If anything, the Thinkpad keyboard is basically trickled down to other Lenovo's product. Obviously not the same keyboard and no Trackpoint, but Lenovo laptop's keyboard is still one of the best I've type for a laptop.
Definitely. The keyboards on the Yoga, Legion and LOQ for example are all really nice. The first is about £400 off at Currys right now in the UK, about £1,700 for a really nice, premium and thin laptop with a 4060 and 13th gen i9, 32gb RAM and really nice screen.
I think the funniest thing ever is the fact that I love ThinkPad keyboards and love typing on them, but I'm somehow slightly faster on the modern Apple Magic keyboards which I hate typing on, it feels like I'm barely in control and hitting tic tacs instead of keys, but I still type faster on it. It baffles me.
Fun note about replacing that hard disk drive with that ssd. Hitachi bought IBM's hard drive business in 2003, basically merging it's own disk drive unit with IBM's. That combined unit was sold to and merged with Western Digital in 2012. Due to a series of anti-trust considerations in China, Western Digital couldn't fully combine with the spun off disk drive unit until 2015~2017. In the middle of that in 2016, Western Digital also bought flash manufacturer SanDisk-- which is how a product like the WD Blue solid state SATA drive became possible.
@@aChairLeg honestly It's only in danger if you connect it without a firewall (your router) in the middle. so hooking this up over ethernet to your router isn't bad because the router blocks all traffic to a device that didn't request for it. there was a video from someordenarygamers where he ran an xp vm hooked up behind the router and there was nothing wrong with the vm.
It’s the Nvidia GPU. I sold one in excellent condition a couple of months ago, and Ubuntu is not good for Nvidia. Even Pops! Sucks on it. I use Linux Mint on my T500 6g ram and 120g hd, and it’s great.
Such a Dualcore is my Docker/Portainer Homelab now 😊 running on the Armbian x64 Cli Version. After baking the old GPU in the oven i got graphics back to life, new thermalpaste and the Laptop which was lying around for 10years is now perfect in work and idle for my iot projects at home.
Old school Thinkpad afficionado here. My first one was a T61p, it's been through so much that it eventually ended up in parts donors box. Got a 380ED, T42, T43p, T60, T61, R400, T500, W500, T410, T520 and W520. Discombobulated and recombobulated every single one of them, replacing any parts broken, sometimes cannibalizing a unit to fix another. Most of them run Debian, my distro of choice.
I got an old thinkpad probably around the same age when I was younger for free from a local community center that had Ubuntu 12 or 14 on it and I played so much Game Dev Tycoon and emulated snes games on it, it was heaven
I still use a few laptops from that era: Compaq 610 - C2D T5870, 4GB DDR2, 320GB WD Blue, Windows 7 HP 6720s - C2D T7200, 4GB DDR2, 160GB Hitachi, Windows 7 Toshiba A300 - C2D T5800, 3GB DDR2, 320GB WD Blue, Windows 7 Great little things, Still do a deacent job for web browsing, playing old games, movies and such. I had to fix the Toshiba... twice...and the speakers on it are foam rotted...and a few other things... The HPs tho never had any issues
6:05 if anything, flash the Middleton BIOS on it to unlock SATA 2 speeds and remove the temp sensor warning when installing Penryn based CPUs (like the T9300) on older Merom T61 (T7xxx) boards
BTW, I think the mystery slot next to the DVD drive is an ExpressCard slot. I never used it, but I know one use was for cellular modems. These systems really struggled to run Windows Vista. Then again, I struggled to use Vista! What a freaking nightmare!
I had a t400 a few years ago. It also came with 3gb of ram but it was ddr3. The cpu was a core 2 duo p8600 paired with a mobility radeon hd 3450. I ended up selling it to someone who needed it more than i did but i still kinda regret selling it. It was such a nice old school machine
I know back then combo jacks weren't popular but for all your audio needs the combo + mic setup is required, that way you will never need a dongle to connect your headset
I have a T520 and it's much, much more usable than this machine, it is perfectly fine using Linux for CZcams, web browsing, and retro games, especially since I have it upgraded to 12 gigs of RAM. I am definitely one of those people who swears by the old 7-row keyboard--for me it was love at first touch and I hope one day to be able to afford the anniversary model (a T480 with an old style keyboard), which still sells for outrageous prices.
