Configuration Opinions Invited for Pending T42 Purchase

[KCDoug]

Pretty rare for me to discover a forum, get sucked into reading for a couple of hours and become intrigued enough to join and post all in the same day. Kudos to Bill for this forum and to the high volume of practical and respectful posts I've reviewed.

I decided some weeks ago to migrate from my 4 year-old Dell Inspiron 5000e w/20GB HD and 128 RAM -- that yes, has survived this long in decent shape -- to a T42. (I toyed w/ T43 as I tend to jump on higher end, but didn't see this Alviso/Sonoma release being that great for me, especially after reading Tom's Hardware article.)

The T42 will get daily 8-12 hour use on my desk in an office or home, and I will lug it on the road with me 20-30 times a year for day trips and up to a week each. I think I'm settled on the 2373_U with 1 GB RAM, but would welcome some first-hand insights on the following:

1. 15" or 14" SXGA? I haven't seen many of the 15" yet I like the notion of more real estate for occassionally opening side-by-side business apps and for occassional picture editing. Maybe like a moth to flame I'm attracted to the bigger is better screen size? My 14" Dell weighs about 7 pounds with the battery and it can get tedious to carry around on trips. I think the T42 15" is about the same weight. On the other hand, my laptop will ultimately spend more time on a desk; but then again I'm also thinking about a docking station and hooking up a monitor instead of using the T42 screen daily. So, is the 14" noticeably easier to lug on trips than the 15"? Is the 15" noticeably more practical/helpful in its additional real estate and/or nicer quality viewer?

2. DVD burner - is the $250 worth it? I'd like to have the larger capacity capability than a CD, but have read a comment or two here making me suspicious about the burner (DVD and CD) being finicky about what discs work with it. And I'm not sure if the DVD burner is only 2x or 4x? Could I add an integrated DVD burner later that is higher speed/reliability?

3. Outdated as it may sound, I've never used WI-FI, but will be looking into that for travel use. (Use wired ethernet connect in the office and modem from home.) Is the integrated Intel Pro 2200 b/g sufficient for airports and hotels? How 'bout highway use in a car?

4. Does anyone have any experience -- good, bad, or indifferent -- with IBM or aftermarket docking bays for the T42? I've never used one, but I'm thinking about the IBM mini-dock for the office and actually could use one at home too if it's right for me, but I don't think I can afford 2 to begin with.

I apologize for my first post droning on a bit. Thanks for your time and contributions.

-Doug

[rhema83]

These are purely my personal opinions...

Firstly, 2373_U? Please clarify. However, I wouldn't advise anyone to buy a T42 with 1GB of stock RAM because you will be paying too much. You can easily upgrade a 512MB stock model with another 512MB for a little over $100 or just sell the stock RAM on eBay and get a 1GB stick for much less than what you'd be paying IBM.

1. 14" SXGA+ if you are going to travel with it. Since you plan to get the docking station and an external monitor, you might as well get the smaller size for the portability. Even the 14" has a lot of real estate (1400x1050)!

2. No. Firstly, the specs of the burner are not worth it. Secondly, you won't be burning DVDs on the road, will you? $250 is enough to get a much faster external DVD burner (or an internal unit with a USB enclosure). Stick with the DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive for your laptop. You can always get the Ultrabay Slim drive next time when a better model is launched.

3. For airports and hotels, it's fine. I have been using the 2200BG in hotels, libraries and cafes for about 6 months now. You cannot use WIFI without an access point or wireless router. So it is impossible to use in on the highway in the car (unless you use your cell phone as a modem to use GPRS, which will cost a bomb).

4. Sorry, I don't own one. However, reviews for the mini-dock are generally very good. Looks like IBM did the right thing. However, invest into core components first before looking at peripherals.

Ideally you should be looking at:
Pentium M 7x5 (up to you)
ATI Radeon 9600
14" SXGA+
Any RAM (easily and cheaply upgraded)
60GB 7200rpm HDD
Intel 2200BG WIFI

Shouldn't cost you *that* much if you look around. The forum owner Bill has some really good deals as well.

[aamsel]

Well, I will try a couple of these:
1.) 14" just feels way smaller and lighter, even though it is not. Unless you have seen and love the 15" Flexview (which many do), the majority of T Series Thinkpad users prefer the 14.1" models. Since you seem to live in/near a major city, post where you are, and ask if anyone is willing to meet you at a Starbucks, etc. and offer a coffee/pastry, etc. in exchange for getting a peek at a 15" or 14.1". Also, you have a notebook that you know the dimensions and weight of, correct?? If so, go to the FAQ's and download TABOOK to get the weight and dimensions of the T42's. That should give you a good idea of the comparitive weights and sizes.

