WTB: T4x/R5x, other Centrino, in 'rough' shape, but running

[dozer]

hi folks,

I'm looking for a very cheap T4x/R5x series (or possibly R4x or other if Centrino and USB 2.0), for a special purpose. It can be one that you're having trouble selling 'retail' because of condition.

For my application, it can be scratched and scuffed, have cracks in the case, have stuck/dead pixels or even a weak backlight, ugly stickers all over it....I don't care. As long as it RUNS RELIABLY...because it'll be on 24/7, albeit with the screen off 99% of the time.

I need to replace an old HP6000 as our "connection/file server and disc-burning station" here at the cabin. We live 'off-grid', so I need something that can run a stripped win2k at very low power from our Solar/batteries; but be modern enough to have USB 2.0 and fast Wifi on it. A T40 or T41 fits the bill perfectly.

I don't care about:

- CPU-speed
- HD-size (unless you can supply a 320gb with it for extra$)
- RAM, as long as it's got the basic 512mb
- Video chip type; in fact, the slower and stupider the better (lower power)
- Optical drive (unless you can supply a dvdrw-dl for extra$)
- LCD; so long as it works good enough to occasionally run disc-burning software and tweak configs.
- Case condition...as long as I can pick it up without the pieces falling out...lol...

I DO care about (i.e. must have):

- IBM internal 56k modem and a/b/g Wifi
- Rock-solid reliability...run 24/7 without any flakiness

I'd like to pay around $150, and I am OPEN TO OFFERS.

Good-condition and loaded T41's are starting to show up in the $225-275 range on CL; with the occasional one as low as $150 (but always gone before -I- get there...lol).

But I don't need their perfect condition, or high-end video, or full RAM; and I'm on a tight retirement budget.

And as mentioned above, if you happen to have a really large HD (obsolete low-rpm type OK)...and/or a DVDRW-DL that fits, we can negotiate price....because I'd be needing to buy them elsewhere anyway.

If you've got a machine that might do the job, please email me direct with fully-detailed description, but NO PICTURES, at:

metal at fullwave dawt kom

Please mention "thinkpads forum" in your Subject-line.

thanks much!

Richard

[synchromesh]

I don't care about:

- HD-size (unless you can supply a 320gb with it for extra$)

T4x series use PATA 2.5in drives. The largest PATA 2.5in drive I've seen so far is 160GB. I don't think I ever saw even a 250GB PATA.

I'd like to pay around $150 shipped. Good-condition and loaded T41's are starting to show up in the $225-275 range on CL; with the occasional one as low as $150 (but always gone before -I- get there...lol).

Where? I want a piece of that action too! The lowest I've seen are $250 and those usually either have major defects or people just don't know the price and they're gone in a couple of hours. Either way that's rare, at least around here. Most of these are still $300+.

[dozer]

hmm....I was pretty sure I'd seen 320 pata's....but now you've got me wondering if those were 3.5".

bleahh...then I'll have to run an external USB drive.

That's not a problem, in that speed really isn't an issue here...but I haven't read good things about power-control on those external drives. I've heard a lot of anecdotes about the drive either not spinning down properly...or not waking up when it's called the next time!

In regards to the pricing, all I can say is seek, and ye shall find.

I guess I can also say "you have to work at it".

First, I do national search of CL using advanced search.

Second, when I'm feeling particularly motivated to find great bargains, I don't just search for "T41", but go much more generic, with something like "thinkpad", or even "ibm".

Because a whole lotta people don't seem to realize that IBM made more than one model of thinkpad...

Heck, often enough, even the ads with a 'model number' like T41, still don't include the "2323-DJU" off the bottom...so there's another email I gotta write...lol...

In any case, "thinkpad" generates 10 times the hits you have to load and wade through; but often provides nice bargains.

As I said earlier, $275 is not at all uncommon since xmas...at least on the west-coast. I think a whole lot of folks got new laptops for xmas; or just after.

good luck with your own searching for a nice one...just leave the scratched up but cheaper one for me...

