just pulled the trigger on a T60

It looks like I may get lucky as long as it's not pushed back, I'm getting an estimated ship date of 9/14. The ultrabay battery will trail behind a couple days. Here are the specs I ended up with:

2613EAU
1.83Ghz Core Duo processor
512MB PC5300 memory
14" SXGA display
Radeon X1400 video
40GB hard drive
DVDRW optical drive
Intel 3945ABG wireless and bluetooth
6 cell battery w/ ultrabay battery
3 year warranty w/ accidental damage

All for the low low one time price of $1742.52, tax included!

I got XP Home, but that will be replaced by a variety of GNU/Linux, BSD, and Solaris installs after a quick first boot to check for problems. It's too bad they don't sell systems with free dos. I'll also be ordering a 100GB Seagate 7.2k RPM hard drive and 2GB of Crucial memory from Newegg, that'll add on another $420 or so. Overall I feel like it's a good deal, but I haven't been watching the Thinkpad market for long.

I'll also be adding on an ultrabay hard drive by the end of the year, I'm thinking of trying to wait out Seagate's 200GB mobile drives.

Here's hoping I get an NMB keyboard and don't have to swap it out. Which is the LCD panel everyone seems to prefer, the Samsung?

 

how much are these?
"3 year warranty w/ accidental damage"

 

$299 for depot, $389 for onsite

 

Congrats!

Yes, the Samsung. A question about the keyboard: Does anyone know if getting an NMB as easy as asking? (I got the Alps; it's fine but not spectacular).

Chris

 

In a past thread someone mentioned just calling up and telling them he wasn't thrilled with the keyboard, and telling them the FRU of the keyboard he wanted. He said that the key seemed to be knowing the FRU of the part you want.

At the time of his posting he wasn't sure if they intended to charge him or even have him send back the original keyboard.

 

Congrats... looks like you'll build your own haha

I think 20078zu comes with pc dos, but it's got the overpriced T2700 processor.

Mine had no bloatware... instead it was actually missing some ThinkVantage & optical drive s/w, and a couple of drivers!

 

Congrats... looks like you'll build your own haha

Thanks, I'm excited I think these next three weeks are going to be tougher than the last two months of saving pennies. At least I had the research to dull the cravings.

I figure it's cheaper this way and I get to control the quality of the components. It's win-win. Awhile back some people over at the Ars forum got their hands on TP barebones, I completely forgot to look into that until just now. Ah well, too late now.

I think 20078zu comes with pc dos, but it's got the overpriced T2700 processor.

That's one thing I'm really not happy about Lenovo with, they play this game limiting what you can do with what components that makes it clear they're trying to milk customers for every bit they can. For example, when configuring a system and not buying a prebuilt, you can only get a 15" SXGA+ Flexview with the T2700, and you're limited to slower processors if you only want an XGA screen. Then you can't get a 2Ghz processor at all unless you get a T60p. I understand I could have bought a prebuilt to get around these things, but I did some searching and had a hell of a time finding anything with a 2Ghz processor, 14" SXGA+, and still had the X1400 instead of X1300. Then you start looking at the hard drive and memory, not to even mention the fingerprint scanner and bluetooth, and it's enough to drive you crazy! Well, crazier.