I need advice on R52 Thinkpad Express

Hello

I'm looking at possibly buying a notebook in August, here in Melbourne Australia. I'm looking at the R52 Thinkpad Express, the model name 184661M at:

http://www-604.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/st...&catalogId=-36

I noticed it has a DVD Recordable Drive. Does that mean I can't use it for burning CD ROMS? Would I need an external drive for burning "write once" and rewriteable CD's?

What attracted me to this model is the 80 gig 5400 rpm hard drive and the 533mhz front side bus plus the 512mg of RAM as well as the 15inch screen, the Pentium M 1.86 and the 64mg video card. I notice it's going for a good price at a local store (about $300 Australian cheaper than on the Lenovo Australia web site). It would just seem a shame if I couldn't use it for backups onto CD's without having to spend extra.

I'm not looking for a gaming machine. I'm a part time IT student and I'm trying to start up a business with Java so I just want something that's reliable with good customer backup and a reasonable about of speed. This particular model is just within my budget so I'd rather not have to spend extra for backing up to CD's if possible.

I've also looked at Toshiba and ASUS. After looking at the information on the IBM web site about the hard drive protection etc I'm looking more seriously at IBM/Lenovo notebooks. Although I did recently send an email to my hardware Lecturer to get his advice on brands as well :-)

Thanks

Peter Mount

Hi

I've figured out I can't use a DVD Recordable drive to burn to blank CD's. After my discussion with my class mates and my lecturer last night I'll still keep IBM/Lenovo on the top of my list (with Toshiba being second choice) for buying a notebook next month. My lecturer (who I had for my hardware subject last semester) said that IBM notebooks are very well built. I'll just have to decide what features I need and what my final budget will be. I suppose if I'm really desperate I could get an external drive later on so I can have the option of burning to CD as well as DVD

Thanks

Peter Mount

Hi

I'll have to talk to the Lenovo sales people again then. I was told the DVD Burner on the R52 Thinkpad can't burn to a CD. Maybe the sales guy got it wrong? Though I'm sure my favourite computer store will tell me what it can and can't do.

Have fun

Peter Mount