[dozer]

just did a quick search...since I haven't looked for a week or two. Here are a few examples available right now...including a T42 for 325 bucks...

Excellent IBM T42, Centrino Processor, 1Gb ram, 100Gb hard drive - $300
Reply to: sale-614249584@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-03-21, 7:11PM CDT
I have several IBM T40, T42 for sale. It all has build-in wireless, dvd/cdrw combo drive, windows XP, office XP plus anti-virus software. All the software is newly installed and updated.
1) T42, 1.5Ghz, 512Mb ram, 40Gb hard drive, dvd/cdrw, wireless, $325

2) T42, 1.5Ghz, 512Mb ram, 60Gb, hard drive, dvd/cdrw, wireless, $345

3) T42, 1.7Ghz, 1Gb ram, 60Gb hard drive, dvd/cdrw, wireless, $400

4) T42, 1.7Ghz, 1Gb ram, 100Gb hard drive, dvd/cdrw, wireless, $430



Ibm Thinkpad T40 Laptop/Notebook - $250
Reply to: sale-613529746@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-03-21, 9:45AM EDT
I have an IBM Thinkpad T40 for sale.
It has a 1.5ghz pentium M processor,
768 Mb of Ram,
40 GB hard drive
CD burner/ DVD reader
Battery hold charge for approximately 1 1/2 hours.
comes with charging cord
Windows vista Ultimate installed

IBM Thinkpad T41 - 1.59 GHz, 768 RAM - $253
Reply to: sale-615064646@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-03-22, 1:08PM PDT
I'm selling my Thinkpad T41 (made by IBM, not Lenovo). I got it for grad school, but have since gotten a laptop through my job and don't need two. Back when I bought it, I paid around $1,800 for it -- so it was pretty much top of the line at the time
Specs are as follows:
* 1.59 GHz processor
* 768 MB RAM
* 34 GB hard drive
* Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2
* ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 Graphics Card
* Wireless Card


Just a quick 2-minute search, using specific model#'s...no doubt find more using "thinkpad" and enduring the infinity of info-less ads...lol...

[ajkula66]

A word of unsolicited advice here:

If you're buying a T4x, buy one with warranty, regardless of your intentions. Even if we disregard the fact that half of the CL ads are a likely scam, chances of you finding the machine that will do what you need it to do within T4x range are very slim, if you're intent for using is for more than three months.

Now you wouldn't want the board to start dying on you two weeks after the purchase, would you?

As for finding one here for what you're willing to pay, all I'm going to say is: good luck.

BTW, the largest HDD you can use in any T4x right now is 250Gb and WD is reasonably priced these days.

[pianowizard]

First, I do national search of CL using advanced search.

Where is this advanced search feature? I don't see it on the site. The way I search Craigslist nationally is using Google with the phrase "craigslist.org" included as a keyword.

[synchromesh]

First, I do national search of CL using advanced search.

Where is this advanced search feature? I don't see it on the site. The way I search Craigslist nationally is using Google with the phrase "craigslist.org" included as a keyword.

http://www.craigshelper.com/

On a side note, I guess there is a 250GB. I've never seen them before though. Oh well.

[dozer]

hi Piano, syncro's right, that there are several sites specifically for doing such searches.

However, most of them are quite slow and frustrating over dialup; so I use Google advanced search. As you say, put the domain name in the domain field; then make use of 'all' and 'exclude' field to get the optimum type/number of results.

Thanks to all for the info on the 250gb max drive size. That might work instead of the 320, for the next year. It seems like there are power-advantages to running an internal vs. a USB.

Full control over SMART etc. for the internal drive...and it seems that powering a big drive long-term over USB can be problematical. If a wall-wart is required, that's a negative...since they're not very efficient.

Since I have to have a drive spinning 24/7 anyway, it might as well be a single big drive that does both the OS and archive-storage functions.

