T400- am I crazy for wanting to upgrade it?

[LegendaryKA8]

It's been a long while since I've last posted on here, but I had some questions about my old T400... this'll take some explaining so be ready for a story.

I originally purchased this machine in Feburary of 2010. It was pretty decently configured; switchable graphics, 1440x900 CCFL, P8400 CPU and a 9-cell battery among others. It was a great system(I even upgraded to the very nice LG 1440x900 LED display), though in my quest for more power I ended up getting a hold of a T500 later on. At the same time, a friend of mine had his laptop stolen from his college dorm room. I sold him the T400 at a significant discount and he was completely enamored and overjoyed for it. This was early 2011, IIRC.

A few months ago my friend told me he upgraded laptops and he wanted to know if I wanted the T400 back. It was heavily damaged due to a few drops, knocks, being tossed in the trash and subsequently recovered(long story) and a botched display repair. I bought it back for shipping cost, figuring I'd at least eventually repair it. When I got it back, it looked like a truck had ran over it. The display was barely hanging on with one loose hinge, the lid was cracked, and it frankly looked like it had been through WW3. My friend assured me it would still work, and amazingly in such a state it did. However, with more pressing projects and a full workload(I work two jobs and am getting a business off the ground) ahead of me, I stuck it in the closet with thoughts to part it out or just junk it.

A casual Feebay search turned up another T400 of a similar configuration being sold for parts, and I decided to jump on it since the price was right. I'd take my luck with the dice, and I hit the jackpot. The machine was in excellent shape, about an 8.5-9 cosmetically. There was some corner wear on the display lid but that was it. Additionally, it also had the very same, awesome LG LED display in perfect shape. The only reason it wasn't working was a password-locked BIOS, so I swapped the mobo from my old T400 in and it worked perfectly. the new one came with an P8600 CPU for a marginal bump.

I've started up a local mobile PC repair service and have been using my other laptop for this work, a Dell Precision M6700. It's a wonderful, powerful, high-end machine, but it's bulky and heavy. While having a super powerful mobile workstation has its advantages, I really need something smaller. the T400 would be perfect for the task, size-wise. At this time(excluding my original purchase) I've only got about $75 into it so far. I'm currently running an old 80GB Intel X25M-G2 SSD I've scrounged up and a 500GB Momentus XT in the Ultrabay. 4GB of RAM isn't stretching very far with my usage profile, so I swapped RAM for 8GB in the T400 and 12GB in the Precision. That actually helped quite a bit.

I'm really thinking about a CPU upgrade and the T400 needs a battery. Checking the Feebay, I can get a T9600 for about $20, a T9800 for about $40, and a T9900 for about $65. A brand new 9-cell Lenovo battery is about $85. So, let's say bottom end of $105 and a top end of $150. I understand that in today's terms the CPU increase is marginal and that this is a 5-6 year old system. However, for what amounts to be about a $200 system that still performs pretty well, would this be worth it? I'm avoiding picking up another new system for a while, and as an avid trackpoint user I'm really leery about Lenovo going the clickpad route(full disclosure: I haven't played with a new Thinkpad but I really disliked the clickpads on the newer notebooks I use at work). The T400 seems to me the best route for the time being, but I wanted some other opinions and feedback on this.

[ajkula66]

You may want to consider selling the T400 in its current shape/form and getting a T410 which packs quite a bit more "ooomph" - although might be on the warmer side of the T400 - and can be found quite inexpensively nowadays...my only real complaint about these machines is the absolutely lousy touchpad.

My $0.02 only...

[Temetka]

Normally CPU upgrades really aren't worth it IMO unless the CPU being upgraded is super weak. You have a P8600 which isn't too shabby and of course upgrading to a T series CPU would increase overall system performance, but I doubt it would be enough to be noticeable when using google or excel. But for $20 I would do it. You will see some increased temps as the P series run much cooler than their T series counterparts. As far as the battery is concerned, I would get one. Battery life, especially in the field is very important.

Congrats on rescuing your abused T400, they are rather nice machines.

[Temetka]

You may want to consider selling the T400 in its current shape/form and getting a T410 which packs quite a bit more "ooomph" - although might be on the warmer side of the T400 - and can be found quite inexpensively nowadays...my only real complaint about these machines is the absolutely lousy touchpad.

My $0.02 only...

I own a T410 and it's an awesome machine. But given that the OP already has some funds in his T400, adding a new battery wouldn't really hurt things. This is one of those rare occurances where I disagree with ajkula. Your T400 is 95% complete. Finish it off and enjoy using it.

Devil's advocate: Sell the T400 here and put the funds towards a T410. Or go crazy and sell the T400 and the Precision and get a T420 with an SSD, 16GB RAM, and an mSATA boot drive. But that would be kind of insane.