ThinkPad X60 - Still Amazing After 10 Years
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- Опубліковано 13 жов 2024
- Despite being 10 years old, the IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad X60 still delivers impressive performance and functionality in a small form factor, especially when upgraded with an SSD. In fact, its CPU is actually faster than many entry-level laptops sold today! (click Show More)
The song I played in Adobe Audition can be downloaded here: www.amstereo.or...
Corrections: The ThinkPad X61 and T61 were also available with the IBM logo, although it is uncommon to find them equipped as such, and the X200 (the X61's successor) was the last ThinkPad to only have the TrackPoint and not a touchpad. (You could also get the X201 with only the TrackPoint, but most of them came with a touchpad as well.)
Video contains music by Julian Croot ("80s Inspired Retro Synth Track"): picturedmedia.c...
"If my house was on fire and I could only take one computer with me, I would take this one."
It's a ThinkPad. Just leave it. Grab a computer that is actually susceptible to fire.
If only There was a laptop with modern specs but that legendary IBM build quality
anything up to a Lenovo T480 is good. The new thinkpads without swappable battery are garbage.
@@elijahking7309 not sure what that is? link sure dont work though
@@charlesballiet7074 a modding community, which made newer mainboards for those IBM machines, upgrading them to sandy bridge or even coffee lake CPUs
Charles Balliet 51nb.com is a Chinese thinkpad fan forum, and they built two classic thinkpad modded motherboards: “x62”,a motherboard with modern Core i5/i7 5th low voltage CPUs and exactly the size as the original x60/x61, and you swap it with the original ones, without the need to swap any other accessories of the original machine.
and ‘x210’, a motherboard replacement for x200/x201, with 8th Gen Low voltage CPUs or even newest 10th CPUs. and they also offer several screen modifications, including a 3:2 ratio 3000*2000 screen replacement for x210.
We still use some T60's at work in our production line, some still with XP (no internet access of course) and some already with Win 7 and you really can't kill them. We had one with a failing screen backlight for about a week but someone gave it a good wack and it works since years again. We had some HDDs failing but that's normal for the amount of abuse these things already got. Even the fans are fully blocked with dirt and so on but they're still running like nothing happened, all the dirt on the keyboard and it still works, the missing mouse knob, the super worn touchpad but still working, the broken cases and missing edges and still... working. Like nothing happened...
These things surprise me till this day, and the fact that even with Windows 7 they're perfectly fast enough for production usage is amazing.
We had just one failing completely but that was due to the charging circuit inside breaking for whatever reason.
yeah dying CCFLs are a pain main reason i stopped using my T60
clean them out ffs please and they'll run another 10 years
"no internet access of course"?
Windows XP isn't updated or patched anymore, so I assume if connected to the internet they can be a risk to the business in case they're hacked or something?
Still have my X201 after 8 years. Still loving it.
Nu ma asteptam sa te gasesc pe aici. Salut.
Excellent video review. I bought a ThinkPad x61 from eBay, and modified it with Middleton's BIOS, installed 8 GB of RAM (probably not necessary, but wanted to see if it could be done) and a 240 GB Crucial BX200 SSD. It runs Windows 10 flawlessly. While the 1024x768 display is somewhat grainy by today's standards, the compact size, nearly instant boot-up with the SSD, and fantastic office/web performance makes the x60/x61 family a winner. I liked this one so much, I bought a second one for my wife, who uses it as her daily driver. The lack of a webcam isn't a huge issue (no video conferencing), and I like the peace-of-mind in knowing that it does not have a webcam. Bluetooth 4.0 can be "added" to this machine by placing a mini PCIe adapter in the WWAN slot (since that slot has the USB signal), and then plugging in a suitable low-profile Bluetooth adapter ("low profile" enough that the palm rest will snap back into place). All I really need to figure out now is to replace the older CCFL backlight with an LED backlight, if it can be done.
The X200s came in 2008 and only featured a track-point (NO track-pad). In my opinion the X200s is the "last" of the IBM Thinkpads, it was probably the last one designed by IBM themselves even if it came out with Lenovo branding.
Had it for 8 years now and still running great! It was and still is a functional work of art.
Take a look: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad_X_Series#/media/File:ThinkPad_X61_and_X200s.jpg
PS: I still have an X24 and that's still running great though the hinge needed fixing in it's later years.
I picked up on on eBay for 20$, put some ram and a ssd in it. Installed Windows 7 ultimate, it works flawlessly, no problems whatsoever I really suggest this laptop to someone even though it's over 10 years old.
Nice review! I still use a T60p with a 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo as my primary computer - plays HD UA-cam video fine, edits video in Premiere fine, and has a nice 4:3 15" IPS display that looks great. It may be a decade old but it does everything I need (I'm not a gamer) so I plan to keep using it for the foreseeable future.
I bet it's still doing fine and fast...how is it now? For my second computer, I use a pentium M 1.8GHz Gateway M275 tablet, and UA-cam is still fine with Linux at 480p, and playable but a bit choppy at 720p.
Memories. Bought mine new in 2006 - I still have it and it still works like a champ. Mine has the IBM logo. SSD installed long ago and it has gone from Win XP up the scale and is presently running Win 10 with no issues. What caused me to replace it (with another Thinkpad, of course) was the need to handle 4K video. Other than that, it would still be active.
Watching this on my T60 right now. Best computer I have ever bought. Dropped it a hundred times, spilled liquid on it on multiple occasions and it's still going strong.
I got myself a T43 for about $35 and it has been doing really well. I need to upgrade it a bit since it shipped with a Centrino Mobile processor and 40GB of internal memory, but it is so easy to mod this machine. IBM knew how to leave their computers pretty wide open to modding, and that was especially the case with this model.
Beware - you're stuck with a Pentium M. The fastest model available is the 780 - clocked at 2.2GHz - but beware that most of them are shipping from China. The 760, which is only ~200MHz slower, is readily available from US sellers, and at a reasonable price to boot.
