ThinkPad - is there a cure?

[staruszek]

I'm quite new to this forum, I'm even quite new to an illness called "ThinkPad".

My story is very simple, used for traveling an old T43, got a broken R60e, repaired it and transformed it into a R60.
It's important to know that I started with collecting just few weeks ago.

Here is a picture what I've got up today. I have to stop it

http://pics.tinypic.pl/i/00698/t2cbm23ecfmg.jpg
From left to right:

T420 i5-2520M 8GB HD3000 250 EVO SSD 1600x900
T410 i5-520M 8GB 250 EVO SSD 1280x800 - just got it today for less than 200 bucks
R60 T5600 3GB x1400 120 EVO SSD 1400x1050
T43 P4M 1,8 2GB x300 PATA 60GB 1024x768

All of them are fully working, well with some small problems, T420 - BT is not working, R60 dead battery, T43 little cracks on palm rest.

Next target is a W520.

[Khipata]

Welcome to the forum Staruszek!

This is how I started too and now I have more than 300 units (including non-thinkpad laptops,palmtops and luggables)...
Be careful, this is REALLY addictive!

And NO, there is no known cure

[Shredder11]

Yeah I have about nine at the moment in only three years, and when I got the first two I told myself I would choose the best one and sell the other. However I was totally in love with both of them and the whole Thinkpad concept. Next on my wishlist is also a W520 like the opening poster said! Hard to find one with the right specifications though.

[Khipata]

Shredder11,

W520 with right specs is not too hard to find, just still EXPENSIVE

[pianowizard]

The only cure is guilt, which will hopefully urge you to sell some of them. Once you start downsizing, you will feel good, and your desire to feel even better will cause you to sell even more.

I stopped collecting laptops several years ago, but then a new addiction took over: collecting desktop monitors. Beginning last summer, I felt so bad about my huge collection that I forced myself to start selling, including some of my favorites. I sold three more just this week (two Lenovo L220s's and one LG 25MU65-P), which made me feel great! I may sell one more soon, the Dell P2815Q.

Though I am no longer obsessed with laptops, I still own more than I need. Next month I may get rid of my Gateway NX860X. If I do get the Surface 3 next year, I will sell both the Sony Pro13 and the HP Pavilion x2.

[staruszek]

I'm so glad I'm not alone ....

[Shredder11]

I did the same thing over the past three years with my vintage computer collection, which featured mostly Atari Falcon 030, Mega STE, STE and many, many more; about £4000 or $6100 in US Dollars. Everybody has their own personal reasons for buying more than they need or use, but so long as you can be strong willed once in a while and reduce the quantities, you will be ok.

[shawross]

Hording can be a serious medical condition and I think there are definitely a few people from the forum suffering. It becomes more serious when it has effects on other people in the household. And yes a strong will is needed.
On a lighter note if you collect Dell computer gear IMO you definitely are sick and you need some serious help.

[staruszek]

So buying a used G580 for my father is a sign of cure, THANKS!

PS. DELL isnt so pragmatic as Thinkpads.

[axur-delmeria]

Sure, there is a cure: not having any money for Thinkpads!

Put the money in a shared bank account with your wife-- one that requires both your signatures to withdraw anything. The only way around it is to infect your wife with your Thinkpad madness!

My illness is a bit different-- my goal is to get my family to use Thinkpads exclusively.

[staruszek]

That's not possible, my wife is using a Samsung series 9, my girl is using two Samsung portable devices (and a desktop just for The Witcher Wild Hunt ), my father used an Acer ( I gave it to charity), the only person i can share is my friend, he uses just one, a T520. but your goal is admirable.

Abt account, my "collection" costed not more than 500 bucks, I can live with that.

[pianowizard]

On a lighter note if you collect Dell computer gear IMO you definitely are sick and you need some serious help.

