Life of your ThinkPad

Hi...

Been reading the threads concerning the durability of ThinkPads. Noted the general consensus that they are durable machines - more so than the competition.

So, my question is: How long have you been using your ThinkPad? Alternatively, how old is your ThinkPad? Both questions refer to your active machine and not any secondary machine that you may have?

Also, an indication of what model it is and if you have done any significant work on it - like replacing parts etc. would be very insightful.

I am trying to (rather unscientifically) gauge how long will it take for an average TP user to upgrade or change to a new machine (TP or otherwise).

Thanks

PS: I would begin by answering my own questions, but since my machine is relatively new - only a few months old - it does not count, I guess.

 

Here is a link to a topic I started about "How often do you upgrade your Thinkpad". It got quite long too: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/393230-how-often-do-you-buy-new-thinkpad.html

 

My T410 was born in April of this year. It's too early to tell how reliable it is yet.

 

i still got the T41 and i use it all the time (T40's fan is gone and needs replacement). Usually every 2 years is the average life of Thinkpads in the corporate environment that i have encountered. So basically everytime a new thinkpad is released.

 

That is short.

 

My X300 is date-stamped 07/12, and I got it shortly after that. Since I haven't fully transitioned over to the X301 yet, it's still my daily system.

 

that is for thinkpads on lease, it is usually around 3 years average if the systems were purchased.

 

Depends on the person. Some people just don't care about their corporate owned machine. They beat them up pretty good in three years. Other people I know can destroy a machine in less time.

I take good care of my personal and company owned machines. 5 years is common for stuff under my care.

 

I think the are at least four variables in this equation that determine the life of a laptop:

(the built quality) x (level of care) x (amount of usage) x (amount of traveling) = life of your laptop.

built quality is just one factor, people who buy thinkpads are more likely to take care of their laptops however they also tend to use their laptops more intensively than an average consumer.

People are also likely to upgrade before their laptop even die due to software requirement, for tax incentives or simply wanting to have the latest laptop.

 

I got my X40 in Aug 2005. It's got a 40GB harddrive that spins at 4200rpm. At some point I increased the ram to 1GB. I used it all through university and I still use it close to every day. The USB ports on my 5 year old desktop computer stopped working, so I have to use the Thinkpad to get songs on my mp3 player.

A Thinkpad bought today could easily last 5years+ because the intel dual core processors have way way way more processing power than the average word processor/spreadsheet/websurfing type person needs.

In the near future ultra thin dual core netbooks might make be tempting enough to make you want to upgrade before 5years is up. Check out intel Canoe Lake design as an example of what might on the market next year.

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Thanks. Sorry, I seemed to have missed it.

 

I would think so too.

The only problem is that if my current machine is anything to go by at its current newish state, then I should not be buying a laptop in the next 4-5 years assuming that I have no pressing software issues, which I don't think will be the case.

Paradoxically, the need to have a sturdy machine - which is why I bought the TP - and the "desire" to buy a new one - because I like shopping for laptops as I get to see and try different machines and configurations, shapes, sizes and colours - are in conflict here.

The more sturdy the machine, the less likely that I will fulfill the "desire" to buy a new one. I would like to limit my machines to not more than 3 in number. One primary machine, one possibly a netbook(or a non Apple tablet) and a dedicated e-reader.

Thankfully, in a perverse way, the netbook/ tablet and the e-reader are not expensive, but in that sense also not that durable...so maybe the "desire" will find an outlet from that point of view.

The sense that I am getting however is that ThinkPads are generally quite reliable and from anecdotal evidence, they seem to last for around 4-5 years. Of course, much depends on how they are handled and other criteria.

 

given that Thinkpads were available with 5 years bid warranty, i would think that there are Thinkpads that can last more than 5 years. So many people whom own a T4x laptops are still using them, which are 5 years +.

T43 is still fulfilling many people computing requirements, given the state of software developments, a Penryn Core CPU should still be quite powerful in 5 years time.

 

I'm typing this on a train to London at the moment but generally the more appreciative you are to technology the more you tend to look after it better. Looking around me there is a guy with a beaten up corporate HP laptop with vertical lines going across the screen, but it still works which is what most corporate professionals want at the end of the day though signs suggest it had a tough life. Obviously if it were my laptop I be pretty livid with myself for getting it into that state.

