Looking to refurbish a laptop for myself

I've seen posts from several people that have bought off-lease laptops from eBay or other sources and refurbished them either for personal use or for sale. I am wondering just how much is involved in doing this. I have taken laptops apart before, so it doesn't bother me to have to piece one together from several sources. I'm currently looking at putting together something like an IBM T series with a 1.13 GHz P3, 512 MB of RAM, 40 GB hard drive, and a 14" screen. Has anyone put together a machine like this, and how much did it cost to complete? Would I be better off just buying one someone else has done the leg work on? Thanks for any info.

Ken

that is such an it depends question its not funny.

It depends on the condition of the laptops which is determined on what you pay but if you ahve taken apart a laptop then its a matter of cleaning it up inside and out. putting it through a testing phase and ordering offa Ebay replacement parts.

unless you are planning on selling to people who are not online (shoppers) then you will not be making an assload on each one.

Bal`thzar said:

unless you are planning on selling to people who are not online (shoppers) then you will not be making an assload on each one.

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I think he intends to just make one for himself, not resell.

To OP: The main thing you have to worry about, is making it all fit. Laptops are made standard to fit the companies case, and thats it.

I understand that only certain parts fit certain laptops. I was just wondering what the ballpark figure for refurbing a T23 to the specs I posted above might be and if it were worth the trouble. Guess I'll have to watch for a good deal on eBay.

Ken

penquissciguy said:

I've seen posts from several people that have bought off-lease laptops from eBay or other sources and refurbished them either for personal use or for sale. I am wondering just how much is involved in doing this. I have taken laptops apart before, so it doesn't bother me to have to piece one together from several sources. I'm currently looking at putting together something like an IBM T series with a 1.13 GHz P3, 512 MB of RAM, 40 GB hard drive, and a 14" screen. Has anyone put together a machine like this, and how much did it cost to complete? Would I be better off just buying one someone else has done the leg work on? Thanks for any info.

Ken

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Ken, I have done this numerous times, on the T20-22 stuff. I have finally gotten my first -23. Quite a few of the parts are the same, but some of them are different. The one with the 1.13, or the 1.2 is the T23. The T20-22s use the same CPU as your other one. (The one I'm sending the 900 MHz CPU for.)

Motherboard,not same.
Screen, same.
CPU, not same.
CPU heatsink, not same.
PC cartd slot holder, not same.
DVD, CD, CDRW, floppy drives, same.
HDD, same.
Battery, same.
Modem-NIC card, almost same. (T23 will take a wireless NIC, 20-22 won't)

Plastic, some will work, some won't. Ask me.

As far as putting one together, the Thinkpads are relatively bullet-proof,and easy to assemble. (I can do one completely, in about 1/2 hour, not counting OS install.) They build up the same as the 20-22s, just have some different parts.

steve

Oh, I have been able to make a small profit from selling these.

steve