Thinkpads Forum

Hello, dear thinkpadders!

Seems like the days of my beloved T61 are counted and it's time to move on. The aging hardware and especially the nvidia glitches are the major reasons. I wanted to make a big step forward, I was considering moving to TP Edge E530c (Core I5 with 8 gigs of ram, intel HD graphics), but it's way to expensive for my budged atm.

I found this T400 for ~350$ and looking for your opinions:
* Intel T9400 2.53GHz, 1066MHz, 64-bit, 6MB
* Video Mobility Radeon HD 3470, 256MB, DX10.1, SM4.1
* RAM 4GB DDR3
* 160GB SATA2 hdd
and a 9-cell battery.

The things I'm going to take from my old T61 are the 2 hdd's. Unfortunately T61 Ultrabay caddies do not fit the T400/500 series, but they are really inexpensive on ebay, so it's not a problem.

So is it worth the upgrade?

Is that a local sale?

If not, you can do a lot better price-wise...

Oh yes, I forgot to mention it's a local price - 500 Bulgarian leva. 1 dollar = 1.42 leva.

I'm considering it a good deal, because ordering from USA is a no-go for me - shipping and import taxes are high and the total price is jumping 400$ and above.

It is hard to say. I do not know what the prices are in your area. Over in the states, t400 can be had in great shape for much less, probably due to many retired corporate units on secondary market.

Personally, I would say you may be disappointed moving from a 15.4" t61 to a 14.1" t400. Less screen real estate. I also think that the t61 keyboard is a lot nicer. The t400 feels too "soft" after having a 61. The t400s are still great machines. But, given the choice, I would try to keep the T61 going myself even if a board swap was needed.

For North America, that's a little bit expensive for a T400. How suitable for your purposes will depend on what you will be using it for. Besides the Nvidia concerns with a T61 what else are you finding inadequate for your purposes? For me, using my laptops for mainly websurfing and MS Office work with some Photoshop, a T60 is sufficient. A T400/T500 is more than adequate and is definitely a step up.

Whatever you decide, if budget allow, plan for a SSD. That more than any other upgrade will bring the biggest improvement in the general computing experience.