I remember reading about that somewhere, I think on the ThinkPads.com forum or the r/thinkpad subreddit, but even the ThinkPad Wiki page for the W701 didn't have this confirmed (it did mention that quad-core W510's could support 32 GB) so I felt it was best not to possibly spread misinformation.
Just a note as a reaction that you have never seen an Arrandale with 4 DIMM slots, Dell Precision M6500 sold not only with Quad and Extreme core CPU’s (i7-740QM, i7-840QM, i7-940XM) which allowed a user to have 32 GB RAM, but also with Dual Core i5-560M, i5-580M, i7-640M with 8 GB RAM limitation (only two banks could be used - similarly as on newer dual core Precisions where quad core processors are required to use all four slots).
The first gen i7 consisted of i7 dual cores and i7 quad cores. The dual cores had two separate dies on the "CPU chip", the CPU and the integrated graphics + memory controller which is based on the Northbridge that Core 2 Duos were paired with, so those maxed at 8GB ram using two 4GB sticks. They may recognize 8GB sticks but crash if you try using them. This applies to all first gen dual cores, i7, i5, and i3. The first gen i7 quads on the other hand were entirely different beasts with new memory controllers that could use 8GB sticks so in your case you got it to use 16GB and the 4-slot machines can have 32GB.
The biggest problem with computing these days is browser optimization basically something that no longer exists. With 4GBs of RAM you can cause a hard lockup with just Facebook and RUclips open. This is beyond absurd. The only optimization that seems to be done at all anymore is for mobile devices whereas desktop web browsers are left to eat memory like you are rendering 8K video.
@@wolfeadventures I would try seeing if you can tweak the default encoder settings for youtube etc. I mean it could also be the overhead of the OS but I also have an X201 with a first generation i7 and it plays youtube at 720 smoothly with no issues but it is also running Fedora Linux. If you are on Windows there may be a few tweaks out there that will help on that platform too. Just replying to mention that there are ways to get decent performance on video playback even with 10 plus year old CPUs in the these machines.
I use Bodhi Linux, an I can run about 10 tabs smoothly with 3GB RAM and a Core 2 Duo T5670, with RUclips, Spotify, and websites for school like Google Docs and research. 720p RUclips, and 1080p with some dropped frames is doable at relatively cool temps, rarely above 65° C.
Sebi! You listened to my request! Thank you thank you thank you. I wanted you to do a review of the "W" series since the day I subscribed to your channel. You are the "Thinkpad" king.
5 лет назад+6
I have a w701 with i7 940xm, 20GB ddr3, fx2800m. It is still a beast in 2019. Especially the 16:10 rgb led display.
I managed to snag a ThinkPad W520 off eBay for £150. It was said to come with 4GB of RAM, i5-2520M, no HDD and a 1366x768 15.6" screen. It came with a quad-core i7-2760QM, 8GB of RAM (that I upgraded to 16GB), a 320GB HDD (took it out and only as a 250GB mSATA SSD), a Quadro 1000M 2GB DDR3 and a 1920x1080p screen. I'd say I got a heck of a deal. Considering it looked like it was in new condition, too. I still use it today when I'm away from my PC. It handles some games like Left 4 Dead 2 nicely on medium-high. I even overclocked the display to 95Hz and it is BEAUTIFUL. It also runs Ubuntu 18.04.2 now because I prefer the lightweightness of it.
I bought a W530 with a quad core i7-3840QM, K2000M, 24GB memory, 250GB Samsung 850 Evo mSATA SSD, 320Gb hdd, 1920x1080 screen wig color calibrator, and a 6 and 9 cell battery all for $300. The motherboard gave up, so I had to replace it with a K1000M model, but it works just fine now. So far for ~$475, it's a hell of a laptop. It needs a new battery soon though because the 9 cell is bad and the 6 cell just isn't large enough.
@@TheGrayWolf81 That's a pretty damn good deal. I had the same issue. The motherboard on mine died and had to import one from the US. I was going to go for a motherboard with the 2000M but they both perform very similarly anyway so the extra cost wouldn't of been worth it. For a laptop with a 1080p screen and has no issues with 1080p60 RUclips playback, as well as being able to play a few games, it's a pretty damn good laptop. Though, if I'm honest, I would wish I went with the W530 because Sandy Bridge runs very hot. I had to replace the 45w cooker for the 55w version and even the temps go into the high 80's to low 90's when doing fairly intensive tasks. However, that was with Windows. It's a completely different story on Linux. :/
This is the machine I am using right now. :-) I put inside 32GB of ram mSATA HDD Sata3 SSD and 1TB in ultrabay. I use ROG RAMDisk for intelij Idea and it still rocks :-)
I still use a W510 as my daily driver. I upated it to 16Gb of RAM and an SSD (and swapped the CD in the Ultrabay for another SSD for more storage), and it works like a charm. Office work and web browsing is seamless. The 1600x900 display is sharp, clear and readable, and, of course, it has the classic keyboard. Even though the GPU and 1st gen Core i7 are slow in absolute specs, I never feel like I need to wait for anythng. That said, I got a great deal on a Xeon P52, so I'll be switching to that soon. Even so, I'm keeping the W510--it's a beautiful classic and it still works great.
I am using a Thinkpad w500 w/ 4G RAM , 250GB SSD + 240GB SSD running Debian based Linux Mint (LMDE4). I am pleased with its performance. I bought it as a used machine for around $200 and it has been with me for around 3 years now. A year ago , I poured water on its keyboard to test its water draining function, and I made a mistake of pouring too much water in short period of time and before I realized my mistake, the display became garbled. So I immediately shut it down. Took it apart to air dry the components inside and after one day, it booted up as if nothing happened :). It has a very sturdy build and I use it now to test the compressor control system of our installations, by way of VNC access to the compressor's Linux Based controller. I work in a very dust environment (construction site) so I know an ordinary laptop won't last here, but I have confidence in my thinkpad to do the job since I can easily take it apart and clean it regularly. Lastly, it's 9-cell battery is still OK, but I just plug it in most of the time anyway.
Someone really needs to do something about web development. Browser optimization is an oxymoron these days. I have an x201T that had 4GBs of ram originally and for the first time in many many years even under LMDE I had a hard lockup of my computer just from having a few browser tabs open and trying to do one extra task. It is a bit ludicrous when Firefox can double as a memory stress test.
I still use my Thinkpad X200, even though I really hoped to get X220 but people selling those jacked up the prices at the time. But, even having lower end model, it's not that bad.
I just bought a Thinkpad W530 with 32gb of ram and a 480gb ssd for $180. The quad core cpu and quadro graphics makes this my most powerful laptop and I love it. I'm waiting for my dock to arrive so I can attach it to my ultra wide monitor easily.
This is a great machine. However, keep it away from extreme heat or cold. The voltage regulators on these are extremely sensitive to extreme conditions. I have a W530 that just died on me and cant find a decently priced motherboard with a Quadro 2000m so its just a VERY heavy paperweight until i can replace it
This beast can beat latest laptop when it comes to longevity of usage, durability and upgradable. Most of the laptop nowadays can't deal with overuse because of daily usage, all of the cpu, ram, gpu, and even the storage drive are soldered to motherboard and when the laptop is malfunction or died after years of use due to loose connection of solder joints b/w the chip and the board because of heat issues. What's worst is the battery becomes built-in and hard to replace if worn-out that you have to pry open completely the laptop and deal with sticky adhesive that stuck between the battery and the base. I still use my Thinkpad W520 and it never fails me for 6 years of use, when I play games I replace the still-living-and-charging battery with a dead battery or remove the battery to save battery life since battery shorts out its battery life if prolong to heat exposure, especially when the laptop is running at high performance for long period of time. When I go to work, I bring my laptop with extra new battery (also adapter if in case of presence of free power outlet). I upgrade the screen, cpu, ram, and ssd with most of the top end specs that my laptop can handle.
