IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T60p: Retro Excellence from 2006
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
- The ThinkPad T60 series is well-loved due to the multiple configurations that the machine came in and the overall build quality. This fine example of a T60p, donated to the channel by Kemish is capable of running Windows 10 but not without a few issues.
David Hill Interview on Badging/Branding
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Project Kodachi
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Steve Hamm Interview
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Hardware Maintenance Manual
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eBay:
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If you are looking for the latest and greatest version of this laptop, I suggest heading over to Lenovo's website to see what they have been up to recently. As a member of the Lenovo Affiliate Program, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through this link.
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0:00 Introduction
2:37 Specifications
5:23 Ports and Features
7:50 Disassembly
11:44 Start-Up
12:13 Windows 10 Gaming
15:57 Conclusions 
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Btw this was the last gen where they still offered 15" 4:3 models with IPS screens and the OG thick metal plated keyboards with no rattle whatsoever.
My main XP gaming rig is also that: a T60p, 15" 4:3, originally with UXGA Flexi, but I downgraded it to an SXGA+ Flexi since driving that is much easier on the GPU.
Also I removed the GPU gap pad, slightly bent the cooler and used thermal paste instead, which resulted in much better GPU thermals. Also using TPFC, the fan is maxed when the machine is under load, but barely moves the fan when idle, which means the difference in temperatures between idle and load are minimal. I hope this'll help it living a long and happy life with me.
This one is in a fully IBM branded case, I used an early 15" T60 housing for making it so.
I never preferred the 16:10 models since they had no IPS option, and although the LG made high res tn panels were great, they were still tn, and way too high res to really game on them on native res with these GPUs and their limited memory bandwidths.
After these, the T61 started a years long series where Thinkpads ceased to offer IPS (except x tablet series) screens and 4:3 too, sadly. I had a widescreen T61p which died with the nvidia bug, after I switched to a W500 and that was perfection, aside from the lack of IPS.
But yeah, you generally don't want to use any T60 as a daily driver, unless your use case is like 3 tabs in a browser, since the chipset limits your memory options under 4GB.
They are glorious early 2000s gaming rigs though, just slap an XP recovery on, remove some of the bloat, ideally modify the GPU cooling and you're set.
I recommend using an IPS model but it's up to you. T60p GPU has ridiculously good OC potential btw, both the GPU and VRAM can take at least an additional 100MHz. The OC you can do in ATI Tray Tools, along with setting all the graphical gimmicks.
Oh and they still have PCMCIA so you can use a Sound Blaster Audigy 2ZS notebook version, which is basically a genuine Audigy 2 in a small form factor, giving you EAX support in your retro gaming. I can recommend it, with Daniel K's drivers.
Damn this came out long, sorry. I just really love this generation, I have a bunch of T60s, I even built multiple IPS Frankenpads in their cases.
Haha, no worries on the length, I love to hear these stories. These devices are indeed well loved.
Watching this on my T60p lol. I really do like this machine a lot. It’s “factory” spec out, C2D T7600, 4GB, 120GB SSD, 1680X1050 15.4 Screen, FireGL V5250.
For being how old these machines are they are still capable for a few things.
I bought this machine after I had lost my T60, I feel like this is a much better upgrade. Keyboard feels amazing to type on and the screen is very nice with the extra resolution real estate.
I really like all the content you make and I’m glad you made a video on the T60p!
Thanks for sharing your experience and I'm glad you enjoyed the video. 😁
Yes! I have a standard T60, with the X1400 GPU and a 1400x1050 IPS FlexView monitor, it powers my entertainment center with Windows XP :D
Been looking to get the X60 Tablet, too.
Awesome stuff!
Got a T60 with XP running all of my legacy games, love it to pieces.
Awesome! 😎
You do such a great job giving us some of the best retrospectives of amazing Lenovo Thinkpads. What alot of people don't know is that Lenovo didn't buy IBM's laptop line directly. IBM sold their Thinkpad division(and other user end laptops) to Motorola. And soon after Lenovo bought Motorola. A small nuance but that's how Lenovo ended up getting the IBM Thinkpad lineup.
Hmmm. I'd be interested to learn more about this nuance. Can you provide some places I could read up on this?
@@LaptopRetrospective I read it somewhere when I was researching the acquisition of IBM by Lenovo. The article was very credible and I'm sure if you look back at the Financials of Motorola, you will see their acquisition of IBM's consumer laptop division then them getting bought out by Lenovo.
I'll try and find it but if you happen to stumble across it again, can you please let me know? Initial searches state Motorola was brought by Lenovo in 2014.
@@LaptopRetrospective Of Course. I'll even go back and see if I can find that article. I would never want to push something that wasn't true. I'll keep you 📫.
