any suggestion about A31P

[rbi]

I plan to buy a "new" laptop. There is a refurbished A31P-P4 2.0 60GB for USD$655 and the low end Z61M-60GB T5500 1.66 for USD$990. Which one should I choose? Now the budget is a little bit tight because of the expected baby.

[pianowizard]

I plan to buy a "new" laptop. There is a refurbished A31P-P4 2.0 60GB for USD$655

I bought a mint-condition A31p off eBay three months ago for only $428US shipped. $655US is too much.

[FrankK-F]

Am not up to speed on the Z model you cite ... but the A31p which I have was in its time the premier TP model, a portable engineering work-station, the only 3-spindle notebook on the market .. as far as I know. The display is 15 inch UXGA, NO dead pixels, superb quality.

I liked my first one so much, I got a second one as backup after an accident damaged my unit. I have maxed the CPU and memory (2GB), run 100 GB 7200 HDDs, etc. .. and am running both on Dock-II in my office, with different add-in cards for DVI and frame grabbing off machine vision cameras. And via 4 PC-Card slots per station, I have Firewire, USB2, SCSI, IDE, BT peripherals .. some 12 hanging on my primary box.

While there are more recent TPs with more horse-power, the A31p is still a formidable box. Recommended.

One suggestion I will make ... try to get IBM (Lenovo) extended warranty coverage. My experience with IBM (now Lenovo) service has been 10/10 based on 10 years of ThinkPads 755XD, 765D, A31p.

Your decision should be guided by what you want to do with your TP .. as the two units cited seem to serve different purposes.

As for the pricing, others may have more information. Since I am running my TPs in my business, not a hobby (.. well also hobby in spare hours), and am not as price sensitive as others on this list.

[schen]

I plan to buy a "new" laptop. There is a refurbished A31P-P4 2.0 60GB for USD$655 and the low end Z61M-60GB T5500 1.66 for USD$990. Which one should I choose? Now the budget is a little bit tight because of the expected baby.

I'm a bit believer of the A3x Series machines. Solid with unparalleled flexibility in configuration. That being said, I really believe that $655 is too much as it puts it within a couple a hundred of the far newer models such as the R4/5x as well as the Zs. If you do a completed auction search on other A31/ps, I think you find quite a few of them to have sold for less than $500, which makes it a bargain.

[pianowizard]

If you do a completed auction search on other A31/ps, I think you find quite a few of them to have sold for less than $500, which makes it a bargain.

The biggest problem the OP has is being located in Australia. This seller has several A31p's with a BIN price of $420 plus shipping, but they only ship within the U.S.

[rbi]

Thanks pianowizard and I already saw the ad. From the eBay, there is another one for USD$569(sorry I didn't separate the shipping cost and they gave me the quote for $85 express USPS-seems reasonable? for A31P? so the total cost will be USD$655).The desription of it is: P4-M 2.0GHz(512KB), 512MB RAM, 60.0GB HDD, 15.0 UXGA(1600x1200) TFT LCD, 16x10x24x/8x CD-RW/DVD, Wi-Fi wireless/Modem(MPCI), Ethernet(CDC), IEEE 1394, IBM Secure Chip(TCPA), Bluetooth(CDC), TV out, Li-Ion battery, WinXP Pro
Factory Sealed Box With IBM Warranty!
What do yo think of your 40GB one pianowizard? Is it good? Is it worthy to pay 149 more for this one?

[pianowizard]

What do yo think of your 40GB one pianowizard? Is it good? Is it worthy to pay 149 more for this one?

Yours has WinXP, which is better than Win2K. Make sure it has the COA sticker for WinXP, not just WinXP preloaded. Without the sticker, it's illegal. Also, 60GB HDD is of course better than 40GB, probably making the laptop worth $15US more. Yours also has built-in wireless and CDRW, which are worth another $40US or so. So I think $569US for the whole package is not bad, as long as you don't mind the insane shipping charge.

Another thing. Are you aware that the A31p is very bulky and heavy? It's intended to to be left on a desk most of the time and moved only occasionally. The Z61m is slightly more mobile.

[rbi]

Thanks mate. Sorry I forgot to mention my location which is Australia. And my purpose for this laptop is for my wife to do the stock daily trading. My old T23 PIII-1Ghz, 20GB, Windows Professinal might be given to my parents. We don't move the laptop quite often as we now live in a humble apartment. And also I intend to use it to edit the video using Ulead videostudio 10 plus for our expected baby. Another issue is I plan to install Office 2007. So do you think A31P is powerful enough? By the way, what's the total weight for 2653R5U?
By the way, I already have a Linksys wireless card G and I think I saw another model without the wireless selling for about 500. But now I can't find it.

[rbi]

And anyone can suggest the most economy shipping way cause I might be able to ask the vendor to amend the shipping cost?

[pianowizard]

I think I saw another model without the wireless selling for about 500. But now I can't find it.

Most likely it's sold.

The A31p weighs about 7.5 to 7.7 lbs.

Sorry but I have never shipped heavy items overseas, so can't help you there.

[rbi]

Thanks all. May I ask another question? If I want to buy the Thinkplus Ultrabay numeric keypad for A31P, do I need to buy the carrier for it or A31P already got the Thinkplus carrier inside it?

[proaudioguy]

Thanks all. May I ask another question? If I want to buy the Thinkplus Ultrabay numeric keypad for A31P, do I need to buy the carrier for it or A31P already got the Thinkplus carrier inside it?

You would have to buy it. It doesn't come with it.