Ajkula, I've been using CL for various things for almost a decade, and from my experience, I cannot agree with the "half are scams" number. Or let me qualify that: if we're talking about just the posts that are obviously from a private-party, I'd guess the percentage more like 1% or less.

Obviously, my first choice, like most folks', is to do business on the forum if possible. Thus, my post here, eh?
....it seems there are a number of folks here who part-out and fix thinkpads....so no doubt they end up with one from time to time that works fine, but is just too ugly, cracked, or has too many dead pixels, to be a 'normal' sale.

I was very up-front that that's the 'class' of machine I expected at this price...not their nice shiny 100% one that's worth $250.

On the T4x concerns....could you tell me what you mean, specifically? From all the searching and reading I've done here, I know of only the heat-related BGA problem, as being 'endemic'.

If I've 'distilled' that reading correctly, that problem is most apparent in the high-end graphics models; and those that are flexed alot.

Since this one will sit undisturbed for the rest of its life, and will be running at VERY low heat levels, I had expected that if it worked solid when I got it, it'd likely continue doing so.

Your comment startled me because it seemed to say that any T40, if run for 3 months, is likely to fail. Please elaborate!

thanks much

[ajkula66]

The way I see it, buying any T40/41/42 including "p" versions without warranty is like walking into a mine field...unless you know the person you're buying it from and his/hers user patterns.

Mobo flex is exactly what I'm referring to, and if the machine has been mishandled, your usage pattern will really not matter much. You'll just wake up to a frozen ThinkPad one morning. And how many sellers on CL (or any other place for that fact) will alow you to remove the keyboard and check for a "post-it" on the GPU? Not to mention that any machine that is "rough" on the outside is not probably any better on the inside, especially not a T4x unit.

Don't get me wrong, I generally like T4x series, and although my favourite is T43, in our house we currently have a T42p with on-site warranty through November of 2009, and a T41 with no warranty, but bought from a person that has kept it on his desk in a dock all of its life, so I practice what I preach...

[dozer]

George, thanks much for elaborating on that.

I guess the odd gods of BGA's must be smiling on my wife daily... ...her T41 has been rock solid since she got it a year or so ago. At that time I was ignorant of 'modern' thinkpads (had only my trusty 760ED) but told her "if you want something built tough, to travel with every day, get a thinkpad."

whew...I've escaped ignominy so far...lol...

I -have- told her to be very careful how she picks it up, always 2 hands....and advised her not to be opening and closing the lid every time she checks her email...lol....just leave it open until the next time she needs to pack it to go to the studio.

hmm....weren't there some T4x's made without ATI video? With just the in-chipset Intel video? Or was that only R5x series?

(aaa gave me some info on those, and I edited the title and post to include that series...should've had them in the list in the first place....I don't need "T" thinness at all...just the low power-consumption)

This whole project has turned into an interesting challenge....many more tradeoffs involved than I expected...i.e., what device on which interface....power tradeoffs between int. and ext....etc...

But then...I like projects!

[hart22]

Well, these are probably still a little above what you'd like to pay, but have you taken a look at this website, previously posted by madcow?

They've got a T40 2373-75U for $270, and a T42 2373-4WU for $295.

[ajkula66]

Another machine type that you may want to add is R40...some of them have come with PM CPUs (anywhere between 1.3 and 1.7, Banias core) and have either 16Mb or 32Mb video, and can be had quite cheaply nowadays...you might be able to get one for what you're looking to pay. Apart from the infamous AC adapter plug issue (unsoldering itself from the mobo) these have been quite reliable in my experience, and I've had a few dozens...not that I have one to offer you now, but just to keep in mind...

I like your project, seriously...

[dozer]

hi George,

Thanks for the word on the R40's.

That's a machine that does indeed show up quite cheaply from time to time. But I hadn't paid attention because I thought they were all P4's.

Now I'll include them in my searches.

I appreciate your ongoing input to my little off-grid 'server' project.