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At 05:20 PM 12/3/97 -0700, hzkd0@eng.amdahl.com wrote: >I am thinking of buying the ThinkPad 560. I have a few questions >about this machine: > >1. Is the display color? (I am assuming it is; want to make sure tho') Yes. Your choice of dual-scan or active TFT. >2. I know it does not have a built in CD-Rom. But, I can hook up an > external CD-Rom to the parallel port. Any problems with this set up? > Or is there a better alternative? I've done both through the parallel and via a PCMCIA SCSI card (Adaptec). Prefer SCSI for speed, but parallel works fine and is about as fast what with my meager 4x CD drives. >3. This does not have a built in modem, but, If I buy a PCMCIA > modem card, I should be able to dial anywhere. Correct me if I am wrong. Most people with laptops run PCMCIA modems anyway. Individual features depend on the particular PC card modem you buy. >3.1. How about connecting an external modem (regular PC modem) to the > serial port? Any problems with this setup? Haven't done it, but the serial port supports 14550-type buffer chip, so I don't foresee any problem in doing so. >4. This comes with only 8 MB of RAM. Can I add another 16MB, bringing > the total up to 24MB? Any problems with that? Works fine. I later sold off my 16 MB module and upgraded to a 32 MB module for a total of 40 MB. >5. How about connecting external speakers? Works fine, if you want it. I don't particularly care for noises anyway, so I don't bother. The built-in speaker is adequate, though it sounds like a tin can. >I have never owned a laptop, and my ignorance may be showing here. > >Basically, I would like to use it - while travelling - for everything, I normally >use my desktop for - word processing, presentations, lite programming. >Occasionally use the modem to get e-mail, web etc..., and sometimes use >it for multimedia presentations. > >The usage is light. So, I don't need a bleeding edge laptop. I just need an >adequate system. Will this do? I'm quite happy with mine, but I use both a laptop and a desktop, so when I feel like I need more horsepower for a particular task, I go to my desktop. Do keep in mind that laptops are inherently slower than the same-MHz desktop--i.e., a 560 running at 133 MHz is *not* going to be as fast as virtually any desktop running at 133 MHz. Just part of the tradeoff you make for the benefit of portability. Personally, I think the 560 is a great choice for people who want a quality, light, reasonably "fast" but not bleeding-edge fast laptop at what I consider to be a good price point. Sure you can by cheaper, but I think its worth it to have the major brands as laptops go--Toshiba, IBM, etc. ------- Randal J. Whittle whittle@usc.edu (213) 740-7775 Director, Electronic Commerce Program Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California