Thinkpads Forum

Hi all

I've been umming and ahhing about getting a new laptop to replace my dead HP 6715 for a while now. Initially I wanted a 13" machine for about £450, but found a Thinkpad T61p for a decent price. It's a 15.4" model with the 7300 CPU, 4gb RAM, 500gb HD (I installed this in place of the 100gb one), Intel Turbo Memory and all that gubbins. It also came with the docking station.

I've installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and have this one question:

Why did I even consider any other laptop? This Thinkpad is so well built, quiet, reasonably cool, absolutely fast enough for what I need it for (office/internet/email) and I'm now even considering taking up PC gaming again, simply because I can! The battery is only lasting a couple of hours but that's fine, if I want to use it for a long period of time I can plug it in or just dock it and use my external keyboard/mouse/monitor. I also might have access to a free extended battery somewhere.

To summarise, I'm delighted. Hopefully I can be a valuable contributor to this forum and not just a 'leech'.

I do have a couple of serious observations though:

Using a standard VGA connection from the dock to my Samsung 22" monitor doesn't give a great picture, whereas using HDMI from my HP Mini 311c netbook gives a superb picture. Is it worth investing in the advanced dock which has DVI? Last time I looked they were quite expensive.

I bought a WWAN card off Ebay and replaced the Intel Turbo Memory thing, but it doesn't have a SIM card holder. Do I need something else as well?! In the meantime I'm using a USB 3G dongle but I'd prefer to use something internal if possible.

Many thanks

At this point, docking stations for a T61 should be dirt cheap on eBay. I see one for $30 on a quick search.

fafaforza wrote:At this point, docking stations for a T61 should be dirt cheap on eBay. I see one for $30 on a quick search.

Could you post either a link or the item number? I can't see any advanced docks for cheaper than £60, which in all honesty isn't too bad.

Didn't notice that you were in the UK, I was looking at the US site, but shipping might not be that bad

My brief search showed 380291762006 and 190504811438, but check compatibility as I'm admittedly not doing an indepth search.

These are fairly old laptops, so you should be able to find the docs cheap. I remember buying docks for my T42 for $7US at a similar stage in its life that the T61 is now.

fafaforza wrote:Didn't notice that you were in the UK, I was looking at the US site, but shipping might not be that bad

My brief search showed 380291762006 and 190504811438, but check compatibility as I'm admittedly not doing an indepth search.

These are fairly old laptops, so you should be able to find the docs cheap. I remember buying docks for my T42 for $7US at a similar stage in its life that the T61 is now.

Thank-you. That first one is a bargain at ~ £25, but shipping is 30-90 days! I'll contact the seller and see if there's a quicker option.

Managed to get an advanced dock with the ATI gfx card off Ebay for a reasonable price.

Suppose I better get a second monitor now too!

Anyone got any thoughts on my WWAN question?

I recently bought a dock for my T61 and I noticed there are two versions, one with DVI and one without. I got one with the DVI port, but it is not the model with a PCI-E slot. Just thought I'd point that out in case there was any confusion.