I own one of these I got in 2013. I'm running Fedora/Debian/Slackware on it and it runs great, especially now that I've upgraded the memory to the 8GB max. The fingerprint scanner works out of the box in Fedora, and two finger scroll as well as trackpoint scroll works in most distros I've tried by default, and with a slight config change to X, will work in any distro.
Thinkpad's hardware is always supported by every operating system, even Linux and OSX, no need to worry when you upgrade the system! I have an X201 running Windows 10
Okay so this video just taught me that holding the middle click button enables scrolling through the TrackPoint. I feel stupid for not figuring this out earlier.
14:00 that cancerous limitation can be fixed by installing a custom bios that has the whitelist removed i did that on my T420s so i can use a GOBI 6000 LTE WWAN card instead of the Lenovo mandated GOBI 3000 HSPA WWAN card
You madlad, I was not prepared for you to go "CAN IT RUN CRYSIS" lmao. Been following the channel for a while, and now I'm this close to finally springing for a Thinkpad of my own. It will be glorious.
Glad to see I may have helped influence your decision! I may be getting a bunch of ThinkPads in the near future from someone who's downsizing, so depending on what model you're looking for I may be able to hook you up with one!
@@SebisRandomTech Wow, thanks for the offer, but I'll have to pass since I'm not from the US. I've been eyeing the X230, and I found a cheap offer with a malfunctioning keyboard, so I decided I'd save some money by buying a spare keyboard assembly and just planting that in instead. Then I got to wondering about putting a classic keyboard instead, but I was wondering if the X220 palmrest was essential for that since I'm not sure where to find just that part alone here.
@@Juuhazan_ It's not essential, but you'll have to trim the nubs on the classic keyboard for it to fit into the X230 palmrest. For me it was just easier to buy an X220 palmrest since it was then a drop-in replacement.
@@SebisRandomTech I see. I'll try to find a palm rest if I can, but good to know it's not mandatory. I'll let you know when I do take the plunge. Thanks so much for the help, as well as all the content on your channel!
I had the T400, T500 and W500 and both machines are well made. I gave the T400 to my mom, W500 to my dad and the T500 to my girlfriend. She just replaced the T500 with a Dell latitude, but the machine still works quite well. The T500 and W500 could both run Borderlands 2 with no issues.
Just found your channel..love the content..love your video recording style...love Lenovo Thinkpad content...and I love my T430....keep up the good work..
I've personally got a W701 as kind of a side project machine. That thing is definitely heavy. Got it from our classified group where it had taken some fall damage from the prior owner. Chipped a corner. However, that machine despite the drop still works like a champ. Battery is toast, maybe get 20 min power. However, considering how big the machine is and the fact that I have absolutely nothing to carry it in, it doesn't move from my desk. Not that I would take it with me anyway. I've got a W530 and W550s to fill that purpose. Overall, my impressions with that laptop are good. Monitor runs at 1920x1200, however appears overly saturated. I've still yet to be able to tweak it down to something more normal. It's an old panel, so maybe newer panels/IPS displays have ruined me from that standpoint. No complaints though, its performs pretty solidly, even by today's standards.
I used a T61 with an Quadro for 2 years, daily as my work laptop on Windows XP, and It felt as snappy to use as my laptop with an i5 and an SSD, those machines work great and they are bulletproof, and the one I used the battery was capable of 2 hours without a problem, and it was the original battery.
It's a nice machine and it works well, unfortunately not practical because of its size and more notably its rarity. I only have mine because I scored it for a VERY good deal.
Still using a W500 for my mobile recording rig. Great machine. The screen resolution is crazy. Running an SSD for the OS and mechanical for storage. These things were built for serious work. You should look at them like a portable desktop rather than a true laptop.
@@SebisRandomTech yeah I think the only difference is the T has the lower res screen and a different graphics chip. Having two drive bays is really great. Also... firewire!
@@joeMW284 Correct, the T-series have Mobility Radeon or even Intel GMA (which sucks but works better with Windows 10 surprisingly. The W-series had the nicer FireGL chips and the higher-res screen, however that screen can easily be transplanted into a T500, since they are the same chassis. Any T500-T540p can be turned into the W equivalent from that generation (T500 -> W500, T530 -> W530, etc) by swapping the motherboard and cooling assembly from a W-series.
@@joeMW284 Firewire is still very nice to have, I convert a lot of old tapes to DVD and hooking up MiniDV camcorders to the computer to use as a capture card is very convenient.
With a Linux mint, mine works fine too. It took soo many beating in the workshop, it fell down a few times, we used it for doing measurements outdoors at winter, still works fine as my backup.
I am now with this model but with Full HD screen.I upgrade with Intel QX9300,2x4 gb ddr3 10600s,tried with 2 x 8 but not supported.I upgrade the video card with the Nvidia FX3700.work without problem.I install two SSD Samsung EVO pro 1tb in mirror mode it is extremely fast,i changed the dvd recorder with Blueray recorder.from USA i bough the original 230 W adapter and the only one docking station for this model.my laptop doesn't have a camera ,i use a4tech full hd external camera and work perfectly.also i install double usb 3.0 pci card adn finally deep cleaning of the coolers and put back with Arctic paste MX4.on gaming video card rare reach 55 degrees but cpu goes up to 85 but no problem.I am satisfied from this Laptop.it is a monster which is still capable.
Ooo yes!! W701 is much big monster!! But they are rare and in good condition are not cheap.W701 support yes 32 gb of ram and I7 940xm .for future i will search for this model!!
I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T520 and love it. I have it maxed out in upgrades and the best part the laptop is just like brand new even the battery it came with Spec's Intel i7-2670QM 2.20GHz Quad core 16GB DDR3L 1600MHz Samsung EVO 860 1TB SSD ORICO Troodon M200 1TB mSATA SSD Windows 10 Pro Creative Sound Blaster G3 Portable External USB DAC Two batteries(OEM 6 cell and new 9 cell) ASUS USB-BT400 USB Bluetooth Dongle Cooler Master cooling pad HP USB powered speakers Lenovo ThinkPad laptop bag
@@adamgrant1787 I'm on a W520 and thinking of upgrading to W530 only because of it's Kepler based Quadros on those as they still have proper driver support on Linux that should allow easy Optimus configuring instead of stuck using 390 legacy drivers like my current W520 with Quadro 1000M
It is interesting how almost any 17" professional laptops of this era dissapeared from the used market. 3-4 years ago you could easily get them, now I see no w701 (not to talk about w700), HP 8740w, etc. Btw, which 17" laptops (pro or not) do have 1920x1200 displays? (16:10 format)
well. My X220 i7 and X230 i5 Thinkpads still goin' strong. With SSD and RAM upgrades. First one uses as car diag' PC, later as portable workstation for "office" workload...
Your not experiencing the W700 without the 1200p UltraBright display. Its an incredible panel like no other. It isn't IPS, but it could probably fool you if I didn't tell you. Two giant CCFL bulbs instead of the normal single bulb and 400nits of light. It's a ludicrous display...would recommend upgrading it.
you know, the worst part, these mac fanboys will DEFEND Apple! I always told them, if you don't like PC laptops running Windows and worry about virus, wipe the Windows and run Linux. Much safer if you are a novice. On other hand, Apple's hardware have so many problems, staining screen, keyboard that will stop working if a spec of dirt get underneath, and worst of them, the machine self destruct without any interaction from the user (graphics processor). And Apple denied all these problems. When users push back, the solution they gave was not permanent, a lot of folks got Apple to replace the defective part for 3-5 times and the problem comes back. These problems are not endemic to other manufacturers. If a PC manufacturers did any of these, they will be out of business in 3 years. Only Apple can do these and get away with it.
@@slam5 Don't forget the ribbon cable on the screen breaking after normal use in the 2016 and later MacBook "Pros"! As for the GPU defect, those are in some cases the fault of the GPU manufacturer *cough cough NVidia* , and for example the GPU defect that bricked many 2007/2008 MacBook Pros also affected the T61, as well as many Dell and HP laptops due to NVidia cheaping out on the bonding agents used in their mobile GPU's. But Apple's handling of the situation usually doesn't help matters.
