Hey All,
Need to clean up and consolidate my thinkpad collection.
Listed below is what I have - Its a no brainer to get rid of the T21 and T40. But I am torn with the T42 and T43.
The T43 has Intel graphics so no BGA issues but the T42 board is a newer version (with red dots) which George tells me should be better. I like the screen resolution of the T42...
Any insight and a vote would be greatly appreciated.


SOLD Product: ThinkPad T21 2647-4AU 2001
Original description:
PIII 800MHz (256KB)
128MB RAM NOW 384MB
20.0GB HDD - selling with an extra 40GB
14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD
8x-2.3x DVD
Intel combo
TV out
Li-Ion Battery
W98 NOW XP Pro

Product: ThinkPad T40 2373-96U Jul-03
Original description:
P M 1.6GHz NOW P M 735 (1.7GHz) Dothan
512MB RAM NOW 1GB
80GB 4200rpm HDD NOW 40GB
14.1 SXGA+(1400x1050) TFT LCD
32MB ATI Radeon 9000
CD-RW/DVD
Bluetooth/Modem (BMDC)
1Gb Ether - Intel PRO/1000 MT
Cisco 802.11b NOW Intel PRO/wireless 2200BG 802.11b/g
Sec Chip
UltraNav
9 cell Batt NOW 6 cell
WinXP Pro

Product: ThinkPad T42 2373-9XU Jul-05
Original description:
P M 745(1.8GHz)
512MB RAM NOW 2GB
80GB 5400rpm HDD NOW 160GB
14.1 SXGA+(1400x1050) TFT LCD
64MB ATI Radeon 9600 (Late model Mobo - small red dots)
CD-RW/DVD
IBM 802.11a/b/g wireless NOW Intel PRO/wireless 2200BG 802.11b/g
Bluetooth/Modem (BMDC-2)
1Gb Ether - Intel PRO/1000 MT
UltraNav
Sec Chip
6 cell Li-Ion Batt
WinXP Pro
ADDED Fingerprint reader

SOLD Product: ThinkPad T43 1871-W7Q Dec-05
Original description: Based on 1871-CTO:
P M 750(1.86GHz)
1GB RAM NOW 2GB
40GB 5400rpm HD
14.1in 1024x768 LCD
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900
CDRW/DVD
Wireless upgradeable(MPCI) NOW Intel PRO/wireless 2200BG 802.11b/g
Modem(MDC-2) NOW BMDC-3 with Bluetooth
1Gb Ether - (Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit)
Secure Chip
6 cell Li-Ion battery
WinXP Pro

If the machine is to be stationery (not moved around much) I'd keep the T42, which will also run W7 with full Aero if so desired.

Now, if it's meant to be carried around...T43 would be my preferred choice.

Good luck with the cleanup.

This is not an easy decision! If I were you, I would swap the LCD panels between the T43 and the T42 so that the T43 will have 1400x1050. You would need to swap the LCD cable and inverter as well. Then, sell the rest.

My T42 also had red dots but its GPU failed nonetheless.

@PW: that T43 has Intel graphics and won't drive a SXGA+ screen...that's the part that sucks...otherwise OP could swap the panel from the T40 which is not going to bring him much in today's market anyway...

Ah, I forgot about that! In this case, sell all four laptops and buy a T60 with SXGA+.

Amen.

I would never go back to XGA in a 14" screen , so I'd join the supporters of selling all of them and buying a T60.

Cheers

Take the 160gb hdd from the T42, stick it in the T43, and keep the T43.

IMO, the T43 is the one to keep. Machine type 1871 is an excellent piece of kit.

I vote for the T43.

Sell them all and get a T43p or T61p

I agree with this. I voted for the T42. Better screen resolution and no problems with non-IBM/Lenovo hard drives.

I have a T42 with the features of yours. Haven't had any GPU problems yet. I don't carry mine around all that much though.

My opinions: I have both a T42 and T43, and I wouldn't have swapped a T42 with those specs for a T43 with a XGA. Even not knowing the increased possibility for GPU failure on the T42 vs. the bulletproof Intel'ed T43, and the *slightly* better specs of the T43 internals. You can of course apply the non-2010 BIOS to the T43, image and swap the hard drives, but you are stuck with the XGA screen no matter what. Doing a side-by-side comparison of my T42's XGA and the T43's SXGA+, it really makes a difference, particularly if you use the laptop on a daily basis with the built in screen only, and no external monitor.