Cheers! Best of luck in your search.
That 1200p 16;10 display with the traditional features and still (kinda) usable hardware, a rare but beatiful combination.
I kinda want to try Tiny 11 on it.
Nice machine and a quality review, as usual. That'd be great for a bit of light retro XP gaming!
Yes, XP would be ideal so long as you don't need to go online.
The screen is a joy to look at even on video.
😁
Love the X/T-60/61 models. I buy them as "garbage" (not working 100%) and half of it is working fine so I have this "puzzle" going on forever. Included some paint jobs to push the limits.
One of the nicer retro build, love the 60 series thinkpad.
Yes indeed!
Hello,
Another great machine, outstanding quality. I have amongst other T60, a similar model (15.4"). It's a T60 not p, with the 1680x1050 screen and the Radeon X1400. I bought it, it was like new, and it still is. I used it, at the beginning, with Windows 7 and after that, I installed Debian, I also tried OpenBSD and for the first time, Gentoo. It was a blast everytime. For the hinges, mine are stiff, they remember me my beloved 600. This laptop is very similar to the W500 and I always asked myself if the hinges were the same on the two machines. Not a part of them I needed to disassemble so far. On the W500, problems with the left hinge are rather common (and my model is rather wobbly (and the chassis is a little damaged). The 1680x1050 resolution is very comfortable (and 1920x1200 is absolutely fantastic) but the CCFL backlight, after all these years, makes the screens dark and we must wait several seconds when booting the laptop to be able to see the images correctly. What is absolutely fantastic also, on these machines : the rollcage. If I'm not mistaken, the T6x were the only machines to have this system and around the motherboard and also to protect the screen. The part that protected the screen disappeared with the T410 generation. Those laptops are very durable with that, and the keyboard has virtually no flex (but it's necessary to use all the screws to attach it to the chassis). The only bad thing about these machines are that they are limited to 3 GB of RAM. The T61 adressed that and could accept 8 GB (and better CPUs), but it often packed the infamous NVS140 (the professional version of the 8600M that suffered from conception problems). Today, it's difficult to find one which doesn't have this graphics card and when I searched for one to join my collection, I took a lot of time to find the model with all the specs I wanted. More recently, I purchased a 4:3 T60 supposedly dead but in working order, in good shape and with the SXGA+ resolution (which is very nice on 14" screen). I use it regularly to do some programming with QB64 and I put Windows 8.1 on it, with an old SSD I had lying around, and I even still have a big 9-cell battery that gives me more than 5 hours of juice (impressive given the age of it), it's a real pleasure to work with that !
Go on with the nice videos ! :)
W.
Thanks for sharing all your experiences! Yes, that max of 3GB of RAM is unfortunate.
Finally one of my favorites. I would love to convert the backlight to led but beyond that one of the better thinkpads of all time.
Lots of reasons to love it.
My business is running off a T61 to this very moment 😎
Cool, what business is that?
T60s are great solid machines. So easy to work on & restore. What I do with them is perform a system factory restore (disks available on Internet Archive) then install Linux (xfce desktop) and have a nice dual boot machine.. good old WinXP for older programs and games plus Linux for more modern tasks. These machines are still quite capable
Excellent process you've described.
I have a few of these sitting in parts at my folks home... going to try to restore them eventually just for fun
Keep us posted on your efforts.
Owned a T60p for several years, it makes a very good Windows XP gaming rig - I'm making very good use of the Ultrabay slim, with most of the games on a 500GB HDD in the SATA HDD adapter. If I need to boot into Linux to download a patch or something, or just for fun, I just swap for another adapter containing an SSD and boot from it.
One thing to note on the ATI models is the graphics chip tends to run very hot - I've tried to bend the heatsink down a little and replace the thermal pads with paste, and this has helped, but I also tweaked the fan profile with TPFanControl to make it both quieter at idle and spool up more when under load.
Yes I've read lots of fan tweaks and cooling setup customization online.
I still use a 15 inch T60 with the Flexview screen as my main computer. Honestly the biggest limitation for these machines is the 3 Gb max useable memory (there is no way to make the machine use the full 4 Gb installed).
I also have a T601 Frankenpad (T60 shell with T61 motherboard), and the Nvidia gpu in that machine plays much nicer with certain games and with the dg voodoo wrapper. I specifically remember Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed is really choppy on my T60 using dg voodoo, but buttery smooth on my Frankenpad. It's a really old game from 2000, so the Ati X1400 gpu in my T60 should easily be able to play it smooth, but it's some sort of driver issue that causes the slow framerate. Also Star Wars Racer simply doesn't work on my T60, and again it works perfectly on the Frankenpad. So I would say the Ati cards in these machines are hit and miss with compatibility when it comes to certain games. Still, the T60 is my all time favourite Thinkpad due to the 4:3 aspect ratio options, and amazing Flexview screens (the basic TN panel variants have absolutely horrific picture quality though).