I had one of these (X61) a few years back, was fantastic. Also had the Lenovo dock for it, just plug it to a big screen, real keyboard, mouse,...and leave it on your desk. I used to take the X61 to go to uni, and when I would come back at my flat, just drop it on the dock and bang, full desktop computer experience. Nowadays it seems easy, but hey, 10 years ago, it was mindblowing !
merry Christmas to you and your family
Tommy Whitaker Likewise friendo
SPCdiabolical1134 Videos friendo deleted his comment :(
I had one of these up until 2015 until I started using architecture programs. Despite 7 years of rough service, it kept on kicking while most friends had to replace their broken laptops every 2 years or so.
WOW so many ignorant people in the comments this is incredible ....
This is an ultraportable Thinkpad business machine !
1.This is not a gaming laptop this is ultraportable business machine like i sad so integrated GPU is suitable.
2.Build quality and keyboard are superior to basically any new 11"/12" netbook today ( the fact that this laptop is working perfectly after 10 years is also speaking a lot about reliability ).
3. 4GB of RAM is plenty for WEB browsing , coding , gaming etc...on this machine and enough for moderate use even on desktop.
4.Business laptops tend to have these old and "obsolete" ports which is a good thing you don't have to fiddle with dongles to connect an old camera or printer/scanner/ext HDD.
5.This machine can handle 720p just fine ( this is a 1024x768 screen ).
6.Windows XP is lightweight and perfectly usable OS for light to moderate use today and it is supported by many companies with some tweaks you can still receive security updates + antivirus + "basic understanding of web" and you are fairly secure.
7. 4:3 or 16:9 is a matter of preference.... iPad has 4:3 screen......
8.There is a docking station for this laptop ( which adds CD rom,and even more ports ).
9.Price for this Thinkpad is ~100$ sometimes even less.
10.X60 has a fingerprint reader.
11.With extended battery autonomy of 5-6 hours can be achieved even more with X60s.
Compared to an average new 12" (~300$) netbook today this machine lacks integrated web cam, trackpad , Bluetooth , slightly lower resolution 1024x768 vs 1366x768 . Is this a deal breaker ?
For web browsing , coding , text editing , old school gaming on the go this is an excellent choice for much less money. Web cam can be added via USB and BT via pcmcia slot however lack of trackpad can be a problem to some people but once you get used to track point , trackpad is not nedeed .
Great machines
Thinkpads are tanks. People who talk down about them are usually clueless, don't really understand computers and are impressed by shiny plastic. Same goes for Latitudes and Elitebooks.
I agree completely except the Windows XP thing... No virus software can fix holes and backdoors in the OS
The only thing I would need to add extra is a webcam because it it sometimes needed for remote work.
They are bluetooth able
I got a T61, same specs as this, just a different form factor, these things are great, much better than the laptops on sale now.
I also own the T61 (with IBM branding), and I just love how sturdy they are compared to even most business laptops today. I do own a couple of newer laptops, but I keep going back to the ThinkPad because I type a lot and the keyboard is just much better. They are still very capable machines and it does everything I need it for. Ubuntu also runs very well on it, despite the Intel integrated graphics.
The display is the only aspect I don't really like: 1280x800 wouldn't be a problem to me if the black levels and colors would be a little better. But the docking station is connected to a better external display, and that works very well too when I need a better display.
PS. /)*(\ Brohoof!
+Marvin P. Nice, my model is the 1440x900, but the screen is broken, I have to have it at a certain angle for it to work, but other than that, it's great, I got mine for £0.99! I had one with the worse graphic chips though, but I got a dedicated GPU for the ultrabay!
The only problem is it is very loud, and the laptop's fan is even louder. But other than that, for the price and honestly everything else, they beat some of the newest laptop computers in all the ways. :)
I still use Windows Vista on mine, the laptop if perfectly capable of its areo and things, and runs like a dream :)
Brohoof to you too! /). :)
Sounds like screwed up video cable, could be the screen but I think it's the cable.
+Jacob's Channel Oh it's the screen panel itself, something wrong inside it. I replaced the LDVS cable twice, and tried a 1280x720 panel from annother laptop, and it worked fine, so it's the panel that is the problem. It isn't too much problem though, I only have to squeeze the corner and it will go on just fine. :)
That's kind of a shame, but still an exceptional deal... £0.99 o.o! Mine was more in the ballpark of €30 q_q
Is it actually possible to put a video card inside the Ultrabay, though? I think you mean the Advanced Dock, because the Ultrabay is the slot on the right of the laptop where you put in things like DVD players and batteries.
I will agree that buying used laptops in the same price range as a cheap new one is a much smarter idea. Back in 2014 I bought a 2011-era ThinkPad T420 for $450 and it wiped the floor with anything new in the same price range (and probably still does). And now those are going for much cheaper and are excellent performers. Mine's equipped with the less-common i7 2640M 2.80 GHz CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB 7200RPM HDD, Intel HD 3000 graphics and a 14" 1600x900 display. Got a 250GB Samsung mSATA SSD coming for it too, which will definitely bring some new life into it.
One thing I'd like to add is that the T420 (as well as it's smaller sibling, the X220) were the last mainstream ThinkPads with the classic style keyboard, which is still a pleasure to type on. It's one of the reasons I hold that generation of ThinkPads up to a higher standard, because they were an end of an era.
I got a lenovo g50 with the i7 for about the same price as yours and it has a hd 8500m, although it has many driver issues specifically with sound and shit mic quality it has done the job since and i can play new games on the go, ive played bf1 bf4 gta v at 30-60 fps (it slows down sometimes with stuttering since i only got 6gb of ram but it still works) and breezes through mainstream games like league of legends csgo and minecraft to name a few, although mine has a 15.6" screen with a lower resolution (1366x768). It has served me well and I will still use it because I travel a lot but I'm currently building an actual proper gaming rig so I don't need to deal with limitations anymore. Also it is quite and doesn't get too hot under load even with a max GPU oc (highest ive recorded was 58c)
I mean, there's a difference between buying a 3 year old computer and buying a 10 year old computer. A huge difference, Jack. I mean, in December 2016, I bought a 2014 gaming laptop for about $550, and it was a better deal than buying new, but unless you can't afford anything more, I don't see why you'd buy a Core2Duo machine for everyday use these days.
