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Do R52's have any collectability value?

Older ThinkPads from the 300, 500, 600, 700 Series, iSeries, Transnote etc.
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beshad
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Do R52's have any collectability value?

#1 Post by beshad » Fri Mar 01, 2019 8:56 pm

hi, i am in a position to buy three working condition R52's locally in New Zealand. batteries as well as hard drives (incl. cradles/caddy) are all missing and there is no power supply either, but they work. asking price is only NZ$25-$30 (around US20) for all three hence got my attention. is this even worth considering? is there anything special or quirky about R52 which should make me buy these and go through hassle of rebuilding (at least one of) them? my thinking of early-mid 2000's thinkpads is that they are neither vintage nor useable for any actual work (pls correct me if i got this wrong). cheers

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Re: Do R52's have any collectability value?

#2 Post by Thinkpad4by3 » Fri Mar 01, 2019 10:24 pm

Not too much. Its just a late model P-M machine, and right now those machines are in the 15 year slump, where they are old enough to not be of any use but not old enough where they really become nostalgic and collectible. At under 7$ a machine, it'd take them. Play around with them and see what you can make them do.
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Re: Do R52's have any collectability value?

#3 Post by Screamer » Sat Mar 02, 2019 4:53 am

If you want a easily overclockable Pentium M laptop to use for fun, then it might be worth the purchase.

Apart from that, I can't see any features or qualities that makes the R52 special or 'quirky'.

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Re: Do R52's have any collectability value?

#4 Post by shawross » Sat Mar 02, 2019 7:18 pm

Hello from Australia.

beshad wrote: batteries as well as hard drives (incl. cradles/caddy) are all missing and there is no power supply either,
I wouldn't buy them because they are not complete so after you spend $30 you have to spend more money. Calculate how much you would have to spend first. I have some T43's with 2.13Ghz cpu and X300 gpu which are probably only worth $50 - $25 and they are complete. They also have the Samsung 160 GB hd.

A T43 or T42 probably has more collectability but not that much unfortunately. YMMV
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beshad
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Re: Do R52's have any collectability value?

#5 Post by beshad » Sat Mar 02, 2019 7:44 pm

shawross wrote:
Sat Mar 02, 2019 7:18 pm
Hello from Australia.

beshad wrote: batteries as well as hard drives (incl. cradles/caddy) are all missing and there is no power supply either,
I wouldn't buy them because they are not complete so after you spend $30 you have to spend more money. Calculate how much you would have to spend first. I have some T43's with 2.13Ghz cpu and X300 gpu which are probably only worth $50 - $25 and they are complete. They also have the Samsung 160 GB hd.

A T43 or T42 probably has more collectability but not that much unfortunately. YMMV
great point and i agree, being pedantic I won't just play around with them and then put them away , i know i end up spending lot of time and money rebuilding them and at the end i will have a R52.

beshad
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Re: Do R52's have any collectability value?

#6 Post by beshad » Sat Mar 02, 2019 7:47 pm

Screamer wrote:
Sat Mar 02, 2019 4:53 am
If you want a easily overclockable Pentium M laptop to use for fun, then it might be worth the purchase.

Apart from that, I can't see any features or qualities that makes the R52 special or 'quirky'.
thanks for info, maybe it's just me but i do like my TP's to be a little quirky or different, like a fully brick boxy shape of a 380, swappable internal parts of 360/750, butterfly keyboard of a 710 etc etc etc

beshad
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Re: Do R52's have any collectability value?

#7 Post by beshad » Sat Mar 02, 2019 7:52 pm

Thinkpad4by3 wrote:
Fri Mar 01, 2019 10:24 pm
Not too much. Its just a late model P-M machine, and right now those machines are in the 15 year slump, where they are old enough to not be of any use but not old enough where they really become nostalgic and collectible. At under 7$ a machine, it'd take them. Play around with them and see what you can make them do.

cheers for reply, surely they wouldn't end up costing me just $7 each after i spent $$$ replacing the missing parts

i won't be able to resist not to rebuild them hehe

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Re: Do R52's have any collectability value?

#8 Post by TPFanatic » Sat Mar 02, 2019 8:43 pm

T40 and R50 lineup is also susceptible to Southbridge and GPU detachment from board flex. The next generation's T60 and R60 are dual core, making them leaps and bounds more usable today, and have native SATA ports. One generation after that, the 3GB RAM limit is surpassed. Two generations, and you're using cheap DDR3! Three generations, you've got Intel Core i series with hyperthreading. Four generations, you've got Quad Core, mSATA, and the 8GB RAM limit is surpassed, although dual core, 2.5" SATA, and 8GB are good enough making the best cheap usable laptops the T410 and X201, although some of the T410's fans are defective.

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Re: Do R52's have any collectability value?

#9 Post by dr_st » Sun Mar 03, 2019 2:14 am

R52 was when IBM/Lenovo decided that R series does not need IPS screens. The SXGA+ on R51 was IPS just like on T42, but on R52 they started putting SXGA+ TN screens... It may have been a supply issue, and they wanted all the screens they could get to go on the high-end T series. The trend continued with the *60 series and by *61 IPS was gone from the T as well (no matching form factor).
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