How many ThinkPads do you own?

Message

atlacatl · #1 Post by **atlacatl** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 11:11 am

I've been part of the forum since I got my ThinkPad T40p (Jan/04) and I'm always curious to read why so many of you (forum members) have more than one ThinkPad at the same time.

Ok, I understand that if you are part of an IT group of an office you get to configure and perhaps use more than 1 ThinkPad. However, I think there are owners out there that actually have more than one ThinkPad for personal use.

Why do you own more than one ThinkPad at the same time?

Mind you, that I wouldn't mind getting a new one every time they come out

Like a top of the line T42p, however, with my current laptop ussage, the T40p is more than enough for my needs.

#2 Post by **K. Eng** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 12:03 pm

I could see people owning more than one, for example: keeping a T42p at home as a desktop replacement that can be moved from room to room, and also keeping an X series for travel.

I keep my T40 for travel & work. I have a homebuilt desktop at home for file serving/backup, DVDs, MP3s, and games.

sjhwilkes · #3 Post by **sjhwilkes** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 12:04 pm

I buy a new one every two years, but keep the previous one as a backup, usually passing on the four year old model to a family member. Currently a T30 is my main machine, with a T20 as backup / second machine.

I use both at the same time sometimes too - basically as someone would with a multiple monitor setup, but more portable. Everything I do involved either a browser of SSH session so spreading those out is great.

The T30 is very clunky compared to the T20, I'm not sure which way I'm going to go at Christmas, 14 or 15" T42...

JChrzanowski · #4 Post by **JChrzanowski** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 12:11 pm

I used to have 3 of them, a T40, T20, and an old school 760EL.

Currently I only have the T40, and the 760el, sold the T20

ian · #5 Post by **ian** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 12:25 pm

My first experience of IBM was a 600e I purchased about 18 months ago - I was hooked, and about 8 months later bought a T21 - I was more hooked (!) and when the T42 came out, I bought a 15" one - even more hooked !!

The 600e is currently used by my daughters boyfriend - my daughter uses the T21, and I have exclusive use of the T42 - this said there are some people on this forum who play Budha and use/have about 15 Thinkpads, and as many arms as far as I can deduce...

geobel · #6 Post by **geobel** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 2:30 pm

I have 1.04: T40 that I use and TP600 as backup laptop. The latter one POSTs once per 20-30 attempts but once started works fine until I switch it off.
Gosha

sktn77a · #7 Post by **sktn77a** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 2:39 pm

Well........ I don't actually get to use any of the thinkpads I paid for

My two daughters have a T40/T41 in college and my son is about to get a T42 for his 16th birthday. But hey, I get to wipe 'em clean of viruses and other junk every 6 months

#8 Post by **jdhurst** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 3:38 pm

I have one and a half laptops. I have a T41 and a Toshiba Libretto, that push comes to shove can do email with dial-up. It weighs 1.9 pounds and will travel in the corner of a briefcase or pack. I rarely use it.

I have had (since 1/1/2002) a TP A22e (Windows 2000) that I sold to buy a T23 (Windows XP) that I sold to buy a T30 that I sold to buy my T41. I have owned the T41 since 1/1/2004, and it looks like a keeper.

I am currently looking at an OQO, but it doesn't have a PCMCIA slot (so no cellular wireless) and the last price I saw was (much) more than the first price I saw, and that may stop me.

... JDHurst

stgreek · #9 Post by **stgreek** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 3:56 pm

I got 4: a T40, a T23, an X31 and a 600x. Too attached to sell them, so I gave one to my girlfriend (T23), kept one as a file/music server (600x), one for the road (X31) and one as a desktop replacement (T40). I am really happy and really poor now

#10 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 7:59 pm

I have a T23, a T21, a 600 and 3 570's (two 570's are headless). (edit: All 570's now have displays.)
The T23 is my work computer, the T21 is my playtoy, The 600 just went to my daughter and the good 570, ultrabase and port replicator are going to my mom. The other two headless 570's were cheap and work fine when attached to a monitor.
I bought the 600 first and I liked it so much I bought the 570 out of curiosity. I liked it so much I bought the two headless ones for $20.00 each on ebay.
Then I bought the T23 and was so impressed with it I bought the T21 when I found a good enough bargain.
It will probably be a while before I get a T4x model, a few models behind the leading edge is still plenty fast for me.

