Just (re)ordered R61. I'm impressed-

So, I was originally looking at a Dell Latitude for my kid to take to college. For whatever reason I took a peek at Thinkpads. A little history here... I spent a few months as a Dell warranty tech, traveling to homes and business doing parts swaps. I decided that I wanted that kind of warranty and really didn't look at any other machines (looked at Sony, but too pricey and only depot service).

I currently work for a Fortune 500 company in the IT dept, who at one time used HP/Compaq machines but for the last 4 years have gone to IBM/Lenovo. I have always been fond of the Thinkpads and know they are considered the best of class in notebooks. I also know that they were pricey, but took a gander last week.

I stepped right into the 25% off sale with the additional 15% off R-series coupon. The prices quite simply destroyed what I was looking at in the Latitude and proceeded to configure an R61 with 1 GB (single DIMM), XP Pro and 3 year on site warranty + Thinkpad protection for just a hair north of $1100. A couple days later I realized that Lenovo was offering Vista Business with XP Pro downgrade. So I called up and asked to change the OS. I figure there is no price difference so we getting Vista for free which in a year or two we will migrate over.

They inform me that they have to cancel the order and place a new one. Since I used Bill Me Later it got complicated. They said give it a couple days for them to cancel the order and we will continue on. Three days passed, no word for Lenovo and I'm looking at the website and Monday is the last day to get XP. I start to panic and call them up to make sure I can still get both.

Allie answers the phone-- same guy I talked to the first time-- and we get it all straightened out. I tell him I'm a bit concerned because I used the 15% coupon when I placed the order and now it has expired, so this free Vista isn't really free anymore.

No problem he tells me... and configures an identical system and saves me another $100 off my first order, and yes I'm getting both Vista and XP. Freaking sweet!

The Dell I was looking at was about $1500 similarly configured. I feel like a thief. The next step is to bump the memory. As great as the deal is, it was cheaper to buy a single DIMM and buy 4 gigs from Newegg than to just get 4 from Lenovo. So I have a stick of memory going on sale in a couple weeks.

 

You got an excellent deal with a great warranty. Congrats. Always good to hear positive stories.

 

In a word, ' wow'!

 

Yeah it's kind of amazing what's happened with the pricing. When I got my R60 a few years ago I paid $850 which at the time was a great deal. Now the a similarly configured system costs around $650 with the coupons. You could get it for less if you're willing to go with Linux.

I would point out that XP will only see 3GB of the 4GB of memory you install. Unless you have a specific need I doubt you'll use more than 2GB of memory in XP and I doubt you'll use that much.

Since SP1 was released Vista's gotten a lot better.

 

Aaah... no memory hole/PAE tricks to get XP to see all 4 gb. Ok, 3 gb it is. Thanks for the tip.

 

lazyart, nice to hear that you've got a great deal & congrats on your purchase.