I think my ThinkPad T61 had a pampered life after I had it in my possession. Worked hard for over 2 and a half years by it's previous owner, nowadays it just generally used for web browsing, music and minor content creation work. Had been smitten with some upgrades of all sorts from CPUs to the SSD with another planned project upgrade on it very soon. I reckon it can probably service me for another 3 years without too much strain.

 

@hearst555...that means you don't buy laptops too often especially given you so much mileage from the one that you already have? So, why you say that you expect your T61 to last another 3 years, does it mean that you won't buy a new laptop for the next 3 years?

I guess that would work especially if your software needs don't demand anything radically different than what you are currently using.

 

you can have a lot for more than 3 years, but that does not mean you can't get a new laptop in the mean while.

 

And this is precisely the dilemma. If my current machine lasts for 5 years - by lasts I mean in terms of build and functionality - they I would question my reasons for buying a new laptop.

Going by the warranty that I got with my machine, I am assuming that it will last me 3 years, which also means that I would find it difficult to justify to myself the cost a new one sooner than that. Of course, if the machine breaks down then there is no alternative.

 

i think in the current games and software development, there is a greater emphasis placed on graphics power than CPU power. In which case, the DIY Vidock maybe a good performance upgrade for your R400. I am considering of getting one for the sake of testing it and see how it performs (i probably won't have much real world use for it, since i hardly do any CAD now and games i play are pretty old by the current standards).

 

That's ok

I might as well contribute to this post as well though :

I keep my Thinkpads until there is no POSSIBLE way they can run any longer. So far, I have never gotten rid of a Thinkpad, since my first one is my current T61. My T61 is going on 2 and a half years old, and I use it everyday for 4+ hours a day. So far it has 5,018 power on hours.
My X301 is the baby, I very rarely use it (it only has just over 100 power-on hours).
I travel with my X301, so I tend for that to last me at LEAST 5 years. My T61 I plan on keeping for at least another 3 years as my "desktop replacement".
The laptop I had before my T61 (a Toshiba Satellite) lasted my almost 5 years before it crapped the bed (it only needed a new hard-drive, which would've set me back $300, but I figured that old Pentium 4 system was getting a little outdated with the new Core 2 Duo's on the market).

So, to sum it all up, I generally keep my laptops at LEAST 5 years, or until they break going beyond what a new system would cost (or if it gets to the point that fixing it would be beyond the question).

 

Those old Toshiba Satellite brings back good memories when Toshiba actually produced a quality laptop, now most of their laptops line make Acer laptops look high quality and sexy....

 

Yes, I had my Toshiba Satellite laptop all throughout high school (bought it as a freshman, and it lasted me until my first year of college). I LOVED that little notebook. It had a 15" matte screen, a "new" (at the time) Pentium 4 processor @ like 2.something gigs, and it was made of this fairly durable blue plastic. I used to take it with me to my classes at least 2-3 times per week. I remember after I got rid of that and got my T61 I couldn't BELEIVE how much thinner my T61 was compared to my old Toshiba.

But I really liked my Toshiba, after going to Best Buy and looking at the quality of the newer Satellite notebooks, I was generally not to impressed with them (hence my entire new notebook world into the Thinkpad market).

Since I've gotten my T61 back in early 2008, I've never looked back !

 

The Pentium4 Toshiba Satellite is the same class as the IBM Thinkpad T30, it was thicker to deal with the extra heat from the Pentium 4 processors.

Even without any logo you would recognize the Thinkpad by the matte black design, while Dell and HP laptops would be lot harder to recognize if there is no eye catching branding and logo. Dell's Latitude laptop could easily be a HP Elitebook and vice versa.

Also, the all silver aluminium design has become Apple's MBP new design, which most people can pick up fairly easily.

 

@MikesDell...wow! And, don't you ever - while walking past shop windows displaying laptops or on forums like these where you read about the good, the bad, and the ugly, of even ThinkPads, - feel like buying one on an impulse...even though you know you really don't need it?

The other interesting thing I found was your reference to your X301. Now, I wish I could do that. If I had a machine I really like, I would tend to use it all the time. So, having two machines I like is a problem, which is also the reason why I am perpetually (or so it seems) deferring my buying a "netbook". At one point I even considered the X200/1.

