Used ThinkPad x61s: Things to look out for

Hi all,

So I've sort of been looking through the school surplus store and noticed that they've taken in some ThinkPads to be sold off. One in particular has caught my eye. It's a mislabeled X61s (listed as X615 with LV-BI GWA serial number) that comes with a dock and power adapter but no HDD for well under $100.

Since the school doesn't allow for public purchases until it's been there for two weeks and most other ThinkPads I've seen disappear well before then, it's doubtful that I'll get it, but if I do, what are some things to watch out for? More importantly, did this generation have any sort of dangerous flaws? What sort of things can/should it be able to do?

The lack of HDD means that I'll probably have to run my Linux Live CD but can I get away with "only" a USB stick as the only memory device? It's not a long term thing, just so I can run tests. It also doesn't say anything about a battery either; is that going to be an issue? Not sure if I can trust the "genuine" eBay battery.

Doing some quick math says I can get it up and running for about $100. It's mainly going to be a stupid project/travel machine. Hey, I could be blowing mommy and daddy's, and (if all goes well with the job/research dealio) my own money on booze and loose women so I feel this is a good alternative.

 

not much dangerous flaw, my one has been left on for 24/7 2 years straight, and it is still working beautifully.

Just need to make sure that the laptop turns on, and the screen brightness is still good. Also, check whether there is sign of water spill.

Other than that the X6x/s machines are very solid.

 

The only non-obvious thing that I'd check would be the case plastics in the region of the PCMCIA slot. The X6x design tends to get stress fractures there. It's not a functional impairment if it does, but it will mean that you might end up dropping $30 or so on a replacement palmrest assembly.

 

I have used an x61s since late 2007 - they are solid computers - there is the plastic near pcmcia slot issue. I put a plastic dummy pcmcia card in my x61s to prevent this issue. Relatively few quirks - they run windows 7 and windows XP generally without issue

Here is something to note:
I recently got an x61 with the t7500 cpu on ebay for about $140, and I do definitely note the difference in CPU speed (with the same exact system image, I just moved the hard drive over to the x61). So I would personally recommend an X61 over the X61s, and I would recommend sticking a cheap SSD in there as well. Note that in my experience the sandforce SSDs like OCZ vertex 3 does not play nicely with thinkpads - look for something like an intel 320 - I put an intel 320 into the X61 and it works great with no issues.

X61s and X61 is limited to SATA 1 unless you put a cooked bios on the computer which I have done

-dennis

 

Anybody have any luck with the "genuine" OEM batteries on eBay? They're cheap but I don't know...too cheap?

 

Unless you know a specific dealer that you can trust, I'd avoid them.

There are many reliable non-OEM batteries out there. There are also far, far more junk ones.

 

School surplus FTW. We have something like that at my college. That's how I got my first ThinkPad, my T61.

 

Sadly somebody snapped up the cheap x61 with the supposed "Japanese" registration.

There's one for $200 obo with dock, 4GB, and 150GB HDD included and now a T60P available soon for $150. Any of these sound reasonable?

Sigh... choices.

 

I'm running a T60p, Intel T7200, 3gb of ram. It does everything I need in acceptable time periods (which is mainly programming with VS2010 and the obvious web/email/music/video), just don't expect top of the line performance or gaming capabilities. If it's the 15" model with the IPS screen I would say go for it, it's a very nice display.

 

The T60p is a good one, but if you're looking for a secondary computer or something portable, go for the X61. 4GB and 150GB is also pretty decent, as is the dock.

Crazy prices though, but maybe I'm just used to paying $30 a pop for T60's and T61's .

 

Can you furnish a quantity (50-500) at similar prices? I'd allow for a decent profit on your end, presuming they haven't fallen off the truck, swam in the ocean and/or are missing motherboards...

 

I wish! I'm lucky to get one or two every now and then. It's mostly older units, with T61s and T60s sprinkled in the lot.

 

There was a vendor who was selling X61t batteries and they were mentioned in the ad as genuine. He made no guarantees of charge capacity but said they were above 90% (I think).

I picked one up and not only was it indeed genuine, it had 95% full charge capacity. Not bad for $44. I can dig up his username if you want.

 

You may want to check TPF's Marketplace:

forum.thinkpads.com • Marketplace - Forum Members only

And no, I don't have one to offer...