What are the best Thinkpads to buy?

[furiousmonkey]

I have a T21, with the infamous power issues, the T30 sometimes had the second ram slot not work, I have not heard many issues with the t23's.

I am thinking about upgrading, anyone recomend something reliable and cheap?

[pianowizard]

What are your criteria besides reliability and cost? If you don't mind the A31p's weight, it's a good deal. It's the cheapest way to get a nice 15" Flexview UXGA screen.

[furiousmonkey]

Something which can handle about a gig of ram and has the ability to be upgraded to a 2.2 or something like that.

[richp]

J&R Music world has T30's for $429 with 256meg ram, 2.0 P4m processor, dvd/cd-rw, factory refurb with a warranty. I bought one last week but took it back, 14 day return policy, for a swap because the left touch pad button did not work. The new one is fine, upgraded the memory to two 512 PNY's that were on sale at staples and just put a DVD burner in it to replace the factory dvd/cd-rw drive, it would not read DVD+r's but does now. I think it's going to work out fine and while it's not a speed demon it is solid. Oh, I also put in a netgear PCMCIA wireless card and plan on picking up a USB2.0 PCMCIA card next week or so, that way I can do faster backups to one of the external USB drives I have here. It spends most of it's time plugged into the net at work and at home, the wireless is just when I need to move around.
Looks brand new, battery shows it's been used 2x's, power supply looks new, finish looks new.
Right now it's running MySql, Jboss and all the other normal stuff. I'm doing ant/java builds, the memory made a BIG difference, I hardly ever see any disc swapping going on now and I really don't mind the 1024x768. Oh, they also have an ATI radeon 7500 with 16 megs of ram too...no shared video...

[kieran]

my T22 is very reliable, the description in in my signature. the only downfall is the USB 1.1. which doesn't allow any kind of fast transfer of data for backing up. i wish that there was a USB 3.0 for laptops, when running on the battery, it doesn't charge like USB 2.0 but when using AC it charges and has blazing fast transfers. maybe that is a dream.

but im getting off topic, a good reason to get a T22 is it doesn't have the Ultranav Pad (Because the T30 was the first Model introduce it)

thanks

[BillD]

I have not heard many issues with the t23's.

I have had 2 T23's for over a year. Very good machines. I have had no problems with either.

The only drawback is the 16 mb video cards, so graphic intensive programs are out.

Besides that issue if you want a reliable inexpensive machine I highly recommend the T23's.

[tfflivemb2]

Something which can handle about a gig of ram and has the ability to be upgraded to a 2.2 or something like that.

Don't get too caught up in the CPU speed....

I have an R40 with 1gb ram and a 2.2GHz cpu....however, it is a P4M (same as the T30 series), which isn't as powerful as say a 1.6-1.8GHz PM CPU in say a T4x.

[pianowizard]

I agree with you guys that the T22 and the T23 are great -- I've used both -- but they would be very minor upgrades from the OP's T21. And the T22 won't do 1GB RAM. The A31p can take up to 2GB of RAM, and a nice unit can sometimes be had for under $400. I sold mine four months ago for $399. It uses P4M, which as Steve pointed out is slower than PM, but would still be much faster than the T22 and T23. Another advantage is it has 64MB of dedicated video memory.

The A31p gives you the biggest bang for the buck.

UPDATE: This A31p on eBay seems pretty good.

[Temetka]

I would suggest upgrading to a T4x series machine. I personally own a T41P and it runs flawlessly. It's very fast and will meet my needs for years to come. They have a 2gb RAM limit and can go up to a 2GHz Pentium M which is far superior to the P4M CPU used in the T30, A31, R series. You get better performance and from what I understand, better battery life as well.

I have owned a T23 in the past. It was a truly wonderful machine. However the othe drawbacks are USB 1.1, 16MB SavageIX card and 1GB RAM limit. Plus on certain models have built in wireless.

If you are going to upgrade, then I would get the best bang for th buck. For me it was a T41P. For you, well it really depends on what you are going to be doing with the machine.

[ambientscape]

I would suggest upgrading to a T4x series machine. I personally own a T41P and it runs flawlessly. It's very fast and will meet my needs for years to come. They have a 2gb RAM limit and can go up to a 2GHz Pentium M which is far superior to the P4M CPU used in the T30, A31, R series. You get better performance and from what I understand, better battery life as well.

I have owned a T23 in the past. It was a truly wonderful machine. However the othe drawbacks are USB 1.1, 16MB SavageIX card and 1GB RAM limit. Plus on certain models have built in wireless.

If you are going to upgrade, then I would get the best bang for th buck. For me it was a T41P. For you, well it really depends on what you are going to be doing with the machine.

I second on Temetka.....on getting a T4X series. Well, you don't need to get the "p" series as the normal ones will do. However, as Temetka says....the biggest improvement on the T4X series would be the USB 2.0 that would be useful in the future as many devices are using USB nowdays.
As the prices of T4X series dropping....its worth while to get it as a novice user.

Cheers...