am i on the right track? feedback needed

[o1001010]

so as all of you know i like my thinkpad with the exception of that dead red pixel in the middle of screen (flashing it will not go away) so i called ibm tech and sales and both sale guys said if it happened to them they wil get an exchange so that is what i am going to do. this time around i did my reasech and since my friend works at ibm i got his epp.

i was first inclined towards 2686 dgu but there were a post here about this guy and his 3 exchange witjh ibm and each have dead pixel got me worried.

i then look at the 2686 dju and it comes good except that it will almost certainly come with ALPS keyboard. i currently have a 2668 with chicony keyboard and i can live with it. but according to most of you here the alp make wierd noises. so that 2686 dju become a question (i will upgrade warrenty if i get that one)

how does 2687duu rate? anyone have it? love it hate it? is 2687 a step up from 2686?

then i started to look at t42 2373 m1u but it have 14 sxga. but i saw an ibm website with all keyboard part number and it seems all 42 can use any of those keyboards. but the question on this m1u is that how does the 14 lcd on this machine rate? alot of dead pixel failure?

if you recommend any other t42 models please post

since office dpot carrys tp now i will go there tomrrow morning and see how i like the 14 non flexview lcd.

please, feedback needed. thank you

[ddutta]

If you are on a budget and can wait a few weeks for your laptop, buy a CTO model and you will save money by avoid options that you wont use. Also if you have a XP Pro license from work/elsewhere, order one with the XPHome license and save $60. Also, the 9 cell costs only 40 extra. IBM will rip you off with their memory prices. Hence buy 256MB and get a GB from newegg.com. The hard drives are less of a ripoff especially the 7200rpm drives.

The new non express CTOs turn out to be cheaper. Somehow Lenovo doesnt reduce the prices of old models! Once you figured out a configuration that you like, call Lenovo and be very direct. They try to sell you the express systems.

Only problem with the CTO is that it takes 3 weeks to ship. In my case it took 2 months due to some major problem with their supply chain But they did give me a discount after some complaining

CTO models can be found at
https://www-03.ibm.com/lenovo/shop/pers ... ookie=true