IBM Thinkpad T42 (model 2373-PSU) upgrade?

[davidwu]

Hi Everyone!

I am new to this community and have been on this website for the last 3 hours looking at all posts/replies. I must commend everyone for all the help that is given.

I received free a IBM T42 (model 2373-PSU) (I think) and wanted to "play" with it. I am not very computer savvy (sorry)...I am mostly a plug and play person. I did noticed it has 1 gig of ram, 40 gig hard drive, and I believe a 15.1" screen. Everything seems to be working on it (I can get the internet, watch movies, etc. My question is: Since I got this free, what upgrades are EASY to do and less expensive? I would like to upgrade the RAM to 2 gig (found some on Amazon for $20) and go to a larger hard drive (do not need a 320, but maybe an 80, etc.). I have instructions on the RAM and read MANY posts on the hard drive, but unsure if it is easy. Also, what else can I do to bring it up to date?

I welcome all comments and suggestions!

David

[Neil]

Hi David, and welcome to thinkpads.com!

Here is the original description of your machine as it left the factory:

P M 735(1.7GHz), 512MB RAM, 40GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1024x768 LCD, 64MB ATI Radeon 9600, CDRW/DVD, Intel 802.11bg wireless, Bluetooth/Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 6c Li-Ion batt, WinXP Pro

About the only reasonable upgrades you could do would be, as you've already decided, upgrade the RAM to 2GB (max for this machine). Very easy to do... Upgrade to a larger and faster hard drive. Again, very easy to do. Just5 note that both RAM and hard drives for this model are rather expensive. For the cost of 2GB of RAM (~$40) and a fast HDD (~$70-80) you could buy a faster, more modern ThinkPad. You could also upgrade the wifi adapter to an 802.11n capable card for ~$10 if you have any need to that.

You may also want to consider upgrading to a more modern OS than Windows XP. Maybe a light, fast and modern Linus Distro.

My advise, since it was free and works as is, would be to just use it like it is for a while and if it turns out you need something more modern, upgrade to a newer model with the specs you need.

[davidwu]

Hi David, and welcome to thinkpads.com!

<snapped rest of post>

Thank you so much! The only reason I wanted to upgrade Ram and hard drive was to "speed' up the Thinkpad....one more question....do you have part numbers, etc on the RAM, hard drive and wifi adapter that I might be able to look up actuals and upgrade when necessary? I must have priced mine wrong or had the wrong part numbers for the accessories that I mentioned....

[Neil]

You will need 2 x 1GB PC2700 laptop SODIMM. Any manufacturer will do.
Look for a IDE PATA HDD, SATA drives will NOT work. Any size, speed, manufacturer will work. Just choose by preference as there are not many choices out there any more in parallel drives.
The wifi adapter is a miniPCI, not PCIe, so again, there are not many to choose from that support "n". I used to have a part number you can find on eBay, but can't seem to locate it right now.

[davidwu]

Thanks Neil for all the help!....I will start to look these up and may ask for your opinion.....

[Carltp]

Hi Neil,
Just learned I need 2.5" pata drive Ide for t41. Can you recomend a good durable one? Apparently some of are actually stamped "not for laptop use" on package.

[Neil]

A year and a half ago, I wrote to David that 2.5" IDE drives were expensive and hard to find, now that is really the case. For the price of a 80GB IDE hard drive, one could buy a complete T60 including SATA hard drive. That said, I guess this drive would make a decent replacement drive for a T41. Or if you need more storage space...maybe this one.

[ajkula66]

This would be my pick:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-SEAGATE-ST9 ... 3f309dc237

Not affiliated with seller in any way, proceed at your own risk.

[rkawakami]

And on the other side of the coin (used drives, as opposed to the new one George referenced)...

Over the last few weeks I've been going on an eBay binge buying 40-80GB IDE drives. Here's the four Seagate Momentus 80GB drives I bought (model numbers, cost including shipping and the number of power-on hours (POH) the drives had):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271451931055 (ST9808211A 5400.2 $16.01 POH 9082)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271451932855 (ST980815A 5400.3 $18.00 POH 5502)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/231207476647 (ST980815A 5400.3 $18.01 POH 402)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/231219024710 (ST9808211A 5400.2 $17.50 POH 882)

Granted, none of them were "new" or were 7200RPM units, but for just under $70 I got drives that can be used in four of my old systems.

[Johan]

Just learned I need 2.5" PATA drive (IDE) for T41. Can you recommend a good durable one? Apparently some of are actually stamped "not for laptop use" on package.

Suggestion: If you really want to upgrade your T41, and are willing to invest in it, then I'd suggest you consider upgrading the presently used, and relatively (or, actually: Very!) slow, mechanical (rotating) harddrive with a fast Solid-State Drive (SSD); read more in the sticky GUIDE: Make your T4x *FAST* by replacing the HDD with a SSD! At the same time, upgrade to Windows 7 (provided that you are currently using XP, which is no longer supported by Microsoft). If you use some Linux-distro, you just hum happily along with that!

The easiest way to upgrade to a SSD (in a T4x/p ThinkPad) is, in my opinion, as described in the thread New SSD opt. for T4x: mSATA-to-IDE adapter ST663FD9 *PICS* - get one of the adapters sold by Lycom/Addonics/Aleratec /DeLock/Kuroutoshikou (see this post for more information; right now it seems cheapest to buy in the USA --> here), and then get a suitable mSATA SSD. A 64GB Plextor mSATA SSD(PX-64M5M) was recently sold here for $50 (shipped); I guess you can pick up something similar on eBay (if searching on eBay in "Completed listings" you'll see that e.g. 128 GB mSATA SSD's, of recommended types, often sell for less than $50!). Note that you won't benefit from getting the latest, fastest SATA-III drives, as the internals in your T41 will be the bottleneck, in terms of speed. Even the slowest speed (= SATA-I or SATA-150) mSATA will be fine for use in a T41!

Good luck with getting your old, trusty ThinkPad up and running... again and/or better and way faster!!

Johan