The Beast in a Tux

As I've already discussed, based on what I think its going to take to get "The Beast" aka Alienware M7700 up and running reliably, I decided to abandon that project and get my money back out of it. Of course, that doesn't mean that I abandoned the concept of having a "mobile workstation", something that is completely unnecessary, and an exercise in excess. Actually this whole thing started some time ago when I became inspired by one of the IBM/Lenovo design deadends (what else); the Z Series ThinkPad, specifically the bigger of the 2 Z-sizes. So let me go back and do a little ThinkPad history while I'm at it:

Back in 2005, the newly minted Lenovo, after having just acquired the PC divisions of IBM, release a new machine; the Z60. It was the first wide-screen ThinkPad AND the first available with anything but a black exterior. You could get it with an optional "Titanium" metal cover over the lid. The concept was to go a different direction, and create a ThinkPad what was almost completely designed to fit in the "multi-media" product category. It turned out that it was maybe too radical for the traditional ThinkPad buyers (who are almost 100% corporate), and never attracted the folks who should have been looking at it (folks who disdain to look upon anything that isn't Mac). There wasn't anything that was the matter with the machinery, as it was really a T43 on the inside. But, after a second commercially unsuccessful version, the concepts were integrated into the rest of the product line, and the "Z" was put to sleep. In fact, today, its difficult to find anything in the ThinkPad line that isn't wide-screen and have some sort of on board card reader! In fact, our school district just issued us ThinkPad L420s to replace the aging R60s and they sure look like an updated Z61!

Back to the "Z". Originally, there were 2 models; the Z60t, 14.1" WXGA screen at around 5lbs, and the Z60m, 15.4" WXGA or WSXGA+ screen at around 6lbs. These were internally, the guts of the updated T43 at this point powered by the Intel "M" series chips. By the second generation and the introduction of the Z61, the internals had become full-on T61 equivalents, with Core Duo, and eventually Core 2 Duo CPUs, running at 667mhz bus! These things were seriously fast. They even added a "p" version with an eye-straining WUXGA screen and 256Mb FireGL video adapter. If you are getting the impression that this was pretty much the precursor to the typical modern "workstation" laptop, then I'd agree with you.

So, here's the thing on them. They are kind of hard to find. IBM/Lenovo didn't sell a lot of them. As you guys know, rarity generally translates to mean expensive.....and that runs contrary to my mantra....right? Well....not always; sometimes, rarity can mean obscurity and that can sometimes mean a bargain! In this case you get both: generally, they are expensive, often ridiculously so, in excess of $400, but every once in a while, you can find them (for whatever reason) at a price FAR below their actual worth as well. A little less than a year ago (when I first became obsessed with them), I found several that came up for sale on eBay for a little over $130. They were in pristine condition, and was exactly what I was looking for: meaning it was a low-end model with a Celeron processor, small hard drive, 512Mb RAM, CD-ROM drive and low-resolution screen. So, a trip to my parts drawer for 3Gb of RAM and a DVDRW drive, plus $70 for a new 320Gb Hitachi hard drive and T5600 Core 2 Duo CPU later......I had a smoking fast new laptop, just right.....for my wife! You see, that low res WSXGA screen was too low for me, but just right for my optically challenged spouse! All-in-all, that $200 total was less than what I sold her old machine for to a client who was looking for another laptop. AND NO....I didn't take him to the cleaners either! That $250 that I sold him the old R52 for with 2Gb of RAM, and a fresh XPP load on a 250Gb hard drive is pretty much what the market price would have been anyway. So, is this a story about my wife's computer?

Heck no its not! A couple of days ago, I came across this Z61m that you see above on the ThinkPad Forum listed by a friend in DC. It had been a project machine of his and he was cleaning out. Apparently, its in decent condition internally, but has a bad screen, so he sold it to me for $75! The interesting part is that it has the hi-res WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) screen, and the cool titanium cover on the lid:

All the other specs are "dumbed-down" (eg. Celeron 420 CPU, 40Gb HDD.....), but I can handle that. Again, I've got most of the necessary parts to "max it out" already, although I'll need to pick up a C2D CPU, and hard drive, but again, that shouldn't be too bad. The wild-card of course, is if I can pick up an LCD cheap, but therein lies the challenge!