Even an X9000 OCed dual-core works quite nice with AntiX Linux, I paired it with 8gigs rams, sata2 ssd-speed, fx570m graphics and 15" IPS 1200p screen from T60p. Trackpoint is damn accurate and the trackpoint buttons, especially with new-like NMB keyboard.
Please make a video on the Thinkpad P1 gen 2 with OLED screen. Show the people what 550$ get you on the second hand market compared to your t14 and the other Thinkpad you teased. I know it's a bit expensive, but it's worth it. Who knows, it may become your new daily driver.
@@aChairLegbefore wifi you needed wires to connect to the internet, and that meant the landline telephone jack... Which is what an RJ11 is. It's for plugging a landline into... Honestly I feel weird and old having to explain this to you.
Two words, skill issue. Gnome is pretty heavy on old igpu's and so is kde. You would have had a better experience if you had installed freebsd with xfce.
All thinkpads have hardware maintenance manuals that will tell you everything about how to take apart any particular thinkpad. Oh and I agree the full height trackpoint is definitely better than the little things that they include on thinkpads today. Also idk if it is true, but in my experience the full height trackpoint also got drift a lot less than the lower profile ones. Cool thinkpad though :)
If you ran the laptop without the battery that would explain why it is extra slow, the CPU throttles itself when one isn't present. Also for Linux it's possible the GPU drivers weren't set up. I have an X41 which is miles slower than this and somehow handles Linux better lol
@@bruhmomento4197 because the charger alone cannot provide enough power to run the laptop at full speed, please google "do laptops throttle without battery"
I have the T61 4:3 model (Better IMO) with the advanced dock. The dock has Nvidia GT 730 card and it handles YT at 720p with no issue. Windows 11 Enterprise LTSC 2019. 8 GB RAM. Its my main PC. I have more powerful PCs but this is my favorite. Gets the job done even in 2024. My other favorite Thinkpad is the T440s with i5 4210U. Love how efficient it is. Can run for without the fan coming on.
i love this channel even though i am a certified linux dork and cannot help but go NotLikeThis every time you mention how much better you prefer windows over linux on thinkpads lol. this was one of the first laptops i owned as a young adult and i have fond memories of running kde3 on gentoo on it and it being an absolute powerhouse. the keyboard was a highlight for me too. everyone was so mad when lenovo switched to the chicklet style keys and imo it was justified
while I don't have a T61 anymore (all of them either had the Nvidia GPU or the one Intel GMA model I did have had a bad board), I do have an X201 and I love it. Lovely little laptop, and it still feels pretty usable with Linux Mint even 14 years after release.
I was just messing around with Linux Mint (Which is Ubuntu based) on a T400 (basically the same machine) and it was unusably slow like this in Linux, and I found it was keeping the CPU at only 800mhz. The only fix i could find was to go into BIOS and set the CPU SpeedStep settings to Max Performance. It was much more usable then, even CZcams videos were playable.
I am actually still using a T60 with 3gb RAM, but indeed that much memory is barely enough anymore. Soon I will upgrade to my Frankenpad (basically it's a T61 motherboard in a T60 body, to keep the glorious 15 inch Flexview panel), and that will be much better with 8gb RAM. Oh and you absolutely need an SSD, these machines are basically unusable for modern tasks with a spinning disk.
upgrade ram and replace the hdd with ssd and install windows 10 x64 again i have a laptop that has really close specs to your thinkpad and its running really smooth rn
Nooo, you are doing things wrongly. I have an X61, same year and same T7500 with 4gb ram (8gb is possible) in 12 inch format, 1.4 kg weight. Its perfectly usable, plays 720/1080p yt videos no problem (with a bit of a tweak), opens up multiple tabs in Floorp, boots up in 35 secs even with that Sata I speed limit of 150mb/s. The difference being, I installed Linux Mint Xfce on it, something like Gnome is bloated too much, and Windows 10 with no tweaks as well. I managed to load Windows 11 lite on T61 I sold, it wasn't that bad. The only issue I have with X61 is no media decoding, meaning if I want to watch something on an external screen, it has lines when a lot of movement happens, which I will solve by buying 20$ broadcom media decoding mpcie card. I just bought 2 X61s untested on ebay to get L7500 which has 17W TDP, so I can transfer its motherboard into X61, and get much better thermals.
