Older thinkpads are SERIOUSLY underrated. I mean the quality on these computers just cannot be found on other laptops. I think while newer thinkpads are good. Older thinkpads are the BEST. The build is solid and industrial with genius features that make the user experience unrivaled.
Still have a Thinkpad T60 4:3 and a T60p Wide Screen. I can't let them go, the build quality is superior to todays "throw-away" society. I am currently refreshing these machines to have them active around the house. That little T60 is great for camping out with a satellite hookup, so robust.
I’ve had my ThinkPad R61 since 2014. Bought mine refurbished for $71 on Refurbio. For a 2007 tank of a laptop, it was great for a lot of my day-to-day tasks (word processing, photo touch-ups, audio editing). Last year, I finally swapped out the HDD for an SSD and installed Linux Mint. She functions as fresh as ever. I use her for CLI practice, RUclips, and watching DVDs. My R61 really got me into refurbishing old hardware.
Oh you'd be surprised what I can do with a SEVENTEEN year old computer :) I was making maps for HaloPC with a geforce2 mx200 and like 380 megs of ram and 3dsmax7 when I was a little kid. That includes sound making and texture/shader painting. I think the cpu itself was 800Mhz
New laptops are disposable trash, especially the consumer ones. the late 2000s to early 2010s were when quality and ability to service were still good but they still had at least core 2 duo. the best generation of machines.
Just got my hands on a T61 from an office removal which is practically brand new. It had been stashes in storage for years. Running Xubuntu live on it and everything works fine, surprisingly.
about 32bit Vista being shipped in there: in 2008, running 32bit windows on 64bit processors could still make some sense, if you do not need to address more than 4 gigabytes of RAM : - 32 bit applications consume a bit less RAM because of the smaller pointer size - if most of your applications are still 32bit, on Windows 64bit they run on the "WondowsOnWinodws64" subsystem (SysWow64 anyone?) - if you still needed to run old very old 16 bit applications because *business*, 64bit cannot do it while 32bit windows can (somewhat) still manage to do it
2024, still using my R61. Maxed memory to 4GB, SATA SSD, T7100 CPU changed to T7700 (I have now something from T8### series to install in free time). Only one drawback are loose hinges. Need to be replaced or repaired. Good for internet, can play smoothly YT in 720p (native resolution), have no problem with 1080p MP4 files.
Having a 32-bit Windows on 64-bit PC does make sense, because even though the CPU might be a crappy 64 bit one, but if you only run it in 32-bit mode then you potentially increase it's capabilities. Not sure how much of a performance impact it will have in real life scenarios, but at least theoretically, if the machine is struggling at 64 bit, it might be worth a try to install 32-bit windows on it. You immediately double the number of registers and might be able to double the throughput of certain arithmetic operations as well, depending on the hardware ofc
I used to have an R61 about 5 years ago, I loved it. I still have a T61, and it is a great machine, but I honestly prefer the R61. I don't know why, it just felt better.
I think my 2011 Thinkpad T520 may be the best laptop available in 2023 for my use case. The reason I prefer it to a Macbook Pro or Air is the awesome keyboard and the trackpoint. I'm sure the Macs have much better top-end performance and are silent. But I never feel that the T520 is overmatched, I barely hear it when it's under load, and I even do some video-editing on it. No gaming though. It's kind of amazing that the 2008 Thinkpads are still usable in the 2020s and can run Windows 11. That surprises me. But for a day-to-day workhorse, I think these units probably do best with Linux. I have used Fedora from the beginning. I upgraded the T520 to 16 gb Ram with a 2860 QM i7 processor. These improvements plus a SSD make it truly competitive with today's laptops - that is unless you want performance, lightweight, and battery life. The 6-pounder is hardly svelte and struggles to perform for more than 2 hours straight on battery power.
