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ALL SOLD: Rather nice R500 deal for about $250 delivered!

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ALL SOLD: Rather nice R500 deal for about $250 delivered!

#1 Post by underclocker » Tue Sep 14, 2010 7:46 pm

All I can say is check it out --> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0473769766

I posted this in response to an inquiry in another thread, but thought it should be posted here, too...if you buy one, post back with how it turns out (I am not the seller and I have too many other TPs right now, otherwise, I'd buy two!)

[Udpate: Seller has changed the total item price from $259 to $234 to $224 to $219 to $238 to $258 to $238...]

I'd say this R500 for about $250 is a great deal. It doesn't have an internal wifi adapter, but is wifi upgradeable (meaning the antennas are there). A wifi adapter is as little as $10 (the seller does include a PC Card N wifi adapter). Also the machine is a Celeron 2.0 (actually very fast and 64-bit OS compatible) and only has 1GB of RAM ($15 for another 1GB). So for $259 you are very good to go, plus the machine is under warranty for another two years!

Full Specifications (also includes a 160GB HD upgrade, AC adapter and PC Card N wifi adapter)
Product: ThinkPad R500 2718-WLX

Original description: Based on 2718-CTO: Celeron M 575 (2GHz), 1GB RAM, 80GB 5400rpm HD, 1280x800 LCD, Intel 4500MHD, CDRW/DVD, Wireless upgradeable, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, 6c Li-Ion, WinVista Home Basic 32
Last edited by underclocker on Thu Oct 07, 2010 8:10 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#2 Post by dorronto » Tue Sep 14, 2010 8:03 pm

Just checked it out Ed. Seems like a great deal.....I don't do 15" displays.....though.. :(

I bought from them before. Had to return a laptop for credit once...It was their error...no problem in the return so I would buy from them..


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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#3 Post by Harryc » Wed Sep 15, 2010 5:41 am

Thanks for the heads up. I just picked one up so I'll let you know how they are. As a side note, these can be upgraded with an Intel Celeron Processor T1600 with dual-core, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor P8400, P8600, P8700, or a T9400 (up to 2.53Ghz). Also, they can be docked in an Advanced Minidock (same dock as T6X). The only caveat is that since it's an Intel GPU there is no DVI passthru capability on the dock. So VGA only there. Underclocker always seems to find such great machines with no DVI...must be an 'R" thing :).

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#4 Post by underclocker » Wed Sep 15, 2010 6:40 am

You are welcome. Yes, the CPU upgrade-ability is great. Also, this one does not come with the fingerprint reader, but the HMM seems to indicate that this model uses the same motherboard as other models that do come with fingerprint, so the connector should be there. I have an R61e, which while very nice and C2D upgradeable, did not have the fingerprint, touchpad or dock connectors. It seems the R500 series did not include such feature-reduced motherboards.
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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#5 Post by pianowizard » Wed Sep 15, 2010 7:32 am

This is an excellent deal for people who don't care at all about screen quality. I have seen hundreds if not thousands of laptops in my whole life and the R500's screen is by far the worst.
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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#6 Post by j-dawg » Wed Sep 15, 2010 8:25 am

Wow, what a deal for a functional, modern-enough computer. I may buy one for my mother...
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i have other laptops but i'll be honest i never use 'em

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#7 Post by underclocker » Wed Sep 15, 2010 8:51 am

pianowizard wrote:This is an excellent deal for people who don't care at all about screen quality. I have seen hundreds if not thousands of laptops in my whole life and the R500's screen is by far the worst.
Harsh! I'm not sure how many R500's you've seen, but I did own one (WXGA) and the LCD wasn't any worse than the average. Not great from an angle, but fine from in front, with considerable brightness. I have certainly seen equivalent LCD's installed on T40's on up. It may be luck of the draw. All that being said, caveat emptor!
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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#8 Post by pianowizard » Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:05 am

underclocker wrote:Not great from an angle, but fine from in front, with considerable brightness. I have certainly seen equivalent LCD's installed on T40's on up. It may be luck of the draw. All that being said, caveat emptor!
The one I saw (also WXGA) was terrible even when viewed straight on, and was worse than any of the mid-1990s laptops I have seen. But I am not surprised that yours was better, considering that Lenovo usually gets panels from multiple suppliers. So, perhaps the chance of getting an R500 with a horrible screen is only 30%.
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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#9 Post by MnR » Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:18 am

Hi,

Well If someone would buy my wifes T41, I could afford to get one... ;D But that won't happen... I still need to pay Way Too Many Medical Bills!!!!

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#10 Post by Harryc » Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:57 am

It takes a WUXGA LCD upgrade too ...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... wuxga.html

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#11 Post by chairsky » Wed Sep 15, 2010 8:42 pm

Harryc wrote:It takes a WUXGA LCD upgrade too ...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... wuxga.html
Hi Harry

Can you verify if it does not have DVI output capability for Intel GPU.
I'm gonna pull my triger, but not sure about this issue, as I am going to hook it up to an external monitor.
Thanks

Judith

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#12 Post by Harryc » Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:04 pm

Will do. I am not sure about that now because every Intel R500 I've checked in the LTWBOOK reference guide has a displayport. That should run to DVI via an adapter cable. It is due to arrive on Friday.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 70321.html

Edit: OK, the answer is in this thread - it works!
http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/R-and-L-Seri ... d-p/119860

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#13 Post by sl8763 » Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:47 am

Thanks for the heads up on these - giving the idea serious consideration!