I don't know if it was just me but during this time I felt that NVIDIA and others had a better driver solution than ATI did. I think I fought with every Radeon card I ever had.
I have a 14” t60p with the t7400 cpu, maxed out 3gb of ram, and the top spec screen and graphics(the firegl v5250) it’s a pretty nice machine.
Very cool!
Nice Video.
Thanks, glad.you enjoyed it.
Didn't even know that fingerprint readers and 1920x1200 screens were a thing back then!
Yep, we had touch screens before colour ones.
Unfortunately, the 3GB RAM limit is due to the Intel 945 chipset. You can upgrade the BIOS to enable some neat stuff, but the RAM limit can't be overcome.
I really want one of these. I'm a huge fan of my ThinkPad T43. I consider that the last true IBM ThinkPad, but many consider the T60 series to be the last true IBM ThinkPad.
The "Last True IBM ThinkPad" has been so contested and debated that I think most people can't really agree. It goes down to what criteria they use and how much information they actually have versus what they think is true. 😂
I actually got the T60 on accident. I intended to buy a T43, but hit the order button on the wrong listing. For what it's worth, it's a mistake I'd gladly make again. The nice thing about these T60s is that while they are by no means modern, they are still fast enough to generally get by on the modern web. These dual core processors help a lot.
Found a 15" T60 with ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 for cheap on one of the local flee markets.
Unfortunately it has several faults: fan error, very dim screen and only turns on from battery (with no charger plugged it)
Then I got a bargain on a R50p. It has a 1600x1200 IPS screen and looks gorgeous. I've been using that for XP era retro gaming :)
Nice, glad you found something. 👍
I remember waiting at the end of the T60's life for its successor (The T400). I prefer the aspect ratio of the T60, but otherwise I prefer the T400. It runs cooler and quieter (eventually I did order a T60 and was surprised at how loud it could get even under normal use), it was the first (from what I remember) to use an LED backlit screen, and has the same build quality as the T60. I still use my T400, and that is one nice keyboard and it is a silent machine.
Thanks for sharing. Always good to hear the older hardware is still getting used.
Which exact CPU was in this machine may I ask ? Thanks.
T2500. Thanks for asking. I did forget to mention it.
Mine is just a T60 but still a lovely machine.
Indeed!
I just found a 14 incher T60p with high-res panel and FireGL chip at a thrift shop for fifteen bucks. It's pretty rad, but it kept complaining about "FAN ERROR" and when I opened it up to check out why, I discovered the thermal rubber pad between the GPU and the heatsink had been torn out and replaced with a _penny_ coated in MX-4. wtf.
Wow, that's a new one.
I've had problems with that thermal pad in mine also. It's still in there, but it's not in the best shape.
Thankfully they are easily replaced.
@LaptopRetrospective Yea I probably should replace mine. The GPU is glitching out a bit, probably on its last legs (though it's still usable for the time being). The process of taking this computer apart is a pain though (already went through that once when I put my t7600 in it).
I want to get a t61 eventually for the full 4GB ram support (and SATA II), but those are a lot harder to find in the 4:3 screen format.
If the GPU is going then maybe not worth it.
Those are the ones used on the International space station. At least on the pic I saw.
Yes, there are a few different models up there. Some even older than this still I think.
@@LaptopRetrospective I run the t500 with SSD and CPU upgrade (6MB l2 cache) and 8GB RAM. Intel Turbo memory and modem removed. Also have a spare t400 and x61(busted LCD). Windows 7 from the WIX t400 resources page in 3 Factory ISO works great for these instead of Windows 10 imho. Thanks for all your helpful and informative videos!
Thanks for the kind words and sharing your journey with these machines John.
Gaming on that machine is beat with windows 7
Yep, agreed.
I managed to secured a T60p from the junk store. Has the higher resolution screen of 1400*1050.
Nice find Aaron! Any plans for it?
At the moment not yet. I even found a T60 with the same type of display too but the motherboard is dead. Might turn the spare screen into an external display for the T60p.
And as with any old ThinkPad models, the rubberised coating has melted and ended up too sticky as a daily driver laptop.
Wonder what happened to it to melt the coating. 🤔
@@LaptopRetrospective It is very humid in Malaysia. Anything with rubberised coating will melt or become sticky.
Gotcha.
Even for the time those touchpads are tiny.
Only so much real estate.
Just fired up my T60p. No reason.
No reason needed. 👍