Or even better if this is a laptop choice you intend to stick with for a while: Sell them all and buy a T60, or even keep one of your T4x as a backup laptop. (But do not buy a Nvidia T61 like suggested above.. )

I'd keep the T42. It is quieter than even Intel GPU based T43 (I have them both together on my desk right now), has much better screen and can run W7 with Aero like George already mentioned.

And if you like, you can run the CPU on your T42 on 533 MHz bus like T43 and have almost as fast machine clock-per-clock as T43 even though you are hard pressed to notice the difference even now. Intel graphics on T43 suck anyway regarding even basic performance and it matters to me because I occasionally play older games on my laptops (CoD, older NFS etc).

Hey All,
Thanks so much for the advice and voting in my poll! Keep the votes coming as polls are still open

Results are pretty much to be expected - alright who voted for the T40!
FYI HDDs have options I have some laying around to maximize interest in any particular unit.

George thanks for the info on running win7 on the T42. I just need a good sale on win7 as I hate to pay full price! Right now I prefer to keep that one (the T42) as it is already my laptop and is completely set up as I like it. This laptop does not move around much, or should I say far. It sits on an end table in the TV room, so it moves from the table to my lap quite often.

I will plan on selling the units serially in ascending order, so after the T21 and T40 are gone I can make my final decision on which one to keep.

Oh and T6x upgrade is VERY tempting and I am resisting the urge to browse the marketplace. Maybe when I am down to 1 T4x and IF I have not already spent the money from the others I will go down this path.

Of all these I would keep the T42. There is a chance of GPU failure of course, which the Intel-based T43 does not have, but the specs are so much nicer, and in any case:
1) GPU failure is less frequent on late model mobos
2) Southbridge failure can happen equally on the T43, and can be just as fatal

Well Guys I got it down to 2!

Decided to keep the T42 for myself and will eventually get around to bumping it to Win7.
As I was selling the last 2 (T40 and T43) my 10yr old asked if he could have a laptop. Left it up to fate, whichever sold 1st he got what was left.
So he is now set up with my the T40. Hopefully it does not die before he really needs a laptop for school.

thanks for all the input and advice (and votes!)

I think he'll be fine with the T40. I had no GPU problems with my T40, which I think was pre-RoHS. These may be somewhat less susceptible to the solder problems that the T41 and T42 were plagued with.

You guys are all totally nuts! Keep the 14.1" SXGA+ T42 !! The screen resolution is awesome but the dots aren't too tiny, the GPU out-benchmarks all other T4x CPUs in history, there are a bazillion of these devices still going strong despite your reballing fears (including 4x of them in my house, T42, T42, T42p, T42p), they use less power and are therefore cooler than T43 machines with airplane-sounding fans, and they have a higher-speed memory bus (but expensive SoDIMMs) compared to T43, which imho was an IBM mistake.

- DWG

T42 = DDR PC2700, FSB = 400 MHz (expensive, old standard)
T43 = DDR2 PC2-4200, FSB = 533 MHz (cheaper, faster RAM as well as faster FSB)

Don't tell fantasies or blame the wrong party!

RealBlackStuff, there's a BIG reason why DDR2 memory is so much cheaper than DDR memory! Quoted from wikipedia :


Thus, 533 Mhz DDR2 memory has the latency performance of 267 Mhz DDR memory, which is ONE THIRD SLOWER than 400 Mhz DDR memory! There is a reason why DDR memory is so expensive at the higher speeds, it's faster (and better) for Random Access compared to DDR2 (by the way there's a reason why these SoDimms are called "RAM", it's the Random Access speeds that matter!) The move to DDR2 memory on the Thinkpad T43 was a cost-saving measure, NOT a performance-enhancing measure!

Wrong you are on this one...

Benchmark RAM performance on any T42 vs. T43 and let me know what you find.

There were really no cost-saving measures applied to T43 generation, actually the exact opposite holds true...once you get a proper understanding how vastly different T43 architecture is from what was seen on previous T4x units, you'll comprehend what I'm talking about, and that goes way beyond DDR2 and faster FSB...

DDR2-533 is faster than DDR-333 despite the higher latencies. Latencies sometimes matter more, but usually less than the bandwidth.

At the time of T43 introduction, DDR2 was not cheaper than DDR, so calling it a cost-saving measure makes little sense.

The reason DDR is more expensive now is because it's rare, and isn't manufactured anymore (or barely so). Low supply - prices go up.

Just like DDR2 is already much more expensive than DDR3, despite the latter being faster.