next computer controversy

[benplaut]

My mobile Radeon 7500 has finally come around and kicked me in the [censored], so now i've got a little dillema of where i should spend my money for a new computer, with a good card

my school is starved for computers, a great many of the kids bring laptops. it's pretty hard to work at this school without a laptop, so i have a bit of a dillema. If i spend alot of a laptop, i can get one good for gaming, but not have room for much in terms of upgrades (and it would probably be big and heavy). If i buy a desktop, then my grades will go down a bit, and working on the school computers SUCKS (all your program settings are erased after logging out... paranoic admin).

The solution i've come up that seems the best is to buy the desktop i'm yearning for, then buy a cheap laptop for powerpoint, word processing, and internet... that's all i really need for school.

IBM Thinkpad is almost a must, i'm a devoted user - but i've been told that the quality of slightly older Dells is pretty good... i've never seen for myself.

I'm planning to spend $1000 on a desktop. At that price, 1gb ram, A64 3700+, 160gb HDD, and 6600GT are all within reach. If i bought a gaming laptop of similar specs, it would cost about $1500, with all the disadvantages laptops have. The price point for old'ish thinkpads, mainly looking at T20, T21, and T23, seems to be at about $400, judging by ebay. For that price, i can get by with a 12-20gb hdd, 700-1000MHz PIII, 256-512mb RAM, and a cd burner, if i'm lucky (only judging from BIN).

What do you guys recommend? It seems most logical to have two computers, although syncing may be a bit of a hassle.


Thanks for the input,
Ben

[K. Eng]

The T2x is ok, but the keyboard is mushy by ThinkPad standards. If you are considering machines that old, you may want to look at the 600X. The 600 series have the best [censored] keyboards I have ever typed on in a 2-spindle machine.

A 600X with a Pentium III would be more than good enough for basic office work.

[benplaut]

The T2x is ok, but the keyboard is mushy by ThinkPad standards. If you are considering machines that old, you may want to look at the 600X. The 600 series have the best [censored] keyboards I have ever typed on in a 2-spindle machine.

A 600X with a Pentium III would be more than good enough for basic office work.

600x seems like a great machine, but they're really hard to find

it seems that they, per specs, are also a bit more expensive than T2x
i've been using CRAPOTASTIC Dell lappy keyboards for a key days, so i think i'd be fine with a slightly mushy keyboard