Hi all,

I currently own a T510 and T60p and while both are fine machines, i wish to expand my collection and buy an old-skool Thinkpad, having heard such great things about their build quality etc, and not having the funds to buy anything newer! Any suggestions on what i should look for would be greatly appreciated!

Definitely get some non-T models since you already have two. These are my recommendations:

Z61t with 14.1" 1440x900 and titanium lid (this is not exactly "pre T60" because it co-existed with the T60)

X40 or X41

X20/21/22/23/24 (very attractive designs)

A31p with 15.0" 1600x1200 IPS

G41 with 15.0" 1400x1050

770Z with 13.7" 1280x1024 (the rarest of all laptop resolutions!)

600X (possibly the best-selling Thinkpad ever!)

240Z or iSeries 1124 (both are extremely hard to find; if you can't find them, you should at least get a 240X)

Your apparent growing "love affair" is certainly causing my heart to tremble soft and I wish that you may meet many more Black Beauties - because you seem to have taken the same path as many other ThinkPad'ers: "Once you've gone black, you're never going back!"

What you should focus on depends of your anticipated use (and, of course, your budget!), but the following threads may perhaps inspire you: Best ThinkPad Ever and T60 - the best Thinkpad ever made? and What would be "your" best thinkpad and why? and Your Favorite ThinkPad Series and ThinkPad image archieve found at IBM.com (up to R50/T43/X41)

There are many images of older and newer ThinkPad rigs in the Pictures of your ThinkPad & desk setup and many more can of course be found using Google image search...

... and, as a final remark, although I don't have any particular reason(s) to believe so, I think that you should probably consider to contact the highly renowed, Top-ThinkPad expert, forum-member poshgeordie (Nick), who is running the The Board Room (along with forum.thinkpads.com expert-member Realblackstuff); Nick is servicing the ThinkPad community with all sorts of repairs (see e.g. Reflow Repairs Chip Reflowing in UK and Europe), and I have an idea that he might be able to help you with expert-refurbished "older" ThinkPad's at reasonable cost. Although you may perhaps pick up cheap ThinkPad's elsewhere (eBay etc.), then there's always this element of gambling... when you shop on eBay you never know what you buy, how it has been treated, if it is in more or less good working condition etc. Therefore, the benefit if buying from a true ThinkPad-expert, who for sure knows what he is selling, and may even offer some amount of warranty, is obvious. Also, you may want to check the form.thinkpads.com Marketplace for offers, or you may put up a "LF" (Looking For) or "WTB" (Want To Buy) advertisement.

Good luck!

Johan

pianowizard made several fine recommendations.

I'll only add one --> 14" T43 w/Intel GPU - only available in XGA resolution. These were just beautiful, quick, cool and reliable models of one the finest ThinkPad designs. $100 should secure a nice unit.

Ha, i love it, very very true!

Thanks for all your suggestions! Currently looking at an A31p on ebay and have a Z61t (Titanium lid) on its way from Canada! From my casual browsing of this forum i see a few "seniors" with A31p's listed in their sigs and coupled with pianowizards suggestion, i think i may go for it.

I'm a bit hesitant to contact poshgeordie directly, i might wait and see if he pops up in this topic first!

But i'm definately keeping one eye on the marketplace forum.

Thanks again for your help and still open to other suggestions!

"Senior Thinkpadder" is one of the titles which you get after having a certain number of posts, nothing to do with age.

Just keep telling yourself that...

Well, I am a young 66...

The 600's are really quite beautifully-designed machines in my opinion. The only downsides to them are 1) they're pretty slow by modern standards and 2) they're nearly impossible to find in like-new condition -- for obvious reasons -- though you can easily find them in good shape. The ones with decent XGA screens are a bit more rare, but they tend to crop up on eBay frequently enough that you should be able to find one without *too* much trouble.

A31p was a pretty spectacular concept in its day and age, and remains quite usable (with some upgrades) today.

My favourite ThinkPad of all times, period.

That being said, there are several major design flaws that these machines suffer from, which become more apparent as they age. I'd strongly suggest buying a properly tested unit from a known source, instead of relying on feebay. No, I don't have a spare A31p to offer you...

Try buying one "in person" if at all possible...

Good luck.

Everyone should own a T23 is they collect.

