IBM T42 with m10 64mb

for 1700? Sure, its a great system. If its the 15", its got a flexview screen which is great to look at, but bad for dvd's and gaming.

Good deal for 1700 though.

Very bad ghosting, due to slow LCD technology. See a review of one here:
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=27827

If you want an IBM get a T42 14.1" version or T42p 14.1" version.
The 14.1" versions are all fine.
The 15" all have Flexview which is the IPS LCD version that is reported to be very slow. Like greater than 65ms SLOW!! As has been said: bad for DVD playback and gaming, normally fine for office apps, etc. That's why it is fine for an IBM business-class notebook.

Andrew
Austin, TX

That, I can't answer. I've never considered IBM as a source of PCs or laptops, myself. I only remembered the review and the discussion of the screen from the Aamsel saga of laptop choosing.

What saga, I have never chosen one!!!!
ROTFLMAO !!!!!
(sorry!)

Andrew
Austin, TX

(However, I will not INITIATE any threads until I have placed an order!!!
Aikeo asked me NOT to post any more about my notebook decision, and I have complied, but I was not asked to not reply to other people's posts!!)

Heh. I wasn't saying it was a bad thing. It's been entertaining!

i agree, and was wondering since i didnt see any posts from u in a few days...

If you REALLY want to know what has happened with my "neverending quest" for a notebook (and, to be honest, I am EXTREMELY close, REALLY), you can read my long post at:
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=25806&page=3
and you can even reply to it should you wish!!!

Andrew
Austin, TX

Okay, I finally pulled the trigger. I have been reading an insane number of posts over the last few weeks on this forum trying to decide on a laptop to purchase. I am fairly experienced with several different models from different manufacturers. I have personally owned Toshiba, Digital, Compaq, Sony and Dell laptops and have had good experiences with all of them for different reasons. I use a Dell D800 for my job and it is a nice machine as well.

My main concerns are ease of use, quality of construction and compatibility. Features are somewhat important as well. After using a couple of ultra-portables for some time (the Sony SRX77 and the Dell D400), I concluded that having to cart around a seperate optical drive to watch movies or rip music was just a big pain. On the other end of the spectrum these big 6.5 - 7 pounders with 15 0r 15.4 inch screens are just too big and hot for everyday use at home. I love being able to sit in bed or on the couch with my laptop. This D800 is nice but after much more than half an hour it is like Christmas, if you know what I mean. So anyway, I wanted to end up with something in between the two extremes.

My usage will be for both home and school as I have gone back to college. I would like to be able to use the system for a little bit of everything. So my final decision after looking hard at the Dell D600, Toshiba Tecra M2, the evarious iterations of the CL56 and other similar systems was...... A drum roll please! The IBM T42! WOOHOO! A decision. Amazing!

I figured everybody says IBM is the best in terms of reliabilty and build quality. Did I mention I really, really want a good docking station for this puppy? That narrowed things down quite a bit as well. So the final system specs:

Pentuim M 1.7ghz Dothan
14.1" SXGA Screen (avoided the 15" flexview due to alleged ghosting issues)
Radeon 9600 64mb video (Best video I could get short of $2500+ P series versions)
256mb RAM (soon to be upgaded to at least 1gb)
40gb 5400 RPM Drive (soon to be supplemented with external 250gb USB/firewire drive)
DVD / CDRW combo drive (soon to be supplemented with external DVD+-RW dual layer)
Intel 2200 B/G Wireless
Gigabit etherrnet
Model 2378FVU

The buying experience was the best I have encountered by far. I saw this model on IBMs web site through the "Think Express" program for $1849. I then shopped around quite a bit on Newegg, PC Connection and Ebay and concluded that you could not beat IBMs return policy (30 days no questions asked and no restocking fee). Worse case, you are out the shipping. Then I called to ask some questions and got through very quickly to a very knowledgable CSR who e-mailed with the information I requested. I was also able to ge them to drop approx. $100 off the price for my being a student. I called back the next day and asked a few more questions and placed the order. Again the CSR was excellent and stepped me through everything perfectly, offerring me a few additional options but with no pressure or hard sales pitch.

It should get here along with the extra memory by Wednesday. Oh, that's another thing, they upgraded the shipping to two day very reasonably. Two final points: I absolutely love the idea of the built-in light to see the keyboard in relative darkness as I am very likely to sit and surf or work with little or no ambient light. Finallly, I guess I am going to add firewire by virtue of a PCMCIA card.

My only concerns with going this route are: 1. whether I will get frustrated only 64mb video memory with so many newer laptops coming out with 128mb 2. The SXGA resolution on only a 14" screen may be tough to tweak out to be comfortable for my 40+ year old eyes, and 3. The firewire card will not give me the best speed fo video transfers.

Anyway, thanks to everyone on these forums for all of your trials, tests, comments and opinions. It has all been very helpful for me to make my decision. Or, at least it confused into just picking a direction and going for it.

I will try to post this in at least one other pertinent forum in case it might actually help someone else.

Congrats!!!

Andrew
Austin, TX

Bigbilly,

How did you manage to get the 64mb vid card with the 14.1 inch screen? At the IBM site it won't let you get a 14.1 inch with 64mb, it says only the 15 inch SXGA+ is available with the 64. Otherwise it's 32mb with the 14.1 or 128 mb with the 15 UXGA.

Think Express

You are correct, if you try to customize the T42 configuration yourself the IBM configuration wizard will force the 15" screen when you try to choose the 64mb graphics. However, if you go to the "Think Express program" link (it says it is for "medium and small businesses" but that is a bunch of hooey) and choose the 2378FVU model it has the 14.1 SXGA screen with the 64mb ATI 9600 graphics.

It is also interesting that it still says 2-4 weeks and most other retailers that carry them are out of stock but when I ordered thay had one in stock to ship right away.

Wow, thanks so much. Now this is the perfect system.