I sort of really laugh when the Apple fanboys say no laptop can last 10+ years. They REALLY should see this and open up their eyes. Apple creates NEW problem for every gen of Mac notebooks for the last decade. I have even seen a friend that is using a T61P for windows 10 with no problem.
Yup, and I get irritated when people say "well ThinkPads are ugly MacBooks are shiny and look good blah blah blah" and "if I'm getting work done I at least want the laptop I'm using to look good"...yeah. I'd rather have a working laptop that performs well and lasts but hey, if you want to spend $2,000+ on a shiny aluminium slab that breaks if you look at it funny, that's fine by me.
No kidding. Writing this on an elitebook 8560p w/i7-2760qm. Even has an expresscard slot for a eGPU. Took out the dvd so it now has a ssd + hdd. Initially got it as hackintosh laptop tester, but just started using it normally. Certainly as more ports then a apple laptop, plus a proper dock. Been siting on some capable desktops: i7-3770k & i7-4790k DIY builds. No rush to update as the AMD/intel wars are finally pushing honest progress. It is funny apple fans want to exclusively compare their laptops to sub $400 machines, as if that's an honest comparison. But you mention hackintoshes (esp desktops) tearing the throttled apple products up and they completely lose it. Then you have to correct them that buying snow leopard, Lion, & Mountain Lion disks (still available on apple's site for this purpose on their equipment) turns a hackintosh into a civil matter, not a criminal one. A recent thread where I just simply said: "Heat buidup is a fact. Apple products don't have some magical ability to make it disappear into another universe, so either it has to be lessened (by throttling) or big fans and metal heatsinks are needed. Thus big & heavy non-apple products." Guy lost it before he got dogpiled and deleted the thread. Sorry for the rant. Just realized I was using this as a cathartic release. 😂😂😂 Anyway, very cool to show old doesn't mean unusable.
I don't know, I still like my I think it's a 2005 MacBook, dual core, unibody. It's alright. I mean, Id much rather other things, and haven't bought any other macs, nor has it booted up in a few years, but it's okay, definitely a decent machine for what it is.
Well, I still use my 2005 T60 as daily driver: it has all I love in a laptop. 4:3 screen, nice keyboard with same layout as a desktop PC, Thinklight and dedicated volume/function keys. I play Quake, Doom, Duke Nukem 3d... and I am watching RUclips videos right now, so what else can I ask for?
The T60 was released in January 2006. But I have a few of them myself and love them. I'm planning on putting a T61 board into the T60 chassis and getting a FlexView screen so I can have the best of both.
Oh, I though the plasic beasel was dated 2005. Maybe they recicled those from the T41? I lied a bit and I too have a board from a T61p so that is newer. I did it so I could have 8GB of RAM and a fastest CPU. I recommend to do it, but I wouldn't go for the Nvidia board because they eventually all die. I think the highest CPU you can fit is an X9100, but at the time I built the machine those where still expensive so I went for the t9500, which was very cheap. The most responsive OS for this machine is freeBSD, even more than Linux, but if you go that route remember to update the BIOS before removing windows and use one that whitelists all the good stuff!@@SebisRandomTech
for the middle click button, you just have to edit some registry and it will work like a charm. In my case, with windows 10 I just searched for 'trackpointmode" in regedit......that ended up being here
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1557542073-2641846280-496700362-1003\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTPEnh\UltraNavPS2 Then... Change "TrackPointMode" to dword:00002214 from the previous value of 00001214 I also had to change
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2158515036-987303324-3988316896-1001\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\StickSMBTM2182 MiddleButtonAction from 0 -> 4 ive done it to all my thinkpads with W10 pro in it, and all of them works like a charm.
Thanks for the info! I'll have to give this a try on some of my older ThinkPads running Windows 10. Does the scrolling work correctly in Metro/Modern apps? My issue was that scrolling worked fine in classic shell applications such as Windows File Explorer or Chrome, but not in applications that use the Modern UI such as Edge or the Start Menu.
I actually have a mobile workstation that I like to use for my office tasks and some gaming thats like this but is from Dell. A Dell Precision m6400 laptop which mine has an Intel Core 2 extreme QX9300 quad core cpu with 12 gb ddr3 ram and an Intel 480 gb SSD and an ATI firepro m7740 1 gb graphics card, an 1920 x 1200 screen and Windows 7 pro. Its performance is still excellent even today and just like this one, I think is also from late 2008 to early 2009.
That's around when the QX9300 was being produced, so 2008/2009 sounds about right. I've heard the Precisions had better displays than the W700, even the 1920x1200 screen.
This computer is a bit better than the t61p from what I can tell and I used the t61p with Blender all the time. As such It'll likely be a perfectly fine experience, just don't expect it to render any Cycles animations with anything more than a few hundred samples within your lifetime. Also those older GPUs don't support newer versions of OpenGL so you wont be able to use Blender 2.8 when that officially drops, at least not without it being sluggish and glitchy.
The usual upgrade for old Pads is an SSD since spinner drives of the era were awfully slow. Now that SATA SSDs are cheap it could make a useful upgrade for many users.
Nice review... I used this for work in 2009 and it was the best at the time. Now I'm trying to find an adapter that would bring this back to life... None of the tips work and I''l probably have to buy the original adapter...
Hello, this is being written on an early Y2K Lenovo ThinkPad SL410, which is far from Workstation status. I bought it in 2006 or so at Best Buy because I'd never owned a ThnikPad. This was the only Lenovo unit available and unfashionable, running Windows 7 Pro. A contemporary Core2 Duo Apple MacBook Pro has dead keys and a nearly dead right speaker/subwoofer. (Can't type the log in password.) I'm thinking of an eBay i7 T530-T550 ThinkPad so I can curse at Windows 10 and stream CBS' "Twilight Zone."
I'm pretty sure early 2000s games would still run pretty well on this thing, with the occasional Dualcore / Dual CPU bugs that makes games running too fast. But i'm surprised the tested games even ran on a CAD optimized GPU. I love that it has 2 dedicated Fans. This should have ALWAYS been standard for laptops with extra GPUs. I wonder how much of the hardware is still supported in the current Linux Kernel?
ThinkPads are some of the best laptops out there when it comes to Linux support, so I wouldn't be surprised if the W700 works perfectly fine (or almost perfectly) with a modern flavor of Linux. Only one way to find out!
I own and use a W701 and mostly all of the stuff is same. On Windows10 1080p@60FPS does have some framedrops but when I use any Linux distro it doesn't (Manjaro and Ubuntu). W701 had no issues with the fingerprint scanner. The issues with dx11 still persists with my W7101 as this is a GPU limitation but again, that can be fixed by using an external GPU card with the express card slot.
Seems that the W701 has a lot of performance boosts over the W700. Of course, even going one generation beyond that to something like the W520 offers better performance than the W701, but there is no denying how solid the W701 is.
My Thinkpad of choice is the W520 with an i7 2860qm and a Quadro 2000M. It's still a very powerful machine, but the graphics setup is a bit of a pain. Sometimes games just refuse to switch to the Quadro unless I force them by using an external display.
Just be mindful that if the mxm card dies and you go for a replacement there is a bios level whitelist that no one has been able to defeat so getting a replacement or an upgrade might be tricky.
The model number changes occurred after the T61 Nvidia GPU disaster, another interesting bit of Pad info. Most Nvidia T-series have passed on but they make good organ (and WUXGA screen) donors.
If i won the lottery I'd manufacture motherboards that fit in classic thinkpad chassis (and have the right connectors for keyboard, LVDS, etc.) that accept 8th gen intel or AMD mobile processors and DDR4. Would you buy that?
@@SebisRandomTech I just want Lenovo to realize that the direction they are taking ThinkPads will kill the brand. Lenovo needs to take a step back and think "why do people love old thinkpads so much?"