Dell's OptiPlex desktops and Ultrasharp monitors are top-notch, and very addictive. I find the Precision towers less appealing because they are boring-looking and too heavy. Functionally and quality-wise, the Precision and Latitude laptops are equivalent to Thinkpads, though probably not as easy to service. When I had a Latitude D820, I couldn't stop admiring it.

But if there are people who collect Dell Inspirons, I too would consider them sick. The Inspiron 700m and 710m were nice though.

[MrMaguire]

Hey now!

I've always considered the ~2000-2007 era Inspirons to be interesting and collectible as a result. For example the Inspiron 1501: Dell's first AMD laptop.

P.S. I have a Latitude D820 too, I'm using it now. This thing feels way more solid than the T60 I have.

[Khipata]

I too have several Dells and love M60 and M70.

Do not get me wrong, they were very good workstations for their time, solid build quality and all, but forgive me but there is no comparison to REAL thinkpads of the same time period, I mean T, X and W series. In EVERY way

Besides, you are on thinkpads forum and you are going to have many angry people here
Just kidding

I am always ready to confess that some other brands are better than real IBM and some Lenovo thinkpads, but in order that to happen, they have to be THAT good, which none of the Dells unfortunately are not... Probably Dell XFR series get close but...

Examples:
Getac V series, Panasonic CF series, but they are military spec niche laptops

And ABSOLUTELY no Macs of ANY kind!

[rambo47]

I'm a life long Mac user, yet I too have an addiction to ThinkPads. Everything about this brand screams "serious business." I recently upgraded the hard drive on my W500 from the original 5400 RPM 256GB stock one to a 320GB SSD. It was SO easy I could hardly believe it. Between the overall reliability and the ease of upgrades, ThinkPads are superb machines. I've never been a Windows fan so Linux Mint on my new Yoga 3 Pro is a blessing. That's another thing to love about ThinkPads - great Linux support.

[Pokrzept]

Well there's one proper addiction treatment that I may suggest - go get yourself an low-res screen T540 and try to use it few hours a day everyday without external pointing device .

Do it before it is too late, otherwise you may end like most of us - I for example do keep 4 15" mint condition SXGA+ T60 "just in case" .

[pianowizard]

I too have several Dells and love M60 and M70.

Do not get me wrong, they were very good workstations for their time, solid build quality and all, but forgive me but there is no comparison to REAL thinkpads of the same time period, I mean T, X and W series. In EVERY way

I am always ready to confess that some other brands are better than real IBM and some Lenovo thinkpads, but in order that to happen, they have to be THAT good, which none of the Dells unfortunately are not...

This discussion sounds familiar, since I think we had it just a couple weeks ago. The M60 and M70 are very old machines, from an era when Dell laptops were clearly inferior to the top Thinkpads. At best, they were comparable to the R-series Thinkpads. The D620/630/820/830 looked sexy, but still had weak hinges, and though the chassis was very sturdy, the material was more brittle than contemporaneous T-series Thinkpads.

But times have changed. Recently, the best Dell Precisions have been better than the best Thinkpads. As I said in our previous discussion, the current Thinkpads are the poor man's Precisions. On average, Dell laptops are still worse than Thinkpads because most Inspirons, many XPSs and Vostros, and even some "economy-grade" Latitudes are sheer junk. But your last statement I quoted above claimed that all Thinkpads are better than all Dells, which I strongly disagree.

Well there's one proper addiction treatment that I may suggest - go get yourself an low-res screen T540 and try to use it few hours a day everyday without external pointing device.

Excellent suggestion! I owned a T540p briefly, which ensured that I lost all appetite for Lenovo's current Thinkpads. The screen was actually not low-res but full HD, and was tolerable; it was the rest of the machine that made me despise it so much.

[axur-delmeria]

Well there's one proper addiction treatment that I may suggest - go get yourself an low-res screen T540 and try to use it few hours a day everyday without external pointing device

Better yet, try finding an intact Thinkpad iSeries and make it your primary machine.

[Khipata]

Pianowizard, you are right!

