Thinkpads Forum

http://muncie.craigslist.org/sys/3835819284.html

Is it good price? I'm considering getting it to take with me to classes.

Welcome to the forum!

Not a great price, and not a horrible one.

Browse a bit through our forum's Marketplace, and you might be able to do better than that...

Happy hunting.

Thanks how much should I offer?

whitewind808 wrote:... to take with me to classes.

Pass on the X61s. The X61s will not have sufficient battery life even if its battery were new ... and the battery probably is well worn ... and a new battery would cost $150. Furthermore, the 1024x768 screen resolution of the X61s is practically unusable these days.

For under $200 you can get an X200s with 1440x900 resolution, and it runs 3 times as long on its batteries as an X61s does on its comparable batteries ... + the battery on the X200s is likely to be newer and you won't need to spend on that.

The X61s was a nice machine for its time ... but that was some time ago, and it has nothing on an X200s -- absolutely nothing!

See for yourself:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Lenovo-X200 ... 1c336ba53a

Honestly you sound like the ebay seller your linking too. Three times the battery life in one generation jump...please

whitewind808 wrote:Honestly you sound like the ebay seller your linking too. Three times the battery life in one generation jump...please

The X61s with a slim battery gets maybe 1.5 hours. The X200s, with its battery gets over 4 hours. The X200s with its large battery gets over 10 hours!

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.a ... eview=X61s

I did do my homework "Equipped with larger eight cell battery, battery life was nothing short of spectacular. Setting the screen to 7/15, the CPU to Low in Power Manager and WiFi on, I was able to get six hours and thirty-three minutes of battery life doing things like working on the review, editing photos and Internet. Testing it was the curse. I personally found sitting at the PC for that amount of time difficult. I did periodically get up to stretch or do other things, ensuring the screen remained on while I was away. If you were to dim the screen more which I think is doable or turn WiFi off, you could get even better results."

Notwithstanding that review, you are NOT going to get 6+ hours on an X61s in any usable mode, and the large battery, which sticks out the back, is both ugly and heavy. Furthermore, you'll need a brand new such battery to get the max. time, and that will cost you over $150. A used X61s is unlikely to come with a new Lenovo battery.

Look at an X200s with 1440x900 screen. Its "normal" batteries, i.e., the ones that don't stick out the back, give you 5+ hours, and the machine is lighter, faster, and easier to use than the X61s with its large battery ... and you can get an X200s for less than you are planning to pay for an X61s.

Ask yourself what you see in an X61s that is preferable over an X200s. If nothing, and the prices are the same, then ... well, I suspect you can do the "math".

Now your back tracking after you sensationalized how good this X200s is. Your trying way to hard and I see you posted in another X61s thread with the same mantra. I don't know where your getting this $150 replacement battery nonsense there tons of batterys on amazon and ebay for the X61s for under $30.

whitewind808 wrote:Your trying way to hard ... I don't know where your getting this $150 replacement battery nonsense there tons of batterys on amazon and ebay for the X61s for under $30.

Trying way too hard to do what, exactly? Save you money while saving you from buying an inferior machine?!
Great; buy an X61s, and buy one of those $30 batteries.
Best of luck to you!

I would also recommend a X200.

Being a generation younger than the X6x they're generally faster , quieter and cooler. Another advantage is that RAM upgrades are cheaper since it uses DDR3 instead of DDR2, so you can go up to 8GB with less money.

Even if you go for the models with lower resolution, 1280x800 will be still more than 1024x768, (unless you hate widescreens). It also supports SATA-II speeds out of the box, and the keyboard is a little bit larger due to the wide format.

My 2 cents...

whitewind, relax man. You asked for an opinion and you are getting some good opinion/advice.

IMO, the price is to high for a X61s. That's X200, X201 territory. At least that is true in my region. I have no idea about pricing in your market.

