Seeking opinions on 3 laptops…

I started this thread in order to get opinions on which one to go with. I didn't get much response unfortunately, but now that I made my choice I thought I'd post my decision so that this can be helpful to others. When I get the laptop, I will report in on how well it plays SL.

Original first post:

Its time for me to buy a computer again. This time, a laptop. As with my last computer, I’m basing my configuration requirements on what I need to play SL. After you wouldn’t believe how long, I have finally narrowed it down to three choices and would like the opinions of you great folks to help me decide. Below I’ve listed the specs of greatest concern (the rest of the specs are comparable) and what the biggest issues are. I have dug through this forum and other SL forums for help, but I would now like to use a life line and ask the studio audience, so here goes…

ThinkPad T42
1.7 Pentium M Sonoma Centrino
512 Ram
ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9600 64MB
40GB, 5400RPM
$1,585
Issue: The ATI card.

ThinkPad T41
1.7 PM (original?) Centrino
512 Ram
ATI MOBILITY FireGL T2 128MB
60GB, 7200 RPM
$1,549
Issue: The ATI card.

ChemBook 2230-S
1.8 PM (original?) Centrino
512 Ram
64MB Dedicated SGRAM NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
40GB, 5400RPM
$1,315
Issue: Have YOU ever heard of ChemBook?

If you are wondering why my options are so few, I’d like to have a machine that weighs less than 6lbs. I just don’t want to have a big clunky laptop. What are people’s opinions/experiences with the these specific ATI cards? Does anyone use or even heard of ChemBook? Thanks so much for your help.

Abbra

Moved to Off-Topic.

Perhaps this should have been moved to Technical Issues.

It's pretty on topic as I'm sure we'd all like to know what configuration is necessary to play SL.

Someone emailed me about whether I had decided on one of the 3. I did and I thought I would put what I wrote to him in this thread as well so that it can be helpful to others. When I try to play SL with the new machine, I will come back and let everyone know how it went. Here is what I wrote:

Just yesterday, I bought a ThinkPad T42 (model 23735vu; the model # indicates the specific configuration). Here are the specs:

1.7 Gh Pentium M (the new Pentium M with 2MB cache)
512 MB Ram
40 GB @ 5400 RPM
14" XGA screen
ATI Radeon 9000 w 64 MB Ram
4.9 lbs
$1,130 for a factory certified refurbished model
1 year standard warranty

Here were my thoughts that led me to this choice: You can never ever go wrong with a ThinkPad. The T42 received great reviews and user feedback (see www.notebookforums.com). Regarding the ATI card, I read enough on the SL forums that it seems that with the proper drivers there should not be a problem. B/c it is refurbished, it doesn't come with IBM's standard 3yr warranty, but at the lower price, the ThinkPad was within my budget. And I verified with IBM that you can purchase a "Post Warranty Maintenance Agreement" for two more years. And guess what? The price of the warranty is the difference in price between a new and refurbished model. So I'll end up spending about the same, but I could put off the price of the extra warranty time for a year.

Can you tell by now that I put a lot of time and thought into all this? It was worth it though. After I gave up on getting a ThinkPad due to price but before I figured out the warranty and refurbished thing, my only alternative was to get a Toshiba Tecra M2. That was fine, but they have a reputedly poor customer service. And nothing beats the build of a ThinkPad. IBM's website actually has true stories of ThinkPads that were burned, dropped from 2 story windows, run over, left out in the Canadian winter...and still worked. Plus, everyone I know that has owned a ThinkPad, never got any other laptop afterward.

As for playing SL, I never found anyone that was using a ThinkPad to play it, but at notebookforums.com, plenty of people chimed in that they were happily playing a variety of other games including first person shooters.

I hope all this helps. At least for me, this is a big purchase so I wanted to make sure I got exactly what I wanted while staying within my budget. I bought the laptop on ebay from powersellernyc. He had the best price, good feedback, provided specific model numbers. Plus I checked his selling history and many people had bought this laptop from him and said they were happy with the transaction. He sells factory refurbished ThinkPads that are still in the box, have not been opened. If you are hesitant about buying a refurb, go to www.thinkpads.com. On this forum, you will see that many bought refurbs and are quite happy with them.