MadeInJapan · #11 Post by **MadeInJapan** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 9:03 pm

I have 4...(previously owned notebook computers included a Thinkpad 380Z and a Compaq LTE 1500) my son is using one of them. They are 2 Japanase Thinkpads and 2 U.S. models:

1. 535E Japanese laptop with Japanese keyboard...which is a very small (10inch screen), and made for small Japanese hands and fingers...it has only 80mb of Ram...but nice for travel...has modem built in and 2 PC slots...use a wireless card with it in a hotel in Tokyo where I often stay. I formatted the 6Gig HDD and took off the Japanese and put on English Win98SE, but with Japanese IME so I can deal with reading and writing the language. Have reworked the key input so it works smoother when I type in Japanese. I have 2 batteries for it...one works and one is dead, so I took the cells out and use the "shell" when it's plugged up to AC.

2. 365X (Japanese model), I've lent this to my Japanese secretary to use at home for AOL access. The battery still holds a charge...Think it's only 120mhz pentium, but has 90mb of memory...simple, sleek and light...Japanese keyboard. Have Japanese Win98SE running on it, but another HDD with English Win98SE for when I get it back.

3. 600E with just under 300mb of RAM. It now has a 12Gig HDD as I took the 40Gig 7200RPM one out for the T30 I recently bought. I ran Win2000 Pro on it and it was like the O.S. was built for this machine. I have 2 batteries for it, a shell without the battery cells in it for when it's plugged up to AC, 2 floppy drives...one internal and one external for it as well as a 2nd HDD adapter and second AC adapter (I used to leave one adapter at work and one at home). This machine is solid at 400mhz and it's DVD-rom was made region free for Japanese DVD viewing...a dream machine, but I wanted something more....

4. My purchase a couple of weeks ago...the T30, U.S. model running Multilingual Interface (Japanese/English) Windows XP...wow, what a nice tool Microsoft finally came out with...can not only input and read English and Japanese without any problem, it can also run programs in each language! This machine has built in WiFi, no touchpad (thank goodness), 512MB RAM and 40Gig (7200RPM) HDD (from my 600E). I also took out the 40Gig HDD that came with it and have it in a 2nd HDD Adapter to keep a "Ghost" of the internal HDD up to date as a back-up. Also have a cable to Printer Port for the Floppy drive for this so I can boot with floppy with 2 HDD's in the Thinkpad at the same time (something you need if you're Ghosting a drive).

Extra stuff includes a couple of HDD's sitting around (hope to use one to back up DVD's, as the T30 has a DVD burner in it) as well as a couple of FDD drives and AC adapters. Nice thing is that some of this stuff is compatible between the 600E and T30. The FDD's are compatible between the 2 Japanese Thinkpads and the 600E, but not with the T30 unless the "to parrellel port" cable is use.

Guess that's about it. It was fun to write about my Thinkpads. I love Thinkpads and much prefer working on them and fixing them than any other laptop. Since I work at a Japanese school and am fairly knowledgeable about fixing things, students bring me their broken computers all the time. The worst to work on is a Sony...hands down. Toshibas are decent, but their screens are their weak point. Fujitsu's are a bit finicky to...but always a pleasure to help a student out who has had the foresight to buy a Thinkpad, whether it be a Japanese or American Model.

JHEM · #12 Post by **JHEM** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 9:08 pm

Where do I begin??

I've got 4 at home that I keep ready for prime time. My T40, my T23 primary backup, my Transnote play machine and my never-to-be-sold PIII 850MHz 600X fallback, emergency road machine.

Then there's an integrated T21 on our boat that runs the NAV software and the occasional DVD. There's another T21 that stays in the plane and maintains all of it's logs and lease records.

My live-at-home son the CFI keeps a T21 for maintaining his student's records and a 600X as his primary travel machine. There's a 600E that's kept in his leased Cessna to maintain all it's logs and leasing info.

My younger daughter has a 600X for work and school, and my old 770Z she won't give up that has been relegated to bedside WiFi surfing and DVD watching. She's repeatedly declined the offer of a T21 or T23 upgrade as she won't give up the 600's keyboard.

My elder daughter has a T40 compliments of her employer, as does her husband. He liked it so much, he bought another from me!

My Mom has my old 570E, but hasn't been using it much of late as she can no longer comfortably see the 13.3" XGA display.

My wife has a T40 compliments of her employer (same as our daughter's).

What are we up to? 15? There's a half dozen others lying around awaiting repairs, upgrades, etc., as well as some hangar queens like my venerable 701C, 755CD and another 770Z that I keep for sentimental reasons.

Regards,

James the Obsessed

atlacatl · #13 Post by **atlacatl** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 9:29 pm

JHEM wrote: What are we up to? 15? There's a half dozen others lying around awaiting repairs, upgrades, etc., as well as some hangar queens like my venerable 701C, 755CD and another 770Z that I keep for sentimental reasons.

