Buying a T42!

[chikin03]

Hey guys,

Just to add an unbiased report to the board, I'm declaring my intent to buy a T42, before it arrives, and will report regardless noisy or not (this would probably mean more if I was getting a T43, but you guys scared me away from that). Because I'm a deal geek, here's what I'm getting:

Base: ThinkPad T42 2373H6U
14.1 SXGA+
9-cell
Combo Drive II
Wi-Fi a/b/g
3-year depot [protection strangely not offered...]
80gb/5400
512mb RAM
(free attache case)

Subtotal: $1531

Here's my rationale:

* I don't need a DVD writer--silly to have one in a laptop. I'll be getting rid of my desktop, but I haven't really seen much need for one as a college student, and so don't feel like I'm giving up much.

* Don't really care about ghz -- went through the overclocking phase years ago. Most of the time these days I run mathematica and read/print pdf's, so if I need more power I'll book time on a cluster.

* But I do need something small, and since I live off-campus, battery life is useful. Hence the 14", and why I'm not going for the Z.

* The SXGA's a gamble--looking into the future, I could imagine using this as a presentation/convenience notebook, with a dock and real LCD at my desk (LCD's are cheap, why waste on a good portable one?). But 1400x1050 is more than my current real estate, so maybe it'll be nice away from home. Going against reason, here. 9-cell because I was particularly impressed by the comment I read elsewhere: Buy the 9-cell now, and if you want to later, buy the 6-cell on ebay.

* a/b/g because it would suck to not have wi-fi

* 80gb because I need to dual boot, and am replacing a desktop; 5400 because speed isn't that important and I want to minimize the chances for heat/noise problems.

* Don't care about the video card--would take integrated if it were offered. Didn't want bluetooth, but I'll live

* 512mb because I'm planning on adding an additional 1gb for ~$200 (right now through Kingston, because I like it that they explicitly tell me it's compatible) and I can't imagine ever needing more than 1.5gb of RAM ; it's also efficient to upgrade @ ibm.com and will now work out of the box, in case I get cold feet about the addition.

Still wish I had the safety of a firewire port--no gear now that uses it, but just in case. Card reader too, for quick camera downloading. I'm also going to miss the windows key (guess I will remap). Probably woulda gone Z or X if they were 13/wide. But looking forward to my first laptop, a sexy T42!

Free shipping => $1850 total. Not bad? Speak now...

[mysbca]

I'm planning on adding an additional 1gb for ~$200 (right now through Kingston, because I like it that they explicitly tell me it's compatible)

You can get 1GB at Crucial.com for $170 if you go through their configurator or get 1GB Crucial RAM at newegg.com for $114 + $4 s/h.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145068

Everything else looks good.

[RonS]

I agree. Get your memory from NewEgg. I don't know if you need the 80GB as opposed to the 60, but the 60GB 7200RPM drive (7K60) would be a nice performance upgrade if it doesn't cost you extra.

[hoya]

I bought the same machine with the 7K60 60gb 7200rpm hard drive. 80gb 5400rpm drives are cheap and plentiful (only $105 at NewEgg), while Hitachi 7K60 60gb drives are going for $200. I bought the 2nd HDD Adapter for Ultrabay Slim (around $40) so I have plenty of storage and a very fast primary drive. might be worth considering...

[chikin03]

Hmm... I guess by my own reasoning I should go for as much speed as I can when I buy it, since later I can always have a USB storage piece back near the dock. 25/25 after partitioning doesn't sound too bad, I guess.

Thinking critically about what I'm about to order, it's main advantages are: battery life, portability, warranty/durability (any thoughts on why I couldn't buy the protection plan? not included, I'd think...)

Thanks for the memory suggestions, will probably take care of it all tonight.

[chikin03]

update:

They wouldn't give me a student discount and now the attache case is gone (even though the deal lasted till 10/03, and supplies have not run out--it's an option but now you have to pay for it.) Didn't really need the case, but it's harder for me to justify paying a $200 premium when it doesn't feel like I'm getting a deal. I guess I'll think about it a little more.

