Okay – I’ve got the ThinkPad T60 operational, complete with memory upgrade to 2GB (would have liked to go higher, but the 2GB modules are about 4 times the price of the 1GB modules at the moment … buying two 2GB memory modules would cost more than the laptop does !!!!!)
I also bought the ThinkPad Advanced Mini Dock … so I can (amongst other things) get a DVI video output from my laptop to connect to my L201p 20″ LCD screen – I now have a lovely extended desktop … 1400×1050 15″ screen on the laptop with the 1600×1200 20″ LCD screen positioned vertically above it for a huge amount of screen real estate … productivity gains are quite significant working like this.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time UNinstalling software (PC manufacturers typically ship a whole heap of “value added” software on the machine – which does nothing more than slow it down and take up space/memory in my opinion). So I’ve got rid of everything I didn’t need, and started installing my favourite utilities and programs.
Managed to get my Firefox settings across from my old laptop and upgrade to Firefox 2.0, so I’m off and running now.
Next critical step is my email and then my RSS reader. Then I start on the rest of the software.
Time to take a break I think and get some dinner.
The Advanced Mini Dock just does passthrough of either VGA or DVI from the ThinkPad – so provided that the graphics card supports the resolution you want to use, you should be fine. But I guess that’s the issue !
I checked the settings in the ATI control panel – and the highest resolution it mentions is 1600×1200 … no 1680×1050, but given the new widescreen laptops support this resolution, I would think the graphics driver would have to support it if you got that model. I do note that those widescreen models have a 256MB display adapter in them, so if you have a lower spec’d adapter, I’d doubt it would handle those resolutions.
I suggest you find out for sure before you buy a cheaper model !!
Good timing on your post, since I’m thinking of getting a similar system. Almost the same config except to keep it portable I was going to get the 14″ screen and the cheap (money & power-wise) integrated graphics card. The key is to dock it to my 20″ LCD widescreen at home. I’ve been wondering if the mini-dock will run my monitor, or if there’s any reason to go with the full dock.
My last laptop had serious problems driving my external monitor’s 1680 x 1050 resolution. I thought I saw something on lenovo’s site about the mini dock not supporting higher resolution monitors. I’m glad to hear you’re running a 1600 x 1200 monitor just fine. Do you think it can also run a widescreen at 1680 x 1050? I guess the other issue is: could it still do it if it had a weaker integrated graphics card?
I didn’t get the top of the range model – that costs about 60% more for only a marginal performance improvement. It does have the new 15.4″ widescreen 1680×1050 LCD display, would would have been very nice … but I really couldn’t justify the cost.
For the amount I saved by getting the next model down, I was able to buy a second hand T41 plus the memory uprgrade and a docking station !!
Far out.. I want one.
My trusty R50e with 1Gig is still delivering though.. And the recent renovation really sucked up my spare cash… But laptops are like a nescessity, not a luxury.
Signed,
Think Pad fan.