[ltp] Which used Thinkpad?

[Adam Benjamin]

I have a TP 770E that I have been *very* happy with.  The only thing I
can't do with it is play DVDs - it's a little too slow.  Of course, my
girlfriend recently bought a used TP 770Z - which *is* fast enough
(probably because that model uses an AGP internally and has a slightly
faster CPU.)  Anyway, other than that little bit of jealousy, I've
been completely happy with mine.

I'm sucessfully running with a 30 Gig drive, my soundcard is 16 bit
(Crystal chipset - which is 100% Soundblaster compatible, not that I
really care - linux supports it) and I'm in the process of upgrading it
to over 200 Megs of RAM.  The 770E has 32 Megs on board and will take
an additional two SODIMMs (of any combination of sizes, up to 128 Megs
in each slot.)  I've got one 64 Meg SODIMM (came with it) and I'm going
to add another 128 Meg to the other slot.  You can do 2 x 128 Meg if
you want.  The 770Z is the same except you start with 64 Meg on board
(and I think it was sold with a second 64 Meg in one of the slots.)

The 14.1" LCD is really nice, the PII/266 cpu is fast enough for me,
the 4 Meg video card is sufficient speed/colour for what I tend to do.
The DVD drive is nice to have - if (in my case) only for data DVDs.  
I don't have an internal modem in mine (which is apparently a winmodem
if it exists) but my PCMCIA card (dual modem/NIC) does a nice job for
what I need and is recognized and supported by my distribution.

I'm currently running RedHat 7.2 with all existing updates, and even
(just for fun) have a Parallel Port SCSI scanner runing under it.
(Was an intellectual exercise - sucks otherwise, but that's the fault
of the scanner.)  It has a USB port, a serial port, a parallel port
and (although I haven't used them) front and back IR ports.  (I
*think* it's a front IR port - I haven't used it.  :) )

Drop me an email if you want to know more.  I know there are other
ThinkPads out there, and I'm sure some of them are lots more powerful,
and possibly lighter/smaller/whatever - but I'm *really* happy with
mine.  Perhaps I just found a good match to what I do - but perhaps
it's a really good model.

Good luck with your shopping, and Happy Statutory Holidays to everyone
out there.

Adam Benjamin




On Sun, 23 Dec 2001, Malcolm Dean wrote:

> Which is precisely why I asked for "sufficiently 'standardized' hardware."
> 
> Does anyone have something substantial to contribute on this question?
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chris Merrill" <cmerrill@nc.rr.com>
> To: <linux-thinkpad@www.bm-soft.com>
> Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2001 6:33 AM
> Subject: Re: [ltp] Which used Thinkpad?
> 
> 
> > Malcolm Dean said:
> > > - sufficiently "standardized" hardware (for distributions without
> "smart"
> > > installation routines or large driver libraries)
> >
> > IMO, there is no such thing as a laptop that uses "standardized"
> > hardware.
> >
> > *********************************
> > Chris Merrill
> > cmerrill@nc.rr.com
> > *********************************



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