Lenovo Thinkpad T400 - Impressions?

[Derek891]

Has anyone on the forum owned or used the Thinkpad T400, or any of the T series laptops? I have a chance to get a used one at a reasonable price, I've done some online research and found they have a good reputation, but I'd like to hear from someone with some first hand knowledge with this machine. I appreciate any comments, good, bad, or whatever. Thank you.

[nodles]

Pretty slow IMO (though would be faster if you'd replace HDD -> SDD). I've dealt with hundreds of T40/X200/W500 -> T430/X230/W530 or so.

Depends which exact model.

Lenovo has pretty good/long driver support and sturdy cases, but that's about it (with a high price).

Edited November 8, 2013 by nodles

[mta]

my wife had one for years(wasn't the T400, some other T which escapes me), very good machine (until she broke it - for some strange reason carrying it around using the opened screen as a handle was some sort of design flaw in her book )

speed was fine, had XP on it. if I was you, I'd put on Win7, all the drivers should be in 7 for it, even if the web site doesn't list them. i feel Win7 is even better than XP when running on older PC's with 'not the latest' specs.

but really, 2gig, Core2 cpu for XP will be fine.

 

the ThinkPads had an excellent reputation for being little bricks - ugly but solid.

i haven't seen one for years now, but when they were still made by IBM, and then in the following two years when Lenovo brought them out and had the license from IBM, it was not uncommon for me to see many that were over 5 years old and still running strong.

 

Once the two year deal ran out and they were truly Lenovos, they seemed to lose their appeal - they were always pricey and continued to be so, but i lost touch with their reliability.

can't remember the last time a saw a new Thinkpad.

 

but if the price is right, i'd certainly not balk at getting one Derek.

[nodles]

Yeah Win7+SSD would make a difference.

What's the price and model, Derek?

[Derek891]

Thanks to both of you for your replies. I don't have a specific model number yet, just a few technical details. Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.53 MHz, 4 GB DDR3 RAM @ 1066 MHz, and a 320 GB SATA hard drive. The only downside is the fact it has Windows XP installed, but that's not the end of the world, since I was planning to use it with a Linux OS anyway. From what I've learned from their own website, Lenovo offered some models of the T400 with Fedora installed, so I don't see any real problems using Linux. The owner is asking $200 US, and claims it's in pristine condition. I'm going see it tonight, and if it is indeed pristine, then I think it's worth it. If not, I can negotiate from there.

[mta]

Each to his own, but for me, $200 would be my upper limit.

The unit has to be more than 5yrs old I'm thinking, and considering you can get new ones for around $500, you have to think $200 on an old unit that may well die sooner rather than later may not be worth the gamble.

 

But there-in lies the rub, if the gamble pays off, you have a good, cheap laptop.

Personally, I think it being a Thinkpad would push the price up so there's that to keep in mind.

 

If you had a dead Win7 PC you could transfer the license over from, that would be good but you'd probably not want to spend too much on it otherwise.

 

It would be good if it all goes ahead to see how you get on getting Linux to work with all the hardware. In my (very limited) use of installing Linux its a real challenge.

[Derek891]

I just got home after checking out the Lenovo. And what a huge disappointment it was. Apparently his idea of pristine and my idea of pristine exist in two separate universes, much like matter and anti-matter. The case had several large scuff marks, and I was willing to overlook that, since it is a used machine, and I value function and reliability over looks. Then I noticed that the right side Shift key and the Enter key seemed slightly out of alignment with all the others, a sign they had been removed and replaced at some time in the past. Or that something was amiss underneath them. I was tempted to look further, but didn't want to risk popping them off and not being able to get them back on. Or worse, breaking them. The screen looked like it had been cleaned regularly with a fine grade of steel wool. The decal on the battery revealed it was made in 2009, so it is already at or very near the end of it's life. And an quick inspection with my Mini Maglite revealed the insulator was missing from one of the three USB ports, leaving the four contacts dangling. My research on Lenovo's user forum revealed that is a common problem, and it paid off in this case. So I didn't even ask for him to boot it, or to make an offer. I just said thank you and left. There are plenty of others out there, I'll just have to keep looking. BTW, I found out that the T430, the current version of this machine, retails for about $850 US.

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