Does anyone know the part number for the internal WiFi card? I assume it should be fairly easy to order from Lenovo or off eBay, but I can't seem to dig up the exact p/n to search on.
Current Thinkpads: X60, T61, T500
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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#14 Post by Harryc » Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:53 am

There are 3 or 4 different part numbers depending on what you want/need. Refer to the parts list in the HMM for details.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 70067.html

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#15 Post by sl8763 » Thu Sep 16, 2010 5:16 pm

Thank you Harry!
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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#16 Post by Harryc » Fri Sep 17, 2010 5:39 pm

The R500 arrived today. It looks new except for a couple of light scratches on the cover. The seller neglected to include the PCMCIA Wirelss N card as promised, so I have contacted him...waiting for a reply. I did remove the palm rest and keyboard to install some RAM, and I did see (3) loose WiFi antenna wires inside. So it is wireless N ready. The box included the laptop and 65W AC adapter. The (6) cell battery was installed. There does not appear to be a recovery partition and no recovery media was included.

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#17 Post by neutrinofdl » Sun Sep 19, 2010 11:25 am

Harryc wrote:The R500 arrived today. It looks new except for a couple of light scratches on the cover. The seller neglected to include the PCMCIA Wirelss N card as promised, so I have contacted him...waiting for a reply. I did remove the palm rest and keyboard to install some RAM, and I did see (3) loose WiFi antenna wires inside. So it is wireless N ready. The box included the laptop and 65W AC adapter. The (6) cell battery was installed. There does not appear to be a recovery partition and no recovery media was included.
I ordered one of these for my sister. It came without the wireless card. Does anyone know if this wifi card will work in the laptop

http://cgi.ebay.com/INTEL-WIFI-LINK-510 ... 3360e142fc

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#18 Post by Harryc » Sun Sep 19, 2010 11:41 am

It may work but it will throw an 1802 error on boot. So you'll need a hacked BIOS to run it. You're probably better off finding an IBM FRU.

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#19 Post by pianowizard » Sun Sep 19, 2010 1:36 pm

Harryc wrote:The R500 arrived today.
How is the screen? The R500 1280x800 screen that I saw a while back looked disturbingly fuzzy, almost like a monitor running at a non-native resolution and with ClearType activated.
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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#20 Post by Harryc » Sun Sep 19, 2010 1:44 pm

PW, it looks pretty good. I did some adjustments per the first post in this thread and that made an improvement.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... &hilit=hue
A couple of more observations on this laptop. It comes with (2) years remaining of an 'on-site' repair warranty. Also (and I did not know this until I researched it), the Mobile Celeron CPU does not have Intel Speedstep, so it runs at 2Ghz all the time ... but is very cool. Coretemp reports CPU temperature at 40*C at idle. The installed Vista Home Basic does not run Aero, and it was also not activated upon arrival. The COA number on the bottom of the laptop did work to activate Vista. Oh, and the onboard displayport does work using a Lenovo displayport to DVI-D adapter cable running to an external DVI LCD.

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#21 Post by dorronto » Fri Oct 01, 2010 10:15 am

Followup..........????

anyone else order one? good? bad?

just curious as the price is now $219.. :mrgreen:

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#22 Post by Harryc » Fri Oct 01, 2010 10:29 am

Ron, I wouldn't hesitate to buy this laptop again. For the price it can't be beat.

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#23 Post by dorronto » Fri Oct 01, 2010 10:41 am

Harryc wrote:Ron, I wouldn't hesitate to buy this laptop again. For the price it can't be beat.
Harry,

What else have you done to the R500? Is it a base configuration....

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#24 Post by Neil » Fri Oct 01, 2010 10:48 am

Every time I see this thread, I'm really, really temped to buy one of these. But I certainly don't need one, and don't even know what I would use it for.

You guys either need to buy five or six of the ThinkPads jI already have, so I can justify getting a newer one, or stop showing me these great deals! :mrgreen:
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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#25 Post by underclocker » Fri Oct 01, 2010 10:56 am

FYI, the seller just reduced the price to $219 plus $9 shipping, so $228 delivered. With the standard 2% eBay cashback the total is $223.62 delivered.

I might have to buy one, too.
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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#26 Post by dorronto » Fri Oct 01, 2010 10:58 am

underclocker wrote:FYI, the seller just reduced the price to $219 plus $9 shipping, so $228 delivered. With the standard 2% eBay cashback the total is $223.62 delivered.

I might have to buy one, too.
I know Ed, me possibily too.. :eek:

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $234 delivered!

#27 Post by Harryc » Fri Oct 01, 2010 11:34 am

dorronto wrote:
Harry,

What else have you done to the R500? Is it a base configuration....

Ron
It is pretty much a base config, but you can do all kinds of upgrades on these...RAM, CPU's, LCD to WSXGA+, Wireless N (ready), Multiburner. I have an Intel wirelss N card (5300) on order, and upgraded the RAM to 2GB. I am definately going to upgrade the LCD next, then possibly the CPU. At some point I may also get a T60 NMB keyboard for it. The keyboard on these flexes a bit.

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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $224 delivered!

#28 Post by cside » Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:29 pm

Since I just pulled the trigger on this deal underclocker has found, I've proved to myself that a good deal can be overwhelmingly tempting. I thank underclocker for the heads up about this sale and Harryc for sharing what he's doing with the R500 he purchased.

Now to figure out where in the 'puter stable this new one will go..............
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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $224 delivered!

#29 Post by visionviper » Fri Oct 01, 2010 5:51 pm

I also just bought one of these. My mom has been looking to get a laptop for my dad and when I saw this I told her about it and told her should just could not pass it up. If I had any need for another laptop at all I would have bought one of these for myself too.
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Re: On eBay: Rather nice R500 deal for only $224 delivered!

#30 Post by dorronto » Sat Oct 02, 2010 12:30 pm

anymore followup on these sales? Wireless card in box? No problems so far?

Thanks for your input.. :D

Ron
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