The 14.1" T42 is about the thinnest and lightest in its class. It has been the "flagship" model for IBM for very good reason. Anything bigger is just BIG to me. I started out this time wanting an ultraportable, considered EVERYTHING (not just IBM), focused in on the X31, but found I needed/wanted 2 speakers, a CD-R/DVD drive and a screen larger than 12".

The 14.1" T42 is simply perfect, IMHO. The screens, however are not totally perfect. If the screen quality is more important than the size and weight to you, then consider the 15" T42. It has more brightness, more contrast, better viewing angles than ANY of the 14.1" models. It is just too big for me.

Now, I have gone on too long!!

2.) At 2X for DVD-R and 2.4X for DVD+R the DVD burners are just not worth it unless you just HAVE TO have a DVD burner with you on the road. Even then, I might consider a LaCie external USB drive (very, very small) which burns at 8X to tuck into a suitcase vs the internal drive. If you have any access to a desktop PC with a DVD burner, you can share out a drive on the desktop, copy your data over from the Thinkpad to the desktop, and then burn the DVD on the desktop. Even doing all that, it would be quicker than burning at 2X. However, if you always have 30+ minutes available to burn a DVD, and don't mind "wasting" the money, an internal is always more convenient. For me, it is just unneccessary.

I'll let someone else grab #3 and #4.

Welcome!

Andrew
Austin, TX

Pretty rare for me to discover a forum, get sucked into reading for a couple of hours and become intrigued enough to join and post all in the same day. Kudos to Bill for this forum and to the high volume of practical and respectful posts I've reviewed.

I decided some weeks ago to migrate from my 4 year-old Dell Inspiron 5000e w/20GB HD and 128 RAM -- that yes, has survived this long in decent shape -- to a T42. (I toyed w/ T43 as I tend to jump on higher end, but didn't see this Alviso/Sonoma release being that great for me, especially after reading Tom's Hardware article.)

The T42 will get daily 8-12 hour use on my desk in an office or home, and I will lug it on the road with me 20-30 times a year for day trips and up to a week each. I think I'm settled on the 2373_U with 1 GB RAM, but would welcome some first-hand insights on the following:

1. 15" or 14" SXGA? I haven't seen many of the 15" yet I like the notion of more real estate for occassionally opening side-by-side business apps and for occassional picture editing. Maybe like a moth to flame I'm attracted to the bigger is better screen size? My 14" Dell weighs about 7 pounds with the battery and it can get tedious to carry around on trips. I think the T42 15" is about the same weight. On the other hand, my laptop will ultimately spend more time on a desk; but then again I'm also thinking about a docking station and hooking up a monitor instead of using the T42 screen daily. So, is the 14" noticeably easier to lug on trips than the 15"? Is the 15" noticeably more practical/helpful in its additional real estate and/or nicer quality viewer?

2. DVD burner - is the $250 worth it? I'd like to have the larger capacity capability than a CD, but have read a comment or two here making me suspicious about the burner (DVD and CD) being finicky about what discs work with it. And I'm not sure if the DVD burner is only 2x or 4x? Could I add an integrated DVD burner later that is higher speed/reliability?

3. Outdated as it may sound, I've never used WI-FI, but will be looking into that for travel use. (Use wired ethernet connect in the office and modem from home.) Is the integrated Intel Pro 2200 b/g sufficient for airports and hotels? How 'bout highway use in a car?

4. Does anyone have any experience -- good, bad, or indifferent -- with IBM or aftermarket docking bays for the T42? I've never used one, but I'm thinking about the IBM mini-dock for the office and actually could use one at home too if it's right for me, but I don't think I can afford 2 to begin with.

I apologize for my first post droning on a bit. Thanks for your time and contributions.

-Doug

[JHEM]

Doug,

First thing, welcome to the Forums.

Lotta' questions, but no reason not to get them all out of the way at once, the charge is the same.

1. This is a decision that only you can make, based primarily on the acuity of your vision. The SXGA+ displays are brilliant whether 14.1" or 15", but for some with aged eyes, like me, that resolution is difficult to work with for long periods on the 14.1". The 14.1" display unit weighs less than five pounds(yes, 5), the 15" SXGA+ weighs closer to six.

2. Get an external USB2.0 DVD burner, the Ultrabay Slim unit simply isn't worth it unless it comes with your system.

3. You're going to come to love WiFi, especially when you're on the road, although they haven't quite worked out the kinks of using it while driving in your car yet without breaking into other folks' systems.

4. There aren't any after-market docking stations, just the IBM ones, along with the IBM mini-docks and some USB based port expanders from other sources. Check eBay for the mini-docks, they can often be found for about half of what IBM asks for them.

