My laptops - Three Ts (Thinkpad, Toshiba and Toughbook)

[kony]

The first picture is about two years old, this was my setup at parents' home. I had a Toshiba Satellite L500 and a Panasonic Toughbook CF-71 .

Panasonic I have bought in 2011, I needed it to write and read stuff needed in my studies when I was in a hospital for prolonged time. I didn't want to bring my Toshiba in case someone would steal it. If someone stole my CF-71 there wouldn't be a great loss, as I have bought it for 200 PLN (about 50 Euro) and only upgraded it with wi-fi card and larger HDD (with 80GB one, as it had 2 GB HDD originally).

Toshiba I bought in 2009 for about 3500 PLN (~$1000), it was quite expensive for me, but I wanted to replace my desktop PC with a laptop I could play games on (and later take with me where I'd study, being also able to take it to lectures and make notes). Toshiba had a good dedicated card (ATI HD 4650 1GB) and decent CPU (Core 2 Duo 2.10GHz) at the time.

I don't use Toughbook anymore, it just rests on a shelf in my parents' home. These laptops weren't my first ones, back in 2005 I got Compaq Presario V2000, it broke in 2007 though.




I had sold the monitor above when I was going to studies, because I wouldn't be able to take it anyway. This was my setup where I study:



Selling the monitor was a mistake, because my laptop's one eventually broke. I had it repeaired (or replaced parts myself) thrice. Unfortunately it kept breaking for some reason, even when I replaced all the seemingly damaged parts. Therefore I finally gave it to my dad who uses an old CRT monitor from our the first PC (Pentium 2) with it:


Here's a picture when I was testing Toshiba after replacing some parts after it breaking for the third time, the monitor - again - worked only for a few days afterwards.



Two months ago I've bought Lenovo Thinkpad T430 (again, an expensive purchase of about 1000 Euro) to use during my studies. I decided to pay more in hope this laptop will serve me for a long time without random failure. Time will tell though.

[Medessec]

Those slightly older Toshibas are pretty sturdy despite being made of cheap plastic and sub-par engineering... they're by far the best "normal laptop" people can buy. I think they still are.

That Toughbook is pretty cool too. I personally haven't had much experience with Toughbooks, but I have seen a CF-71 in person. I can't imagine using one if I had to lay in bed all day... my X60 Tablet would probably suit that role a lot better.

That T430 is pretty nice. Good choice of Thinkpad too. Thanks for sharing!

[Saucey]

That Toughbook is so awesome. I want one!

Realy clean set up, I like that halftop you got going there.
How are those speakers and what are they?
I have my PC connected to a BluRay media player but I really would like dedicated set for my room.

[kony]

Those slightly older Toshibas are pretty sturdy despite being made of cheap plastic and sub-par engineering... they're by far the best "normal laptop" people can buy. I think they still are.

I can only complain about the quality of the laptop's monitor, not only it broke three times, as I already described, but is also very flexible and feels fragile. The rest of the body is pretty tough for a plastic and the laptop fell and has been hit multiple times, at worst it had some minor scratches. The Toshiba still works well and is used by my dad with an external monitor.

That said, the internal monitor is crappy. I would probably recommend Toshiba over other cheap brands/series, but there might be better cheapos if one has a luck of finding them. Unfortunately, how good or bad a laptop really is you only know after years of usage.

That Toughbook is pretty cool too. I personally haven't had much experience with Toughbooks, but I have seen a CF-71 in person. I can't imagine using one if I had to lay in bed all day... my X60 Tablet would probably suit that role a lot better.

It's more-or-less as heavy as a plastic 15.6" and doesn't feel uncomfortable at all when on legs/stomach/whatever - it's light enough. However, I don't have a battery, so indeed it's not very comfortable to lie in bed with it plugged via AC adapter.

How are those speakers and what are they?

Genius SP-HF1255A, cost me about $70 two years ago. Great audio quality for this price and their bass sounds better than 2.1 setup I had before, they also sound much better than many cheap 5.1 setups I've heard. I'd say they are a class higher than the price makes you think. Sure they won't replace $300 setup, but if you want to save cash, I can't imagine getting better ones.

That Toughbook is so awesome. I want one!

Yeah, it is, I made more pics for you to adore it

[Saucey]

Very nice machine!!
I love the keycaps on that thing, for a ToughBook it certainly has no wear whatsoever.
Or maybe it is invicnible to scratches...

The palmrest is pretty cool too how it switches up.
I could definetly hide my wallet in that empty battery bay hehe.

Saved a few of em.