Nearly all machines past 5-6 years will either come with or need a replacement battery - which may cost more than then laptop.

My recommendation, albeit late, would have been to buy a used T60. They are just great machines with excellent examples selling in the $200 range - in the U.S.! It's really hard to beat them. For a few dollars less, an R60 is essentially the same as a T60, but a little thicker with a non-rubberized LCD cover. The R30, R31, R40, R50, R51, R52, R60 models were nearly identical in all dimensions and weight. I owned and liked them all (still own an R60).

[stanislaw lem]

Hi thanks for the advice. Isnt the T60 alot larger laptop, i looked at them and they had 14" screens, where as my x31 is a very light and small size albeit with a slower processor and hard drive capacity.

I really like the x31 it is very much to my liking as all I will be using it for is writing and surfing the internet, I am also thinking of installing linux on it and perhaps getting a larger Hard drive.

I'm having one problem at the moment with the wireless as I purchased a card that stated it was in fully working order and taken out from an old x31, i've installed the card and can't seem to get it to work, perhaps this is because of windows 7 as alot of the drivers seem to be for XP at the latest. I might try it with linux but can anyone confirm whether I've been sold the wrong card?

It is an intel and had these numbers in the listing 91P7266. 91P7267 ?