Should I buy or not?

[krasopateras]

Hi to everyone.
This is my first post, though I regurarly follow this site.
I own a Dell inspiron 8200 laptop computer.
Spefs: P4-M 2.2 Mhz, 512 MB, 40 HDD 5400 rpm, ATI Radeon 9000 64 MB, 1400x10150 15''

My question is this: I could buy an IBM Thinkpad T43 1.86 Mhz, 1 GB ram 4200, 60 HDD 5400 rpm, ATI X300 64 MB, 1400x1050 Ultraflex 15'', for a good price too.

Do you think that I should buy it?
Will I see any difference in speed?
The screen in the T43+IPS will be be considerably better or just ok?
The video unit how many times is faster than mine (if it is...)?
Most of the times I do standard thinks like Office and Internet, but I use it also in Illustrator, Indesign.

The only think that I sure about it is that my shoulder will suffer less.

Thank you for your time.

[christopher_wolf]

Hello krasopateras and welcome to the Thinkpad Forums

It all depends on what you want to use it for

I actually have a Dell Laptop as well, 600m, and I have noticed my T43 performing better than it in all areas; they aren't of equal specs though.
IMHO the screen on my T43, although it is 14.1" and @ 1400x1050, seems better to me even though the Dell has a larger screen...Also, the T43 screen seems a bt less "washed out" in color than the 600m's Screen and I have noticed this on a few other laptops as well.

As for video, this is where my Thinkpad far exceeds the Dell in performance..especially in presentations on a Projector. The Dell I had before the 600m was extremely buggy when hooked into a Projector and would often crash without warning. The 600m hasn't done so, but it hasn't been as easy to quickly setup, based on many different projector setups I have tried, as my T43.

On the matter of using Illustrator, I have actually used Illustrator, Photoshop, Excel with a Huge Spreadsheet, and Visual Fortran with many lines of code at the same time with no slow down at all. A similar thing could be said for the 600m, but it seems to have a sharp drop in performance when I go over a certain number of applications open. Otherwise, if you have enough Memory, you should be fine

Another big factor for me was the light weight and the Form Factor; this is why it is my Choice Laptop over the Dell 600m because I can take my T43 everywhere with no huge effort in carrying it. Durability, well, I would have to say that all the Thinkpads I have owned thus far are Operating well and have gone above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to operational life span. The Dell 600m has held out longer than a previous Dell I had...which seemed progammed to self-destruct in 2 years from when you bought it. Build Quality is simply Excellent on the Thinkpads, no contest there.

Hope that Helps

[kyrotech]

To sum it up:

Pentium-M 1.86 Ghz > P4-M 2.2 Ghz
1GB MB DDR2 > 512 MB PC2100
60 HDD 5400 > 40 HDD 5400
ATI Radeon X300 64 MB > ATI Radeon 9000 64 MB
1400x1050 ultraflex 15" > 1400x1050 15''

[mikek5117]

I just switched from an Inspiron 8500 with the 17" UXGA screen (Pentium 2.4 60gb 64mb video) to a T42 (1.8ghz 2gb 60gb 7200rpm 64mb video).

The Thinkpad is much quicker, likely due to the faster drive and 2gb ram. Applications load very fast. The screen is about equal on the TP (I do have the "good" Hydis LCD, however the Dell screen is pretty darn nice). The TP is MUCH solider feeling machine physically. The biggest difference and the reason I upgraded is the size and weight, the Dell with adapter was pushing 10 lbs, the TP with adapter is under 6 lbs.

One other comment, this is my first TP in about 5 years, have had 3 dells in between. The Dells don't age well (at least for me), usually start to have flaky problems after about 1 year of regular travelling, hard-drive sporadic, had couple of motherboards replaced, USB sockets fail, etc. My 2 previous TP's were always rock solid and in fact last one was my wife's computer for 4 of the past 5 years and other than battery wearing out worked everytime she turned it on.