 

How soon do you think the games and software development will lead to the use of a more capable graphics option? That could be a chance to upgrade to a new machine - though I would always prefer to use the integrated graphics option. I just can't handle hot/warm laptops.

 

i haven't looked closely in regards to gaming performance and graphics card development trend. But it is suffice to say that the development in most business laptops are rather slow as compared to the gaming laptops like Alienware.

I don't think you need to worry about it too much, since you are not doing anything graphic intensive and play much games.

 

@lead_org...no...no games! I use the laptop only for movies.

 

the Intel 4500 MHD is designed for hardware decoding of blu-ray movies, so i think you should fine for that, unless Hollywood decide that this resolution is too low. I don't think you need to worry about that in a short period of time, as most people have not moved away from normal DVD formats yet.

 

Quite the contrary, I think I had around 5 laptops in the last 3 years. Jumping from Acer, Toshiba then to a Lenovo R61e and two Lenovo T61's (I sold my first one to a friend). As lead_org mentioned there's nothing stopping me from buying another brand new one right now but at the same time you don't have to destroy your current laptop to justify buying a new one.

I mean it would be nice to have a working collection, looking back at your old laptops and booting them up for nostalgia sake. I think lead_org can say this experience himself!

 

yes i am a Thinkpad Anthropologist, hence the collection. Obviously, if The Great Thinkpad museum aka Lenovo Inc can offer me more thinkpads, then i can get a wider scope on Thinkpads design evolution.

To me Thinkpad is like Marsupial specie something quite distinct and interesting to study.... they have a steady flow in their design format, unlike Acer laptops no design consistency at all. The only constant with Acer laptops is to chase the bottom line and beat their competitors on price and feature offering (but not on quality), while i must admit their Netbooks are pretty good.

You can tell a lot about Lenovo's company and product strategy by looking at the Thinkpad product offering, but that is a story for another time. The number of separate parts on the current T510 and W510 is decreasing as compared to the old T500 and W500, which does simplify the manufacturing process that is something that Apple have done well at in the new Macbook/Macbook Pro generations, and therefore have increased the profit margin on their products.

 

I had my T61 for a year before I gave it to my sister than I bought a T400 in August 2008 and I'll probably upgrade it in a couple of years.

 

That's all well and good, but quality checks need to take place. My recent experience (this morning) seems to indicate QA checks have been cut as well. If QA was in place, I wouldn't have a laptop with a defective dock connector. That would have been caught on the assembly or configuration line.

Where are power on hours displayed? In the BIOS?

 

I downloaded a program called "CrystalDiskInfo". It tells you a bunch of info (the current running temp of your laptop, power on cycles, power on hours, etc.).

 

those are the attributes for the HDD/SSD in your system, not the system itself.   every modern storage device logs this info.

S.M.A.R.T. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

 

I got a T410 in April 2010. It's been holding up fine until mid August when I experienced hard drive problems. I called Lenovo and they're sending me a replacement drive. Other than that, it's been great. No real complaints. I'm definitely keeping this for the 2 remaining years of my undergraduate school and we'll see what goes from there. Ultimately, it would be nice to keep using it for 4 or so years. I'm going to consider a X series after this one though. The smaller form factor would be nice.

 

Hm... my first TP was a 770 all the way back in early '04. I had it for about six months before my cat knocked it off a desk(snagged the power cord), so it had a pretty short life in my care. :/

The T21 that replaced the 770 immediately afterward served me as a primary computer for three years; the machine itself was pressing seven years of age at that point. I had a brief flirtation with a T40, but the GPU issue killed it. I still have the T21 and use it occasionally... it works just fine even after nearly ten years of hard use.

I went through a massive Thinkpad buying/selling spree starting April of last year. I went through several T4x machines, a T60 that I upgraded with a T60p motherboard, and an X60s that I upgraded with an X61s motherboard. All were relatively short-lived and I sold the T60p and X61s to pick up my T400.

My current stable's going to be around for a while... not feeling the lack of switchable graphics on the T410, for starters(Don't get me started on Nvidia products, either... :/). The T400's going to be my primary system, and I'll tote around the X200 when weight and footprint are my primary consideration... or when I need a change. If I'm lucky I'll likely keep the T400/X200 combo through at least two years of school.

 

I'm using a t21. Made ten years ago.

