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>---------- >>From: hzkd0@eng.amdahl.com[SMTP:hzkd0@eng.amdahl.com] > >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. Two types of color displays. DSTN is cheaper, has a narrow viewing angle so spies seated near you on the aircraft have a tougher time reading the screen. TFT is more expensive, better video quality, and a wider viewing angle. I had a NCR with a TFT and now have a TP365ED with DSTN. It seems later DSTN displays are good and I am happy with the DSTN display. My advice is to compare the two types and see which one is better for you. >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? The TP365ED has a cd-rom built-in and the floppy external. I find this handy because one of the uses is to use a CD based map program for navigation. In my old setup I used a NEC portable CDROM with a separate Adaptec Slim Scsi card. I did this because I also use a zip drive and a Exabyte 8200 8mm tape drive for backup. I still use the zip drive and tape on my new machine. All my active computers have SCSI cards. I prefer Adaptec mainly because of the OS support, they have a web site, and they seem to work. >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. No problem. What I did was to buy a modem with a dongle instead of XJack so I can have both the scsi and modem cards in the slots. >3.1. How about connecting an external modem (regular PC modem) to the > serial port? Any problems with this setup? No problem. Another piece of equipment to carry but I have seen some small travel modems. I usually buy external modems so I can use them with any of my computers. The PCMCIA one is a exception although it is also usable on WinCE machines as well. >4. This comes with only 8 MB of RAM. Can I add another 16MB, bringing > the total up to 24MB? Any problems with that? I would recommend this as Win95 does not do good with 8 MB. Put in as much memory as you can. I also tend to lean toward going with a slightly slower cpu speed if it means you can buy more memory. >5. How about connecting external speakers? No problem. > >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 do word processing, light programming, internet stuff. I am surprised at how good my 365ED does when you max it out with 24 mb of ram. I also replaced the hard disk with a 1 gigabyte one. It is a 586 processor equal to about a P75 but I am amazed that it can do VoxChat (voice irc) program. So I would suggest you look at something like the 365XD as well. This has a better processor than the 365ED and it has the CD built-in. > >73 Eric ecottrell@doble.com