Advice for newbie with T4X purchase decision.

[amrav]

Gurus,

I have decided to get a T4X TPs on ebay.
After watching auctions for a few days, I noticed the selling price difference is about 100 dollars between the T40,T41 and T42.

My question is Is it better to buy a T42(1.7ghz) over T40(assuming the RAM and HD size is same) or to buy the T40 and spend the 100 bucks on expanding the RAM and Hard drive ?

Thanks in advance.

[djpharoah]

The T42 comes with a better processor core which should equal better battery life. It also comes with a better video card. The system front side bus is also a bit higher at 133 instead of 100.

[pianowizard]

Two more reasons for getting a T42: some units are still under warranty, and the chance of getting a T42 in good condition is higher than for the other two models simply because it's newer.

I think some T42's and T41's use the same video card.

[underclocker]

There are several threads that discuss this, but since prices overlap, there doesn't seem to be any reason not to grab a T42.

T42's will be the most recent (least old/use) and have a good chance of a remaining warranty. Having the warranty should not be undervalued! Even honest sellers may not know about flakey USB ports or a video chip that causes freeeze ups. Plus, IBM is generous with new keyboards and drive swaps. Sometimes just complaining that your hard drive is too loud is enough for a replacement.

As mentioned, the T42 probably will have a Dothan (faster) processor plus probably a newer battery. However, some T42's didn't have a Dothan processor! Take a look at these models - 2373-1UU, 2373-1YU, 2373-1WU - they have basic T40 specs. w/Banias CPU's.

Good luck and welcome to thinkpads.com.

[Johan]

I would strongly recommend you to go for a 15" model with a SXGA+ display (= 1400x1050 pixels); a display of the Flexview/IPS type. If you have seen a ThinkPad XGA-display (1024x768) and a ThinkPad SXGA+ display of the Flexview-type, you'll certainly not want the XGA-model!

You may always replace e.g. the harddisk to a faster and/or larger model, and you can always add more RAM, but you are not able to exchange the display (unless at large expense and significant trouble)... so you should absolutely give priority to the display!

Try do a search on "Flexview" here at http://forum.thinkpads.com/ and see users comments!

If the ThinkPad's you find on eBay do not contain information about the specific type of display, then find this information yourself in "ThinkPad Computer Hardware Maintenance Manual"... see where to find these for the various T4x's at http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

Regards,

Johan

Update: For both newer and older T4x's you'll find information about where to locate their respective "Personal Systems Reference" at
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight= In these "Personal Systems Reference" documents it may be easier to quickly see main specifications of various ThinkPad's, incl. display size and -type.

[DennisGordon]

I second the 15" sxga+ option. I actually paid $35 more for a used T42 with 10 months left on warranty (1.7pm, 40G, 1G) than I did for a new T43 (2.0pm, 60G 512mb) with an XGA display. Nothing wrong with basic web surfing and document handling on that, but the higher resolution of the T42 was well worth the extra cost, and performance differences otherwise are negligible. Of course, I lucked into an exceptional price on the T43 ($650 delivered, NIB) which is why I'm glad to have it, despite the "inferior" display.