 

Some systems are built to last. That's why I think it's better to initially spend a bit more money for a better quality system that will last you a long time, because it will actually save you money in the long run.

 

It is usually good to slightly buy a little above, but 10 years is a long between purchases - in that time, screens have not improved (other than LED factor), but cpu's and gpu's have improved leaps and bounds. and the SSD is transformational compared to HDD. ram limits are much higher; the machines run much quieter under load. I would think 3 years is a reasonable periodic replacement schedule - long enough to really notice the difference, short enough for older machine to still be useful as working backup.

 

Oh, theoretically, that is the case. But most often, the very people who preach this philosophy are the ones buying another top-end, well-built machine when their loaded "tank" from 1-2 years ago is outdated (performing no better than the budget machines of the latest generation)

It takes a lot of self control to resist the latest technology and tell yourself that your business-grade computer is just as solid as it was 2 years ago, when it was new. The X220 really tests me, but I'm still going to be sticking with my T500 for the foreseeable future (particularly now that it's supplemented in portability by a new X120e ).

 

Hope your speakers don't melt on your shiny new x120e. I'm still undecided if I want to switch back to desktops or not rolleyes . Right now I'm liking my current setup quite a bit (T410 + 23 inch monitor), and it's just enough power for me right now.
I am very tempted by sandy bridge though (desktop or notebook). It brings some nice enough improvements.

 

I'm fairly certain the X220 isn't much of an upgrade for me. The Hydis screen I have now is quite excellent. None of the things I do with my notebook are particularly processor intensive, which means SB offers me very little performance wise, but the reason I entertain the idea of a X220 is the 1366x768 resolution LCD. That's wide enough for me to run Firefox bookmarks and Vista sidebars simultaneously. Is that worth the $500 it's going to cost me to upgrade? Probably not, but it keeps me thinking about it.

 

I still got a working IBM s30, bought it few months ago (sticker date says that it was built on September 2001) -- replaced the hard drive and battery and works fine for internet and document browsing.

 

I'm pretty sure my T61 got beat to hell by the previous owner, and even submitted to the bad Nvidia GPU bug that was going around. Physical build quality-wise, after 2ish years, the machine seems to be in great condition. The screen, chassis, and hinges are all in excellent condition. I expect this machine to last me another 2-2.5 years, with some upgrades along the way.

 

I still have my upgraded T41p to T42p specs which I got in 2004 as backup to my T60p widescreen workstation. Love that unit and a thing of beauty .

 

You could then sell me your x200t then buy yourself the x220.

After seeing ThinkPads that come into our tech shop only come for virus removals gives me the impression that as long as there is electricity, ThinkPads will continue to work forever..

 

I think someone is catching the thinkpad fever.

 

If you're interested, send me a PM. Everything has it's price.

 

I can't really speak to longevity with my X201, as we've only been friends since Feb 2nd. However, the X41 that the X201 took over duty for has been alive and kicking since 2005, and mine since 2008, I cleaned all the dust out of it yesterday, and aside from a single broken spine in it's cooling fan grille, and a few rubbed off corners (exposed shiny metal is cool) it's just as sturdy and good looking as it was when it showed up at my door.

For reference, the T22 that preceded both of the above units is still on print server duty, and my ancient 560X still functions, albeit with very few of the original parts still on board. The 760ED that my uncle saved from a thrift store - a machine that is more black electrical tape than plastic - also still functions flawlessly, aside from a few somewhat hard to press keys. For an all-original - aside from the after-market tape mods - system from 1997, that's impressive.

 

I'm on my T61 for 3+ years, and planing on at least that many more

I've changed some stuff on it though, and since I'm not using it's monitor, kbd, touchpad, DVD .. etc (got all external), I can see this laptop being in perfect shape now, just like when it was brand new. Only the battery is at like half right now ..

 

My t400 is a 2008 model, but I bought in early 2009. 2 years and counting and I forsee at least another 2 years before I think about getting rid of it. In fact I have a 2009 built x200s coming in today that I plan on using for at least 2 years. Honestly if you buy business class from the mainstream OEMs you really cant go wrong. I have a dell vostro and thinkpad that both take the abuse I give them as welll as running constantly and still they boot up and run like the first day I got them.

I agree with this. I would spend a little extra to get a quality laptop.