Holy shit man, I use the same Thinkpad you do for work, same 2.8Ghz vPro CPU as well, except mine is the T420s model and also has Nvidia NVS 4200 graphics on there. Yeah man, it's a real bummer they got rid of the old keyboard style, it's real pleasure to type on. Moreso than a lot of desktop keyboards as a matter of fact. Really hope Lenovo brings that back eventually. For us that care more about function over style, chicklets a real pain in the rear.
We have a bunch of T430's at work. I'll probably grab a few when they're decomissioned
Lucky, I want to get a t420, I got one for my grandmother that's a rock solid laptop, my grandfather has a t440. Also a amazing laptop.
I just don't use my laptops enough so when I buy new ones I'm not getting better performance cause I only check emails and do internet media consumption tasks.
Merry Christmas VWestlife.
MegaBojan1993 says the person still using a nokia n95
Wow, that's surprising usability for such an old machine! I'd be interested to see a video on you switching to one of the latest ThinkPads, and your thoughts on how much better the experience is or isn't. Gotta love the faithful companion ThinkPads!
I am so bored, that watching a review of a 10 year old laptop seems like a good idea.
No shit its boring as hell, he probably doesn't even have a good laptop/computer to compare with hes just using his own knowledge saying "WELL MODERN LAPTOPS ARE SLOWER AND DOESN'T HAVE MUCH FEATURES! YA!"
+Skeleton 11223 Bad parenting. I babysit my brother's kids and they've been raised on humility, couldn't be nicer. Juuuust a product of the time, I'm afraid
its good to be bored sometimes, always being busy will kill creativity
Eggs-actly!
If it still does the job, why upgrade? Computers are tools. Not things meant to impress your friends about how much money you spent.
Great job. I'm inspired to refurbish my X60 and put it back to work.
I have a ThinkPad X200 with windows 7 and an ssd inside. It still performs beautifully. It can also run Windows 10 64bit decently.
The song I played in Adobe Audition can be downloaded here: www.amstereo.org/files/80s%20test%20track4.mp3
Corrections: The ThinkPad X61 and T61 were also available with the IBM logo, although it is uncommon to find them equipped as such, and the X200 (the X61's successor) was the last ThinkPad to only have the TrackPoint and not a touchpad. (You could also get the X201 with only the TrackPoint, but most of them came with a touchpad as well.)
It should now.
I plan on using my Dell Inspiron 530S as a video editing system.
I had a number of T61's purchased in the first couple weeks of release, from a company I worked with. :)
I also remember the orange "thinklights" on some ancient pentium 4 (M) based model rather than white.
Cnerde i never knew orange...thats clever
Awesome video! I received a secondhand(but in mint condition) X60s from a coworker a month or so ago. I decided to turn it into a project; upgrading the motherboard and a few other things to X61s spec for very little outlay. After tossing in an old Intel X25M SSD I had sitting around it's been a rather good machine. Just in time too, as my main laptop(a T430) suffered an unfortunate accident. Currently I'm daily driving the X60/1s until its replacement arrives, and I'm pleasantly surprised with how much I've been able to get done with it!
I've been saying IBM was ahead of their time... Best Desktop I've ever owned was an IBM unit, those things take a pounding and still run amazingly.
So my Core 2 Duo T7200 is definitely faster than an atom Z3735F. If only it was as power efficient.
yeah, i got a decent HP laptop, with a t7300 and a dedicated Nvidia gpu, and a single fan. Shit that things on full speed all the time (even though i got an "oversized" fan from a dv9000, and new thermal paste, and its clean AF). At least i got the ssd in there, its somewhat fast now (faster in loading times than the HDD with my i7 4710)
Yakuza which model is that? I've got an NC8430, and HP had the intelligent idea of having the heat pipe from the GPU just go around the fan, so the GPU can get hot
Michael Flatman the dv6500
Yakuza yeah the dv6 has overheating issues, undervolt the CPU using throttlestop, it makes it a lot quieter!
Michael Flatman its the dv6500, the newered version of the dv6000. Dv6 is a complete different laptop. It doesnt overheat, but its loud for sure
It's coming to the end of 2019, just seen this video and coincidentally had only last month (August 2019) retired my faithful IBM/Lenovo T60, due to a failed backlight and battery.
Purchased at the end of 2006, It was my main driver then backup workhorse for the last 13 years.
In that time, I have looked after it well and it did the same for me. I never spilt any liquids onto it, periodically cleaned it inside including fan and dropped it only once.
During its lifetime I had upgraded ram from 2 to 4GB, cpu t5600 to T7600 and the most significant upgrade, a 240GB SSD.
It's an amazing piece of well designed engineering and dependability.
I'm already missing my sidekick.
I will keep it of course and may replace the backlight/display.
Who knows, in the future someone maybe able to mod it with a hacked modern cpu based motherboard with all the bells and whistles and even kickstart(er) a 4:3 display revival.
Yes you should fix the backlight, get the newer LED one instead of the CCFL, last longer but its quite a job.
Not even Mjölnir could damage a true Thinkpad.
I bought an X200 from a recycling shop for school presentations and such and the thing was amazing. Have only bought a new charger for it since the one that came with it broke down (although still works after a bit of fiddling) but otherwise the laptop itself is still 100% functional.
Things to watch out for after this time: The lubricant in the hinges can gum up. Replacement hinges should still be available though. The fan can start ratteling due to a worn out bearing, which isn't a problem in the first place and can be remedied by extracting the fan, opening it up and putting a drop of bearing oil onto its shaft. If it becomes worse, the fan might be in danger of breaking electrically, then it would need to be replaced. Regular cleaning of the fan grill + replacement of the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU is also recommended (about once every 4-5 years), but I'm sure you'll have done this at least once already.
"Windows 7 style gadgets" I love the Vista denial here
What's Vista?
@@vwestlife exactly.
Keyboard drip holes, now that blew my mind.
The T60 came with a Core Duo CPU in some models, so it had only 32 bit, and that isn't very recommendable today, since practically everything is 64 bit nowadays. But you could still swap it out for a Core 2 Duo CPU rather easily (unlike in the X-series, where the CPU was soldered onto the board, so it was much harder to change the CPU and involved some BGA rework).
