Thinkpads Forum

$875 for this T60. Good deal or not?

IBM Thinkpad T60, Intel Core 2 Duo 1.66ghz, 15.4"WSXGA TFT, 2Gig Ram, 100 gig, DVD/CDRW, 56K, Lan, Wireless, Bluetooth, 9 Cell Battery Upgrade, XP Home + Vista Upgrade.

It's new and a local pickup. I am having a hard time figuring out if it is a good deal. He will throw in a DVDRW for an additional $50.

Thanks for the input.

well i was in FL and i picked up this:

Original description: T2500(2GHz), 1GB RAM, 100GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1400x1050 LCD, 128MB ATI Radeon X1400, CDRW/DVD, Intel 802.11abg wireless, Bluetooth/Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, 6c Li-Ion batt, WinXP Pro

He added:

1GB of RAM (Total 2GB now)
IBM Thinkpad bag,
IBM External USB Floppy drive,
IBM USB laser mouse (same skin as our Thinkpads)
IBM Thinkpad Advanced Mini DOCK ($219 from Lenovo.com)

I paid less than $800 for mine let's just say that. He wanted that much but i got him down to be a bit cheaper. I wont brag too much but i'm happy now, even thinking about giving up the T42 listed below

As for yours, i'd say it's probably worth it if he'd give you the DVDRW for the same price I don't like the 15" machines so it wouldn't be worth it for me but if that's good for you then it's worth it for sure. Value is dependent on your own needs, someone might pay $2,000 for it if it's EXACTLY what they wanted.

At0mAng wrote:$875 for this T60. Good deal or not?

IBM Thinkpad T60, Intel Core 2 Duo 1.66ghz, 15.4"WSXGA TFT, 2Gig Ram, 100 gig, DVD/CDRW, 56K, Lan, Wireless, Bluetooth, 9 Cell Battery Upgrade, XP Home + Vista Upgrade.

It's new and a local pickup. I am having a hard time figuring out if it is a good deal. He will throw in a DVDRW for an additional $50.

Thanks for the input.

Make sure it's "brand new" if you do buy it. People get ripped off every day. Local pick-up sounds good. Have him/her give you the model, type, and serial #. If it's really new, it should be in its original box with these numbers printed on it. Ask the seller if it's been opened, in which case question as to why it has been, and also tell him to read the serial # from the bottom of the machine!

Use it to verify the specs, and also the warranty. Ask what the cycle count on the battery is. He may not know how to find that out, but listen for any hesitation on their part. Say you have the money READY and you are a SERIOUS buyer, just to give him incentive to do all of the above for you. Also, ask him if it's a 2GB single stick or two 1GB sticks. If the serial # comes back with 2GB in the specs, and he tells you it's a 1+1GB configuration, you may infer that he's trying to pull something.

Post back with what he says. I hope this helps.

Well, let me tell you what a great price is, and you can try to judge from that. There was just a deal from Lenovo recently involving a clearance on cto T60's in combination with a 13.33% off coupon, and 10% cashback. I picked up a 2ghz 7200 (4 meg cache) c2d, with wsxga+ screen, 1 gig memory (single stick), 100g 7200 rpm, dvd/cdrw, 6-cell, wireless,56k/lan, fingerprint reader. After all was said and done, it came out to a bit less than $700. That's with a bare-bones, 1-yr warrantee. That was pretty much the "perfect storm" of deals, though. There will likely be a significant increase in posters here as a result of that deal!

For real deals, you need to be looking at someplace like fatwallet.com or slickdeals.net.

Atom, that does seem like a decent price for that model. Check the condition and any warranty status.

A couple more things: Being that you're getting the slowest Core 2 Duo @1.66GHz, definitely try to talk him into including the DVDRW drive, and I would also go no higher than an even $800. In that scenario, given the specs, the THREE extras would cause me to buy it if I were in the market for a new Thinkpad. I'm in sales, and I know the game, so I am a very shrewd negotiator sometimes, and I do overdo it at times. But in this case, the 9-cell battery, the DVDRW drive, and the Vista upgrade for an even $800, I'd say "sold!". If you look on ebay, you'll know what I mean.

Make sure to ask him if the Vista upgrade (which one, by the way? I assume Home Premium?) has a GENUINE activation key, along with the appropriate documentation, and is not just "pre-installed".

Finally, it never hurts to inject into the negotiation to ask as to why they're selling it.

Good luck!

I agree with Rmcder and Crunch- if you use the T60 CTO deal Rmcder referred to as a reference, I think it is only a good deal if he throws in the DVDRW and the Vista upgrade is a full version. Otherwise, you could probably get a brand new T61 from Lenovo for not much more. Check this link about 1/4 the way down the page for the most recent Lenovo coupon deals as a comparison- http://www.techbargains.com/laptopcompu ... review.cfm

Thanks for all the tips guys. I just picked up the sytem which I got for a bit less with the DVDRW drive. Also the memory was upgraded to 4GB even though only 3GB can be used and the warranty is valid until 2010. Just finishing up installing Vista Ultimate x64 and very happy with the laptop. It's my second T60 and maybe 10th IBM laptop overall. I wish it had the ATI X1400 instead of the Intel Graphics but I doubt I would be doing much gaming anyways. Oh and the hard drive endend up being a 7200 RPM model so that was a nice surprise too along with the wireless card being of the 'n' variety.

I currently have a clean install of Vista Ultimate x64 with no Thinkpad software at all besiedes what windows update installs. Is there anything that is absolutely needed from the Lenovo site in terms of software or drivers. I usually just install the on screen display suite and bluetooth software. I don't need any restore software or security software but was wondering if there is something I might need from Lenovo that I could be missing.

Vista x64 installed fine with no problems from drivers or software. Nice little peroformance difference and the overall feel of the machine is much snappier compared to a T60 with just about the same specs and Vista x86.

One last thing...I am going to mostly use this laptop when it is plugged in so is it better to take the battery out and if so is it better with the battery being out with a full charge or partially charged?

Thanks...Happy New Year!

At0mAng wrote:One last thing...I am going to mostly use this laptop when it is plugged in so is it better to take the battery out and if so is it better with the battery being out with a full charge or partially charged?

Thanks...Happy New Year!

Congrats on your new Thinkpad! I use my Thinkpad mostly on the AC adapter as well. While Li-Ion can't really be "overcharged", I use PowerManager (a ThinkVantage tool). You can configure it in Windows, too, though. I'd set it to where it doesn't charge until it has discharged to around 85-90%, which will take a LONG time when you leave it on the AC adapter. Oh, and don't forget to label yourself as an environmentalist if you do that, as you'll be saving a tiny bit of electricity lol...

Happy New Year!

wow nice pickup The Intel card is good enough for Vista unless you need gaming. I have the x1400 in my system and i don't use it, to a certain degree i'd probably rather the intel one for more battery life. With Vista tho (and probably the newest x1400 drivers from windows update) the ATI Power thing is built into the control panel so when on "Power Saver" mode i get an estimate time of 4:14 (6 cell) with lowest screen brighness at wifi on and DVDRW drive plugged in.

Oh well, yeah just get Power Manager and you DONT need bluetooth drivers since Vista comes with them built in (for me anyways). I just turn on my BT and it downloads and install them. I just do FN+F5 and that turns on and off BT without the Thinkpad software. When i wanna turn off the Wifi well there's the switch so i just use that. BT and no wifi well i use Windows Mobility Center to turn off Wifi but leave BT on. Works well if you ask me

If you are going to just store the battery, most battery experts recommend placing Li-Ion batteries in storage with about a 40% charge.