Sounds crazy but I'm also using a 10 years old machine (macbook pro unibody from 2010) after some upgrades it's still rocking and outperforming some cheap ass laptops from few years ago
I still buy and re-sell to my customers almost every version from every "pc age" thinkpads, they're just...UNSTOPPABLE. With a cheap 120gigs SSDa and 4 or 8 gigs of ram they're perfect for working and streaming, even for a not-so-light gaming, i love these machines and is basically the only kind of laptops i suggest to buy as refurbished.
ThinkPads are my go-to recommendation for almost anybody, and when I resell laptops it's typically ThinkPads. W700 just isn't practical because of how rare and expensive it is.
@@renwalda I tested a t420 for LOL and DOTA ("not so light" in CPU intensive games, not GPU intensive because of course, we are dealing with an IGPU almost always) and the result was really enjoyable, i think that with more testing we can discover that even without a proper dedicated GPU these machine can give us nice surprises!
i still use my 2007 thinkpad for recording my music onto and for everything post production. still works like a charm and sounds 1000000000000 times better than it would do if recorded onto my shitty new appleflap
I still use such 120W beast (which i think it really uses 150W), a Clevo M571TU, with 1 gb vram, gtx 280m, and a Q9000 core 2 quad... It really puts to shame even many $1000-and-above "gaming laptops" due to their low resolution, and bad performance... The only thing keeping this old thing from playing games newer than Gta V and Fortnite, is the directx 10 limitation of the video card...
im still using MSI EX-600 as my laptop (mostly bcos i got it for free) and it does pretty much anything i need (that said im running linux soo im not sure about the windows experience)
I love these old mobile workstations but I'm a Dell fan so have a Dell Precision M6800. It's always interesting to see what specs and features IBM/Lenovo put on theirs.
@@quirble Yes they are absolute beasts! For me they represent the perfect balance of old and new, with their chunky old style and legacy ports coupled with advanced features and ability to house multiple storage devices. I love mine!
Just have to keep your eyes peeled on eBay. I would suggest looking up the part numbers for the adapter as opposed to something like "ThinkPad W700 power adapter".
you could head over to notebookreview to learn more about MXM slots and cards, also mydigital life forums too both forums sometimes have modded bios with whitelists removed.
A few of them I keep and/or use, most of them I refurbish and either give them or sell them to relatives and friends. If nobody in my family/friend circle wants them I list them for sale locally and then online. I do a lot of trades with others in the ThinkPad community as well.
Thanks for this video. VERY informative and well-presented. Man, I'm kinda interested in getting one of these just for the novelty factor! For a long time I've been using a T61p with 15 inch screen and loving it, but it suddenly went dead. So I've got a W500 on the way to replace it. A W700 would be a cool replacement, but TOTAL overkill for using Win XP 32bit and Finale music writing software.....
@Brandon Kick I know a good number people, some from my high school and some from my parent's days, who went to Pitt Johnstown. A large portion of my family is from the Johnstown area as a matter of fact.
The fingerprint reader works without any additional driver needed on my W701 with a clean install of Win 10 1903, the windows hello sign-in feature works great. Didn't try any other uses though.
I think the Core i-series architecture is better supported by Windows 10, as I always have an easier time getting the drivers working with anything from that generation or newer, as opposed to older systems like the W700 that use the older C2D architecture.
It's not officially supported since 8GB sticks didn't exist at the time,b ut W701 with quad core CPUs can even take 32GB of RAM
I remember reading about that somewhere, I think on the ThinkPads.com forum or the r/thinkpad subreddit, but even the ThinkPad Wiki page for the W701 didn't have this confirmed (it did mention that quad-core W510's could support 32 GB) so I felt it was best not to possibly spread misinformation.
@@SebisRandomTech I can confirm that my w510 is running 16gb RAM (4x4gb 1066MHz) on a quad core i7.
Wow! Would that upgrade be possible on a W500 or W700? And do you game on it?
Just a note as a reaction that you have never seen an Arrandale with 4 DIMM slots, Dell Precision M6500 sold not only with Quad and Extreme core CPU’s (i7-740QM, i7-840QM, i7-940XM) which allowed a user to have 32 GB RAM, but also with Dual Core i5-560M, i5-580M, i7-640M with 8 GB RAM limitation (only two banks could be used - similarly as on newer dual core Precisions where quad core processors are required to use all four slots).
The first gen i7 consisted of i7 dual cores and i7 quad cores. The dual cores had two separate dies on the "CPU chip", the CPU and the integrated graphics + memory controller which is based on the Northbridge that Core 2 Duos were paired with, so those maxed at 8GB ram using two 4GB sticks. They may recognize 8GB sticks but crash if you try using them. This applies to all first gen dual cores, i7, i5, and i3.
The first gen i7 quads on the other hand were entirely different beasts with new memory controllers that could use 8GB sticks so in your case you got it to use 16GB and the 4-slot machines can have 32GB.
The biggest problem with computing these days is browser optimization basically something that no longer exists. With 4GBs of RAM you can cause a hard lockup with just Facebook and RUclips open. This is beyond absurd. The only optimization that seems to be done at all anymore is for mobile devices whereas desktop web browsers are left to eat memory like you are rendering 8K video.
100%. Even watching lower resolution -720p-videos on RUclips just kills older CPU’s in the T420 laptops.
@@wolfeadventures I would try seeing if you can tweak the default encoder settings for youtube etc. I mean it could also be the overhead of the OS but I also have an X201 with a first generation i7 and it plays youtube at 720 smoothly with no issues but it is also running Fedora Linux. If you are on Windows there may be a few tweaks out there that will help on that platform too. Just replying to mention that there are ways to get decent performance on video playback even with 10 plus year old CPUs in the these machines.
Animated ads on common websites is what started to do in my c2d PC
I think it was around 2011 here when that happened
I use Bodhi Linux, an I can run about 10 tabs smoothly with 3GB RAM and a Core 2 Duo T5670, with RUclips, Spotify, and websites for school like Google Docs and research. 720p RUclips, and 1080p with some dropped frames is doable at relatively cool temps, rarely above 65° C.
Sebi! You listened to my request! Thank you thank you thank you. I wanted you to do a review of the "W" series since the day I subscribed to your channel. You are the "Thinkpad" king.
I have a w701 with i7 940xm, 20GB ddr3, fx2800m. It is still a beast in 2019. Especially the 16:10 rgb led display.
I'd love to get my hands on a W701 with the 1920x1200 screen. Someday...
Watching this on my P72, so fascinating to see this well done documentary on his ancestor !
If practicality not an issue the W700/701 can be used as a self defense weapon pretty nicely. :P
HEHE. Yeah but it will be the best looking damn weapon you ever hit anyone with!!!
I managed to snag a ThinkPad W520 off eBay for £150. It was said to come with 4GB of RAM, i5-2520M, no HDD and a 1366x768 15.6" screen. It came with a quad-core i7-2760QM, 8GB of RAM (that I upgraded to 16GB), a 320GB HDD (took it out and only as a 250GB mSATA SSD), a Quadro 1000M 2GB DDR3 and a 1920x1080p screen. I'd say I got a heck of a deal. Considering it looked like it was in new condition, too.
I still use it today when I'm away from my PC. It handles some games like Left 4 Dead 2 nicely on medium-high. I even overclocked the display to 95Hz and it is BEAUTIFUL. It also runs Ubuntu 18.04.2 now because I prefer the lightweightness of it.
I bought a W530 with a quad core i7-3840QM, K2000M, 24GB memory, 250GB Samsung 850 Evo mSATA SSD, 320Gb hdd, 1920x1080 screen wig color calibrator, and a 6 and 9 cell battery all for $300. The motherboard gave up, so I had to replace it with a K1000M model, but it works just fine now. So far for ~$475, it's a hell of a laptop. It needs a new battery soon though because the 9 cell is bad and the 6 cell just isn't large enough.