You say practically everything is 64-bit nowadays, and yet the only useful programs I run into are always 32 or 16-bit, and a 64-bit OS won't run those.
VideoTape I can run 32-bit programs on a 64-bit OS no problem - the keyword is "multiarch", it just needs the 32-bit libraries. As for 16-bit, these can easily be run in an emulator or a virtual machine running a 16-bit OS, no need to castrate the whole machine for that.
Seegal Galguntijak Oh yes of course a 64-bit OS will run every 32-bit applications. Not 16-bit ones though.
Last time I tried a virtual machine I couldn't get it to work with my USB floppy drive, and my PCI Express serial and parallel ports.
VideoTape Most 32-bit OSes can't run 16-bit applications either.
The USB floppy drive however should be some sort of legacy device. The host hands it through, and the guest must recognize it - so the guest OS (the virtual machine) must know USB floppy drives and have drivers for them. Which of course doesn't apply to DOS, if you're on to a 16 bit OS. But I've just tried connecting my USB floppy drive to an ancient (32 bit) XP VM and it automatically recognized it, while when not handed through, it is recognized by my host OS automatically as /dev/sdc, so it does work. I don't know whether there is a wrapper to tell your virtualization software (i.e. QEMU, VMware, VirtualBox) that it should use a folder (which is where my USB floppy was mounted on: at /media/username/xxxx-yyyy with the last being some unique media ID) as a virtual disk drive. But you can definitely copy an image of the disk into an image file, which can then be used as a "virtual disk drive" by your VM software to hand it through to the virtual OS. So no need to play disk jokey any more, just change the disk image on the fly (in case you have 16-bit software that requires more than one 3.5" floppy disk).
A 64-bit OS has to use emulation to run 32-bit software. It hardly affects performance because it doesn't involve translating instructions, only inserting a fixed prefix to all instructions and is done in hardware on all AMD CPUs and starting with the second generation of 64-bit Intel CPUs. 32-bit OS and CPUs never used that emulation for 16-bit software because the limit of 16-bit memory addressability was so crippling that everyone wanted to redo their applications for 32-bit as soon as it was available if they were still being actively developed..
We have one of these at work, use it as a networking laptop. I recently refurbished it with a 250GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. It runs like a dream and is extremely durable. Really good bits of kit the Thinkpads of old IMO.
Seems like running Windows XP can make quite a difference. I was going to go back and check the specs again just to confirm, but I believe your X60 here has the same CPU and RAM as my X60 Tablet, but this does feel slower running Windows 10. Using MS Edge to comment, it's relatively quick to type if it's the only tab open, but I was commenting on another video earlier with a reddit page open and the lag was intense. Either way, really cool video, glad to see channels like this out there! You've got yourself a new subscriber.
I still use my T60 for daily work, 12 years and working every day.
i have a Compaq EVO N610c that i still use and it plays youtube videos fine at 720p as long as i open the video in vlc player it runs really well i think i will updated the 40gb hdd to an ssd soon to make it even better
I also have one. Just finished refurbishing it with a new display!
i have an N600c, with the slower 866mhz pentium 3
nice
Evo N6xx's are the SHIT. I fucking loved my N620c and never should have sold it!
Shame it never got a 533 FSB CPU :(
Techmoan... you have a great taste.
Bought one of these this last weekend at the Lisbon flea market - it cost me less than 10€ since that’s what I paid for the laptop and a Samsung laptop power adapter. It included the docking base and I guess that it was the combined height of the x60 with its base that kept buyers away - it looked like a heavy, old laptop. This is a hell of a machine! Small, sturdy and super expandable.
I just bought my first thinkpad (T440p) this week. It's such a good feeling to know that most reviews about thinkpad I found so far are positives.
Pretty sad that a 2006 ThinkPad has smaller screen bezels than 90% of laptops produced today, including new ThinkPads.
Yep.
Not anymore, bezels finally caught up
It's a shame that these older chipsets are so power hungry, because the design of the entire computer is superior to that of modern laptops. The atom's benchmark may be inferior to the core2's but it has incredible performance per watt. With the push into ARM-based processors on laptops, we might be close to seeing a great compromise between the versatility and resilience of older computers and the high power and high efficiency of laptops today.
These Intel Core 2 Duos use much less power than a Core i5 or i7.
Back in the day, the 13" MacBook Pro had a Core 2 Duo and an Nvidia GPU, and the single fan kept temperatures very low. When Apple switched to the Intel Core i5/i7, they got rid of the Nvidia GPU in an attempt to keep temperatures under control, but the CPU still thermal throttled, with the exact same heatsink and fan as the previous models.
Wow! That's really fast for a 10 year old computer! It only takes a little bit longer to boot up than new gaming laptops!
keywords: SSD and min 4gb ram
k
and windows xp
Because Windows XP on hardware past when it was released runs great, even with a regular hdd. Windows XP is an outdated OS though, and despite vwestlife's stubbornness to upgrade you shouldn't consider running it today.
"you shouldn't consider running it today"
Why not?
I only recently realized that you play classical music in the background while you're recording. I think that's cool. I love the way you make your vids, man. Keep up the good work.
I still use my IBM Thinkpad t43 that I bought in 2005 almost daily. It still runs like new, boots quicker than most new computers and is still good for basic web surfing. Mine also has a finger print reader that works great and it still holds good charge! I will continue to use my thinkpad for hopefully years to come for word processing.
22:49 Of course gonna be faster because that Intel Atom is crap.
so what? the atom still costs more
I owned a core2 duo laptop (t7200) with discrete graphics (radeon x1600)
and I also currently own a tablet with the atom z3735f chipset. From
running games in my steam library that I had back then I can say the
actual performance is very similar.
I wouldn't run a z3735 laptop as a main computer since it is more of a mobile chipset (power wise) then even a laptop chip, but the atom line did get much better from the early D and N series and honestly the performance changed quite a bit from the 32mn and above Z series to the newer 22nm process and the newest 14nm "goldmont" chips are getting really close to some core i processors (mainly the lower powered u variants)
*****
Agreed. Though the moment convertible laptops became a thing (the original kind that had the screens that flipped not the glorified tablets with a better keyboard then the surface thing) it was pretty inevitable that this would become a thing. You could also say the early netbooks also paved the way for mobile class hardware in laptops.