oh hey I picked up a t61 this Wednesday as a birthday gift to myself! For only 15 USD the battery is in excellent condition, the overall physical condition is pristine and nearly unused- aside from a missing trackpoint and... painted over logo on the front??? I want to do more upgrades on it down the line but so far I just put in a 120 gb Sata SSD and Linux Mint XFE OS- and it runs smoothly :D
yep, definately holding on to my 2011 Lenovo THINKPAD (of wich's model name I don't remember), that I upgraded to windows 10, 8gb of ram and a 240gb ssd. Its working fine, it runs all my necessary programs, and it is gorgeus. Do I still have another pc for games XD
Same here, I'm still daily driving a T520, while the size make it a somewhat stupid choice, a i5-2540m with 10G of RAM can still handle most of my daily tasks very well, and since Win7 deals with spinning rusts much better than Win10, I didn't even bothered to upgrade the hard drive because it's good enough anyway.
Thank you for sharing what can be done and improve with the T61, it a real eye opening. Grateful, if you would, also advise what i can do with my T400 which i have count on dependably for like since 2011. Even the original hdd which i have replaced some years earlier with a ssd, still functioning well as a backup. Best regards
What i hate about old laptops is heat, they are always hot, i have had two first gen i5s, 2nd gen i3 and i5, they are all hot even with new thermal paste.
Hi. My upgrade is more less the same, T9300, faster wIfi iNTEL 7260 AC+bluetooth and 8gigs of ram. But still has some room for upgrade.... your can use the spare pcie port fot USB3.0 or FHD WEBcam. No obsolencence for those ones !!!!
really loved the thinkpad design but my parrents didnt allow me to get 2nd hand stuff back in 2020:( with prices of even higher end thinkpad like the carbon x1 gen 5 being priced at 250usd at best I think I'm going to sell mine and get myself a better experience rather than a cheap tn panel that doesnt even hold up in office task
For these old machines on youtube, try use h264ify as it can greatly improve performance due to h.264 being more simple than av1, the default, and most older machines from maybe the 2010-2011 period, they have dedicated encoders which is even better 👍👍
The first laptop, the Thinkpad 365, I recently bought one. I actually want to put a rasberry pi or something modern in it to use it. Only recently bought it, so I got no clue what I'll be able to do.
Do they come with DVD playes. Bought a book and the back of it has the requirements I'm looking for. Any help woul'd be apprecitated. Book's name' The complete new Yorker' introduction by David Reminick. Has 8 dvds with the book. System Repuirements: Windows 2000 and Windows XP. DVD drive (750 MB hard space drive and 1024×768 srceen resolution
Just be aware from an online listing it's hard to tell the many models of T61's apart from each other so lookout for that. DDR2 memory is dirt cheap perhaps $5 for 2GB however 4GB sticks are rare and pricey SSD's you can now find them for less than $15 T9300 Core2duo's can be around $20 Battery will be the hardest to find perhaps around $30, I'd recommend trying to find one with a battery already inside.
I have 3 laptops that aren't IBM or Lenovo. Dell Inspiron 1120, Latitude E5430, and an Acer Aspire V3-572PG. They're all pretty good but I don't have any plans to buy any more computers for a long time
Can someone help? I've got a used X61s Thinkpad. It was in a OK shape, had to clean it and restore to the factory settings. But for some reason I can't install windows 10 or even Linux on it. It has 4 Gb of RAM core 2 duo and for some reason doesn't want to install other OS than Win xp. What am I doing wrong?
I have ThinkPad R61i, processor is T2390 duel core 1.86 GHz . I want to change my processor for increased performances. Can I change the processor I mean have I that option to change?
I have one X61 with a T7300 cpu. Too bad its an intel GMA gpu, i would like to have a windows XP laptop for some games. I have other brands XP laptops but is not the same.
@@chengxiaoshi3461 Well in terms of the classic ones Season of Sakura and True Love are pretty good. Emit and Kakyuusei are also well known ones from that era. If you want something a little bit more light hearted perhaps Sentimental Graffiti or Marriage on the Saturn could be also good. Don't count out the VN's on the switch and PS4 though. Otomate makes the best modern ones.
