Whether T420 at above AUD$100 is valuable 7 yrs on?

[Yukikaze]

I have seen most topics on T420, and based on all that, I've summarised reasons for 'Whether T420 should be bought or not'

• Not i7, no separate GPU, 7 years old, flimsy plastic around DVD drive, motherboard may fail soon – won’t boot past POST on my T420s, needs 90W adapter for full CPU speed use or a battery installed
• Collection item if it’s in really good condition/original config - really?

I highly doubt that T420 2nd hand esp. through eBay or other local auctions will last another 2 years if bought now.

Plus, don't these models lack Win 10 support - more and more frustrations/incompatibilities await?
And local purchases need to be cheaper than 'refurbs' or eBay (which charges sellers extra fees right?) If it was bought by the seller second hand then I reasonably expect far lower prices. Laptops' motherboards are the biggest issue - they crack/warp under heat after 7 years of use (this was long before Lenovo began low-heat soldering).

So I still have to haggle the price. Why is it that the sellers are able to sell TPs at higher prices when the motherboards are such an issue?

Best regards!
Leo

In addition, are generic unbranded AC adaptors fine to use?+ what happened to OneLink docks for recent models after E550?

[ajkula66]

So I still have to haggle the price. Why is it that the sellers are able to sell TPs at higher prices when the motherboards are such an issue?

It's called free market. Apart from the fact that T420 is the last 14" ThinkPad with a conventional 7-row keyboard.

In addition, are generic unbranded AC adaptors fine to use?

I've always advised against using them. The original ones are quite inexpensive nowadays...

[Yukikaze]

Ah yes, in the USA original adaptors and nice T420s await all those who seek them; not so in AU.

Besides, isn't the conventional keyboard NOT as good as I've come to believe?

[ajkula66]

Besides, isn't the conventional keyboard NOT as good as I've come to believe?

It's really a matter of one's preference, habits, and many other things.

To some people - myself included - it makes a world of difference.

To others it means absolutely nothing.

[Yukikaze]

Aww, I count myself into the group - the core fans of TP who remember their old successes which came from the traditional KB, not the chiclet... man, I need a T420, lots of them?

[Yukikaze]

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=126885

got time? read it.

[CrazyTPFan]

You could also try to find a T430 which would offer better graphics and put the T420's classic keyboard on it. It doesn't seem like it's that hard of a mod to do based off the videos iv'e seen.

[Yukikaze]

Hmm, both T420 and 30 have already been discharged from corporate use - maybe around 2016? so they're really hard to come by in AU. Additionally, I'm not going to buy off eBay - the only site we have here. Gumtree has a few - T420 is what I'm looking at right now, but the seller needs some persuading!

Thanks - this was just for venting my frustrations at 2nd hand sellers wanting an impossible profit, and how the bidding on eBay for TPs is just not on!

T420 and OneLink dock...

[CrazyTPFan]

Hmm, both T420 and 30 have already been discharged from corporate use - maybe around 2016? so they're really hard to come by in AU. Additionally, I'm not going to buy off eBay - the only site we have here. Gumtree has a few - T420 is what I'm looking at right now, but the seller needs some persuading!

I thought you were buying from ebay. If you're buying off gumtree you should be able to talk the price down.

[Yukikaze]

Hmm, both T420 and 30 have already been discharged from corporate use - maybe around 2016? so they're really hard to come by in AU. Additionally, I'm not going to buy off eBay - the only site we have here. Gumtree has a few - T420 is what I'm looking at right now, but the seller needs some persuading!

I thought you were buying from ebay. If you're buying off gumtree you should be able to talk the price down.

Talk it down? Please teach me how! Kidding

[CrazyTPFan]

I thought you were buying from ebay. If you're buying off gumtree you should be able to talk the price down.

Talk it down? Please teach me how! Kidding

I wish I knew how to talk prices down That's not one of my skills.

[Yukikaze]

Truly, regarding haggling prices, time is the fundamental issue. If no one else offers prices higher than yours, and the seller decides to comply, then you've won. If not, forget 2nd hand! Truly Lenovo should sell more TP 25 KBs. Or not. Or just be finished with this brand. This brand was only good thanks to IBM.

My TP 25 is in Japan. I miss it, so I've wanted a T420 to see differences. Take a look at this image from Naitoh. See pic next to'「ThinkPadの父」とも日本では言われる
レノボ取締役副社長 内藤さんの文章' https://korya-sugoi.com/25_aniversary_e ... fuzokuhin/

The Japanese got a case too! Way to go.

[CrazyTPFan]

I like everything about the thinkpad 25 except that it doesn't have a 16:10 aspect ratio screen

[TonyJZX]

The t25 also has a terrible GPU and its probably close onto $2,000 aud, even if its available, I beleive its limited edition.

About the $75 usd T420.

