Old School Thinkpad Questions

Hey All,

After agonizing for months about what to get, I've finally think I just want to buy an old school Thinkpad T40 14inch laptop with a 1.4-1.6 Pentium M.

I'll be using the notebook for basic tasks, excel, music, photo editing, writing code, and the occasional moderate gaming. I don't need to play the latest version of the latest game at 234 fps. Of course, before pulling the plug, I had to check with all you notebooks wizards out there and ask a few questions...


1) Have the Pentium Ms evolved much since the T40 was released in April 2003? Will I be getting a processor that has lackluster power compared to a Pentium M of similar clock speed sold today?

2) I think the RAM MHz is slower than most on the market now. If I upgrade the RAM, can I put faster MHz ram in it, or will I be limited by the motherboard? Does the RAM Mhz speed really boost performance much?

3) How will the older ATI 32MB dedicated card compare to the Intel's GMA 900 integrated graphics?

4) Any big issues I need to watch out for buying reconditioned? Are reconditioned models usually returned early on and resold, or are they often used for an extended period (1+ years) by customers and then resold.

5) Any other big issues I should be aware of when purchasing a two year old notebook??

Sorry for so many questions, but I love digging into this stuff and have a lot to learn. Thanks in advance!!!!!

 

The T40 and T41 featured Banias processors. The T42 evolved to Dothan processors, which clock-for-clock were more efficient than Banias and also consumed less energy. The T43 took one step further to the second generation Dothan processors, which ran on higher FSB (533 vs. 400) and also higher RAM speed (533 vs. 333). Clock for clock these processors are the most efficient of the Pentium M family (leaving Core Duo aside), but they consume more energy than the 400FSB Dothans. To many, the 400MHz Dothan CPUs (T42) are the sweet spot.

The problem here is that Intel's 855 chipsets that are used with the T40/T41/T42 can only run the RAM at speeds up to 333MHz, so even if you put faster RAM, you won't benefit from it.

Pretty much on par. None of the two will be able to run heavy games with usable performance.

 

Also, the T40 doesn't have the active hard drive protection system that later models do.

Regarding

Good question. Companies that sell mostly to consumers have a high prompt return rate due to buyers remorse and other non-quality related reasons. But I am not on top of the ultimate disposition of notebooks when a large business upgrades its whole fleet after using the machines for several years. I wish you luck investigating this . . .