A new T42 for me and a return to thinkpads

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Temetka · #1 Post by **Temetka** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:51 am

So I was working with a forum member on a T41 deal, however a last minute craigslist deal came though providing me with a new T42 for a purchase price of $225.

It is a 2373-6YU unit with an XGA screen and the Radeon 7500. It is pretty stock except for the hard drive. Fry's Electronics had a 160GB WD drive on sale for $59. This is a 5400RPM 8MB cache model and while it's not 7200RPM it is very speedy.

I will be inquiring in the next few months for info on LCD upgrades and whats required. I might also pick up a 1.8GHz CPU not for the extra 100MHz but for the extra 1MB of L2 cache which comes in handy.

So far I have found the system to be pretty responsive under load. So a few general upgrades to round her out and it will be a great backup machine to my Powerbook G4.

I will also be getting an ultraybay hard drive unit so I can run dual hard drives. This would grant me 280GB of storage between the 2 drives. Since the optical drive is used for loading software only it won't be used on a daily basis.

I would also like to pick up a new 9 cell battery and possibly one of the ultrabay batteries as well.

Does anyone know if a mobo upgrade to the R9000 and 64MB of VRAM decrease battery life? Just curios.

Well expect more posts as the machine and I settle in together. It's pretty good so far and considering my excellent experiences with the T41p I used to own (specs in sig) the performance (minus graphics) is roughly equal. That machine started out as a stock T41p and was heavily upgraded. I won't be going that extreme with this machine.

#2 Post by **underclocker** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:16 am

Temetka wrote:I will be inquiring in the next few months for info on LCD upgrades and whats required. I might also pick up a 1.8GHz CPU not for the extra 100MHz but for the extra 1MB of L2 cache which comes in handy.

Congrats on the purchase, sounds good.

Your CPU, Pentium M 735 1.7GHz is a Dothan model with 2MB of cache. The T41's were offered with Banias 1.7GHz that had 1MB of cache. Use that upgrade money somewhere else!

ajkula66 · #3 Post by **ajkula66** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:29 pm

Welcome back to the ThinkPad Owners Society!

I had an exact same T42 a couple of years ago and it was a sweet machine, however, I couldn't tolerate the XGA aspect of it, so it grew legs...

You will lose some battery life (and gain some heat as well) going up to board with Radeon 9600.

Enjoy your new toy, and don't run into customizing it too soon...

awolfe63 · #4 Post by **awolfe63** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 2:17 pm

Used T42's have become so cheap that I don't think it is worth upgrading a motherboard or LCD. Buy a new one with the MB/LCD you want. Move the HD/optical/battery/keyboard if you want (very easy). You can also move the DRAM/CPU without much work. Sell what's left as a complete machine. You will come out much better that trying to swap internal parts.

Temetka · #5 Post by **Temetka** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 3:21 pm

When I bought my T41p a long time a go it was bloody expensive because it was a p model. The CPU upgrade was around $189 or so and at the time 1GB PC2700 was slightly over $100 a stick.

I am still in that frame of mind as far as price goes for parts. I forgot the T42's are Dothan's so no worries there. Still might do a panel swap for the heck of it as XGA is bothering me, but not overtly so.

I forgot how nice thinkpads are. I had a Dell D500 I was using for a while but it developed random shutdown issues and since it was a freebie, it's been set aside for parts.

Oh, it's good to be back.

#6 Post by **schen** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:19 pm

Just to weigh in on what the current costs are on some upgrades. I did the RAM upgrade to 2 1Gb (Corsair) sticks for $40ea after a Micro Center $30ea rebate. Fry's often has similar deals. I picked up a complete SXGA+ T41p panel/assembly with Bluetooth antenna for $50 on eBay, so I also addded the BT CDC for around $20 (also used the opportunity to pick up an extra A/C adapter from the same eBay seller for $10 and no additional shipping). I moved over my 7200rpm Travelstar from my previous machine, but caught a WD 250Gb 5400rpm HDD at the same Micro Center sale for my wife's R51 for $90 (no rebate needed).

So there you have it, fairly recent prices from typical retailers within the last 2 weeks.

Temetka · #7 Post by **Temetka** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:28 am

I am aware of pricing for those general upgrades.

However I have a 15" LCD as opposed to a 14.1" such as you have.

Later on I am going to do some research on what 1600*1200 panels work in this unit. Then I might go for a mobo upgrade to get the better video chip (R9000 or FireGL).

Other than that, I will take the same route tup upgrades as I did with my previous T41p. However I don't think I'll go in for a CPU upgrade unless it's less than $100 and greater than 1.8GHz otherwise it's kind of a waste of money considering the nominal performance increase I may or may not notice.

pianowizard · #8 Post by **pianowizard** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:29 am

Temetka wrote:However I have a 15" LCD as opposed to a 14.1" such as you have.

Excellent! If I remember correctly (it's been a while) you can upgrade to a 1600x1200 IPS screen even without replacing the mobo, but do some more research first. I think I wrote several posts that are relevant to this topic.

But I agree with others that it's not worth upgrading too much. If you really need a T42 with the best possible specs, you should sell this T42 for ~$300 to make a profit, and then get a nice T42p.

Temetka · #9 Post by **Temetka** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:01 pm

I somehow thought and LCD upgrade might grab your attention o king of the lcd mod.

This is something I plan to look into later on along with pricing a T42/p out. I still want the 15" LCD though.

#10 Post by **schen** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:18 am

pianowizard wrote:
Temetka wrote:However I have a 15" LCD as opposed to a 14.1" such as you have.
Excellent! If I remember correctly (it's been a while) you can upgrade to a 1600x1200 IPS screen even without replacing the mobo, but do some more research first. I think I wrote several posts that are relevant to this topic.

But I agree with others that it's not worth upgrading too much. If you really need a T42 with the best possible specs, you should sell this T42 for ~$300 to make a profit, and then get a nice T42p.

As soon as I read the "upgrade LCD" and 15" part, I thought; maybe you should check out what pianowizard has done over in the A/R/G Conference! Some truly amazing stuff, although, I must say that after seeing a 15" SXGA+ Flexview on my wife's machine has been almost a "religious experience", so I can't even imagine what some of his machines look like!

Temetka · #11 Post by **Temetka** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:47 pm

Yeah I love his mods.

Later down the road when I get the cash I just might buy a preset LCD from him to save me the time and trouble.

After all if I am going to upgrade the LCD why not go for broke? (figuratively speaking of course).

A new T42 for me and a return to thinkpads

A new T42 for me and a return to thinkpads

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