@@os2kouhai331 Bro, ive only recently got into vns because of danganronpa and chaos head and child and fata morgana. HOW TF DOES ONE FINISH SO MANY VISUAL NOVELS. Like i swear most vn players finished atleast 30-50 and all of them are like 20+ hours long lIKE HOWWWW. Anyways, yeah ill give them a try, just downloaded true love and Kakyuusei.
I still daily a dell 1501 from 2006. 4 mb ddr, and a 1.8ghz AMD turion, 120gb sata ssd. Works well for what I need it for. Runs windows 7 like a champ because there is no graphics driver for windows 10.
You can install the same driver in compatability mode in Windows 10 and Windows 11, and it will be fine.. (I have the same laptop). Also you could upgrade the RAM to 8 GB.
@@GeorgeVassilev I'll have to try that one day. The only drive i was able to use previously was the Microsoft standard vga driver, which is poop. I never tried compatibility mode.
2gb of ram is your big issue regardless especially if it's a new OS. I assume you're trying to browse the internet. 2gb won't cut it on modern web browsers or websites.
@@os2kouhai331 I mean unusably slow as in the mouse curser has a massive lag to the point it’s unusable on any os. It was in storage for around 12 years. It didn’t used to do this :(
These machines are only worth it if you want to do some text editing and you really like the keyboard. Otherwise it is just a waste of time to use these in this day and age. You don't need to pay much more for a acceptable machine and you won't have to wait all day for the machine to execute basic os calls. Sorry old thinkpad fanboys but this is the harsh reality.
It really isn't a waste of time. And also, if your life that sad that you need to go out of your way to make dumb comments like this, then you need to go touch some grass.
Older thinkpads are SERIOUSLY underrated. I mean the quality on these computers just cannot be found on other laptops. I think while newer thinkpads are good. Older thinkpads are the BEST. The build is solid and industrial with genius features that make the user experience unrivaled.
Still have a Thinkpad T60 4:3 and a T60p Wide Screen. I can't let them go, the build quality is superior to todays "throw-away" society. I am currently refreshing these machines to have them active around the house. That little T60 is great for camping out with a satellite hookup, so robust.
I’ve had my ThinkPad R61 since 2014. Bought mine refurbished for $71 on Refurbio. For a 2007 tank of a laptop, it was great for a lot of my day-to-day tasks (word processing, photo touch-ups, audio editing). Last year, I finally swapped out the HDD for an SSD and installed Linux Mint. She functions as fresh as ever. I use her for CLI practice, RUclips, and watching DVDs. My R61 really got me into refurbishing old hardware.
Just pulled my t61 out and reinstalled xp. Had Linux running, and windows 7. Now back to xp. It's got a modded BIOS, 4gb, and SSD.
Ah the good ole days. I wish the computing world would return to these good times
Oh you'd be surprised what I can do with a SEVENTEEN year old computer :)
I was making maps for HaloPC with a geforce2 mx200 and like 380 megs of ram and 3dsmax7 when I was a little kid. That includes sound making and texture/shader painting.
I think the cpu itself was 800Mhz
bruh my newerish laptop from 2016 already has a failing hard drive clicking away and you are just chillin with this
New laptops are disposable trash, especially the consumer ones. the late 2000s to early 2010s were when quality and ability to service were still good but they still had at least core 2 duo. the best generation of machines.
Just got my hands on a T61 from an office removal which is practically brand new. It had been stashes in storage for years. Running Xubuntu live on it and everything works fine, surprisingly.
I even have windows 11 on my T60 SXGA and it runs.... smoothly with transparency turned off, only minor bugs, but it's usable
Anyway, great throwback!
Very nicely done :)
I have found that 6 GB RAM is just about the "sweet spot". 8 GB RAM does not appear to increase performance.
about 32bit Vista being shipped in there: in 2008, running 32bit windows on 64bit processors could still make some sense, if you do not need to address more than 4 gigabytes of RAM :
- 32 bit applications consume a bit less RAM because of the smaller pointer size
- if most of your applications are still 32bit, on Windows 64bit they run on the "WondowsOnWinodws64" subsystem (SysWow64 anyone?)