[homer]

i am a little confused by your post.

(1) were you expecting a student discount (of $200)? AFAIK, ibm/lenovo doesn't let you mix offers.

or

(2) the attache costs $200 now and you're bummed that you missed out on a special that you didn't care about? well, if so, that seems silly.

anyhow, i think the 2373-h6u is an excellent deal. jump on it before its too late.

[revolutionary_one]

I recently bought a 2378-FVU. IIRC not available anymore. The specs are in the sig.

One. I love it to death. Its got all the features of performance & power i could hope for. Unlike you I needed the 9600...As i also game on this laptop(CounterStrike:Source, exclusively, getting 60-100FPS).

Two. As far as upgrades go, I've spent no more than 80 dollars on the following things-- 2x512DIMMS(one kingston and one OCZ), A VERY nice samsonite BACKPACK (not carrying bag, for the obvious reasons) with a built in neoprene sleeve that contains additional padding on the back, front and bottom. Another 512dimm of k-byte RAM, b/c it was free . A dock that also came free with the t42. I also spent another 40bucks on a 250GB seagate ata133 drive to throw into the linux samba server i have setup.

Three. Obviously the 40GB drive has its limitations and is small. BUT, its all i need, esp since my entire mp3 collection is on the 250GB drive and is available via SSH and via the local LAN. And especially since my primary work partition only occupies about 4GB of the total drive's space, i got PLENTY of room to carry a ton of mp3s and vids whereever I go. And since its a 5400RPM is the perfect combination of speed and power efficiency,no problems at all with lag. Oh and it also came with a free port replicator. Easy access both wirelessly and wired to the Servers @ home.

Four. The ONLY drawback so far is that i should've opted for a 9cell battery which will probably cost me another 50-100 dollars. The six cell makes it lighter, and I havent run into an instance where the 6 cell hasnt been enough. I DO need an extra battery though, 2.5-3.5hours max just isnt gonna cut it.

Five. Extend the bloody warranty. I upgraded the warranty to 4 years depot and 3 years TPP. This baby's not going anywhere .

Grand total ~1750 with student discount. I should've spent less, but, Meh. I spent too long without one, good to have it with me now. Wow that was a long post

[dc81]

Through the September specials you can get a T42 2373H1U for $1469. The specs are as follows:

14.1" XGA
1.6ghz
512mb RAM**
60gig 7200rpm Hdd
9 cell
CDRW/DVD Drive
3 years

**What I would do is buy the system with 256mb from IBM take the $90 savings, and go to newegg and you can buy 1.5gigs for about $160-$170 minus the $90 you saved so it would cost you less than $100 (if I did the math right). Then you can take that 256mb dimm and sell that for $10-$20 on Ebay or on this forum.

Also for about $200 you can get the T42 2373H6U which has a better video card and a faster processor, and SXGA+.

Hope this helps.

[rpad]

I finally got my T42-2373M3U, there does not seem to
be the heat,fan noise issues that I saw with my other two
T43s that I had to return. I am happy so far.I know the
T43 has faster chipset but to me the noise/heat were
not upto my tolerance levels.

[chikin03]

So, my post last night didn't work. Basically, I felt like I wasn't getting a deal anymore, when they denied the student discount and the case (which I don't guess I really intended to use anyways) was dropped from the deal [grr... despite the offer expiring the 3rd, and them still having it in stock]. It sent me on another round of searching. The main competitor is the hp dv1000. Pro's:

T42:
Faster HDD, "airbag"
Denser screen (1400x1050)

dv1000:
widescreen, quickplay, but less dense (1280x768)
card reader & firewire port (really more convenience than value)
$200 less
smaller, possibly hotter [cheap to buy 2x12 cell batteries too], sonoma
technically faster performance-wise (faster bus/ram, also means
slightly cheaper to upgrade ram)

I tend to think that the screen really might be that much better, so think I'm going to bite for the T42 soon.