Aww, come on! Not even for the right price

What are the flaws i should be on the look out for?

The German Thinkpad-Wiki has an article about the A31 at thinkpad-wiki.org/A31 which lists some of the A31p's major flaws. Here is a link via Google Translate for those who don't read German.

Lookout for the butterfly thinkpad 701

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_RQp2aoLDs

Thanks, that was a really interesting read

Can any of you guys give me a brief list of Thinkpad's without the rubberized lid coating, like for example, the A31p?

The entire "R" series have plastic lids like the A3x series. Fairly sure all "T" series have rubberized lids, as did all the earlier numbered series, IIRC.

Thanks Neil, just what i wanted Does this also apply to the G series, seeing as it was the successor to the A series?

Correct, no rubberized lids on G4x series...

Thank you

One final thing, and then i'll stop pestering you with inane questions! Did any of the R series come with IPS screens?

15" R50p has standard IPS UXGA (1600x1200) and even a QXGA (2048×1536) option.
Any 15" T4x or R5x with ATI graphics can run IPS LCDs, just swap out the LCD (and LCD-cable/inverter in some cases).

Also, the 15" SXGA+ LCD on R51 was Flexview (not on R52).

Ha, now i'm confused

Excluding the R50p, only the R51 came with Flexview? The R52 supports flexview but may need cable/inverter swap? Both the R51 and R52 have intel graphics but these won't support flexview?

An R60 however, would be a straight LCD swap for a flexview screen?

Somewhat off-topic, but has anyone ever figured out why this is? I know that the Intel GPU in the R51/T4x won't drive non-XGA panels, but does anyone know why? The GMA 900 is certainly capable of driving displays at 1400x1050@24/60, so it's not a lack of horsepower. Is the GPU in those units crippled by the BIOS or something?

I'll confuse you even more!
15" R52 with Intel gfx also supports SXGA+ (Flexview), but strangely enough, its 15" T43 cousin with Intel gfx can not!
And any R50 and R51 in 15" (if exist) with ATI gfx also supports SXGA+, as well as UXGA.
You can put a T60/R60 LCD in a matching T4x/R5x machine, but not the other way around (except a few late T42p machines have a T60 compatible IPS LCD).
Having fun yet?

Wow, you're spot, you have confused me even more! Thanks so much for your informative responses! Anyhow, i'm ruling out getting an R series with ATI gfx, i want the cool, linux friendly intel gfx. Therefore, if i want an R series, with intel gfx and ability to pop in an IPS screen (preferably UXGA, as that's the only res i can find on ebay), would R60/e be my best bet?

If you want 4:3 15" and Intel gfx and UXGA, then your only options are a T60 or R60, or an extremely rare Europe-issued-only T61.
Not sure if an R60/e can handle UXGA, that's a rather castrated version R60 (e for economy).

My dear friend RBS made a typo...the funny Europe-only 15" unit was R61. Good luck finding one...I've been trying for years, and I do have quite a few friends on the Old Continent.

I own a R60e that was modded to a Core Duo CPU and a 15" SXGA+ IPS screen. That being said, it's one of the rare versions with 945 chipset which was used in both R60 and T60. Most of the R60e units have 940 chipset which restricts upgrades.

Good luck.

George: I'm not sure if this may be of interest, but in any case have a look at --> Lenovo ThinkPad R61 T7100 2x 1,8GHz 120GB WIFI 1GB BT 15" SXGA+ 1400x1050 TOP (the same seller has a few of these). The image says "R60" while the description says R61, but the X3100 points towards a R61... as does also the description "~~~ Sehr seltenes Model, schwer erhältlich ~~~" (very rare model, hard to get hold of). If interested, I guess it would be a good idea to contact the seller to confirm the specifications...

But, hey, George, it's almost Christmas so if you [ireally[/i] wish to have this R61 (?), perhaps you would allow yourself an extra present this year?

PS: If this is indeed a 4:3 R61, would the mobo then fit in a 15" T60 frame? (I mean in the same as we know that 14" 4:3 T61 mobo's fits in 4:3 T60 frames)

Johan

The pictures (looking at the other auctions) are either of an R60 4:3 of of an R61 Widescreen.
We need to know the MTM.
If it were indeed a 15" 4:3 machine, it would most likely have a 14.1" mobo plus a similar interposer card as in e.g. T43 15".