zoltan87 wrote:
Wow! I had no idea about these prices! Is it maybe a USA thing (I would be surprised if that's the case though, as usually everything is dirt cheap over there compared to Europe)? I bought my 15 inch T60 with Ati x1400, 2gb ram and a flexview 1400 x 1050 screen for £35, and it's pretty much unused, keyboard and everything inside is like new, bottom is like new, only the rubberized lid that shows some wear/ shinier edges, but even that has no major marks. Since then I have bought two more 15 inch models (same flexview screens, but with Ati x1300 graphics cards), these units has completely intact lids (although have a big sticker on them on the bottom left corner, will be a pain to remove them), but the inside shows some use (nothing major, no shiny keyboards etc), mostly just I can feel that it's a little bit sticky, will have to wipe them down with some damp cleaning cloths. These two newer models were £55 each, and that is pretty much the maximum I would ever pay for a 10 year old computer. So I have my dream machine, and have 2 spare ones too. I was also thinking about buying one of these NOS t61 mobos for a couple of days, but then I weighed in everything, and it would be just way too expensive for me. Shipping is INSANE to the UK, and I also checked the DDR2 memory prices (main advantage of that mobo is being able to take 8gb), it's like £80 for 2x4 gb ddr2 laptop memory!!!! You gotta be kidding with me! But now I am glad it's so expensive, helped me completely out from my fantasizing, and I won't end up sinking a fortune into something, that's so obsolete (for my needs it will be fine, but just about). It would be an extra ~£300 (new mobo, ram, and cpu), to make my machine maybe 20% faster. And as I said I paid £35 for the whole unit, so if anything could be considered to be a bad investment, then this would certainly qualify for that.
I suppose in your case it would be a wise option to stick with the all-original T60 hardware. Frankenpadding for me has always been a tinkering passion and an envelope-pushing thing more than a pursuit of something more suitable for my needs- which is why I sold my unit when I needed the money... because I'd rather someone else have it to themselves, who can make good use of it.
DO NOT proceed with a Frankenpad mod- unless you have the funds to back it up, and at least some of the expertise in laptop maintenance and hardware to perform the mod... or consult the people who can help you. If you really don't need to make your T60 into a Frankenpad, it's best not to. But I should also note- a lot of people have these misconceptions that all-original ATI-GPU T60/ps are quite capable on their own... and modding your T60 into a Frankenpad is the farthest thing from worthwhile. Honestly- it's all down to your needs.
The point of making a T601F (T60/T61 Frankenpad) is to have the nice, big, comfortable 15" 4:3 chassis and UXGA Flexview display(and possibly the R50p's QXGA) with the T61's newer generation hardware, and NVIDIA graphics (which IS genuinely a lot more futureproofed and capable than the ATI X1300/X1400/V5200). This is a combination of hardware that CANNOT be found any other way, and really means some incredible benefits to people who have stuck with the 15" T60 ever since it was a new product from Lenovo. If you don't benefit all that much from an IPS UXGA Flexview, the Thinkpad look and aesthetic feel, or the comfort of using a laptop you're used to and works perfectly well for the sort of work you do... then there's not much reason for you to Frankenpad your T60.
And as a last note- Most of the value in a 15" T60 is mostly in that it's a 15" T60. The screen options are far better and these machines do have the potential to be made into the very acceptable and capable Frankenpads, which preserve a lot of original features, unlike the 14" T60/T61 Frankies with widescreen motherboards... which are less reliable and compromise the machine's originality far more greatly. As for how much you find them for- finding a 15" T60 for a good price is possible, but is more of a chanced thing. Some people here on the forums are quite generous and just want the laptop to go to a good owner, and you'll see some ex-corporate T60s on ebay go for below $100 Buy-It-Now. But people will pay more than that, especially for an all-original, good condition 15" T60, because most of the time... it is quite hard to find them for less than that.
RAM is always expensive if it's more dense modules, because it's a market thing. Most laptops from the era(even performance laptops) didn't have any more than 2 RAM bays, so people are always hunting for 4GB dense DDR2 RAM sticks. since 2x 4GB sticks is the only way to get 8GB, it's only fair to see 2GB sticks go for a lot cheaper than 4GB sticks.
I'm a hardware design engineer and SolidWorks CAD software rocks my frankie hard. Still the system is running like a chased deer.