Replacing T40...maybe with Z

[jwjcmw]

So my wife learned that a glass of wine and a laptop don't mix...her T40 keyboard is fried, and even with a keyboard off of another T40, it doesn't work exactly right (you have to unplug/replug the power and keyboard each time for it to boot). Since this machine was also going to need a new battery, I'm thinking it might be time to just replace the whole thing. I like the look of the Z60m, but I have a few question I hope somone can answer:

1. Will the memory from the T40 work in the Z60? If so I could just get by with 256MB, and replace that with the 1GB from the T40.

2. Will the ultra-bay drive from the T40 work in the Z60?

3. Is the keyboard layout on the Z60 the same as the T40 (placement of keys is very critical to my wife...it's why she bought the T40 in the first place)?

4. For general Word/Web/Outlook use, is there much advantage to getting the Pentium 740 over the Celeron 370? I like the $499 price tag on that Celeron...that's less than many of the used T40's I was looking at.

Thanks!
-jim

[invictus]

Ah yes, wine and laptops don't mix too well (or any liquid for that matter). I too had to find out the hard way...

1. The T40 memory is DDR (PC2700) while the memory in the Z60 series is DDR2 (either PC2-4200 or PC2-5300). So the memory in the T40 won't work in the Z60.

2. I'm pretty sure that the ultra-bay drive from the T40 will work in the Z60. In this thread http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=25040 there's a link to the ThinkPad Wiki that shows what's drives are compatible in what devices. It shows that the T40 ultra-bay drives will work in the ultra-bay slots.

3. The keyboard layout is close, but the only differences is that on the Z60 series they have the Windows key between the Ctrl & Alt key. Some people are glad to have it while others dislike it. Me, I don't use the Windows key that much so I'm more like 'meh'. And also the ThinkPad/ThinkVantage & volume buttons are switched and to some people don't look as 'polished' like what the T40 series has.

4. The main difference between the Pentium M 740 and the Celeron 370 is that the 740 has 2MB L2 cache, runs at 1.73GHz and on a 533MHz Front Side Bus (FSB) while the 370 has 1MB L2 cache, runs at 1.5GHz and has a 400MHz FSB. Also, the Celeron doesn't have the power saving capabilies that the Pentium M has (but I could be wrong). With that said, I think for general use the Celeron should be good enough. The question to ask though is what did the T40 have for a processor? I think what could be done is get the Celeron and then maybe add more RAM...

[jwjcmw]

The T40 had a 1.3Ghz Pentium M...so I think the Celeron would be a step up (or at least just a step over). But I just went ahead and bought the Pentium M, anyway . It came with 256MB more memory, a larger hard drive for not too much more. Thanks for the advice!