Got a T420 with Win 10/Linux and a T60 running XP with all of my old games, still runs a treat. There is still life in the old laptops even after all these years.
i have t430 i7-3540m nvs5400m 16gb... i play Valorant 900p 100+ fps average and Gta V 900p 50+ fps average... i hope i can run Gta 6 on this beast... 😂😂
@@aChairLeg damn i did not thought that u will respond but i just think that even something like lxqt will just work 3x times or better or fancier ArCh
"Took incredibly long time to install, like 20 minutes", oh, young man...
If anything, the Thinkpad keyboard is basically trickled down to other Lenovo's product. Obviously not the same keyboard and no Trackpoint, but Lenovo laptop's keyboard is still one of the best I've type for a laptop.
Definitely. The keyboards on the Yoga, Legion and LOQ for example are all really nice. The first is about £400 off at Currys right now in the UK, about £1,700 for a really nice, premium and thin laptop with a 4060 and 13th gen i9, 32gb RAM and really nice screen.
I think the funniest thing ever is the fact that I love ThinkPad keyboards and love typing on them, but I'm somehow slightly faster on the modern Apple Magic keyboards which I hate typing on, it feels like I'm barely in control and hitting tic tacs instead of keys, but I still type faster on it. It baffles me.
@@Big-Chungus21 I love using my Legion keyboard lol it has great tactile and response
dont you dare ping the discord server again without linking the vid
Fun note about replacing that hard disk drive with that ssd. Hitachi bought IBM's hard drive business in 2003, basically merging it's own disk drive unit with IBM's. That combined unit was sold to and merged with Western Digital in 2012. Due to a series of anti-trust considerations in China, Western Digital couldn't fully combine with the spun off disk drive unit until 2015~2017. In the middle of that in 2016, Western Digital also bought flash manufacturer SanDisk-- which is how a product like the WD Blue solid state SATA drive became possible.
0:58 you mean the FireWire port?
I was about to say it looks like one mini FireWire port to me as well!
He didn't get the dial up either
Hook it up to the internet and let chaos reign.
Nooooooo I really wanted to tho
@@aChairLeg honestly It's only in danger if you connect it without a firewall (your router) in the middle. so hooking this up over ethernet to your router isn't bad because the router blocks all traffic to a device that didn't request for it. there was a video from someordenarygamers where he ran an xp vm hooked up behind the router and there was nothing wrong with the vm.
Oml this is the earliest I’ve ever been to a chair vid
This is what you get for staying up late :)
ThinkPad without Linux = Blasphemy
It’s the Nvidia GPU. I sold one in excellent condition a couple of months ago, and Ubuntu is not good for Nvidia. Even Pops! Sucks on it. I use Linux Mint on my T500 6g ram and 120g hd, and it’s great.
@@SuperOldrockerJust wondering, but how does it suck? Could you elaborate? I've never used Linux on Nvidia before...
Kinda funny to think that you believe that, I've been using Windows on a ThinkPad T60 and I've not experienced any problems.
Such a Dualcore is my Docker/Portainer Homelab now 😊 running on the Armbian x64 Cli Version.
After baking the old GPU in the oven i got graphics back to life, new thermalpaste and the Laptop which was lying around for 10years is now perfect in work and idle for my iot projects at home.
Old school Thinkpad afficionado here. My first one was a T61p, it's been through so much that it eventually ended up in parts donors box. Got a 380ED, T42, T43p, T60, T61, R400, T500, W500, T410, T520 and W520. Discombobulated and recombobulated every single one of them, replacing any parts broken, sometimes cannibalizing a unit to fix another. Most of them run Debian, my distro of choice.