It is slightly better then the laptops that don't even try at all hand have rockchip processors, and probably slightly worse then a $1,200 machine with specs that are really not much better at all. (cough macbook 2015 cough)
GAMIR_GTA adjust your expectations lol, this core 2 Duo probably has a TDP of 30w but the atom has like 3 w
yeah, for chrome os for example, a nice high end phone cpu would be good (Cortex A73+A53) would deliver good performance and amazing battery life, since most phone cpus don't consume more than 2-3w
Business-class Thinkpads are still great. I'm talking about the T-series.
Not the new ones. T520 was the last good thinkpad laptop.
I have a fairly newer thinkpad, maybe 2012/13, or something. And it's awesome!
I have no issue with older thinkpads, the main reason I use a newer one is for the gigabit ethernet and USB 3.0 support. But other than that, thinkpads really have not changed much since the old days. They still have great build quality.
I'm also thinking of throwing an SSD in my thinkpad because despite it being a newer model, mechanical hard drives just don't cut it anymore!
Matthew McLaren My Lenovo T400 from 2009 has gigabit Ethernet, and to solve my USB 3.0 problem I just used an ExpressCard adapter for it.
Matthew McLaren i did as well definitely worth it
Randomly browsing this channel and found one of my old comments lol.
I'm currently rocking a Lenovo ThinkPad T440S running macOS 11.6 Big Sur. It has an Intel Core i5-4300U, 12 GB of DDR3 RAM, 512 GB SSD, and 16 GB SSD. I use it everyday for school, work, web browsing, email, light gaming, and video editing.
Now I pretty much use a T480 running macOS 13.6.1 Ventura. This is truly one of the last ThinkPads that does justice to the ThinkPad name.
I had a three ThinkPad's back then. One was a T60 in 2007 or 08 and it was a fantastic machine. Also had two T43's, purchased in 2007, which I still have to this day. I sold the T60 to a family member but still use both T43's. IBM made two different T43's. One was a little larger than the other but both used the same optional accessories (RAM, CPU, battery, dock, etc). I have two of the better docking devices. I say the 'better' one because IBM made two types of docking systems back then. The docking device made using your ThinkPad VERY convenient because when used with a compatible ThinkPad the PC could be used as a full-featured desktop and, at the push of a button, was a laptop again. The dock also had a single PCI expansion slot that permitted almost any type of expansion card to be used when the laptop was docked with it. The docking system I have came with a key and you could 'lock' the laptop in place if desired. The whole system was quite ingenious and I still use both T43's to this day, albeit, for less strenuous tasks since this is a single core PC. I replaced the battery a few times and the keyboard and CPU fan assembly once (so far). All can be found on Ebay quite inexpensively and except for the battery the other two components were genuine IBM replacement parts. These were top-of-the-line systems back then and I hated it when IBM sold this line off to Lenovo because the quality has waned over the years both in their portable and desktop line :>\
The X200 also only had the trackpoint so the X60 was not the last..
also the basic version of x201
By basic you mean x201s
They still have the track point as of the P50 and T550, they just added a touchpad.
Folopolis Well we were talking about having "only" the trackpoint... ;)
My core i5 X220 still has the track point as well as a track pad, although the X220's track pad is so bad it may as well not be there! Also despite being a 16:9 screen ratio it still has the same thin bezel on the side of the keyboard and the non chicklit keyboard.
you neglected the most important feature: you can install libreboot on your X60 so nothing on your computer is tainted by nonfree software
Shicky256 if it ain't broke, dont fix it!
i installed libreboot, and reverted to the stock few a few hours later
Pasmini, why?
same here been running that for at least 3 years now.
@farhanatashiga3721 if it has proprietaty software then it's broken uwu
So cool. Thanks for the video. One question for you. Why did all the computer companies change to chicklet laptop keyboards? Like it was some great big thing to do.
IIIJFRIII Because Apple and looks modern. Functionality comes second these days to looks.
I hate that crap. I miss the old think black bulky laptops of the 90's. They looked cool. Most laptops don't even come with CD drives anymore, so you can't even pop in a DVD and watch something, donn't even get me started on how they are just ignoring blu ray to. Slim, flimsy, feel like they can bend and snap mordern laptops. And I can not stand these chicklet keyboards. Full travel cheepo membrane keyboards are better then these fucking chicklets. Been eyeing a Lenovo 17.3" Y700 laptop that goes for about $1,200, hope they keyboard is "okay". Wish it came with an internal DVD drive, comes and a add on in the box. At least it looks old fashioned.
Buy a Cherry MX. Problem solved. Nice keyboard, good colors, clicky. 70 dollars I think.
I'm typing all this on my k70 cherry mx blue lol. But that's for my desktop.
Lol, for me I like the old CRT monitors they were my style.
Looking forward to X60 still amazing after 20 years soon!
I miss 4:3 screens. 16:9 and 16:10 suck for anything but gaming or video consumption.
16:10 is still better than 16:9
Whoever came up with 16:9 wasn't thinking about anything other than watching DVD video...
For some purposes a 16:10 screen in portrait orientation is actually the best option, but you wouldn't see that in a laptop, and it's rare on desktops too, even though that's far more plausible there... XD
what are 4:3 16:9 16:20?
you're kidding, right? try doing audio production/editing or video editing on a 4:3 screen, you'll want to blow your fucking brains out.
aspect ratios. 4:3 is the box shape seen on old CRTs and SD tvs, 16:9 is the standard today where videos, movies and games fill up the whole screen without black bars and is typically HD. 16:10 is like 16:9 but taller and is better for productivity but has black bars on the top and bottom when watching video
+larrisAWSOME it's pretty neat to have a 4:3 Monitor for that, it just have to be a bit bigger than the showed one. You can watch the 16:9 Videocontent and additionally have all bars and tools around it with no loss of video-width. Since 16:9 and 16:10 monitors are that common today, everybody starts to fix this with a larger monitor and then with a second monitor beneath the first one.
