Thinkpads Forum

Hello

I am thinking about buying a 14" T61p because I travel frequently as a foreign student boarding in England.

Do you have anecdotes on the strength of a T61p, being thrown into suitcases .etc. Is a laptop case nessecary?

My dad had a T42, and he thought this would be best for me.

Thank you for your advice.

Hello, Der_Gebing and welcome to the forum.

Generally speaking, a 14" T61p implies a 4:3 model since no widescreen 14" have been produced. This model is almost identical to the 14" T60 which has been my primary work laptop between 2007 and 2010, and a secondary laptop ever since. (it's close to being 7 years old) It has taken the normal beatings you describe pretty well, still works like a champ and has not suffered any physical damage.

I have been carrying it around in a backpack that has a special slot for a laptop, but I have not been babying it in any way. I wouldn't throw it inside a suitcase unless it was in a laptop bag, and further padded by surrounding clothes. Then again I cannot think of a laptop that I would subject to this, and in any case I don't think laptops belong in suitcases. If you mean briefcase, then it should be fine if a briefcase has a somewhat padded laptop slot, like my backpack.

One exception is if you mean a small carry-on suitcase, then yes - it's probably OK to keep there, with sufficient padding.

So in that sense, a 14" T61p is nothing to worry about.

In other senses, I am not sure that a 6-year old laptop, and one that is not without its known weak spot (nVidia GPU which was manufactured in a faulty process and in some cases dies prematurely) is an ideal companion as a main system for a traveling student. There are other, somewhat newer, somewhat safe alternatives that I would suggest, depending on your budget.

Are you looking for a small laptop (12" and under), mid-range (13-14") or large (15"+)?

I think the main issue to consider is the chance of the GPU dying. (as dr_st has already mentioned) This can happen on the T40 series (happens very frequently, known as "Flexing") as well as the T60 series. (though less frequent) The T61 series is affected by what is known as the NVIDIA bug.

As such, I highly recommend getting a model with integrated graphics only, in which case a T60 or T61 would be absolutely fine. They are both very tough. If you want a 4:3 or widesreen model is up to you.

Depending on your budget you might also want to consider some newer models such as the T400 or perhaps even T410/T420 etc. Taking a look over at the X-Series might be a good idea as well, 12" is usually a lot more comfortable when traveling, though some may find the screen to be to small when used over a long period of time.

Check out any deals from your educational institution first. Especially the more technical oriented ones have nice laptop programs where you can buy for way less than normal. Usually HP Elitebooks, Lenovo Thinkpads or Dell Latitudes.

I wouldn't buy a T61p: it's power hungry and old in general. The keyboard and screen aspect ratio are superb, but that's about it. Especially if you need to use it during extended travel you might look into an X220; lighter, faster, lasts ~4 times longer on battery.

Unless you really want a 4:3 screen ratio, I found the T400 a delight.
I found the X200 very nimble as well with compromise of screen space.

Welcome, I hope you find a nice canidate.

I have T61 widescreen with intel, im clumsy as a person so laptop travels not only with me but even without me and travels with speed of sound ( falling constantly, im dropping it daily ) and it still works flawlessly so build quality is perfect , and u can upgrade them to ssd and 8gigs of ram and it should outlast your college/university by some years )
My 2£ opinion


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Depends on what you need it for. I wouldn't want to wait on a T61 if I had to make a render in Solidworks. A W520 with 2860QM can easily use more than 10 minutes for a simple render. With a T61 you can easily look at an hour....

With less old Thinkpads (like the *20 series) 8GB is more like a starting point. With a 4-slot W520 can you then easily upgrade to 16 or 24GB by adding two DIMMs. Last week I hit 100% RAM in use with 8GB by having a flowchart exported as a 180 Megapixel *.PNG (that ended up as 25 MB).