I got an old thinkpad probably around the same age when I was younger for free from a local community center that had Ubuntu 12 or 14 on it and I played so much Game Dev Tycoon and emulated snes games on it, it was heaven
"I really don't know what this would be used for" damn that made me feel old! That's the dial up modem, that's how we got on the Internet!
I still use a few laptops from that era:
Compaq 610 - C2D T5870, 4GB DDR2, 320GB WD Blue, Windows 7
HP 6720s - C2D T7200, 4GB DDR2, 160GB Hitachi, Windows 7
Toshiba A300 - C2D T5800, 3GB DDR2, 320GB WD Blue, Windows 7
Great little things, Still do a deacent job for web browsing, playing old games, movies and such.
I had to fix the Toshiba... twice...and the speakers on it are foam rotted...and a few other things... The HPs tho never had any issues
6:05 if anything, flash the Middleton BIOS on it to unlock SATA 2 speeds and remove the temp sensor warning when installing Penryn based CPUs (like the T9300) on older Merom T61 (T7xxx) boards
BTW, I think the mystery slot next to the DVD drive is an ExpressCard slot. I never used it, but I know one use was for cellular modems. These systems really struggled to run Windows Vista. Then again, I struggled to use Vista! What a freaking nightmare!
I had a t400 a few years ago. It also came with 3gb of ram but it was ddr3. The cpu was a core 2 duo p8600 paired with a mobility radeon hd 3450. I ended up selling it to someone who needed it more than i did but i still kinda regret selling it. It was such a nice old school machine
Ubuntu isn't good for this, you need Debian with XFCE
I know back then combo jacks weren't popular but for all your audio needs the combo + mic setup is required, that way you will never need a dongle to connect your headset
Chair when there is no leg.
(i tottaly watched the whole video, amazing work!)
I have a T520 and it's much, much more usable than this machine, it is perfectly fine using Linux for CZcams, web browsing, and retro games, especially since I have it upgraded to 12 gigs of RAM. I am definitely one of those people who swears by the old 7-row keyboard--for me it was love at first touch and I hope one day to be able to afford the anniversary model (a T480 with an old style keyboard), which still sells for outrageous prices.
I love how my t520 has a similar style to this while still being very useable. Id prefer if it had this much i/o, but it’s still an amazing computer!
With a custom bios you get faster Sata and a quad-core CPU, there is also ibm_ecw where you can under volt the CPU.
Even an X9000 OCed dual-core works quite nice with AntiX Linux, I paired it with 8gigs rams, sata2 ssd-speed, fx570m graphics and 15" IPS 1200p screen from T60p. Trackpoint is damn accurate and the trackpoint buttons, especially with new-like NMB keyboard.
I have the same laptop.
Use it with Windows x lite
Windows 10
(from fb conan)
Please make a video on the Thinkpad P1 gen 2 with OLED screen. Show the people what 550$ get you on the second hand market compared to your t14 and the other Thinkpad you teased. I know it's a bit expensive, but it's worth it. Who knows, it may become your new daily driver.
RJ11 = dial up modem...
but for why???
@@aChairLegIn case an end user doesn't have broadband
@@aChairLegbefore wifi you needed wires to connect to the internet, and that meant the landline telephone jack... Which is what an RJ11 is. It's for plugging a landline into...
Honestly I feel weird and old having to explain this to you.
@@aChairLeg because dial up internet exists as people didnt have broadband internet access
Probably the lack of practical uses or accessories.
Even the parallel port is more interesting.
RJ11 is just - eh.
Two words, skill issue. Gnome is pretty heavy on old igpu's and so is kde.
You would have had a better experience if you had installed freebsd with xfce.
Or any of the huge number of actual Linux distros that have Xfce desktops. Hell Archcraft running Openbox might have been a good experience...