Regards,

James the Obsessed

Wow!

When you really like ThinkPads, you really like ThinkPads

I won't feel bad then, when I get an X40 and bring my count up to only 2...

Guest · #14 Post by **Guest** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 11:22 pm

should have made the poll with 3-4, 4-5, 6-9, 10-15. and then 15+

AssPenny · #15 Post by **AssPenny** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 12:35 am

Yep, that would have been better. I now have:

570
A22m 1.0ghz
A30 1.0ghz
A30 1.13ghz
A31 1.6ghz
T40 1.5ghz
T42 1.7ghz

[censored], i need to get rid of some these. Now i know why the wife yells at me.

JHEM · #16 Post by **JHEM** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 12:24 pm

needalaptop wrote:should have made the poll with 3-4, 4-5, 6-9, 10-15. and then 15+

Done! (More or less.)

Regards,

James

#17 Post by **carbon_unit** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 7:25 pm

But how do i change my vote??

eliu · #18 Post by **eliu** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 8:08 pm

I own a T42 for portability (laptop to classes, laptop to other dorms to work, laptop outside when it's nice, whatever), and I also keep a self-built desktop for gaming & such....recently equipped it with a new Dell 2001FP--does wonders for my eyes.

JHEM · #19 Post by **JHEM** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 8:15 pm

carbon_unit wrote:But how do i change my vote??

I'm looking into it.

Regards,

James

Myung · #20 Post by **Myung** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 8:22 pm

My addiction(!) to Thinkpads started with 570E on which I have spent as much money as buying 570E on purchasing dock, external cd-rom, ultrabase, USB-hub, etc.

Then, I turned to T30, thinking I would not spend any more money on T30. Alas, here come the dock and firewire pci card for the dock.

Although I am happy with T30, I miss the lightness yet big enough screen of 570E. When the days of T30 is over, I may turn to X series.

G-Man · #21 Post by **G-Man** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 1:22 am

I'm writing this post on my TransNote. Next to it is sitting a T40. There is a mint 701C in my desk's drawer. I'm still using it almost every day for writing. And somewhere in the house is laying a 760E. Somehow I'm too attached to these models, and probably will never sell them (I might replace my T40 with an X Series though). I'll always blame myself for selling my 600E. That was a near perfect machine with the best keyboard I've ever used. Oh, and I'm still planning to put my hands on a S30/31 in the near future.

Regards,
G-Man

warmstrong · #22 Post by **warmstrong** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 10:01 pm

700C (I think it still works!)
770 (not currently working)
770Z (iffy)
A20 (my wife's)
A30p
X20 (not working)
X30
Workpad (does that count?)

Accessories, too many to count!

Regards,
Bill Armstrong

FrankK-F · #23 Post by **FrankK-F** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 9:16 pm

In 1986 when I bought an HP-PortablePLUS, a solid state 'laptop' (total system cost @ $11K -- ouch), I had three key justifications: (a) shrinking secretarial/admin-assistance staffs pointed to self-reliance even as I was rising to upper levels in a major corporation, (b) the promise of the paperless office (still an elusive goal), (c) promise of freedom from office (fully realized, and suites my work-style), and (d) use anywhere (indoors yes, otherwise limited). How strange, many of my colleagues were thinking, as I promulgated these views back then.

Over the years I stuck to my views .. never had a desktop in my work environment, and struggled through the early and evolving "laptop" generations. My HP-PP had over 20 hours of battery life, 5.5MB solid state storage (with small and efficient SW), DOS 2.11, MS-Word 1.1, Lotus-123 .. and a 1.5 second full-reset (3 finger salute), and a menu-driven 'desktop' that I built.

I had my HP-PP for 8 years, well into the era of Windows. Then finally moved into Windows on a COMPAQ 400 series box (never like it -- and feeling was mutual).

My first brush with ThinkPads was @ 1998 .. TP755CD, a nice machine in its time, just before the initial Pentium chip. It promised more then it delivered however.

I then bought a TP-765D (P166, the first MMX chip), that was a big step up .. but I soon maxed it, upgraded its OpSys, but found W98SE wanting.

In 2002, I got my A31p (P4-2GHz, UXGA, WXPP, WiFi, 3 spindles, DVD, etc), a really big step up. I have maxed memory to 2GB, have several addiitional HDDs, PC-Card funtionalities, etc. A truly great machine concept!!! Are you listening IBM?

Through the years two trends conspired leading to my reaching for maximum performance. SW has become bloated and slow, and I started doing very resource intensive tasks (image, video, graphics, design .. in addition to the run of the mill "productivity" and web stuff). I should add that I am a solo practioner; my executive suite is a corner office with windows -- in my comfortable basement ... hee, hee, for you corporate types.

