Which do-it-all laptop? How much diff T40p-T43p?

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silo · #1 Post by **silo** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 1:24 am

I have a T23 1.2GHz with 80G 7200 HD and 256MB mem. I'm thinking of getting one new (or used) laptop to replace the T23 AND the Apple iMac 2.0 GHz Dual Core desktop machine I use at home.

But what should this new laptop be? I need to do some web work (with Frontpage 2003) and some Pagemaker stuff (a 250 page lit magazine), and some photo stuff (minor photo retouching and graphics editing with PSElements/PS), and the rest of the usual word processing, excel, database stuff, surfing, email, etc.

I want the machine to be fast, have a large enough screen so I can see what I'm doing, reasonably high res, and I want it to be as light as possible, not over 6 lbs, surely.

What would be the ideal Thinkpad for this that I can buy on eBay or similar for under a grand?

silo · #2 Post by **silo** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 2:07 am

I spent 30 minutes on eBay and I'd say I have a problem. For a grand or so I can get a Dual Core MacBook 1.83 GHz with a biggish drive and a great 13" wide screen, and I can run windows on it like crazy.

Can i get a competitive Thinkpad? A T43? A T60? I started looking in the $600 area and there were a couple T41's available.

Yikes, prices seem to be running high.

mysbca · #3 Post by **mysbca** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 2:12 am

How about this T43:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=29864

I would go for the first one, just because of the 2+ years of warranty remaining.

silo · #4 Post by **silo** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:08 am

mysbca wrote:How about this T43:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=29864

I would go for the first one, just because of the 2+ years of warranty remaining.

Interesting . . .

skitty4gzus · #5 Post by **skitty4gzus** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:18 am

how about a t42p? 1600x1200? i think high res 15" screen 128mb ati vid card. 7200rpm, 60gb harddrive. Im loving my new t42p and I got mine for around 1000. Definitely well worth the money. You can find em on here and ebay for around this price, but most likely the ones on here will have some sort of warranty left. Just an idea for you.

mattbiernat · #6 Post by **mattbiernat** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:19 am

silo wrote:I spent 30 minutes on eBay and I'd say I have a problem. For a grand or so I can get a Dual Core MacBook 1.83 GHz with a biggish drive and a great 13" wide screen, and I can run windows on it like crazy.

Can i get a competitive Thinkpad? A T43? A T60? I started looking in the $600 area and there were a couple T41's available.

Yikes, prices seem to be running high.

before you get a macbook i would recommend going to a store and checking the build quality. i had some bad experiance with entry level apple laptops. but their higher end macbook pros are very good.

silo · #7 Post by **silo** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:35 am

skitty4gzus wrote:how about a t42p? 1600x1200? i think high res 15" screen 128mb ati vid card. 7200rpm, 60gb harddrive. Im loving my new t42p and I got mine for around 1000. Definitely well worth the money. You can find em on here and ebay for around this price, but most likely the ones on here will have some sort of warranty left. Just an idea for you.

This is interesting--looked on eBay, will look here. Lots of T4Xp units available.

Is there a lot of difference between the T40p, the T41p, the T42p, and the T43p?

I noted that the 40 had 64 MB of vid ram, whereas thereafter they all seemed to have 128MB. And of course the processors went up in small speed increments (which i can't imagine has a huge effect).

Are there other major differences?

Thanks.

Dead1nside · #8 Post by **Dead1nside** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 8:47 am

I did write a long post explaining the differences but it seems to be lost.

The graphics after T40p are a big step up. Also from Banias chips (T40p/T41p) to Dothan (T42p/T43p) there is also a good jump.

Website · #9 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 9:00 am

Dead1nside wrote:I did write a long post explaining the differences but it seems to be lost.

The graphics after T40p are a big step up. Also from Banias chips (T40p/T41p) to Dothan (T42p/T43p) there is also a good jump.

Do you mean this one?

Dead1nside · #10 Post by **Dead1nside** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 9:10 am

Yes, that's the one. Thanks for linking it in.

silo · #11 Post by **silo** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 5:25 am

skitty4gzus wrote:how about a t42p? 1600x1200? i think high res 15" screen 128mb ati vid card. 7200rpm, 60gb harddrive. Im loving my new t42p and I got mine for around 1000. Definitely well worth the money. You can find em on here and ebay for around this price, but most likely the ones on here will have some sort of warranty left. Just an idea for you.

Sounds great! But here's what I'm wondering--how much difference in performance between the T41p/T42p and my T23 with a fast (7200 RPM) 80G drive and a 1 G of memory?

Will it be like night and day? Or just an incremental improvement? The hi-res screen will be a lot different, but otherwise?

mysbca · #12 Post by **mysbca** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:59 am

For the stuff that you are using, I don't think you will notice much performance difference. With speedstep, you will be running at 600MHz most of the time anyway. You will notice the difference if you are doing video encoding and such.

What you will notice is improved battery life. With the T4x and undervolting, a new 6 cell will last from 3.5-4 hours, depending on usage, to over 5 hours with the 9 cell. The T23 lasts about 2 - 2.5 hours.

Built-in hi speed usb2.0 is also nice versus using a pcmcia card. I think most T41p/T42p also comes with builtin bluetooth.

Dead1nside · #13 Post by **Dead1nside** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 2:34 pm

The T41p/T42p do have integrated Bluetooth.

It is the T40p that does not have it as standard.

I'd say go for either. If you want the bigger screen go for the T42p (even though you can get a 14.1'' model) if you want the smaller form factor then go for the T41p.

JHEM · #14 Post by **JHEM** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 3:47 pm

Get a t41P!

Heck, make me a decent offer on my backup T41P that's sitting on the shelf and you can have it!

2373-220, warranty until 11/07 IIRC. Upgraded to 1.5GB RAM and an Atheros a/b/g card.

Regards,

James

Dead1nside · #15 Post by **Dead1nside** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 4:40 pm

Buy Jhem's T41p, I'm getting mine in a week, I can't wait.

Seriously nice laptop.

silo · #16 Post by **silo** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 5:05 am

JHEM wrote:Get a t41P!

Heck, make me a decent offer on my backup T41P that's sitting on the shelf and you can have it!

2373-220, warranty until 11/07 IIRC. Upgraded to 1.5GB RAM and an Atheros a/b/g card.

Regards,

James

I PM'd you yesterday. Am interested.

Which do-it-all laptop? How much diff T40p-T43p?

Which do-it-all laptop? How much diff T40p-T43p?

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