What do ya'll think about Thinkpads? (pun not intended) I am considering getting a T60 with a 100GB 7200 rpm hard drive,128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 HyperMemory, and 2 gigs of RAM. It's $1,882 for that configuration, what do ya'll think?
Me < 3 Thinkpads. They're a bit expensive for what you get, but they're pretty indestructable from what I've seen. Great choice.
I've bought over a dozen for work and there was only one with a problem, which was rectified the next day. It had a dud hdd. Excellent service and seemingly hard-wearing, reliable laptops. They're not going to satisfy your lust for performance gaming by any stretch of the imagination, but they're quick in pretty much all other areas and the IBM software that's installed mostly makes configurating it a doddle, i.e. there's a point to them being installed.
Good to know, dont intend to game as i dont do that much, jsut like a laptop for.. well you know, laptop stuff like trips and whatnot. It'll be a desktop replacement for a while too, but not long. (depending on how it works)
Another vote for Thinkpads - I've had mine for just over a year and it's still flawless - haven't formatted it yet and as Kenco says, the pre-installed software is actually useful.
Thinkpads are the best Ive owned; I have owned Dell, Compaq, Gateway and Sony as well but none ever compared to my Thinkpad.
Thinkpads are great, they arent the sexiest looking things but they are tough and reliable and as a plus they have pretty good Linux support
Extremely reliable machine, the only problem was with the older ones the screens were easy to bust, with the slightest of nudges
I've got an R60 thru school, 100G drive, 1GB Ram.. Not a bad little unit, but let me tell you i'd rather it had a wide aspect & glossy screen. In terms of "indestructability" this bugger has good 1/4" metal hinges, as well as a pair of thick plastic latches to shut the lid up. Overall, the only "weak point" is the PCMCIA door which went and fell off on me. The keyboards have a *decent* tactile response, good typing speed, proper click sound, though the throw could be a little longer, and having two sets of mouse buttons (for the nub and pad) is nice (i use the pad with the nub's buttons, to thumb mouse). IBM's software can be a little wonky at times (Access Connections is absolutely retarded), though at least under a long lasting load with limited ventillation, they stay rather cool. Formatting them's rather easy too, as IBM includes a "Windows Install Suppliment' on the site for you.
The Access Connections works well for me. It means that work, home, wired, wireless, etc profiles can be set up and offers control over each. The IBM updater is ace, too. Keeps all your IBM programs and hardware (as far as I can remember) up to date, works much like Windows Update. I remember looking at the top inside of the lid and finding out that it has a light you can switch on and going, "ooOooh!" thinking it was pretty cool. I haven't used it yet though
I'd quite disagree with that, but anyways... I got a T60 from school, but more of a baseline model. It works pretty well and gets good battery life. Backlight decided to just turn off the other day but all it needed was a reboot, so I'm inclined to think it was some weird software issue (it's running Vista RC2). Aside from the low-res 4:3 screen, the only thing I don't really care for is how impossible it is to do a clean XP install. Vista, several Linuxes and even OSX86 all went on it fine, but the XP installer refuses to see the hard drive, so my only option is restoring the school's image from a ghost backup, which is quite bloated. I'd have kept OSX86 on there but wireless didn't work and it didn't recognize it as being a laptop (so no battery life indicator), but that's life. Anyways, pretty decent system overall. I use it as more of a testbed since I much prefer my MBP, but it certainly seems durable, and reasonably fast (considering how crappy Windows' memory use is).