And just in recent weeks I added a second A31p (2GHz, 1GB). This last purchase was a quick and easy decision to provide redundant hardware following massive damage that my A31p sustained in an incident while visiting a client.

I discovered just how dependent I have become on computer "up-time" when I had to do without for 5 calendar days; scaled to corporate proportions this would have made the annual report. (IBM service has done an excellent job in restoring this badly mangled machine). Now with two machines (same basic HW) I can recover from virtually any disaster in minutes.

So, my current notebooks include the two A31p models, the TP765D (in perfect condition) looking for a good use/cause. ... and yes, my HP-PP, now a book-end -- which I turn on occassionally and marvel how far this technology has evolved in less than 20 years. However, one advantage that my HP-PP still has is that I could work with it on my boat in broad sun light.. something that my A31p is incapable of matching.

What will my next notebook be? A ThinkPad, of course -- solid design, rugged performance, great service .. understated elegance.

Frank K-F

ll357355 · #24 Post by **ll357355** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:53 pm

I have a work-issued T42 (1.7Ghz) and a personal T41 (1.7Ghz)..I like mine better =)

none · #25 Post by **none** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:44 pm

I own a modest two lol I used to own a TransNote too, fun times

xtypestereotype · #26 Post by **xtypestereotype** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 9:21 am

I had six at one point in time, being a desktop replacement T40, an X20 that I take everywhere including the toilet, an old 570, a 240 that I bought out of curiosity on eBay cause it is so small and two faulty 560 machines I also bought on eBay to play around with my screwdriver. The 570 went to my brother, the 240 went back to eBay, and I managed to ressucitate one of the faulty machines, which made me really happy.

edcard · #27 Post by **edcard** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 2:36 pm

I also have or have had a few:

- 700, purchased when they first came out (early 90's). Monochrome, upgraded with a 50Mhz 486-SLC (it came with a 25Mhz CPU), math coprocessor and 12MB RAM. It still works and runs DOS well, but the case has gotten brittle so I rarely touch it. Otherwise, I'd use it as a terminal.

- 701C (butterfly). I don't have this one anymore, but owned it for over a year. It had a 75MHz 486, a beautiful screen and the famous keyboard. Nice machine, but fairly slow.

- 365X, with 120 Mhz Pentium and 80MB RAM. It runs Win98 pretty well, but slow. The battery is dead and the hard drive is only an 800MB unit. I like the form factor and the display still looks great, but I mostly use as a terminal.

- A21m, with an 800 MHZ P3 and 384MB RAM. This has been a fantastic laptop. Still works great, although the battery doesn't hold much charge anymore. It runs Win2000 and Linux, and the only reason I purchased another model is because I needed something lighter and faster.

- T42p. I purchased this recently (and yes, I tried to buy it from Bill, but he doesn't take AmEx) and am very happy with it. 2.0GHz Dothan, 1GB RAM, 60GB 7200 RPM drive, b/g wireless, bluetooth, 15" 1600x1200 display, etc. This laptop will replace my desktop as my main machine and it'll run typical office apps plus some engineering software.

- X40. My wife owns this one and she just loves it; it is her main machine. Very light and small, and has all the essentials. Once we increased the memory to 1.5GB and tweaked XP a bit, it feels quite responsive.

FrankK-F · #28 Post by **FrankK-F** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 11:53 pm

My count is three

two A31p
one 765D

guest2183 · #29 Post by **guest2183** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 11:34 am

Let me see

A thinkpad 570
then thinkpad T20
then thinkpad T23
then thinkpad T30
now thinkpad T41

I have EXCELLENT experience with all of them!

#30 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 4:19 pm

I remember my first ThinkPad, it was a 350c my dad gave me back in 1998. Had a 9" DSTN screen, a 120mb drive, 8bm RAM and a NiMH battery that was shot, but nontheless, it worked and the computers overall condition was pretty good. It recieved a ton of use. Unfortunatly, I broke it permanatly when trying to replace a part. My next ThinkPad was a 760ED I got from a neighbor last year for $25.00, came with a good LiIon battery (up for sale on tis board, in the buy/sale area), all the original accesories, everything but a case. Unfortunatly, the plastics on the computer were deforemed and the computer itself was SLOW. It eventually grew senile and bit the dust. Now I'm using a 380ED that I just got about two weeks ago. I got it from the same guy I got the 760 from, but I paid several dollars more for this, but still got a pretty good deal, $60.00. Average price for a 380ED in good shape, but it also came with a wireless card and 2 good LiIon batteries and the computer itself is in almost mint condition.