T42p, recommended buy?

[SilentG]

Hi all,
I've been selling new thinkpads and doing some maintenance for their warranties for a short time... so im desiring their build quality and functionality. Yesterday i met somebody who wants to sell his used T42p mobile workstation. Its looks poor on the outside, but inside there is 1GB ram and a 14.1" display with no HDD or optical drive (makes it lighter ) and no OS too. and this rig costs 476 bucks in this situation. My questions are:

1-As i know its graphics card must be FireGL T2. Due to the lack of an OS i couldn't confirm what graphics card is in, so would it be R7500 as some sites say?

2-Is that T2 going to be out-dated? what about vista and some gaming?

3-There are no HDD or optical, will i face problems finding a suitable replacements? what about that recovery access ibm that must be stored in the HDD, can i copy it from another thinkpad?

4-What about audio, are there 5.1 channels?

5-What about the price? is it a real big offer?

sorry for this long post and thnx in advance

[dr_st]

1-As i know its graphics card must be FireGL T2. Due to the lack of an OS i couldn't confirm what graphics card is in, so would it be R7500 as some sites say?

2-Is that T2 going to be out-dated? what about vista and some gaming?

FireGL T2 is Radeon 9600. It can work with Vista and many games, but won't cut it for the newest ones, at least not on high settings.

3-There are no HDD or optical, will i face problems finding a suitable replacements? what about that recovery access ibm that must be stored in the HDD, can i copy it from another thinkpad?

HDs are standard, and you can easily replace them and copy the partition. Optical drives in the T41p are very proprietary and cost a lot.

4-What about audio, are there 5.1 channels?

No.

5-What about the price? is it a real big offer?

No. Without HD and optical? No.

[skitty4gzus]

i would have to agree. rough on the outside, cannibalized on the inside. that speaks volumes of the owner of the laptop and no matter how cheap it is you are probably walking into big problems. It would have to be an outrageously low price to jump on that which it is not.

[carbon_unit]

Now if it has on-site warranty and Thinkpad Protection coverage it might be a better deal because you can get most of the damage fixed except the missing parts. Otherwise I would pass on this.

[SilentG]

im really pleased of ur fast reply

FireGL T2 is Radeon 9600. It can work with Vista and many games, but won't cut it for the newest ones, at least not on high settings.

As I've learned it could score about 2600 in 3dmark03, and X300 could score just 2000 marks although the latter's fill rate is 1400MT/s and it's bandwidth exceeds 9.6GB/s. The T2 has just 1200MT/s and slightly a 6GB bandwidth. Does processors have to do these diffs? But i dunno if they have the same shader/vertex/direct x/openGL versions (?) So would be an X300 a better choice for a notebook? any thoughts?

Optical drives in the T41p are very proprietary and cost a lot.

Any estimations?

now there's another rig, it's a used dell D610 for 714$, with a case and a 64MB X300 and without a single scratch, is it that "much better"?
What about an ASUS A6000 Turion with a G6200 but without battery or charger?

carbon_unit, there's no warranty for sure.
Sorry for the crappy whole thread and i hope anyone have experience will help us pick-the-chick! [/quote]

[dr_st]

As I've learned it could score about 2600 in 3dmark03, and X300 could score just 2000 marks although the latter's fill rate is 1400MT/s and it's bandwidth exceeds 9.6GB/s. The T2 has just 1200MT/s and slightly a 6GB bandwidth. Does processors have to do these diffs? But i dunno if they have the same shader/vertex/direct x/openGL versions (?) So would be an X300 a better choice for a notebook? any thoughts?

X300 is roughly equivalent to a 9600/T2. No big diff. 64MB/128MB may make a difference, though.

Optical drives in the T41p are very proprietary and cost a lot.

Any estimations?

New ones cost $200 and above.

now there's another rig, it's a used dell D610 for 714$, with a case and a 64MB X300 and without a single scratch, is it that "much better"?

No, not better at all, but if it's a complete system and in better physical condition, it just might be a better buy.

What about an ASUS A6000 Turion with a G6200 but without battery or charger?

6200 is not better. And I personally see no reason to go with systems that are sold without some critical components.