@@TheGrayWolf81 That's a pretty damn good deal. I had the same issue. The motherboard on mine died and had to import one from the US. I was going to go for a motherboard with the 2000M but they both perform very similarly anyway so the extra cost wouldn't of been worth it.
For a laptop with a 1080p screen and has no issues with 1080p60 RUclips playback, as well as being able to play a few games, it's a pretty damn good laptop.
Though, if I'm honest, I would wish I went with the W530 because Sandy Bridge runs very hot. I had to replace the 45w cooker for the 55w version and even the temps go into the high 80's to low 90's when doing fairly intensive tasks. However, that was with Windows. It's a completely different story on Linux. :/
This is the machine I am using right now. :-) I put inside 32GB of ram mSATA HDD Sata3 SSD and 1TB in ultrabay. I use ROG RAMDisk for intelij Idea and it still rocks :-)
I still use a W510 as my daily driver. I upated it to 16Gb of RAM and an SSD (and swapped the CD in the Ultrabay for another SSD for more storage), and it works like a charm. Office work and web browsing is seamless. The 1600x900 display is sharp, clear and readable, and, of course, it has the classic keyboard. Even though the GPU and 1st gen Core i7 are slow in absolute specs, I never feel like I need to wait for anythng.
That said, I got a great deal on a Xeon P52, so I'll be switching to that soon. Even so, I'm keeping the W510--it's a beautiful classic and it still works great.
If you drop that W700, I'd feel sorry for the floor. What a tank.
Never get tired of that saying. I miss the days when Laptops were built like Tanks!
Your videos are so serene and explanatory. Dell, Lenovo and Apple should pay you to review for every laptop they make.
Who else assumed that "11-year-old" meant that it would be from the late 90's? Damn, I must be getting old. :D
your username looks like someone in a late 90's aol chatroom would have
You're not alone :)
Still use a Thinkpad t420 to this day can't beat that keyboard
I have an X230 and a T530 using classic keyboards!
You can be the son of many of the guys who watch your videos. Good job teen. Keep it up.
I am using a Thinkpad w500 w/ 4G RAM , 250GB SSD + 240GB SSD running Debian based Linux Mint (LMDE4). I am pleased with its performance. I bought it as a used machine for around $200 and it has been with me for around 3 years now. A year ago , I poured water on its keyboard to test its water draining function, and I made a mistake of pouring too much water in short period of time and before I realized my mistake, the display became garbled. So I immediately shut it down. Took it apart to air dry the components inside and after one day, it booted up as if nothing happened :). It has a very sturdy build and I use it now to test the compressor control system of our installations, by way of VNC access to the compressor's Linux Based controller. I work in a very dust environment (construction site) so I know an ordinary laptop won't last here, but I have confidence in my thinkpad
to do the job since I can easily take it apart and clean it regularly. Lastly, it's 9-cell battery is still OK, but I just plug it in most of the time anyway.
Someone really needs to do something about web development. Browser optimization is an oxymoron these days. I have an x201T that had 4GBs of ram originally and for the first time in many many years even under LMDE I had a hard lockup of my computer just from having a few browser tabs open and trying to do one extra task. It is a bit ludicrous when Firefox can double as a memory stress test.
I still use my Thinkpad X200, even though I really hoped to get X220 but people selling those jacked up the prices at the time.
But, even having lower end model, it's not that bad.
I just bought a Thinkpad W530 with 32gb of ram and a 480gb ssd for $180. The quad core cpu and quadro graphics makes this my most powerful laptop and I love it. I'm waiting for my dock to arrive so I can attach it to my ultra wide monitor easily.
This is a great machine. However, keep it away from extreme heat or cold. The voltage regulators on these are extremely sensitive to extreme conditions. I have a W530 that just died on me and cant find a decently priced motherboard with a Quadro 2000m so its just a VERY heavy paperweight until i can replace it
This beast can beat latest laptop when it comes to longevity of usage, durability and upgradable. Most of the laptop nowadays can't deal with overuse because of daily usage, all of the cpu, ram, gpu, and even the storage drive are soldered to motherboard and when the laptop is malfunction or died after years of use due to loose connection of solder joints b/w the chip and the board because of heat issues. What's worst is the battery becomes built-in and hard to replace if worn-out that you have to pry open completely the laptop and deal with sticky adhesive that stuck between the battery and the base. I still use my Thinkpad W520 and it never fails me for 6 years of use, when I play games I replace the still-living-and-charging battery with a dead battery or remove the battery to save battery life since battery shorts out its battery life if prolong to heat exposure, especially when the laptop is running at high performance for long period of time. When I go to work, I bring my laptop with extra new battery (also adapter if in case of presence of free power outlet). I upgrade the screen, cpu, ram, and ssd with most of the top end specs that my laptop can handle.
I own one of these I got in 2013. I'm running Fedora/Debian/Slackware on it and it runs great, especially now that I've upgraded the memory to the 8GB max. The fingerprint scanner works out of the box in Fedora, and two finger scroll as well as trackpoint scroll works in most distros I've tried by default, and with a slight config change to X, will work in any distro.
Thinkpad's hardware is always supported by every operating system, even Linux and OSX, no need to worry when you upgrade the system! I have an X201 running Windows 10
I have an X201 with Windows 10 and it runs just fine, but the older Core 2 Duo systems you often need to do some driver hunting with Windows 10.
Such quality content.
And more on the way! Just waiting for parts to come in! :)
Okay so this video just taught me that holding the middle click button enables scrolling through the TrackPoint.
I feel stupid for not figuring this out earlier.
Clicking it also opens links in new background tabs
@@archygrey9093 If it's set to middle click in Windows, yeah.
In Linux I have this as default all the time.
@@TDGalea every single Linux distro I've tried already has it set like that by default, i didn't think it was even an option to change it.
@@archygrey9093 Definitely an option but yes, it's always been default for myself as well.
14:00 that cancerous limitation can be fixed by installing a custom bios that has the whitelist removed
i did that on my T420s so i can use a GOBI 6000 LTE WWAN card instead of the Lenovo mandated GOBI 3000 HSPA WWAN card
ooh, back with another video
You madlad, I was not prepared for you to go "CAN IT RUN CRYSIS" lmao. Been following the channel for a while, and now I'm this close to finally springing for a Thinkpad of my own. It will be glorious.
Glad to see I may have helped influence your decision! I may be getting a bunch of ThinkPads in the near future from someone who's downsizing, so depending on what model you're looking for I may be able to hook you up with one!
@@SebisRandomTech Wow, thanks for the offer, but I'll have to pass since I'm not from the US.
I've been eyeing the X230, and I found a cheap offer with a malfunctioning keyboard, so I decided I'd save some money by buying a spare keyboard assembly and just planting that in instead. Then I got to wondering about putting a classic keyboard instead, but I was wondering if the X220 palmrest was essential for that since I'm not sure where to find just that part alone here.
@@Juuhazan_ It's not essential, but you'll have to trim the nubs on the classic keyboard for it to fit into the X230 palmrest. For me it was just easier to buy an X220 palmrest since it was then a drop-in replacement.
@@SebisRandomTech I see. I'll try to find a palm rest if I can, but good to know it's not mandatory. I'll let you know when I do take the plunge. Thanks so much for the help, as well as all the content on your channel!
I had the T400, T500 and W500 and both machines are well made. I gave the T400 to my mom, W500 to my dad and the T500 to my girlfriend. She just replaced the T500 with a Dell latitude, but the machine still works quite well. The T500 and W500 could both run Borderlands 2 with no issues.
Lovely machine. The old design is what i miss most on my maxed out w540. But luckily i also have my old x200s when i get the cravings.
Just found your channel..love the content..love your video recording style...love Lenovo Thinkpad content...and I love my T430....keep up the good work..
You were kind of right. 5 minutes after I saw your comment. I see this. Nice surprise!