You know what? I'd probably pay that for a T420 shell... I think the least I paid for my T420 was about USD$50 and that was no HDD but it had 8Gb the crappy Nvidia 1Gb gpu and was otherwise well specced, ie i5-2540, Intel 6300 and a 1,600 x 900 screen... I needed to do nothing but add a adapter which I have a box of and a cheap SSD and a Win7 install.

Mine works fine with a std. 65w charger.

"Valuable" is a vague word... its an ancient laptop to everyone else out there but its the final editon of the classic TP.

I'd probably prefer a T420s but be that as it may, to us the T520 W520 T520 X220 etc. are all worth something if its in decent working order.

The T420 also lacks USB3 but thats fixable with an express 34 card.

Let's put it like this... a good condition classic KBD is like easily $50 usd as a part, the ram and cpu is ok.

If you get a workable machine with a few bucks then do it.

If the machine is very low spec, ie. i3-2100 or something 4Gb w/ a 1,366 x 768 screen and say that hopeless Thinkpad Wireless II single band card then its too much work for me to get up to spec when I can buy other machines that are better.

eg. I bought a Dell e6420/e6430 for not much more.

[Yukikaze]

Yeah, well - I see but it happens that all the sellers here in AU want a far higher price than even $170 USD. So it's kind of pointless to haggle with them.
I'm still thinking about T420. I prefer more efficient machines - usually I'll have a few old and a few new machines around, and I always pick the newer ones for the lower energy use. BUT somehow despite the feeling that the keyboards on newer models might be pretty good, I find TP 25 has fundamentally altered how I see modern TPs! The mechanism is: Fans gave input to create TP 25, they released the cool PC as an 'epitome' of 25 years, and I was lulled into a false sense of 'maybe newer TPs are pretty boring after all' and 'traditional KBs look way easier and familiar to type on'. For the newer generation of fans, TP 25 actually caused us to rethink and reject the new styles Lenovo pushes out. Quite unfortunate! Lenovo's biggest mistake. And because of TP 25, I have to do all this hardware analysis and forum posting...how ridiculous.

[CrazyTPFan]

The t25 also has a terrible GPU and its probably close onto $2,000 aud, even if its available, I beleive its limited edition.

About the $75 usd T420.

You know what? I'd probably pay that for a T420 shell... I think the least I paid for my T420 was about USD$50 and that was no HDD but it had 8Gb the crappy Nvidia 1Gb gpu and was otherwise well specced, ie i5-2540, Intel 6300 and a 1,600 x 900 screen... I needed to do nothing but add a adapter which I have a box of and a cheap SSD and a Win7 install.

Mine works fine with a std. 65w charger.

"Valuable" is a vague word... its an ancient laptop to everyone else out there but its the final editon of the classic TP.

I'd probably prefer a T420s but be that as it may, to us the T520 W520 T520 X220 etc. are all worth something if its in decent working order.

The T420 also lacks USB3 but thats fixable with an express 34 card.

Let's put it like this... a good condition classic KBD is like easily $50 usd as a part, the ram and cpu is ok.

If you get a workable machine with a few bucks then do it.

If the machine is very low spec, ie. i3-2100 or something 4Gb w/ a 1,366 x 768 screen and say that hopeless Thinkpad Wireless II single band card then its too much work for me to get up to spec when I can buy other machines that are better.

eg. I bought a Dell e6420/e6430 for not much more.

Yukikaze wouldn't be able to do it as he already stated that where he lived thinkpad T420's were put out of use in 2016 so they will be more expensive.

[Utwig]

How expensive is shipping to Australia? I bought T400 lid from USA to Europe and the shipping cost around 20$.

I recommend T420s though it runs hot as it can be upgraded to FHD. Now that I switched to Intel only it runs cooler than nVidia only - haven't bothered with Bumblebee - the 420s is my Linux machine. T420s has two USB 3.0 ports.
If not T430s (300-400) + T420 palmrest (50) + keyboard (50) + 16GB + cable + FHD display + SSD for the ultimate classic experience. T430s uses DDR3 which is more common, while T420s uses DDR3L.

[CrazyTPFan]

How expensive is shipping to Australia? I bought T400 lid from USA to Europe and the shipping cost around 20$.

I recommend T420s though it runs hot as it can be upgraded to FHD. Now that I switched to Intel only it runs cooler than nVidia only - haven't bothered with Bumblebee - the 420s is my Linux machine. T420s has two USB 3.0 ports.
If not T430s (300-400) + T420 palmrest (50) + keyboard (50) + 16GB + cable + FHD display + SSD for the ultimate classic experience.

Yukikaze said he is buying off GumTree so no shipping price

[Yukikaze]

How expensive is shipping to Australia? I bought T400 lid from USA to Europe and the shipping cost around 20$.

