T42 Questions - Potential Purchase

[austin3119]

Hi everyone. I'm thinking about purchasing an inexpensive laptop for traveling, doing some work from bookstores, coffee shops etc when I feel like getting out of the house.

I'm looking at purchasing a T42. I know their a little outdated, but it seems like everyone really likes them and they are pretty bullet proof. I've got a nice desktop with everything I need, so I just want to have a good wireless system, be able to email, cruise the net and play DVD's on the airplane from time to time.

Most the T42's are pretty bare that I see available on the auction sites, craigslist etc....

Would this be a good combo to upgrade when I get the computer.

2 GB's of memory:
http://www.buy.com/prod/crucial-1gb-pc2 ... 93180.html

Upgraded hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... &x=12&y=34

Any comments or thoughts about these upgrades and the computer in general would be appreciated.

Thanks

[underclocker]

Welcome to the forum!

My few basic comments;

1) T42's are nice machines, they weigh in right around 5lbs. and with a fresh 6 cell battery, last a long time, approx. 4 hours. They run fine with 512MB of RAM for basic computing. If you can grab one in the $300 range, with a good battery, an AC adapter, a G wifi, and in good condition, it's worth it. Make sure it doesn't have any USB port or graphics processing unit issues - or try to grab one with factory warranty remaining, many T42's had three year warranties.

2) Consider an X31, X32, X40 or X41, 12.1" LCD, no optical drive, but only 3.5lbs. for X3x or 2.7lbs. for X4x machines. All have sold recently in the low 300's here or on eBay. These are great for travel. You'll have to convert your DVD's to play from the hard disk or download movies.

3) Buying a T4x in the $300 range then upgrading it no longer makes sense at all (unless you really need a T4x!) Lenovo routinely sells better equipped, new or refurb. with warranty, machines in the sub-$500 range. Most recently you could pick up pretty much any model in this price range on the Lenovo outlet. For the past month you could configure a new R61 for this price. Additionally, Z61t's have sold for as little as $399 direct from Lenovo, new with warranty.

[ajkula66]

And, most important, T42s are not bullet-proof in the least...read the sticky "my t42 shuts down when I move it"...

If you're intent on buying a T4x unit of any kind, make sure that it has some warranty remaining from IBM and not the third-party.

And, underclocker is absolutely right when he says that better deals can be had from Lenovo's outlet these days...as well as in Marketplace here...

Just my $0.02...

[austin3119]

Thanks for the responses and help everyone. I really wanted a Thinkpad, but decided to keep the costs way down. I ended up pulling the trigger on a new acer for $370.00 with these specs. Now I just got to get Vista off the machine and get a copy of XP. Hopefully it will do the trick for a while.

Thanks again.


NOTE: Memory: 1GB
Processor Type and Speed: Intel Dual-Core 1.73GHz
DVD+RW:
Modem: 56K
Ethernet: 10/100
Pointing Device Type: Touchpad
USB Ports: 3
Media Reader Slots: 5 in 1
O/S Installed: Windows Vista Home Premium
O/S License
Display Size (Inches Diagonal): 14.1
Hard Drive Capacity: 160GB
Wireless Networking: 802.11b/g
O/S Restore Partition Items Included:
Notebook/laptop Pc
Battery
Ac Adapter/power Cord
Installed Operating System
O/s Restore Partition
Operating System License Key
Documentation

[Stan]

Best of luck austin3119, it looks like the advice given here has saved you some headaches.