which thinkpad should i put into storage?

[devanshoom]

Hi everyone....

I have an old and quite well used T40, which isnt very powerful and only has 512GB ram, a mint condition T42 and an equally mint T60. One of them is going to go into storage to be used in the future when the other two wear out (might have a long wait)...but I cant decide which one.

I dont even know if parts will be available for a T40 five or six years down the road, so it might be pointless keeping that one. The T60 is the workhorse of the three but I dont really do anything that requires lots of power.

Any ideas?

[t140568]

512 GB of RAM? WOAH! Use that one!

Seriously, though, I'd use the most powerful machine I have. I mean, why not? You never know what you're going to need the power for until the opportunity arises. As for the other units, I think I'd sell them off or give/lend them to someone who could use them before they went into storage.

Just my $0.02

[devanshoom]

512 ram isnt much i know but the t42 only has 768ram and the t60 1GB, so none of them are particularly powerful compared with the latest stuff...but power isnt really what Im into. I prefer old dated stuff to be honest...my mobile telephone cost me about 15 bucks and is only good for talking and messaging...people laugh at it but I have a good laugh at them too with their latest mobile gadgets costing 100s of dollars.

Cant really lend them to anyone cos everyone i know already has a laptop.

Actually that was the reason i bought the t42 last week....my T60 was being repaired so i got a T42 to use in the meantime and intended to wrap it up for posterity when i got my T60 back. I have all 3 of my thinkpads now but was thinking maybe store the t60 instead of the t42, as a few years down the road I will still be able to get parts for it.

We live in an odd world....people are starving in africa and i am worrying about which one of my 3 laptops to put in the cupboard for 5 years. Maybe i should sell one of them and give the money to charity....now that would be something.

[t140568]

There is definitely something to be said for using older electronics. I like how they're less likely to be stolen.

Whatever one you decide to use, as long as it does what you need it to, should be fine. Storing the T60 might be a good idea for how you seem to be looking at things. How hard is it going to be for you to get to the laptop in storage if you were to need it?

I know what you mean and all, but don't forget that people are starving all over the world, not just Africa.

[SaberX]

In 5 or 6 years the T40 will almost be useless.Well not totally useless but wont be the best.The T40's now are what,about 5 to 7 years old now.
It's almost like useing a 10 or 12 year old Thinkpad now.
I would try and sell the T40 now and use the cash to upgrade the T60 you have.More ram,bigger hard drive,ect.By upgrading your T60 to 3 gig's ram, 320 or 500 gig hard drive and a C2D T7600 CPU, your T60 will handle software and much more things for years to come.

But this is just me....

[seaweedsl]

I agree. Sell the T40 and upgrade the machine you use.

Unless you are a collector of things for their own sake, I don't see the value of storing an old computer unless it has unique features that I prefer. Use it now, even as backup or for a dedicated application or sell and let somebody else use it while it's still a usable laptop with a current-ish OS. There will always be T40s available if you really really feel the need for one later on. And parts will be available also. What happens is that if there a 10,000 in use today, in ten years there will only be 1,000 perhaps. But there will only be 500 people who really want to keep using a T40, so they will be available. Practically for free. And as long as there is Ebay and Thinkpads.com, there will be good ones and also broken ones that you can scavenge for parts. If you really want to use a T40 in 2020.

Don't get me wrong, I like the financial advantage (as well as certain features) that you get by living at the trailing edge of technology, but within that, I want the machine that has the features and power that serves me and the OS I prefer at any given time. If you like your T60 best, then why not use it now? Life is short, you never know.

Personally, I like Flexviews and don't care for widescreen. I know that a T60p is the end of that line, so I doubt I'll ever own a T61 or T500 for example. I'll probably stay at that level until I find a more compelling feature than the flexview or it just won't run a modern OS.

Apart from that, I'm happy to pass (sell) my older machines on to somebody who can use them. There is always somebody a little further down the line than me. That's true recycling and feels like the right way to do it - to me. Letting it rot until it's so out of date that it's useless seems more like a waste than strategic planning.

[RealBlackStuff]

Upgrade both T40 and T42 to 2GB RAM each.
Sell the small RAM modules, to upgrade your T60 to 3GB RAM, and store that.
Sell one of the T4x (with ATI GPU) and keep one for daily use (with INTEL GPU) if that applies.
If both are ATI, sell the T40.

[plympton]

Another thing to note - RAM prices go UP for older machines (try and get 1 GB DDR 400 today for < $50), and IDE hard drives are getting harder and harder to find. So with that, when you pull a T42 out of storage, the hard drive might have shot bearings and not spin up, and the RAM might be totally unusable for some modern web surfing.

Who'da thunk a web browser could take 40-80 megs just for the installer & 500 megs of ram just to run!

-Dan