But please, note:

I DO NOT CONSIDER ANYTHING AFTER W520 AS THINKPAD PER SE

From T series that would be T500.

From X series X300/301

Anything else newer is ABOMINATION if you ask me

Have to get my hands on new Precisions, never had any...

Which is absolutely the BEST model?

[Temetka]

Anything after the T500?

I am going to have to disagree with you. The T410 in my signature is my primary laptop. It is by far, hands down, the best computer or laptop I have *EVER* owned. That's saying a lot. I've owned close to 100 laptops and about 50 desktops. None of them were as rock stable as this laptop is. It's even survived quite a few falls, one from about 6 feet high. No damage of any kind, anywhere. Flawless.

Regarding Precision's and Latitude's: I have owned several. An E6500 that was rather nice, a couple M4400's, a few E6520's, some D630's, and a D810. I still use my D630 as my backup computer and have compiled a short list of minor upgrades for it. I got the machine for free so investing around $100 in it for a small SSD, better LCD and faster CPU isn't out of the question. This one has the Intel GPU, so I don't have to worry about the Nvidia GPU failing. My Precision M4500 is a nice laptop. But I don't care for the sharp edges on the case. It makes it uncomfortable to use after about an hour.

If I had to keep one backup laptop, it would be the D630. Awesome little PC that keeps on trucking. Right now it's running Linux Mint 17.1.

[Khipata]

T410 is not a bad thinkpad at all, but no switchable graphics and inferior gaming performance than T500 with dedicated ATI GPU

[Tasurinchi]

Switchable graphics are overrated

[brchan]

The cure? Collect all the thinkpads .

My dream collection would be:

- 770Z with SXGA screen
- 600X
- A31p
- X32
- T43P with QXGA
- T60 14.1" with UXGA mod
- T60 15" with QXGA
- X301 (proved that lenovo could make a very high quality product)
- W701DS

[pianowizard]

Pianowizard, you are right!

But please, note:

I DO NOT CONSIDER ANYTHING AFTER W520 AS THINKPAD PER SE

Ah, so we were actually sort of in agreement! Still, even prior to the current era of "fake" Thinkpads, some Dells were better than some Thinkpads. It's statstically impossible that even the worst Thinkpad was better than *all* Dells. You really think the crappiest i-series Thinkpad was superior to the best Precision or Latitude?

Have to get my hands on new Precisions, never had any...

Which is absolutely the BEST model?

Depends on what you are looking for. For the best 16:10 screen, the M6500 with 17" 1920x1200 IPS is legendary. It's actually recommended here, a Thinkpad forum, much more often than the 17" Thinkpads. I suspect build quality improved further after the M6500 generation, but the aspect ratio went 16:9. If you want something light, the M3800 is your only option because all the others are at least 6 lbs, but it has shallow chiclet keys, no touchpad buttons, and no trackpoint. With its ultra thin body, I would also be concerned about heat dissipation.

My dream collection would be:
- 770Z with SXGA screen
- 600X
- A31p
- X32
- T43P with QXGA
- T60 14.1" with UXGA mod
- T60 15" with QXGA
- X301 (proved that lenovo could make a very high quality product)
- W701DS

If you haven't tried a 15" G41 with SXGA+, you ought to. It may not look appealing in photos, but is actually kind of spellbinding in person. (Strange word choice I know, but I was indeed spellbound by mine.) And then there is my all-time favorite, the i Series 1124 with XGA, but I doubt you would ever come across one. Don't confuse the i1124 with the rest of the i Series, which were all garbage.

[Shredder11]

I have a lower end model G41 which I got earlier this year and upgraded it to the maximum CPU and RAM, although I am now on the lookout for a suitable cooling assembly; the current one was previously cooling a mere Celeron CPU! You are right about the old G range being special, and I have two G40 and one G41

[Temetka]

OMG.

I googles "Precision M3800 Review."

What a fugly (and I rarely use that term) laptop.

Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew.

The first review came from pcmag.com and the 1st picture of it literally made bile rise in my mouth.