And one last thing! If you do go with ThinkPad, this is VERY important! There are about 50 different models/configurations of T42s and not all of them have the ATI 9000, 512 MB, 5400 RPM hard drive which was my criteria for playing SL. I have attached a document I got from www.thinkpads.com. It is IBM's model number sheet for all their ThinkPads. You can see which is the particular model you want and be sure that whoever you buy from can give you the specific model number so you don't unknowingly get one with an ATI 7500 card which will not run SL.

More information than you could possibly want, but I wish someone had told me so I wouldn't have had to put so much time into it myself.

Take care,
Abbra

This is very helpful and I am very grateful!! I run SL on a Compaq Presario R3310US and done so for six months now without any problems. I only run SL and Photoshop on it

I am looking for another laptop one that is a bit better and I am so glad i found this thread.

Calla

I don't want to rain on your parade, so without going into too much detail, I'll just quickly state that I beg to differ. I could certainly tell some "stinkpad" horror stories, but let's just say the biggest reason I know as much about computers as I do is because of the countless hours spent on the phone with tech support in a constant struggle to fix a machine that NEVER worked. Granted, this was years ago so it's entirely possible IBM has cleaned up their act since then, but the memories are so bitter it's highly doubtful I'd ever buy another Thinkpad. It was simply the worst machine I've ever owned.

Please understand my purpose here is not to try to make you feel bad about your purchase. I sincerely hope your Thinkpad turns out to be everything you're hoping for. I just felt duty-bound to pass on the worldly warning that there is rarely such a thing as a safe bet when buying a computer, especially when it comes to laptops. Every brand has its share of problems, and my unfortunate experience with IBM was that they have more than most. Forgive me for saying so, but assuming that "you can't go wrong" with a machine just because it has a certain name on the box is more than a bit naiive.

Anyway, good luck with your laptop. Sorry I didn't have anything more encouraging to report. All I can say from here is that I really hope you're able to prove me wrong in my opinion of Thinkpads.

Chosen Few,

You are very correct. There is no perfect anything in this world. No 100% anything. So I think you are tempering my "recent buyer's enthusiasm." I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that it will even play SL. I'm not sure it will and I will come back and let everyone know.

Yes, every company is capable of producing machines that are stinkers. As positive as the feedback I saw for the T42 has been (and I saw A LOT), it was never completly free of people that had their share of problems with it. In fact, I went back and took out that line from my original post. But you look at the data, and play the percentages. And the ThinkPad and the T42 in particular had the best percentages for the laptops I was considering. Maybe not the fastest, sexiest, lightest, or cheapest, but had the perfect mix of features, price, quality, level of service, and history for me.

Anyway, thanks again for your feedback. I tend to be overly optimistic about things and people should get to see a bit of the other side of the coin. Plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Abbra

Hey Abbra,

If you've read as much good feedback for that particular model as you say, then it's probably a good machine. The only thing I was taking issue with was the "can't go wrong with a thinkpand" thing since they have their share of garbage just like everyone else. I have to recognize though that they must have their share of good stuff too or they wouldn't be able to stay in business, so if the majority of people who have bought that particular one say they like it, then chances are you will too. I'll "keep my fingers crossed" for you as well.

I have had the ThinkPad T42 for a few weeks now and have spent a lot of time playing SL on it. Before I even started playing, though, I went to IBM and got the available updates including one for the video card.

I have played Second Life on the T42 without any problem. It runs very faster than my desktop which has a wired connection instead of wireless with a GeForce FX5700 card with 256MB of ram with a 1.7G Celeron processor.

The best thing about it is that the wireless connection on the T42 is much stronger than my previous laptop. I now get an Excellent to Very Good connection in my bedroom whereas before, I got Verly Low or no connection. So my dream has come true that I can play SL in bed!

Overall, I recommend this laptop and I can very comfortably say that it will play SL without a problem.

All of the above suck, unless you are using them purely for battery life/business.. Go look at HP's website and compare Compaq and HP laptops to those listed.