Would have installed windows 7 or 10 for personal use, but XP likely still works for most things!
Or ditch windows and go light weight with a linux distro, perfect for a thinkpad.
+TotallyCarbon
LOL
Why?
Because linux is a fast OS.
Look at mint, the entire mac os, the entire android os, those are all linux based.
bestiebest you mean unix based/inspired
bestiebest but ai loved XP with a passion it was light fast and fairly stable 7 was/is good but not as good 8 and 10 have more bells and whistles but do not run as well on the same specked hardware even the newer stuff. I have a mate with a Surface and he installed a business version of XP on it which is still supported by MS runs like a dream even the touchscreen works great!
Why do most modern laptops have no VGA screws?
Because it's cheaper and takes up less space.
it is my opinion that the screws are more intended for a more of a long term connection and most people these days don't plug in extra monitors for a long term.
A lot of laptop makers have gotten rid of the VGA port for HDMI or micro HDMI ports.
***** Some laptops don't even have disk drives.
But sometimes you need the screws just to make a good electrical connection.
I had one of these laptops when I was doing professional services for a data security company. Lots of horse power, 6-hour battery, eraser-head pointing device, and an optional docking station in case you needed to run a second HDD for a multi-VM environment. It even had a built-in WAN so I could send and receive email on the go via celluar. A kick-butt machine. Only the X61 was better because it was 64-bit where as this unit is 32-bits.
I still own and use my IBM T60 1951 Thinkpad which i bought refurbed nearly 10 years ago. I replaced the Hard drive with a WD black drive and bought a sleeve for it and its never gone wrong on me, no dead pixels, no bad inverter, no broken hinges, nothing, just replaced the battery every couple of years and occasionally needs a blow out with compressed air and a fresh application of thermal paste on the CPU. Its been through XP Pro, Win 7 Pro and now Windows 10 Pro with no issues. Thinkpads are like Volvo's, you either see the beauty in their build quality and design or you don't.
The Core 2 Duo laptop processors are great for basic computing until you try to play x265 (HEVC) videos at 1080p. Even my Core 2 Duo P8600 struggles very hard to play back some high bitrate 720p HEVC videos.
Tommy Whitaker
I don't know. The only games I play are Zuma Deluxe and Plants vs. Zombies.
Do you have a dedicated GPU? It really helps the core 2 duos to have a dedicated gpu...case in point my E6400 which is a side laptop that I pick up from time to time for random uses, it has a p9500 and an nvidia graphics card.
Jacob's Channel
It doesn't matter. Only current (i.e. modern) GPUs have hardware HEVC decoding support. Mine has a GeForce 9300M. High bitrate 1080p x264/h264 videos play smoothly, but high bitrate 720p HEVC videos are mostly choppy. 1080p HEVC videos are unwatchable.
My cheap Linux lab PC at home, on the other hand, plays 1080p HEVC videos just fine. It has an Intel Pentium G4400 processor (2C/2T), Intel IGP, and 4GB of RAM.
are the Intel 7xxx's the only chips with HEVC support (or did they manage to get HW decoding somehow back ported to old chips)?
You cannot "back-port" hardware decoding. you either put in the transistors and logic gates when you built the chip, or you didn't. ALL thinkpad laptops from 2007 and earlier FAIL to decode 1080p and 720p MP4 videos at reasonable rates. I have tried very hard with my T60p which has a T7500 (extremely powerful core 2 duo) cpu. MPEG-4 just cannot be decoded in software at decent frame rates.
Back when they had the build quility of IBM Thinkpads and didn't tried to mimic apple.
18 second startup
Pretty good (My ssd laptop will turn on in 5 seconds....... although this is 10 years older than mine..... )
I would LOVE a new version of this laptop. I got rid of mine (might have been an x200s or x61, but it definitely had no touchpad) a few years ago and originally bought it when I was curious about Linux and wanted a machine to play around with. The quality of the screen was pretty awful (consistent with all Thinkpads until the last 2 years or so), and the chunky battery sticking out of the back was awkward, but aside from that it was fantastic. The keyboard was incredibly comfortable to type on, and I quickly grew to love the Trackpoint.
I know it will never happen, but a machine with this form factor (4:3 screen with minimal bezels, keyboard taking up most of the top surface of the base and a trackpoint instead of a touchpad) and modern technology would be amazing. The size was perfect, but quite chunky compared to something like a Macbook Air or Dell XPS 13, so if the least useful legacy ports were removed, I'm sure it could be powerful and have awesome battery life. I can only imagine the awful reviews such a laptop would get on the mainstream tech news sites such as The Verge, but there are still plenty of Thinkpad fans that would lap it up. The 25th Anniversary Thinkpad is a huge, expensive letdown, and I doubt Lenovo will ever make anything like the X60 again, but hopefully someone will step up one day.
it is still relevant if you are using it for light surfing or Office. The screen resolution isn't great by today's standard but you get larger text for those weary eyes. DDR2 rams are cheap on Ebay, few dollars will get you to 4GB. And couple tens of dollars will get you a brand new SSD on any retailer.
Good video, VWestlife! You're videos are very interesting. I'm only an 12 year old. However, I know a lot about computers. You should make a video of you trying to get custom OS'es on old computers.
Daniel Ledank what do you mean by custom?
Yesto Sorry for confusing you. I meant different, standalone OS'es that are less heard of.
There's a UA-camr who uploaded a video on downloading react os onto a old computer, that you might like, his name is druaga1
X. M.L. How did you figure out one of my most favorite youtubers? :) he makes cool mac videos/pc videos.
Daniel Ledank I watch him as well, and I agree he does make excellent content. :')
13:24 Lol Ubuntu 6.04 is from '06!
Thinkpads have always been among the best of laptops.
7:11 I remember when I'm like 8 years old that Drip hole thing is one of the most advanced things I see in laptops, yet I never see any of the modern XP laptops in 2011 and up that has that feature. It's a huge bummer that modern laptops are weaker to spills.