No computer has ever done that to me. Ever.

I've been doing IT for 20 years and using computers since I was around 10. I've seen some ugly designs. I've seen some breathtakingly beautiful designs. This design literally almost made me throw up upon merely glancing at it. I didn't even read the review.

Why am I going on and on about it?

It's that ugly. Heck I have a Latitude E6540 2 feet from me (that I haven't booted in a month, I hate that computer - very fast. Terrible trackpoint thingy, just terrible. I refuse to use touchpads.) that looks 10x better than the M3800.

EW.


Here is the article in question:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2458699,00.asp

That initial image is gut wrenchingly, mind stunningly, brain explodingly, FUGLY.

But I said to myself, self it can't be that that ugly can it?

So I did a google image search. No, it's not as ugly as PCMAG made it look. Thank you Ziff Davis. Thank you very much for one more reminder of why I visit your sites very rarely. You suck, that's why. You suck now and you have since the mid 1990's.

It actually looks pretty good here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads ... ew.735359/

But the M6700 Covet is a stunner. Wish it came in anodized blue like the E4300/4310 did.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Del ... 236.0.html

[ajkula66]

If you haven't tried a 15" G41 with SXGA+, you ought to. It may not look appealing in photos, but is actually kind of spellbinding in person. (Strange word choice I know, but I was indeed spellbound by mine.)

Agreed. These machines have a really unique appeal. Mammoths that they are.

Some comparison shots of my last one - now owned by a forum member - along with a couple of other behemoths:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=109121

And then there is my all-time favorite, the i Series 1124 with XGA, but I doubt you would ever come across one. Don't confuse the i1124 with the rest of the i Series, which were all garbage.

One of the very few ThinkPads that I wish I owned but never did. 'Nuff said.

[MikalE]

My addiction has just begun.

I've had the E530 for almost three years, bought new.

Then I recently discovered off-lease, refurbished T and W series Thinpads and i think it's going to get really bad.

I bought a T500 last month and a T510 a couple of weeks ago. A T520 or W520 will be next, and I'm also holding out for a RetroPad if they ever become a reality.

I look for Thinkpads with decent specs, with or without an OS or HD or lack of memory and then add to them or fix them up with spare parts as needed. I don't want to buy a junker, but I don't mind spending a few dollars on cosmetics or a better hard drive or more RAM.

Addictive indeed.

I can't believe these systems are pennies on the dollar now. I couldn't afford these when they were brand new, let alone place a custom order for a CTO.

[Tasurinchi]

I don't want to buy a junker

Well, thing is, even if you buy a junker, ThinkPad design is so modular and parts are (normally) so available that with some patience and a few bucks you can restore/rebuild them as new. I've done so with many ThinkPads...

[pianowizard]

But if there are people who collect Dell Inspirons, I too would consider them sick. The Inspiron 700m and 710m were nice though.

Hey now! I've always considered the ~2000-2007 era Inspirons to be interesting and collectible as a result. For example the Inspiron 1501: Dell's first AMD laptop.

Yesterday I found in a dumpster an Inspiron 1300, a Celeron M model that came out in 2005. I had seen one very briefly before, but this was the first time I had actually examined it. It was designed to take either a 14.1" screen (with huge bezels!) or a 15.4" screen, and this had a 14.1" screen, so it was intended to be a very basic and cheap configuration. The build quality is impressive for a low-end consumer laptop, and the professional-looking design makes it look more like a business-class laptop. Thus, I do have to agree that some Inspirons from ~2000 - 2007 could be interesting for collectors, not just the 700m and 710m.

I still think more recent Inspirons are rubbish though. In July I picked up a fully functional Inspiron 17R N7110 for $43. Its plastic could not be cheaper, and it showed an incredible amount of flex wherever I touched. But the specs were decent (2nd gen Core i5, 640GB HDD, 4GB RAM, 17.3" 1600x900), and Windows 10 worked fine on it, so I managed to sell it for $100.