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2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"The BMW of Notebooks! Ultimate Performance Machine"
Pros: FRU Upgrades, long 8hrs of battery life, light, 2GB of memory.
Cons: Pre-Lenovo Notebook Support & Warranty, Small 32MB Video Ram
Summary: It's been a month since I bought this brand new off eBay for about $800.00.
The Specs were T41 2379-DJU
14.1 SXGA/40GB@5400rpm/768MB of memory RAM/ Intel Centrino M 1.6 Ghz & a 16xCDRW when it came to my door.
Now a full month and $200.00 later I easily upgraded the original stock system to have a Class 2 Zoom Bluetooth PC card, SanDisk multimedia card writer/reader PC card, 2GB of memory RAM and a 8-9 hr life 9 cell Li-Ion. I also swapped out the slower 16XCDRW bay for a much faster 24xCDRW and it didn't cost me anything. Apparantly, for FRU (factory replacement unit/parts) you can use factory coded information and easily upgrade about every part of the T41.
As it is now the Win XP Professional system runs intense Engineering&GIS Software, IExplorer, Word Processing/Exel, iTunes, MediaPlayer10 etc... all at the same time smoothly, without any slow downs or stuttering whatsoever. The memory upgrade to 2GB totally boosted performance in ways I never thought that a laptop could achieve. My next planned upgrade is to get a 100 GB @ 7200 rpm ATA Hitachi Travelstar IBM HD. This will cost $150.00 and with Acronis True Image and means of a "2nd HardDrive IBM Ultrabay Dock" the upgrade will be a breeze. I am also plan on getting the high speed 16xDVDR/24XCDR Slim Bezel Multi Burner Ultrabay to replace the one I just got.
So far I've had Toshiba Satellite series and one Compaq/HP Laptop in the past, and I must say that this IBM notebook blows those away as well as surpasses other current models I've played with such as Fujitsi and Sony Vaio brands.
What makes the T41 and IBM notebooks a pleasure to use is that they are totally user friendly and enables the end-consumer to modify their systems accordingly to their needs. Other notebooks rarely offer this or force you to cough up money at the time of purchase to get all your upgrades and customization in one, usually expensive, shot.
IBM T41 CONCERNS:
I'm worried alittle bit about the mystery over what will happen to older IBM Thinkpad's warranty with Lenovo. I'm not even sure if this is going to be an issue or not for me, but everyone I know with a pre-Lenovo Thinkpad seem to be either upset or concerned about this.
Second, I wish that the IBM T41 came with more video ram than the factory ATI 9000 32MB it has. I've heard for about $200.00 you can also, with moderate difficulty, upgrade the motherboard FRU component to the 128MB FIRE GLT2 FRU motherboard.
When Windows Vista comes out I may look to be doing this upgrade, even if I have a newer faster notebook I may just do it for fun. In the end the T41 offers alot of user fun in it's ability to become whatever it is you want it to become without any comprimise in style, power and flexibility.