I have a T400 (literally the next generation after this one), and I just installed Mint XFCE last weekend, it's a good fit
All thinkpads have hardware maintenance manuals that will tell you everything about how to take apart any particular thinkpad. Oh and I agree the full height trackpoint is definitely better than the little things that they include on thinkpads today. Also idk if it is true, but in my experience the full height trackpoint also got drift a lot less than the lower profile ones. Cool thinkpad though :)
Finally... My favorite Thinkpad thematic channel
The T420 is a great laptop for me. I think it just hits all the sweetspots with its classic keyboard and good enough upgradability
If you ran the laptop without the battery that would explain why it is extra slow, the CPU throttles itself when one isn't present. Also for Linux it's possible the GPU drivers weren't set up. I have an X41 which is miles slower than this and somehow handles Linux better lol
why would it throttle when theres no battery? source?
@@bruhmomento4197 because the charger alone cannot provide enough power to run the laptop at full speed, please google "do laptops throttle without battery"
Great video as always! I’m going to have to get me on of these ThinkPads 😂
Thank you! Get yourself a T480 to start out with, it's a really great little work laptop
love these videos, would be cool to see you test linux mint on some thinkpads in the future!
Keep up the amazing work! Also try older (Before 2010) Toshibas, they are reliable just like the thinkpads
I've also had great experiences with HP Elitebooks and Dell Latitudes (pre 2014)...even a better reliability track record than newer Lenovo ThinkPads.
I suspect that the drive wasn't formatted as GPT. It was probably MBR
That thing would run the hell out of bunsenlabs or something else suitably lightweight
What's the other chipset at 1:58 besides the CPU and GPU? Looks like another CPU with the arrow indicator in the corner!
This laptop with me before chipsets were integrated into the CPU, so this one has a dedicated chip set
@@Parza_Man But what is it, a separate integrated GPU?
@@FlyboyHelosim no it handles allocating different storage or ram to the CPU
Nice ironic vid. But you got it all wrong. Its not a Thinkpad. Its. TANKPAD.
I have the T61 4:3 model (Better IMO) with the advanced dock. The dock has Nvidia GT 730 card and it handles YT at 720p with no issue. Windows 11 Enterprise LTSC 2019. 8 GB RAM. Its my main PC. I have more powerful PCs but this is my favorite. Gets the job done even in 2024. My other favorite Thinkpad is the T440s with i5 4210U. Love how efficient it is. Can run for without the fan coming on.
I loved my x60s but it was old and kept getting hot. But damn was it a workhorse.
Thats the only issue I have with my Thinkpad X60 runs too hot even after a thermal repaste.
Have a T440P and it’s awesome ! I7, 32GB Ram, LED mat screen perfect !
I bought one of these in 2017 for my birthday and it was still extremely usable for stuff like minecraft 1.8 and roblox at the time
Nice vid mate
Man Zoomers getting all nostalgic about things that happened "back in their childhood" always makes me laugh, it feels like two weeks ago to me.
i love this channel even though i am a certified linux dork and cannot help but go NotLikeThis every time you mention how much better you prefer windows over linux on thinkpads lol. this was one of the first laptops i owned as a young adult and i have fond memories of running kde3 on gentoo on it and it being an absolute powerhouse. the keyboard was a highlight for me too. everyone was so mad when lenovo switched to the chicklet style keys and imo it was justified
while I don't have a T61 anymore (all of them either had the Nvidia GPU or the one Intel GMA model I did have had a bad board), I do have an X201 and I love it. Lovely little laptop, and it still feels pretty usable with Linux Mint even 14 years after release.
Overall, which one do you think is better between these both
Still have T60p, w500. Very similar. They were outstanding.
I put hours of Minecraft and TF2 into one of them things, it was quite fun imo, loved the hell out of it
I didn't know the thinkpad saga was still going on!
I didn't either until I ended up with this
@@aChairLeg Apparently h264ify makes CZcams less miserable on those old CPUs, so you might try that out in the future. Cool video, as usual!
I was just messing around with Linux Mint (Which is Ubuntu based) on a T400 (basically the same machine) and it was unusably slow like this in Linux, and I found it was keeping the CPU at only 800mhz. The only fix i could find was to go into BIOS and set the CPU SpeedStep settings to Max Performance. It was much more usable then, even CZcams videos were playable.
