T61p: Opinions vs. R50p, and how well would it work on XP?

[AdamaDBrown]

Well, my beloved R50p is showing increasing signs of impending failure (blank screen and display corruption; probably the GPU), and being out of warranty, it only makes financial sense to replace it.

I'm tempted by the specs on the T61p, as well as the fact that there's a couple units on eBay with IBM warranty service until late 2010, which would be a great reassurance to me. However, my one experience with a recent model Thinkpad--a Z61m--left me less than thrilled with it. Am I going to be happy long-term with the T61p as an upgrade to my R50p, or am I better off sticking with an IBM made model like a T42/43p?

Second thing: I loathe XP SP2, and I have no desire to run Vista, so if I got a new laptop with either of these the first order of business would be formatting the drive and popping in my XP SP1 CD. Knowing that the T61p comes with Vista, how well does it work with XP? Are there driver issues?

[Brad]

T61p's are available with Windows XP but that would only be SP2.

You could also order XP downgrade disks from Lenovo if your particular choice came with Vista.

You may also consider repair of your R50p. A motherboard replacement would most likely solve your problem.

Brad

[AdamaDBrown]

The one I'm looking at (an eBay model) does indeed come with Vista. I already have a usable copy of XP Pro, though, so I was envisioning doing the downgrade myself, as long as drivers were available.

I've considered a motherboard replacement, and I'd do it in a heartbeat except I can't find a reasonably priced motherboard. Buying from IBM, I might as well just buy a replacement R50p on eBay, and the only person who seems to have any for sale on the Marketplace forum here wanted $400 each for them.