Was this a good deal on a used Thinkpad T43P for $379?

[Bangwhiz]

Just bought this used Thinkpad T43P for $379. I have a special application that it will run perfectly. See seller's description below:

"IBM's ultimate execution before Lenovo took over! IBM Thinkpad T43P (top of the line, workstation class) laptop with rare 15" 1600x1200 flexview screen. This was a pricey option which provides a high resolution screen that is easily viewed at other angles. Great for sharing your presentation, movie with others.

Used and in good condition. The screen has a minor flaw which I tried to show in the blue screen picture. It's visible only in certain solid color backgrounds and I hardly notice it. It's smaller than the size of my pinky nail and is grey in appearance. As if someone took a pencil and made a tiny squiggle.

Specs are as follows:
-Pentium M 2.2 ghz (fastest in class)
-2 gb of ram
-7200RPM 60GB HardDrive (fastest in class)
-ATI 128bm ram, 400mhz FireGL V3200 (great 3d card and I ran dual external lcds when hooked up to the dock, 24" + 20")
-DVD-CDRW
-9 cell battery, holds a charge
-A/G Wifi + Bluetooth
-Keyboard light
-TPM security with finger print reader for enhanced security
-A/C Adapter

Extras!
-IBM Thinkpad slim docking station. (adds dual external lcd support and tons of ports)
-Mogo PCMCIA BT Mouse. Stores and charges in the PCMCIA slot
-Docking station a/c adapter

Great laptop with one of the best keyboard and trackpads available (better than my new Dell Precision laptop). No operating system is included."

See more and photo's here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...18148&_sacat=See-All-Categories&_fvi=1&_rdc=1

I needed minimum dual 7200 RPM drives, 2.2 Ghz minimum, 1600x1200 screen, dual monitors when in docking station. I have copy of XP Pro I can install.

Good deal your opinion, or a screw-up?

 

[Aynjell]

For a REAL think pad with good specs? That's not bad. If the battery still runs good, I'd say you got yourself one hell of a linux notebook. :0

But alas, it'll prolly run doze.

 

[Bangwhiz]

Thanks for your input

Ya - got to run it with windows - because application I will be running on it requires it. Boy, I wish I knew anything about linux.

I asked Quietice's opinion because he helped me get the best overclock out of my AMD 939 2.2 X2 and he pointed out the core in the laptop I bought was single core. Fortunately, I will primarily be running one application, a database hooked to the application, and the application is predominantly memory resident.

Dumb as it sounds - the fact that it was single core processor and what that meant in terms of performance versus a slower dual core never entered my mind! DUH! - but it will work great for my main laptop application. So used to dual core processors at this point never occurred to me to think about cores!

 

[jdunlop]

Ya - got to run it with windows - because application I will be running on it requires it. Boy, I wish I knew anything about linux.

I asked Quietice's opinion because he helped me get the best overclock out of my AMD 939 2.2 X2 and he pointed out the core in the laptop I bought was single core. Fortunately, I will primarily be running one application, a database hooked to the application, and the application is predominantly memory resident.

Dumb as it sounds - the fact that it was single core processor and what that meant in terms of performance versus a slower dual core never entered my mind! DUH! - but it will work great for my main laptop application. So used to dual core processors at this point never occurred to me to think about cores!

Oh crikey! Don't beat yourself up so much. I am a developer, and I used the T41, T42p, and T43p all am my primary development machines in Linux AND Windows. And I am like to think it runs them both with aplomb.

The 2.13 and 2.2 GHz single core is blazing fast, and the 533Mhz memory bus on that particular model makes it a friggen fast machine. Your streaming media and the like are faster than in Ubuntu Edgy Egret all the way to Intrepid Ibex. I havent put Jaunty on it Yet.

The Flexview Monitor? Unbelievaballly fantastic, crisp, no crappy polirization effects, just great.

I am writing from my T43p, and I cant see a future where I upgrade this.

 

[Tophinater]

The pentium M's arent speed demons but they are not that bad. I used to do all kinds of work in matlab developing code and data mining with my T41 which only had a 1.4 Ghz chip and it didn't really run all that slower than my P7350 Samsung.

BTW, good job buying a REAL thinkpad and not the lenovo knock-off ponderpads

 

[Bangwhiz]

Thanks for everyone's input. I put a second 100GB 7200 drive in it just for the data in a Postgres database and it runs perfect. The Flexview 1600x1200 screen is fantastic. I am really happy with it - single core processor didn't matter.

"I am writing from my T43p, and I cant see a future where I upgrade this." I'm with jdunlop - I don't see a need to upgrade from the T43P for a very long time. Very glad I bought it.

Just as an aside, considering picking up an ASUS netbook ($399 currently on tigerdirect - 7 to 9 hour battery life!) for surfing etc when I am running around and don't need the T43P's dual 7200 hard drive muscle (I play poker online semi-professionally) to run my poker database with a heads-up display accessing hundreds of thousands of prior hands played against over 200,000 players.