Technology thinkpad t41 vs dell 700m

[hapkidochic]

my year old laptop just died on me. aaaargh. i'm thinking about getting either the ibm thinkpad t41 or the new dell 700m. anyone have any advice? i'll basically use it for word processing, internet(wireless), music, and watching dvds.

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[gizmoduck]

http://www.powernotebooks.com/

I like the stuff they have personally.

 

[gizmoduck]

As for the choices you mentioned, Thinkpads are built like tanks but are notorious for annoying proprietary drivers. It's something to keep in mind if you plan on replacing the crappy OEM operating system on either choice.

 

[hapkidochic]

As for the choices you mentioned, Thinkpads are built like tanks but are notorious for annoying proprietary drivers. It's something to keep in mind if you plan on replacing the crappy OEM operating system on either choice.

i don't know what that means, but thanks for the advice!

 

[gizmoduck]

It means that if you ever reinstall windows you'd have a heck of a hard time getting things like, say, the volume buttons on the keyboard or the fancy power management features to work.

 

[SlopinMunkyDude]

Dell laptops have a nasty habit of shedding. Not a good feature in a laptop. Tank model may be preferable.

With that said, I've been thinking of formatting the ole harddrive and starting over on my T-40. I'll have to do some research on the proprietary drives.

 

[Col Sanders]

I have reformatted my t40p twice in the last year with the IBM reformatting tool at startup and have had absolutely no problems, in fact it restores it to the exact factory settings within a few minutes.

 

[Fin-Nor]

i have owned a T21 in the past, what a machine...

as for reformatting the HD, i used a NON IBM restore utility and the only thing that you are missing out are the "thinkpad" button.

Volume works, everthing works even without the ibm restore.

If anything doesnt work, go download the drivers at IBM.com

 

[amfrank]

Our medical school requires us to have the IBM T42 and I love it!

 

[Stroganoff]

Our medical school requires us to have the IBM T42 and I love it!

Weird. What's up with some med schools denying their students the RIGHT to have any laptop they want?

As long as students have something decently modern and fits the spec range (say, Wi-Fi compliant) or minimum CPU, OS, HD, RAM, I don't see why schools would require a certain laptop.

Oh I know...so they can make deals with manufacturers and make a few extra bucks at the expense of their students.

 

[flighterdoc]

Our medical school requires us to have the IBM T42 and I love it!

Which school is that?

The IBM's are terrific machines, though - great battery life, rugged as hell. When I worked for IBM we could buy them fairly cheaply, which was good. They kept recycling old crappy P2/300 thinkpads for us serfs to use