Mine was constantly overheating, I still have it. But it survived even a fall from a 30 km/h fast bike pannier bag.
Probably needs the thermal paste re-done and the fan blown out
I've personally got a W701 as kind of a side project machine. That thing is definitely heavy. Got it from our classified group where it had taken some fall damage from the prior owner. Chipped a corner. However, that machine despite the drop still works like a champ. Battery is toast, maybe get 20 min power. However, considering how big the machine is and the fact that I have absolutely nothing to carry it in, it doesn't move from my desk. Not that I would take it with me anyway. I've got a W530 and W550s to fill that purpose. Overall, my impressions with that laptop are good. Monitor runs at 1920x1200, however appears overly saturated. I've still yet to be able to tweak it down to something more normal. It's an old panel, so maybe newer panels/IPS displays have ruined me from that standpoint. No complaints though, its performs pretty solidly, even by today's standards.
Had a W700DS walk into our shop today, bought that shit right away.
I know I would.
Keeping mine forever!
The W series are god tier.
~ Posted from my W520.
That's a great laptop. I set one up for a friend and decided that I needed to get one too.
I used a T61 with an Quadro for 2 years, daily as my work laptop on Windows XP, and It felt as snappy to use as my laptop with an i5 and an SSD, those machines work great and they are bulletproof, and the one I used the battery was capable of 2 hours without a problem, and it was the original battery.
Wow, nice find! Thanks for sharing! Pretty cool what you can do with them.
Watching this video on the model - works great (it is at present April of 2019, with computer now 10+ years old).
It's a nice machine and it works well, unfortunately not practical because of its size and more notably its rarity. I only have mine because I scored it for a VERY good deal.
Still using a W500 for my mobile recording rig. Great machine. The screen resolution is crazy. Running an SSD for the OS and mechanical for storage. These things were built for serious work. You should look at them like a portable desktop rather than a true laptop.
I have a T500 (same chassis and many of the same parts as the W500) and it's an excellent machine.
@@SebisRandomTech yeah I think the only difference is the T has the lower res screen and a different graphics chip. Having two drive bays is really great. Also... firewire!
@@joeMW284 Correct, the T-series have Mobility Radeon or even Intel GMA (which sucks but works better with Windows 10 surprisingly. The W-series had the nicer FireGL chips and the higher-res screen, however that screen can easily be transplanted into a T500, since they are the same chassis. Any T500-T540p can be turned into the W equivalent from that generation (T500 -> W500, T530 -> W530, etc) by swapping the motherboard and cooling assembly from a W-series.
@@joeMW284 Firewire is still very nice to have, I convert a lot of old tapes to DVD and hooking up MiniDV camcorders to the computer to use as a capture card is very convenient.
Wow, that docking station. Cool video.
I still run the T420 w/SSD & ram upgrade
I have an e530 with an SSD running Linux Mint. Still works great.
With a Linux mint, mine works fine too. It took soo many beating in the workshop, it fell down a few times, we used it for doing measurements outdoors at winter, still works fine as my backup.
core 2 extreme still a monster processor today
I am now with this model but with Full HD screen.I upgrade with Intel QX9300,2x4 gb ddr3 10600s,tried with 2 x 8 but not supported.I upgrade the video card with the Nvidia FX3700.work without problem.I install two SSD Samsung EVO pro 1tb in mirror mode it is extremely fast,i changed the dvd recorder with Blueray recorder.from USA i bough the original 230 W adapter and the only one docking station for this model.my laptop doesn't have a camera ,i use a4tech full hd external camera and work perfectly.also i install double usb 3.0 pci card adn finally deep cleaning of the coolers and put back with Arctic paste MX4.on gaming video card rare reach 55 degrees but cpu goes up to 85 but no problem.I am satisfied from this Laptop.it is a monster which is still capable.
I would love to get my hands on a W701 and max it out, apparently it can support 32 GB of RAM.
Ooo yes!! W701 is much big monster!! But they are rare and in good condition are not cheap.W701 support yes 32 gb of ram and I7 940xm .for future i will search for this model!!
Where did you find a charger that actually fits the socket?
eBay.
I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T520 and love it. I have it maxed out in upgrades and the best part the laptop is just like brand new even the battery it came with
Spec's
Intel i7-2670QM 2.20GHz Quad core
16GB DDR3L 1600MHz
Samsung EVO 860 1TB SSD
ORICO Troodon M200 1TB mSATA SSD
Windows 10 Pro
Creative Sound Blaster G3 Portable External USB DAC
Two batteries(OEM 6 cell and new 9 cell)
ASUS USB-BT400 USB Bluetooth Dongle
Cooler Master cooling pad
HP USB powered speakers
Lenovo ThinkPad laptop bag
@bjory It works great
@@adamgrant1787 I'm on a W520 and thinking of upgrading to W530 only because of it's Kepler based Quadros on those as they still have proper driver support on Linux that should allow easy Optimus configuring instead of stuck using 390 legacy drivers like my current W520 with Quadro 1000M
Good to have its successor as daily driver (maxed P50) although Id love to have the 'old' keyboard...
It is interesting how almost any 17" professional laptops of this era dissapeared from the used market. 3-4 years ago you could easily get them, now I see no w701 (not to talk about w700), HP 8740w, etc.
Btw, which 17" laptops (pro or not) do have 1920x1200 displays? (16:10 format)
well. My X220 i7 and X230 i5 Thinkpads still goin' strong. With SSD and RAM upgrades. First one uses as car diag' PC, later as portable workstation for "office" workload...
Superb video of a modern classic laptop. I wanted one of them from day one and would still like one for my collection. I'd use it too!
Great taste! Love the view of school btw
i want one of these with the pen pad, that would be amazing to use!
7:45 cheers for the windows vista key
Your not experiencing the W700 without the 1200p UltraBright display. Its an incredible panel like no other. It isn't IPS, but it could probably fool you if I didn't tell you. Two giant CCFL bulbs instead of the normal single bulb and 400nits of light. It's a ludicrous display...would recommend upgrading it.
12:53 One does not simply turn the graphics settings down in Crysis.
Exactly.
you know, the worst part, these mac fanboys will DEFEND Apple! I always told them, if you don't like PC laptops running Windows and worry about virus, wipe the Windows and run Linux. Much safer if you are a novice. On other hand, Apple's hardware have so many problems, staining screen, keyboard that will stop working if a spec of dirt get underneath, and worst of them, the machine self destruct without any interaction from the user (graphics processor). And Apple denied all these problems. When users push back, the solution they gave was not permanent, a lot of folks got Apple to replace the defective part for 3-5 times and the problem comes back. These problems are not endemic to other manufacturers. If a PC manufacturers did any of these, they will be out of business in 3 years. Only Apple can do these and get away with it.
@@slam5 Don't forget the ribbon cable on the screen breaking after normal use in the 2016 and later MacBook "Pros"!
As for the GPU defect, those are in some cases the fault of the GPU manufacturer *cough cough NVidia* , and for example the GPU defect that bricked many 2007/2008 MacBook Pros also affected the T61, as well as many Dell and HP laptops due to NVidia cheaping out on the bonding agents used in their mobile GPU's. But Apple's handling of the situation usually doesn't help matters.
@@slam5 uh, I think you replied to the wrong comment.
I've never seen this model. Cool. Thank you.
I sort of really laugh when the Apple fanboys say no laptop can last 10+ years. They REALLY should see this and open up their eyes. Apple creates NEW problem for every gen of Mac notebooks for the last decade. I have even seen a friend that is using a T61P for windows 10 with no problem.
Yup, and I get irritated when people say "well ThinkPads are ugly MacBooks are shiny and look good blah blah blah" and "if I'm getting work done I at least want the laptop I'm using to look good"...yeah. I'd rather have a working laptop that performs well and lasts but hey, if you want to spend $2,000+ on a shiny aluminium slab that breaks if you look at it funny, that's fine by me.
you should had put in ssd and run the test. i think the hiccups are because of hdd not be able to keep up.