I have several Thinkpads and the recent Lenovo models are still great machines. Credit to Lenovo to largely keep to the original design while making nice incremental changes along the way. I don't know of any make of laptop where you can add a dock that gives a laptop 10 discrete USB ports, 3 displayport outputs, an second battery dock, an option to add a 3rd battery by swapping out the dock's DVD drive, and oh, the dock works across several dozen of Thinkpad models.
If you put an SSD in almost everything, it feels brand new. I just installed an SSD in my 3 year old laptop and it feels 10 times faster and boots 10 times faster.
In what?
A great little laptop indeed, I miss 4:3 laptops 16:9 was a horrible idea.
Not if you use your laptop to watch movies and UA-cam in full screen.
catlover10192 16:10, best of both worlds. Same width for media, greater height than 16:9 for productivity
19:10
"AustinTechTips"
The size, screen aspect ratio, keyboard and overall build quality makes me fall in love with this machine.
Gonna probably get one of those by the end of the year but now I'm waiting a T430 workstation.
After 10 years, it's really proven itself to be a good, durable laptop! I'm AMAZED the keys are only slightly worn... my Acer E15's keys took about a month to wear down like that, from the time I bought it, to when my rubber keyboard skin arrived from eBay. I like how the "eraser head" doesn't stick up higher than the keys either; I had a Dell Latitude laptop that had a permanent mark on the LCD display from the "eraser head" (but why complain; I got a fantastic deal on that laptop used, because of the mark. Haha) I like the way you edited this video too, really cool.
I have an old x60 sitting in my office closet. Guess I need to get it out, dust if off, and see what it can do now.
my bad...it's an X61...someone gave it to me as payment to fix their other laptop and desktop. Haven't touched it in years. May be fun to see what I can get out of it..except this 61 has god awful Vista on it.
Just look around on the Internet for a lite version of Linux you like. I still have a HP PIII that will do whatever on Puppy. Pretty much the only limitation on any PC now is the RAM, 256MB and below tends to be slow, but anything that can except 512MB or up should be game with most small versions of Linux. I have been thinking about trying to put DSL on an old Toshiba 486 laptop that still has the original Window 3.x on it; the developers claim it can be done.
JohnNNJ I've had good results out of DSL. The non-profit I run, takes in old computers and we refurbish them and set them up for students of families that can't afford a computer. We had several PIIIs and some early P4s that we got in 2 years ago and I tried DSL on them...worked really well and still gave them a web browser, word processing and video and music applications with no issues. They can't play modern games, but we set them up to help them with school. DSL takes care of that pretty good on a PIII with 512 RAM...which luckily all of these had. They came from a bank that was still using them with a proprietary linux-based OS, up until then (2014).
Dad_a_Monk
I was just about to post to the main comments that I also have a T22 I run with Puppy. That there should be no reason for anyone to be without access if they have electricity and a connection. That the obstacles are knowledge and all the computers that get smashed up for recycling.
When Goodwill stopped selling computers in the storefronts because of some recycling agreement with Dell, I wondered if it was fear that people would figure out they didn't need to buy knew ones. I had not purchased a new computer since 2004, and did purchase any computer after 2007 when I stopped using Windows, until I recently bought a Pad.
What is the name of your organization and where is it based?
Dad_a_Monk lol Vista isn't that bad on a laptop from 2006/2007. Especially if it's has 2 / 4 GB of RAM and a decent processor.
Hey! A video where you simply mention Linux in a neutral tone instead of dumping on it.
I've given up on doing videos about Linux. No matter how many good things I say about it, if I mention *even one negative thing* about it in the video, people will accuse me of "bashing" Linux.
VWestlife yeah they "try to defend" linux like its they're king
To be fair, when you are Linux user, you tend to get attacked a lot by people for using Linux. So I really hope you understand why we get so defensive.
Crystal the Glaceon
And 99% of those attacks are from *fellow Linux users* who think you're using the wrong distro!
VWestlife I am not going to disagree with that.
Not to bad speed similar startup time to my modern 800 dollar gaming laptop with windows 10
there is no 800$ gaming laptop. decent ones are 1800+. typically looking at 3k for something nice in that department
john donovan ua-cam.com/video/08VHrFaVnzA/v-deo.html
AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH linus the sellout. trust nothing he says. he is paid for by ACER, if you didnt know. he has a contract with them to peddle all their shit
I diagnose you with terminal 7 hiv stupidity aids If it performs well with games, it could very well be called a gaming laptop. I play mindsweeper at 123659808943976 fps on my $400 pc. Also, just because He is sponsored a ton, does not mean that he can't be trusted, so far, with the time I have been watching his videos, he has not lied, only made some mistakes.
Got myself 2 T60s a week ago. Been loving it so far!
I have two Lenovo’s from the same period. I upgraded both to SSD drives and they are lightening fast and both run windows 10
I still use Microsoft Office 2003, and I am running WINDOWS 10 on my PC!!
John Mack Why.
Friggin Google Docs would be better.
We use Drive at school. We would never use Office 2003. Hell, we have the latest Office and barely use it.
NEX H5 Google Docs is shit
just use openoffice.You'll feel right at home and have modern compatibility
Josh Rice openoffice isn't bad, very much a Microsoft Office clone. To be fair you can pick up copies of office 2007 and 2010 for not much anyway
I wonder if osrs runs decent on it.
I have a X61T and it's capable of running OSRS pretty well actually. But keep it on the fixed window mode since changing it will make the framerate tank.
DUCCIBOI Good to know thank you.
This is very cool, but why not install a windows 7 on it? thats cool too
No, it wouldn't be, unless it doesn't have enough RAM.
Fucking safety freaks. its not like windows xp is unsafe. i mean why would hackers even bother with windows xp since almost no one uses it?
All i ment was windows 7 has more software compactible for it.
Wobbled
I'm no real fan of XP, but it's incredibly easy to get those patches as a home user.
Wobbled
It's not always as simple as a lack of know-how or funds. There are still some pieces of hardware that only work with older OSes or older hardware, some pieces of vital software that are in the same boat, or even some systems that were poorly documented and thus are impossible to upgrade.
