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    Recent beater T43 purchase...I love Thinkpads.

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by zephxiii, May 31, 2011.

  1. zephxiii

    zephxiii Notebook Geek

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    So I'm hooked on Thinkpads and I have this whorish impulse to buy them, so far I own 5.

    My recent purchase was a T43....sold as a "parts only" unit on ebay that was stripped of a battery, HD, HD caddy, power adapter, and had a non functional optical drive....but thanks to the Thinkpad's design, I could just quickly swap the working optical drive from my T43 to that one for the OS install....freakin' awesome!

    I had a HD laying around so I picked up a caddy, and adapter for it for cheap.

    The unit was unique in that it had the higher resolution screen (very nice), and ATI graphics...which made think "oh noes" due to problems i've read about these platforms back when I got my first thinkpad (a T43 but intel based).

    The unit looked like it was seriously heavily used. I mean the matte black finish of the KB, trackpad, and palm rest were highly polished to a glossy surface from heavy use. The left click button (lower set) also lost its proper button travel from so much usage, but it still worked.

    There was also a lot of dust and lint under the KB. I decided to try and vacuum it out with a shop vac and quickly learned that the keys are barely held on when met with an upward force....I actually had to dig around in the vacuum's bag for one of the CNTRL keys lol.

    I was worried about whether this unit was going to run reliably, being how used it appeared and because of the ATI graphics chip....but I can tell you this:

    It has ran flawlessly the entire time through installing the OS, running updates and general heavy usage, and it has continued to run flawlessly with it's new users.

    I bought it for a friend of mine and his family to use as they didn't have a computer.

    I love thinkpads. The T43 was the first one I've ever owned, and it is an incredible machine. The first laptop I ever bought was a HP, and it slowly became a flakey and shoddy piece of crap. To watch how these machines hold up against the others, is wonderful.
     
    zephxiii, May 31, 2011
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  2. jjahshik32

    jjahshik32 Notebook Deity

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    Yea the last thinkpad that I had was a T43 before I jumped on the Mac bandwagon. Now after 6-7 years, I'm back to a PC again and waiting for my T420 order to arrive this Friday! I cant wait!
     
    jjahshik32, May 31, 2011
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