I recommend T420s though it runs hot as it can be upgraded to FHD. Now that I switched to Intel only it runs cooler than nVidia only - haven't bothered with Bumblebee - the 420s is my Linux machine. T420s has two USB 3.0 ports.
If not T430s (300-400) + T420 palmrest (50) + keyboard (50) + 16GB + cable + FHD display + SSD for the ultimate classic experience. T430s uses DDR3 which is more common, while T420s uses DDR3L.

I noticed T540p, T420s, T400, R61, X61t, T60p, T42p, A21p on your list. Does your T540p have the TLight? I have never used it before.

[Utwig]

T540p does not have thinklight. I replaced trackpad with 3-button but I got the cheap knockoff, so no more gestures. I have the trackpad disabled. The X61 tablet also doesn't have thinklight.

[TonyJZX]

I'd imagine Gumtree might be crap if its Adelaide.

Just an FYI, I'm in Sydney... I know that Syd Melb Bris Perth has the big ex lease resellers. These guys buy out lease returns by the pallet load and you can get machines pretty cheap but you need to be able to pick up.

I myself drive maybe 25 miles or take the train to pick up laptop shells. I dont have much use for desktops but occasionally might pick one up for work purposes. I'm also in the IT trade so obviously I know what I'm buying.

To be honest I havent tried much on gumtree as many seem to be "mums and dads sellers" who bought a $1,000 laptop 5 yrs ago and expect to get $600 back for it.

Be that as it may I feel like there's some good deals on ebay if you're careful.

Eg. I occasionally see T420 laptops refurbed for $200 delivered that have charger, fresh copy of Win10 plus Office and with a 3 month warranty.

You cant do better than that.

At around $100 you're buying broken or close to broken stuff. I dont mind that too much as I take a calculated risk and can fix it.

[TonyJZX]

Just an FYI because this thread and a few others recently asked for T420 or T400 type machines cheap.

This is available is is a VERY common sale item:

T410

i5-520M(2.4GHz), 4GB RAM, 14.1in 1280x800 LCD, Intel 5700MHD, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn wireless, WWAN upgradeable, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Camera, 6c Li-Ion, WinXP Pro

This machine arrives with no hdd, no hdd caddy or cover, sometimes no ram cover, sometimes with 4gb, sometimes with 2gb, usually no battery.

These shells are sub $50 but probably go for less given few people want these.

You obviously need an SSD... 120Gb ssd is like $40 or less.

Say $10 ebay for the caddy covers etc.

The charger is at least $30.

Ram is probably $20 for a pair of 2gb sticks. Hope you got the OEM 4gb.

The batteries for these are getting to be an issue as genuine ones are very rare and $30 only gets you a china copy which is a gamble.

You know what to do with the Win7 iso and loader and bios so I wont insult you there. Or go linux.

So at the end of the day, is it worth it?

It is if you enjoy this kind of process of rebuilding but even at these prices its a bit of a faff around for a 1st gen laptop.

[CrazyTPFan]

I'd imagine Gumtree might be crap if its Adelaide.

Just an FYI, I'm in Sydney... I know that Syd Melb Bris Perth has the big ex lease resellers. These guys buy out lease returns by the pallet load and you can get machines pretty cheap but you need to be able to pick up.

I myself drive maybe 25 miles or take the train to pick up laptop shells. I dont have much use for desktops but occasionally might pick one up for work purposes. I'm also in the IT trade so obviously I know what I'm buying.

To be honest I havent tried much on gumtree as many seem to be "mums and dads sellers" who bought a $1,000 laptop 5 yrs ago and expect to get $600 back for it.

Be that as it may I feel like there's some good deals on ebay if you're careful.

Eg. I occasionally see T420 laptops refurbed for $200 delivered that have charger, fresh copy of Win10 plus Office and with a 3 month warranty.

You cant do better than that.

At around $100 you're buying broken or close to broken stuff. I dont mind that too much as I take a calculated risk and can fix it.

That's the thing with some people. They think that their computer is close to original retail price 10 years later

[arty_harvy]

That's the thing with some people. They think that their computer is close to original retail price 10 years later

I can relate sometimes. I special ordered my W520 from Lenovo, and there is no way I could sell it for what its worth today. But its still in flawless condition and its one of the best machines I have ever used. I have no intention of ever selling it.

[Saucey]

Written off laptops are always cheaper than buying from the original owner. The latter wants to make up what they've paid for.

Id say it could be worth AUD $100 and up. Looking at the ebay market, T420's can be had as low as US $80 and up to $160. If I needed one, a T420 would suit my needs if I can't find a T420 or W530 at a competitive price.

I believe the T420 has an edge over the T430 due to it being able to accept coreboot.
In addition, this would unlock ivy bridge CPUs, so you now have the battery life T430's have minus the OEM battery lockout.