@@SebisRandomTech
No kidding. Writing this on an elitebook 8560p w/i7-2760qm. Even has an expresscard slot for a eGPU. Took out the dvd so it now has a ssd + hdd. Initially got it as hackintosh laptop tester, but just started using it normally. Certainly as more ports then a apple laptop, plus a proper dock.
Been siting on some capable desktops: i7-3770k & i7-4790k DIY builds. No rush to update as the AMD/intel wars are finally pushing honest progress.
It is funny apple fans want to exclusively compare their laptops to sub $400 machines, as if that's an honest comparison. But you mention hackintoshes (esp desktops) tearing the throttled apple products up and they completely lose it. Then you have to correct them that buying snow leopard, Lion, & Mountain Lion disks (still available on apple's site for this purpose on their equipment) turns a hackintosh into a civil matter, not a criminal one.
A recent thread where I just simply said: "Heat buidup is a fact. Apple products don't have some magical ability to make it disappear into another universe, so either it has to be lessened (by throttling) or big fans and metal heatsinks are needed. Thus big & heavy non-apple products." Guy lost it before he got dogpiled and deleted the thread.
Sorry for the rant. Just realized I was using this as a cathartic release. 😂😂😂 Anyway, very cool to show old doesn't mean unusable.
Apple think they can re-write the laws of thermodynamics. The laws of physics are changeable by anybody except God, @@czos9239
I don't know, I still like my I think it's a 2005 MacBook, dual core, unibody. It's alright. I mean, Id much rather other things, and haven't bought any other macs, nor has it booted up in a few years, but it's okay, definitely a decent machine for what it is.
Well, I still use my 2005 T60 as daily driver: it has all I love in a laptop. 4:3 screen, nice keyboard with same layout as a desktop PC, Thinklight and dedicated volume/function keys. I play Quake, Doom, Duke Nukem 3d... and I am watching RUclips videos right now, so what else can I ask for?
The T60 was released in January 2006. But I have a few of them myself and love them. I'm planning on putting a T61 board into the T60 chassis and getting a FlexView screen so I can have the best of both.
Oh, I though the plasic beasel was dated 2005. Maybe they recicled those from the T41? I lied a bit and I too have a board from a T61p so that is newer. I did it so I could have 8GB of RAM and a fastest CPU. I recommend to do it, but I wouldn't go for the Nvidia board because they eventually all die. I think the highest CPU you can fit is an X9100, but at the time I built the machine those where still expensive so I went for the t9500, which was very cheap. The most responsive OS for this machine is freeBSD, even more than Linux, but if you go that route remember to update the BIOS before removing windows and use one that whitelists all the good stuff!@@SebisRandomTech
@@Vlad-1986 I plan on putting a T61 board in the T60, I found a source who has revised Nvidia boards that won't fail.
@@SebisRandomTech That is actually interesting. Where is it? Please, if you don't mind, tell about your frankenpad adventures!
@@Vlad-1986 That will be saved for the upcoming video that I'm working on.
Planet Coaster fan? I love you already.
It's such a great game! In an alternate universe I'd love to be designing roller coasters!
Sebi's Random Tech I haven't been able to play Planet Coaster due to its system requirements. But I remember playing the Sandbox mode a lot on RCT3.
@@IvansPersonal Planet Coaster is basically RCT3 on steroids. It's so much fun.
Sebi's Random Tech No doubt. It's on my list this year when I finally get to build my PC. I have been saving up.
for the middle click button, you just have to edit some registry and it will work like a charm.
In my case, with windows 10 I just searched for 'trackpointmode" in regedit......that ended up being here
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1557542073-2641846280-496700362-1003\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTPEnh\UltraNavPS2
Then...
Change "TrackPointMode" to dword:00002214 from the previous value of 00001214
I also had to change
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2158515036-987303324-3988316896-1001\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\StickSMBTM2182
MiddleButtonAction from 0 -> 4
ive done it to all my thinkpads with W10 pro in it, and all of them works like a charm.
Thanks for the info! I'll have to give this a try on some of my older ThinkPads running Windows 10. Does the scrolling work correctly in Metro/Modern apps? My issue was that scrolling worked fine in classic shell applications such as Windows File Explorer or Chrome, but not in applications that use the Modern UI such as Edge or the Start Menu.
@@SebisRandomTech well its doesnt work at metro, explorer or start menu, but its works perfectly at EDGE, chrome, and another browser.
@@NOSTALGILAK You info about the W series in invaluable. Thank you for posting it.
@@NOSTALGILAK That's how the Synaptics driver that Windows installed on it's own works. I was hoping to find a more complete fix.
I thought that my Dell m6600 was big. I'm a fan of older IBM and Lenovo machines. My daily driver is a T450s but I really like the x series (x230 etc)
12:42 I WAS ALMOST FALLING ASLEEP AND ZONING OUT
I use a T61 everyday. It is still fantastic!
Pray that the graphics card doesn't go kaput!
I actually have a mobile workstation that I like to use for my office tasks and some gaming thats like this but is from Dell. A Dell Precision m6400 laptop which mine has an Intel Core 2 extreme QX9300 quad core cpu with 12 gb ddr3 ram and an Intel 480 gb SSD and an ATI firepro m7740 1 gb graphics card, an 1920 x 1200 screen and Windows 7 pro. Its performance is still excellent even today and just like this one, I think is also from late 2008 to early 2009.
That's around when the QX9300 was being produced, so 2008/2009 sounds about right. I've heard the Precisions had better displays than the W700, even the 1920x1200 screen.
This computer is a bit better than the t61p from what I can tell and I used the t61p with Blender all the time. As such It'll likely be a perfectly fine experience, just don't expect it to render any Cycles animations with anything more than a few hundred samples within your lifetime. Also those older GPUs don't support newer versions of OpenGL so you wont be able to use Blender 2.8 when that officially drops, at least not without it being sluggish and glitchy.
I use one every morning as my work daily driver. No problemo - except finding batteries :(
The usual upgrade for old Pads is an SSD since spinner drives of the era were awfully slow. Now that SATA SSDs are cheap it could make a useful upgrade for many users.
Agreed. All of my computers now use SSDs since they've become so cheap. I still use clunkers for high-capacity/long term storage.
Nice review... I used this for work in 2009 and it was the best at the time. Now I'm trying to find an adapter that would bring this back to life... None of the tips work and I''l probably have to buy the original adapter...
Keep your eyes peeled on eBay. They’re extremely rare and expensive but occasionally one comes up for extremely cheap. I picked up mine for only $20.
Hello, this is being written on an early Y2K Lenovo ThinkPad SL410, which is far from Workstation status. I bought it in 2006 or so at Best Buy because I'd never owned a ThnikPad. This was the only Lenovo unit available and unfashionable, running Windows 7 Pro. A contemporary Core2 Duo Apple MacBook Pro has dead keys and a nearly dead right speaker/subwoofer. (Can't type the log in password.) I'm thinking of an eBay i7 T530-T550 ThinkPad so I can curse at Windows 10 and stream CBS' "Twilight Zone."
T530 is a very solid system, I have one.
I'm pretty sure early 2000s games would still run pretty well on this thing, with the occasional Dualcore / Dual CPU bugs that makes games running too fast. But i'm surprised the tested games even ran on a CAD optimized GPU. I love that it has 2 dedicated Fans. This should have ALWAYS been standard for laptops with extra GPUs. I wonder how much of the hardware is still supported in the current Linux Kernel?
ThinkPads are some of the best laptops out there when it comes to Linux support, so I wouldn't be surprised if the W700 works perfectly fine (or almost perfectly) with a modern flavor of Linux. Only one way to find out!
I own and use a W701 and mostly all of the stuff is same. On Windows10 1080p@60FPS does have some framedrops but when I use any Linux distro it doesn't (Manjaro and Ubuntu). W701 had no issues with the fingerprint scanner. The issues with dx11 still persists with my W7101 as this is a GPU limitation but again, that can be fixed by using an external GPU card with the express card slot.
