Buying A T42 through Educational Discount and adding options

[SNoWyV82]

Hey, I found out that IBM is running great deals on their preconfigured laptops through educational discount (I'm going to college). Is it worth it to purchase the exact computer I want sans the 60GB 7200RPM HD since it comes with a 40GB HD and then buy the 7200RPM off ebay? It's about $220 off ebay and the laptop that has everything I want is $1840. So total would be around $2060 plus taxes/shipping etc for:

1.7Ghz Pentium M
15" screen
CDRW/DVDROM Combo Drive
512MB
60GB 7200RPM HD (upgraded afterwards)
64MB Mobility Radeon 9600
Windows XP Pro
3 year warranty
Intel Pro2200 (802.11b/g)

Is that a good deal, and is it hard to upgrade the HD? Can I sell the old 40GB 4200RPM HD for any money and make my computer even cheaper? Overall, is this a good idea or should I skip it and just configure a laptop exactly how I want it and pay more?

 

[fbrdphreak]

That deal is okay. For comparison, you can see the system I have in my sig that I bought directly through my university's bookstore (NC State) and I paid $2067 after taxes & extended warranty. It came with a 3-year Depot warranty, I paid an additional $135 to add ThinkPad Protection (covers accidental damage, etc). The only think I don't have is the 60GB 7200 RPM and I do have the IBM a/b/g wireless card . Personally, when I get too full on this drive I will order a 60GB 7200 RPM 8MB cache and put the old one into an external enclosure
But overall it is an okay deal. Check out your bookstore or nearby bookstore's and see if they offer any decent deals. NC State gets a good deal I would imagine 'cuz it is such a big engineering school. Come down here and I'll pick one up for ya

 

[SNoWyV82]

Yeah, I'm going to UCLA. The only problem is that I live in MD so it's kinda hard for me to go over there and check the laptops out. Maybe I'll give them a call and see what they have to offer. Thanks for the input!

 

[fbrdphreak]

Dunno about UCLA, but NCSU had all the info on our website. Altho being an engineering school, we can do EVERYTHING online. Check out their site and if it looks like its usable, learn to use all of its resources! I know here it is invaluable. Good luck @ college, from one college student to another
--Junior @ North Carolina State, Computer/Electrical Engineering

 

[Gepost]

It would be worth it to get the 60gb drive. You will definately notice a difference. However, you can get it on Newegg for $177.

 

[SNoWyV82]

Yeah, that's what I think I'm going to do. Where's the best place to sell the "old" 40GB HD that is coming with it? Unfortunately, I won't be able to say that it's new since it will have an OS installed on it. I heard that IBM doesn't give you a recovery CD with your laptop but that you can request it 30 days from purchase. After 30 days, they charge you $35 for it! I'll probably need these recovery CDs when I need to install an OS on my new HD.

 

[MrCraphead]

They have a program preinstalled on your laptop that you use to create the recovery CD's, so it's just as good as the ones they send you. This way, you always have a way to create more if you lose/misplace them. At first I was kinda peeved when I saw there weren't any Cd's in the box, then I found out about the program that burns it.

I love IBM, seriously. Their preinstalled software rocks and drivers for their utilities are top notch and extremely comprehensive. I think I'm sold on IBM laptops for the rest of my life.

*sigh*

Oh, and I just purchased a T42, 2378FVU.

Rock on.

 

[jkresh]

one question about buying the hard drive seperately, how does switching hard drives affect the waranty? IE, if you have next day repair on the notebook, and the new hard drive (bought from newegg, ebay...) fails, they wont send one next day, will they?

 

[Gepost]

If it were me, I would keep the original hd. First off, if you had to send in your notebook for warranty, there might be a problem if it is not the original configuration. Also, I would get an external usb 2.0 hard drive enclosure and us the original drive for backup. Or maybe, you could Ghost your 60gb to the 40gb in case the 60gb fails. To answer your question, no, the Hitachi warranty will not be next day.

 

[MrCraphead]

I would recommend e-mailing or calling IBM to ask how switching out the hard drive affects your warranty.

 

[SNoWyV82]

I'm going to find out about the HD tomorrow since today is a holiday. MrCraphead, doesn't IBM have some recovery software on a hidden partition of your HD that Windows XP can't even see? I was reading up on this, and it sounds like a good idea except that it takes up space. Can I just burn the recovery information to CDs and then get rid of this partition or avoid it altogether on my new HD?