Regards,

James

[aamsel]

I used to believe that I HAD TO use nothing with a higher resolution than "regular old XGA" at 1024 X 768.
However, I found a program that works with Windows XP called "Liquid View" which is sold by a company at http://www.portrait.com
It makes almost everything bigger in XP: icons, text, etc. but not dialog boxes. Then, with browsers like Firefox, you can scale the text (but not the graphics). (With Opera, you can even scale the graphics, but I don't like Opera much).
In using Liquid View, you can take advantage of the higher DPI and pixel count of the high-resolution screen, and make almost everything bigger.
By doing this, the text becomes MUCH more readable. If I compare the text on an XGA Thinkpad to the text on an SXGA+ Thinkpad, there is literally no comparison! The XGA text looks MUCH, MUCH more pixelated, and the SXGA+ text is much more smooth!
Hopefully, this will "get me by" until the next version of Windows, which will have true scaleability.
Just FYI.

James...I don't know what else would bother or strain your eyes other than the physical size of text, icons, etc.??? My eyes are not "young" any more (at all), and Liquid View seems to work fine for me!

(NO, of course, I have no afflilitation with portrait.com whatsoever, this is a program that costs only about $20-$30).

Andrew
Austin, TX

1. This is a decision that only you can make, based primarily on the acuity of your vision. The SXGA+ displays are brilliant whether 14.1" or 15", but for some with aged eyes, like me, that resolution is difficult to work with for long periods on the 14.1"... James

[KCDoug]

These are purely my personal opinions...

Firstly, 2373_U? Please clarify. However, I wouldn't advise anyone to buy a T42 with 1GB of stock RAM because you will be paying too much. You can easily upgrade a 512MB stock model with another 512MB for a little over $100 or just sell the stock RAM on eBay and get a 1GB stick for much less than what you'd be paying IBM..

Oops, I meant to write 2373_3U, the blank being the undecided screen size "M"=14", "N" = 15".

If I acquire it with the 512 RAM from IBM is it then a single DIMM (or whatever) and easy for me to install an additional 512 mb, and there won't be a problem between brands?

==============================

Thanks to all for your insights. Hmmmm, seems the consensus so far is to go with the 14.1" SXGA screen, skip the low-end DVD and pick one up later as needed.

-Doug

[aamsel]

It will come with a single 512MB module from IBM. The way to see that is to click on the details for a system on the IBM website, and you will see something like this:

Memory (RAM) std/max[8] 512MB / 2GB
RAM slots total 2 SODIMM
RAM slots available 1 SODIMM

That means that only one slot is used up, which is always the case with a 512MB base system from IBM. They never fill up the RAM slots, like lower-tier companies do, which is really nice!

Anyhow, yes later on you can add a PC2700 SODIMM, which must be CAS 2.5. Lots of them will work fine, but the consensus seems to be to get it from www.crucial.com where it is guaranteed to work fine. Mushkin and some others are OK also. Avoid Kingston Value series.
That is all I have!

Andrew
Austin, TX

...If I acquire it with the 512 RAM from IBM is it then a single DIMM (or whatever) and easy for me to install an additional 512 mb, and there won't be a problem between brands?...

[Nathan]

When you are all done configuring, sit down in front of your computer and talk or email Bill. He is full of knowledge and an all around swell guy. He can almost certainly help. Also, I would recommend IBM a/b/g WLAN over the Intel. Having "a" over "b/g" isn't necessary but is faster, usually less congested, and just plain handy sometimes. Good luck.

[Esteban]

I, too, have middle aged eyes. This week my new T42 2373M3U with a 14" sxga+ screen arrived. I have not changed screen or font settings, nor added software, to make it more readable. It's good just as it came. My prior notebook was a 4 year old Dell Inspiron 4000 with a 14" 1024 x 768 screen.

[dfumento]

Unless you get can an IBM employee discount (EPP) or are a student/faculty/staff at a University, you best bet would be to purchase the 2378FVU 14" SXGA with VISA site from IBM ($1480 + tax) add 512MB RAM (about $90) to make it 768MB, extend 1 yr warranty to 3 yrs (about $120).

I had a 15" and I much prefer the lightness and portablility of the 14" and I don't miss the real estate.

Unless you are doing photoshop or something else that would be RAM/disk intensive you don't need 1GB RAM. In fact, I have a new T42 which I haven't yet bothered to upgrade beyond the stock 512MB and it works really well.

I would get an external DVD burner that could also burn double layer (e.g. Plextor 716A or NEC53200A (?). The double layer media is expensive, but is bound to come down in price. Also, it will burn DVDs and CDs much more quickly than the DVD burner in the laptop (16X for DVD I think).

See the link in my signature for more info.