Install the Middleton's BIOS on it sata1 to sata2 and 8 GB ram
my bday is in an hour and i love my early gift from my fav youtuber
If you think that Cpu is slow try a T5750!!! Feels like it's gonna karoshi someday.
nah, gotta try a Celeron 540 if you want to suffer with one of the slowest CPU's for Socket P.
As soon as you put Win XP it will fly like a rocket. And you'll realize the problem is modern software, not 2006 CPUs.
I am actually still using a T60 with 3gb RAM, but indeed that much memory is barely enough anymore. Soon I will upgrade to my Frankenpad (basically it's a T61 motherboard in a T60 body, to keep the glorious 15 inch Flexview panel), and that will be much better with 8gb RAM. Oh and you absolutely need an SSD, these machines are basically unusable for modern tasks with a spinning disk.
damn i was really looking forward to seeing you run sh2 on there, i'm assuming it didn't work though lol
I force fed my t61 a T9900 then pinmodded and fsb modded it. Used it till earlier this yeah when it got water damaged from our roof leaking.
I had the t400, it looks extremely similar
Next time you try, make sure to install Arch.
With core2duo p8300 AND 5gb of ram i used this laptop for notes AND even a small amount of java proggraming
upgrade ram and replace the hdd with ssd and install windows 10 x64 again i have a laptop that has really close specs to your thinkpad and its running really smooth rn
I think I had one of those before I knew what a Thinkpad was
Nooo, you are doing things wrongly. I have an X61, same year and same T7500 with 4gb ram (8gb is possible) in 12 inch format, 1.4 kg weight. Its perfectly usable, plays 720/1080p yt videos no problem (with a bit of a tweak), opens up multiple tabs in Floorp, boots up in 35 secs even with that Sata I speed limit of 150mb/s. The difference being, I installed Linux Mint Xfce on it, something like Gnome is bloated too much, and Windows 10 with no tweaks as well. I managed to load Windows 11 lite on T61 I sold, it wasn't that bad.
The only issue I have with X61 is no media decoding, meaning if I want to watch something on an external screen, it has lines when a lot of movement happens, which I will solve by buying 20$ broadcom media decoding mpcie card. I just bought 2 X61s untested on ebay to get L7500 which has 17W TDP, so I can transfer its motherboard into X61, and get much better thermals.
For how expensive these are it really isn’t worth it. Just get a T430 and mod it with a classic keyboard.
*lying around
Id say use linux mint instead of ubuntu, just easier to deal with
Dude, try AntiX Linux. You don't even have to install it, the default is USB bootable.
Love your old ThinkPad videos ❤ Made me chuckle with the HDD swap 😂
I am willing to recycle this horrible computer for free u know
Terraria? That thing may take 6GB of RAM to run, and you only have half of what's needed 😅
it's really that old? Well that's depressing.
U wot m8
It was updating, thats why it is slow
I will buy it thanks
Got a T420 with Win 10/Linux and a T60 running XP with all of my old games, still runs a treat. There is still life in the old laptops even after all these years.
Yeah that's really more a Windows XP or a Windows 7 machine. I think Windows 10 is pushing it a little too far.
You searchin for another thinkpad xd?
I am getting rid of my L14 based on i5-10210U xd
73 processes and 100% percent CPU usage? try disabling windows defender and windows update. They are resource hogs.
i have t430 i7-3540m nvs5400m 16gb... i play Valorant 900p 100+ fps average and Gta V 900p 50+ fps average... i hope i can run Gta 6 on this beast... 😂😂
BTW - Classic X Series ALL THE WAY !
I loved my T61. Thinkpad life.
It probably would work well with Linux if you didn't go for the Win 10 of Linuxes lol
Got pinged without the link
you are pushing really hard
Nice video 👍
:)
没必要啊! T61 是隔了一代人的设计,
You really shouldnt use anything past win 7 with this thing. If it cant use DX12, HDR and other new features, whats the point?
Wrong. T43 was the best. /S
nah mate, the last good thinkpad was the 600X !!!
WHY UBUNTU?
The system works
@@aChairLeg damn i did not thought that u will respond but i just think that even something like lxqt will just work 3x times or better or fancier ArCh
First like ❤
First !!
the thinkpad is not that great it's just famous peace of ******