Wobbled
Not always, it can't, if it's closed source and the original people aren't around or active any more. Virtualisation only goes so far, and is useless if you have something that needs more direct hardware interaction, or things modern systems can't provide.
Face it, your view is just overly simple and there are dozens of reasons why a company may not update.
I rescued an X60 from a dumpster in 2013. Cleaned it up and rammed it up to 4gb, it is currently dual-booting Windows 10 and Fedora 25. I love the 'GBH nipple' tracker, it just feels so natural as a left-hander. My X60 is dated 2005 and has the IBM logo, it outperforms most of the entry level 2016 machines on the market, and it's an ice-breaker too as some say 'what's that?', and others say 'wow, a Thinkpad, I remember when I had one'. I leave my work issued laptop at home these days and use the X60 as it's so light and compact, yet lightening fast, faster than the clunky I-3 Toshiba that work gave me.
I have a ThinkPad R51 from 2005. Mine has a trackpad, and I didn't realize it had a keyboard light until watching this! Thanks! (although mine is amber colored and does little to illuminate the keys)
It is a crime to use windows xp instead of linux on a X60... Seriously
Seriously?
Apparently it is. Guess who's also a proud famous user of X60 to this day, Richard Stallman! Founder and director of free software movement, GNU.
ua-cam.com/video/fkkDvKGcNSo/v-deo.htmlm58s
Old Asus laptops look like pieces of cheap plastic.
Cause they're asus.
Tommy Whitaker I was just making a joke referencing a certain ad.
why ibm quit the market it created? clones taking over?
Basically, yes.
too low profit margin for an rnd company about sums it.
they make ibm watson and whatnot.
maybe they could one day make a superior computing device out of the blue, who knows?
I've got a Dell Latitude D630 that I JUST retired yesterday, and I feel the same way about it. I kept it in use for so long because it still had a serial port with which I could "console" into routers.
Ah, the Thinkpad, one of the true greatest. One of my personal favorites as well, I used one for about 4 years as well as the T60. I'm typing this on my Yoga Pro 3 from about 4 years ago, still an amazing device, love it.
Maybe the reason you don't see all them dinosaur ports on modern laptops and computers becuse thee obsolete and not needed.
Yes, because nobody needs a headphone jack anymore, right...?
VWestlife I wasn't talking about the headphone jack
I mean the old ports like firewire
firewire has faster transfer rates then usb 2.0
Is it faster than usb type c I don't think so
I gave my father a X60 a few years ago as a daily laptop, which he uses still without any issues or complaints.
I was using my 2005 X60 upgraded by a X61 years later for 8 years before replacing it with a Carbon X1.
I've got a T60, love it so much. 1400x1050 IPS screen, C2D T5600, ATi X1400. Replaced the HDD with 2TB 5400rpm. Still use it very much today. Though the fan is making a very unpleasant noise, I will have to replace it sooner or later, and also the plastic has now cracked in some places too. But considering how much abuse it's been trough, it's amazing it still works fine :)
My first ThinkPad was an 8-year-old (in 2011) IBM R32 with the 14-inch 1024x768 screen and a Pentium 4 Mobile. Worked great until the mainboard shorted itself out one day. I've had a flurry of laptops since - none quite as agreeable as that ThinkPad - and a couple years ago, I found my current T430 in a pawn shop. Bought it for $250 as an 18-month-old machine still under factory warranty. :)
Yes, it's got the chiclet keyboard, but it feels almost as good as the old-tyme ThinkPad keyboard, plus it's backlit for when you don't wanna disturb other folks around you with the ThinkLight. It came with the dual-core hyper-threaded Intel i5 and an SSD, and ever since I upgraded it to 16 GB of RAM, it flies like a jet liner. I can't come close to bogging it down on Windows 10 using Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Audition, Firefox, and Office '16...at the same time...on multiple desktops. Build quality is still excellent, with a only a few plastic pieces chipped off due to a couple of falls out of a backpack from 4-5 feet in the air. I agree with some of the other commenters that a 16:9 display is absurd (I much preferred the 16:10 1920x1200 display on a former HP EliteBook workstation), but as my T430 has a 1600x900 screen, it's somewhat more manageable.
I'm wanting to upgrade to a T460p with discrete graphics and the 1440p screen, but I'm not sure how I feel about these rigs only having one year of factory warranty (with no warranty upgrade available) instead of the three years to which I grew accustomed.
You really peaked my curiosity on this item. So I decided to find one on EBay. I bought a ThinkPad T61 for $66. It came without an OS on the HD, but in otherwise fine condition. I installed Windows XP (SP 0) on it. I finally got it up to SP 3 - what a job that was, and managed to acquire all the drivers. These laptops were really the crème de la crème of laptops.
Bulletproof - I have an X60s with an SSD. I dual boot "Hackintosh" Mac OS 10.6 SL & a 32 bit Linux Mint distro. It's my travel & Coffee shop writing system. And yes, I do final edits on my MacBook Pro too (LOL).
Damn it you killed me when you played the 'how to leave a youtube comment' vid lol Good stuff. I just watched a vid on that laptop from 1987 that cost $5.7k. Love your stuff man
I have owned a number of thinkpads or been issued them in my work. My first thinkpad laptop was issued to me in 2004-5 time frame when I was lucky enough to be issued the excellent T41p model. After leaving that job I was lucky enough to find a T42 laptop at a pawn shop for cheap and bought it right away. I then was issued other thinkpads at work and recently found on ebay a thinkpad T60p in fantastic shape which I'm using as a daily driver today. Love it. I would like to find a T61 with a 4:3 screen thought but they seem to be tough to find given that laptops had begun a wholesale switch to 16:9 screen ratios by the time of the T61...
Gotta love the good ol' Thinkpads, i love restoring them , people generally "throw ehm out" here in denmark for 100-300kr, around 15-30usd. they are soo rugged and worthwhile!
I agree that in many ways the improvement offered by new laptops has almost completely stalled. I also agree that you can get amazing value for money with 2nd hand laptops and they are still perfectly powerful enough for average user's needs. Main problem is old devices have old ports, no HDMI, no USB 3 etc, so factor that in when considering old vs. new.