IBM T-42 vs Netbook

[lifeblood]

My wife has an old IBM Thinkpad T-42 with 1.7GHz Pentium M Cpu and 1GB RAM. It's in pretty good shape but the battery may be dead. It won't recharge the battery so maybe the laptop is bad, not the battery. Anyway, a new battery is about $80 and that may not fix it. So I'm considering a netbook. She uses it for basic office productivity like email, crating PowerPoint presentations, and writing reports while at school (we have a regular PC at home).

My question is, how does a Pentium M 1.7 compare with an Atom CPU? Would it be significantly slower or really not noticeable? No games, no high end stuff. I would get 2Gb RAM in the netbook which is 2x whats in the T-42.

 

[boran]

according to this thread the pentium M would be about twice as fast as the atom.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: boran
according to this thread the pentium M would be about twice as fast as the atom.

I have one, and while it may be slower, for what he is doing, it should be fine, and have much longer batter life. Mine is 7.5 hours. (Samsung 120)

 

[Griswold]

One thing to keep in mind though, the thinkpad has a 15" screen whereas netbooks come with only 10.1" screens - personally, I cant do productive work on these tiny screens without going crazy.

And dont forget the, without a doubt, much better keyboard on the thinkpad.

 

[drizek]

The thinkpad is way better unless you need the portability. Try buying a new battery on ebay for less. They shouldn't be that expensive.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: boran
according to this thread the pentium M would be about twice as fast as the atom.

I have one, and while it may be slower, for what he is doing, it should be fine, and have much longer batter life. Mine is 7.5 hours. (Samsung 120)

Mark...

I had a T-41 and used with CrystalCPU to software volt mod it...

On the extended battery, it pulled almost 9 hours, with the lowest LCD brightness.

From Los Angeles -> NYC with 2 hour layway.


To be honest its gonna be hard.
Because at the ops request, i would see if i can borrow a T series battery somewhere and see if it will recharge.

If it does recharge, i would probably grab an extended battery, reinstall the OS and then the driver package though thinkvantage, and then give it back to the wifey after i downvolted the cpu so it runs @ sub 1.0v.

 

[lifeblood]

So I see the consensus is the netbook is noticeably slower and to go the new battery route first. I will do that. The T-42 is in pretty good condition and I would hate to toss a perfectly good piece of gear. Thanks for you advice.

 

[richierich1212]

Yeah a netbook would work for her needs. I can't see a need to justify $80 to get it to work again. That's already almost 1/4th the cost of a decent netbook, or 1/5th the cost of a laptop.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: richierich1212
Yeah a netbook would work for her needs. I can't see a need to justify $80 to get it to work again. That's already almost 1/4th the cost of a decent netbook, or 1/5th the cost of a laptop.

against a T-42 in great condition minus the battery?
(and im guessing the battery went bad because it was plugged in all the time).

Have you owned a thinkpad before?

If you have, you wouldn't of made this comment.

A Thinkpad especially the T series is about one of the best laptops you can possibly buy.

Ive owned 3 T series b4 i stepped up to a larger laptop.

HP8710p series.... however if i needed another 14-15inch laptop, the thinkpad would be my first pick.

 

[richierich1212]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: richierich1212
Yeah a netbook would work for her needs. I can't see a need to justify $80 to get it to work again. That's already almost 1/4th the cost of a decent netbook, or 1/5th the cost of a laptop.

against a T-42 in great condition minus the battery?
(and im guessing the battery went bad because it was plugged in all the time).

Have you owned a thinkpad before?

If you have, you wouldn't of made this comment.

A Thinkpad especially the T series is about one of the best laptops you can possibly buy.

Ive owned 3 T series b4 i stepped up to a larger laptop.

HP8710p series.... however if i needed another 14-15inch laptop, the thinkpad would be my first pick.

I don't care how good the thinkpad is/was. I know how good they are. The specs are old and who knows how much longer the screen will last. Heck I'm still using a 4-year-old Dell 700m myself. And luckily the 9-cell battery still holds a 4-hour charge (it runs so damn hot so I have it undervolted). But I can't stand the slow harddrive and processor. And if the battery or screen dies I will not be replacing either.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: richierich1212


I don't care how good the thinkpad is/was. I know how good they are. The specs are old and who knows how much longer the screen will last. Heck I'm still using a 4-year-old Dell 700m myself. And luckily the 9-cell battery still holds a 4-hour charge (it runs so damn hot so I have it undervolted). But I can't stand the slow harddrive and processor. And if the battery or screen dies I will not be replacing either.

so u advise the op to pick up a netbook when there slower then the current machine?

Also the fact he said it was in good condition and probably just needs a new battery?

My HP has undergone 3 hard drive swaps to faster ones, its on a Intel 80gig SSD right now.

It has also undergone 3 processor swaps... i went from a T7200 -> T7600 -> T9300.

And best of all, all those upgrades added together was still cheaper then me going out and getting a T9300 + SSD + 4GB DDR2 lappy preconfiged.

Laptops are upgradable.

The Op's system is probably a dothan based system.
Depending on the planner board on his laptop, he can ugprade the cpu, the HD, and the ram for less then a netbook most likely.

Because those parts are pretty cheap now.

 

[formulav8]

In my experience with working on customers computers the atom is trashy slow. A PM will walk all over it. IMO a netbook is a big gimmick especially when you can get a bottom of the barrel lappy for not much more money and perform much better.

While the netbook may do ok for what she will do, I just don't see it s a valid alternative to a low-end lappy.

This is just my experience with using/working on a dozen or so netbooks. I've never owned one for personal use.


Jason