@whitewind808: While it's true that there are "tons" of aftermarket batteries available for the X60/X61 series for around $30, they either don't last as long as a factory battery or have problems with fitment. This is especially true for the extended (8-cell) battery when used with an UltraBase. Some aftermarket 8-cell batteries are physically different than the originals, so much so, that they prevent the laptop from docking with the base. That said, it's also possible to get genuine Lenovo batteries for the same $30 (or slightly more; certainly much less than $150) if you are patient on eBay. Here's what I recently got for my small fleet of X60 systems:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121094031001 ($46, including shipping)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221228856803 ($30 each, free shipping; I bought two)

All three batteries had 1 or 0 charge cycles and would be considered "New, old stock" (NOS) items.

You're (notice the spelling ) probably going to be paying too much (IMHO) for that BSU X61 at $219, even when you consider the "extras" involved. Over the last two months I've purchased four X300 systems for an average of $139 apiece, although they all came without hard drives. Each one has 2GB of memory, working DVD writers, Bluetooth and webcam; one came without a battery, two arrived with the 3-cell battery and the fourth has the 6-cell. Add $44 for a 120GB hard drive and $52 for a restore disk set, and it's still cheaper than the equivalent X61 from your craigslist ad. Personally, if I was still in the buying market, my upper limit for basic X60/X61 systems (1 to 2GB of memory but no HD, battery or UltraBase) is about $50 nowdays.

rkawakami wrote:Over the last two months I've purchased four X300 systems for an average of $139 apiece

I'm so envious!...

Sorry for the off topic... Couldn't resist

And if you were across the pond, you would get it as cheap as chips

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330933892324? ... 1438.l2649

with a little bit of dyi (NOT affiliated with seller!)

Way too much for that X61. I recently picked up an X61s in great condition with a new battery all for $60. Great machine but disappointed with the battery life.

whitewind808 wrote:http://muncie.craigslist.org/sys/3835819284.html

Is it good price? I'm considering getting it to take with me to classes.

SailingAway wrote:Way too much for that X61. I recently picked up an X61s in great condition with a new battery all for $60. Great machine but disappointed with the battery life.

What size battery did you get with the machine? Genuine or aftermarket?

My X61 (non-"s") gets about 5.5 hrs on the extended battery with the wireless on...

It came with a new 4-cell extended and I also purchased an 8-cell. Both are ebay aftermarket types. The 4-cell gets me about 3 hours of surfing with wifi on the whole time. Haven't tested the 8-cell yet.

By comparison, I also have an X120e. While it has a much slower CPU compared to the X61s, I really can't tell any difference in speed between the two after installing 6 gigs of RAM and a SSD in it. However, it does have much better graphics than the X61s and consistently gets about twice the battery life.

ajkula66 wrote: What size battery did you get with the machine? Genuine or aftermarket?

My X61 (non-"s") gets about 5.5 hrs on the extended battery with the wireless on...

SailingAway wrote:It came with a new 4-cell extended and I also purchased an 8-cell. Both are ebay aftermarket types. The 4-cell gets me about 3 hours of surfing with wifi on the whole time.

That's really not bad for a 4-cell knock-off, seriously...

By comparison, I also have an X120e. While it has a much slower CPU compared to the X61s, I really can't tell any difference in speed between the two after installing 6 gigs of RAM and a SSD in it. However, it does have much better graphics than the X61s and consistently gets about twice the battery life.

I've never owned a X120e so I can't comment on it in any which way... the best battery life I've gotten from a laptop was not from a ThinkPad, but from various Panasonics...

ajkula66 wrote:That's really not bad for a 4-cell knock-off, seriously...

Knock-off batteries work fine when new, but deteriorate faster over time.

I can't comment on prices in the US, I have a X60, X61T and X201 i5 and I have to say my fav is the X61T, but the X201 does have it's merits, however it's not built as well as the previous X series.

Batteries are quite cheap here, genuine Lenovo 8cell are £29 delivered.