Seems that the W701 has a lot of performance boosts over the W700. Of course, even going one generation beyond that to something like the W520 offers better performance than the W701, but there is no denying how solid the W701 is.
My Thinkpad of choice is the W520 with an i7 2860qm and a Quadro 2000M. It's still a very powerful machine, but the graphics setup is a bit of a pain. Sometimes games just refuse to switch to the Quadro unless I force them by using an external display.
Just be mindful that if the mxm card dies and you go for a replacement there is a bios level whitelist that no one has been able to defeat so getting a replacement or an upgrade might be tricky.
....I mentioned this in the video....
I think since the W700/701 series are so rare nobody wants to risk bricking a perfectly working machine.
The model number changes occurred after the T61 Nvidia GPU disaster, another interesting bit of Pad info. Most Nvidia T-series have passed on but they make good organ (and WUXGA screen) donors.
If i won the lottery I'd manufacture motherboards that fit in classic thinkpad chassis (and have the right connectors for keyboard, LVDS, etc.) that accept 8th gen intel or AMD mobile processors and DDR4. Would you buy that?
If we all had the money, I'm sure most of the ThinkPad community would!
@@SebisRandomTech I just want Lenovo to realize that the direction they are taking ThinkPads will kill the brand. Lenovo needs to take a step back and think "why do people love old thinkpads so much?"
Look up the X62 and T70, it's already been done in the past. I'm sure they'll come up with newer designs.
Lenovo usually kills everything they touch. Just look at Motorola.
@@mvShooting petition to get dell/hp/someone to buy ThinkPad off Lenovo? Lol
Sounds crazy but I'm also using a 10 years old machine (macbook pro unibody from 2010) after some upgrades it's still rocking and outperforming some cheap ass laptops from few years ago
i use Thinkpad x201 from 2010. and is still better than cheapest laptops around 200-300euros
I still buy and re-sell to my customers almost every version from every "pc age" thinkpads, they're just...UNSTOPPABLE.
With a cheap 120gigs SSDa and 4 or 8 gigs of ram they're perfect for working and streaming, even for a not-so-light gaming, i love these machines and is basically the only kind of laptops i suggest to buy as refurbished.
ThinkPads are my go-to recommendation for almost anybody, and when I resell laptops it's typically ThinkPads. W700 just isn't practical because of how rare and expensive it is.
I agree, Thinkpads are immortal! What models would you say are the best for not-so-light gaming?
@@renwalda As new as possible since they need any GPU power they can get, or use an external GPU with an older model.
@@renwalda I tested a t420 for LOL and DOTA ("not so light" in CPU intensive games, not GPU intensive because of course, we are dealing with an IGPU almost always) and the result was really enjoyable, i think that with more testing we can discover that even without a proper dedicated GPU these machine can give us nice surprises!
I love my W700. It works fine with Wndows 10.
i still use my 2007 thinkpad for recording my music onto and for everything post production. still works like a charm and sounds 1000000000000 times better than it would do if recorded onto my shitty new appleflap
I “THINK” this video is awesome!
You sir, are a caution.
I still use such 120W beast (which i think it really uses 150W), a Clevo M571TU, with 1 gb vram, gtx 280m, and a Q9000 core 2 quad... It really puts to shame even many $1000-and-above "gaming laptops" due to their low resolution, and bad performance... The only thing keeping this old thing from playing games newer than Gta V and Fortnite, is the directx 10 limitation of the video card...
"everyone needs 5 USB ports" _cries in 3_
Cries in 2
im still using MSI EX-600 as my laptop (mostly bcos i got it for free) and it does pretty much anything i need (that said im running linux soo im not sure about the windows experience)
still better than my computer
Still use my Compaq Evo N610c w/Win XP, not sure the age, maybe 17 years old. Its my main PC.
wow.
I love these old mobile workstations but I'm a Dell fan so have a Dell Precision M6800. It's always interesting to see what specs and features IBM/Lenovo put on theirs.
M6800 is the best laptop Dell ever made imo. The lack of rollcage is no problem when it weighs enough that nobody will carry it!
@@quirble Yes they are absolute beasts! For me they represent the perfect balance of old and new, with their chunky old style and legacy ports coupled with advanced features and ability to house multiple storage devices. I love mine!
It has a BUILT IN DRAWING TABLET?!?!?!? I WANT THIS LAPTOP
Yeah it is a supported Wacom
Might work well for osu? lol
@@LolJolk Well, it may, but it may have some amount of lag, making osu even harder.
Depends tho because wacom made really great tablets with low response times
That thing is bad ass
Nice video. What AC adapter did you get for it? I'm also on the lookout for an adapter for a W700 but they're really hard to find.
Just have to keep your eyes peeled on eBay. I would suggest looking up the part numbers for the adapter as opposed to something like "ThinkPad W700 power adapter".
@@SebisRandomTech I got lucky on eBay and snagged a good condition W701 with 230W adapter, a good battery and 16GB RAM.
@@paulgjackson That's awesome! What CPU and GPU are in it?
@@SebisRandomTech i7-920XM (2 Ghz) and Nvidia Quadro FX 3800M
@@paulgjackson That's awesome. I'd love to get my hands on something like that. Just upgrade it to 32 GB of RAM and you'll have the killer ThinkPad.
you could head over to notebookreview to learn more about MXM slots and cards, also mydigital life forums too both forums sometimes have modded bios with whitelists removed.
My lad how much did it cost to obtain this absolute UNITpad?
Not very much, it was untested so I got it for fairly cheap, and thankfully it worked.
@@SebisRandomTech My goodness that's a lucky deal. Thanks!
Webcam looks cool.
Do u recommend thinkpad L470 slim in 2019, I really like it.
Just curious, what do you do with all these old machines that you get ?
A few of them I keep and/or use, most of them I refurbish and either give them or sell them to relatives and friends. If nobody in my family/friend circle wants them I list them for sale locally and then online. I do a lot of trades with others in the ThinkPad community as well.
@@SebisRandomTech that's really cool. Thanks for the reply.
ıt ıs so performance than actual machines ... ıt ıs perfect
How do you have the i whiout the dot?
If you think this is a thick and heavy laptop, Try looking at the Dell Precision M6300 workstation laptop
Another use for the W700 is bashing someone over the head with it, no worries it's a ThinkPad, it will hold.
lol
Thanks for this video. VERY informative and well-presented. Man, I'm kinda interested in getting one of these just for the novelty factor! For a long time I've been using a T61p with 15 inch screen and loving it, but it suddenly went dead. So I've got a W500 on the way to replace it. A W700 would be a cool replacement, but TOTAL overkill for using Win XP 32bit and Finale music writing software.....
Finale? Another man of culture I see...
is that a w700 hanging out at psu altoona?
Yep!
@Brandon Kick Yep, I'm there right now for school. Will most likely be relocating back to Pittsburgh once this semester ends.
@Brandon Kick I know a good number people, some from my high school and some from my parent's days, who went to Pitt Johnstown. A large portion of my family is from the Johnstown area as a matter of fact.
later came out T480p, T720p and lastly T1080p
I'm using the W530 hhhhh and it's really powerefull I even use it for gaming
Are there any other ThinkPads with built in Wacom Tablet that isn't on the screen?
I'm not sure. I know some of the newer ones have Wacom pen support, but I don't know if any have the palmrest tablet like in the W700/701.
But the question is
Does it run CRYSIS
and the answer is: 12:41
The fingerprint reader works without any additional driver needed on my W701 with a clean install of Win 10 1903, the windows hello sign-in feature works great. Didn't try any other uses though.
I think the Core i-series architecture is better supported by Windows 10, as I always have an easier time getting the drivers working with anything from that generation or newer, as opposed to older systems like the W700 that use the older C2D architecture.
@@SebisRandomTech Good point!