does T61p worth $300 AUD?

there is T61p for sale in my local area with the following specs

IBM LENOVO THINKPAD T61P
notebook is in good condition and it has the following specifications:

Intel Centrino Core 2 DUO 2.8 GHZ
1GB RAM
120 GB Hard drive
512 MB NVIDIA Quadro FX Graphics card (dedicated)
15" display
Windows vista business edition 64-Bit
Plus lot of softwares installed
and
Original IBM bag

he wants $300AUD for it.

Also another I find weird is that his T61p have higher specs than the T61p listed on ThinkWiki, for example, on thinkwiki it says t61p only comes with 128 or 256mb of dedicated graphics, his one has 512mb?

by the way, it is for my dad who will only use it for browsing.

 

256 mb is the largest VRAM, but there is shared memory too. I will ask whether the machine still have warranty left. 300 dollars are alright since you know what you are getting yourself into when you get t61p.

 

I would avoid any Napa/Santa Rosa laptops with Nvidia chips, they will all fail at some point or another.

 

You can always Strip the laptop for parts if it does fail. 300 dollars is cheap even if you just use it for parts. Alternatively when it dies get a intel gpu motherboard and slot it in, now you have a perfectly useable machine for a pittance.

 

don't every component fail at some point in time? is nvidia in t61p infamous or something?

 

what about this t400?
ThinkPad T400 (6473-A36) Intel Core 2 Duo 6473-P6G: P8600(2.40GHz), 2GB RAM, 160GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1280x800 LCD, Intel X4500HD, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn wireless, Modem, 1GB Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 6c Li-Ion, WinXP.

Same price as the t61p at $300, however the t400 does not have dedicated graphics.

which should I get?

 

I would go with the T400, you get Montevina, as well as a more modern laptop for the same price. T61p houses the infamous Nvidia chips. They will all fail, it is a matter of time.

 

+1 for the T400. Since it has a 4500MHD can add a x1.Opt NVidia Fermi eGPU to it and radically improve graphics performance. It also has a SATA ODD so makes a better SSD+HDD candidate and the 45nm Penryn CPU will give better battery life.

 

All you need to do is have a quick look through the lenovo forum, then you would know where you stand in terms of the T61p problem.

I have sold all three T61p, and i still have my T400 and T500, they are super reliable. But the T400/T500/R400/R500/W500 have usb ports that may break easily, so when you get it, make sure you check the USB ports are in good nick.

 

Ya my Z61t's USB ports feel flimsy, but I am always careful removing USB devices. Too many times I've seen USB ports broken because people just yank their USB stick as hard as possible.

Didn't the T400/T500 have the keyboard issue? Though that was resolved by using a T61 keyboard.

 

For roughly the first 6 months that the T400/T500 was sold, keyboard flex was an issue with the new perforated-backing keyboards. This was temporarily resolved when Lenovo switched back to using solid-backed keyboards for a while (when I ordered my T500), and was later fixed with additional metal structural bracing at certain points under the keyboard.

 

the T400/T500/R400/R500/W500 USB ports are not flimsy, some of them just failed through brittle fracture, my theory is that either the plasticizers evaporated over time or there weren't enough added in the first place.