- if you still needed to run old very old 16 bit applications because *business*, 64bit cannot do it while 32bit windows can (somewhat) still manage to do it
x220 with 1080p screen mod FTW
2024, still using my R61. Maxed memory to 4GB, SATA SSD, T7100 CPU changed to T7700 (I have now something from T8### series to install in free time). Only one drawback are loose hinges. Need to be replaced or repaired. Good for internet, can play smoothly YT in 720p (native resolution), have no problem with 1080p MP4 files.
wow thinkpads were something special, thanks for uploading this educational vid
Having a 32-bit Windows on 64-bit PC does make sense, because even though the CPU might be a crappy 64 bit one, but if you only run it in 32-bit mode then you potentially increase it's capabilities. Not sure how much of a performance impact it will have in real life scenarios, but at least theoretically, if the machine is struggling at 64 bit, it might be worth a try to install 32-bit windows on it. You immediately double the number of registers and might be able to double the throughput of certain arithmetic operations as well, depending on the hardware ofc
I used to have an R61 about 5 years ago, I loved it.
I still have a T61, and it is a great machine, but I honestly prefer the R61. I don't know why, it just felt better.
I think my 2011 Thinkpad T520 may be the best laptop available in 2023 for my use case. The reason I prefer it to a Macbook Pro or Air is the awesome keyboard and the trackpoint. I'm sure the Macs have much better top-end performance and are silent. But I never feel that the T520 is overmatched, I barely hear it when it's under load, and I even do some video-editing on it. No gaming though.
It's kind of amazing that the 2008 Thinkpads are still usable in the 2020s and can run Windows 11. That surprises me. But for a day-to-day workhorse, I think these units probably do best with Linux. I have used Fedora from the beginning.
I upgraded the T520 to 16 gb Ram with a 2860 QM i7 processor. These improvements plus a SSD make it truly competitive with today's laptops - that is unless you want performance, lightweight, and battery life. The 6-pounder is hardly svelte and struggles to perform for more than 2 hours straight on battery power.
don't know why I got this recommended but it's very cool
You just earned a sub! Really like the style of your videos and I'm a huge thinkpad fan :)
my first laptop back in like ~2012 was an R61 my dad gave me, I loved that thing but couldn't really game on it
Nice Tomoyo wallpaper 👍
Edit: All of them are great
oh hey I picked up a t61 this Wednesday as a birthday gift to myself! For only 15 USD the battery is in excellent condition, the overall physical condition is pristine and nearly unused- aside from a missing trackpoint and... painted over logo on the front??? I want to do more upgrades on it down the line but so far I just put in a 120 gb Sata SSD and Linux Mint XFE OS- and it runs smoothly :D
As a proud owner of a R61 I can say this man is spitting mad facts
How did you manage to find a 4GB DDR2 RAM stick? They are too expensive in my country! I want to upgrade my T61. Thank you
Honestly, you gotta keep looking. Cheaper ones will come eventually.
I love thickbooks
I buy one!
yep, definately holding on to my 2011 Lenovo THINKPAD (of wich's model name I don't remember), that I upgraded to windows 10, 8gb of ram and a 240gb ssd. Its working fine, it runs all my necessary programs, and it is gorgeus.
Do I still have another pc for games XD
Same here, I'm still daily driving a T520, while the size make it a somewhat stupid choice, a i5-2540m with 10G of RAM can still handle most of my daily tasks very well, and since Win7 deals with spinning rusts much better than Win10, I didn't even bothered to upgrade the hard drive because it's good enough anyway.
Thank you for sharing what can be done and improve with the T61, it a real eye opening. Grateful, if you would, also advise what i can do with my T400 which i have count on dependably for like since 2011. Even the original hdd which i have replaced some years earlier with a ssd, still functioning well as a backup. Best regards
i cant see this laptop without thinking about linux
What i hate about old laptops is heat, they are always hot, i have had two first gen i5s, 2nd gen i3 and i5, they are all hot even with new thermal paste.
Good job . Love T61
Hi. My upgrade is more less the same, T9300, faster wIfi iNTEL 7260 AC+bluetooth and 8gigs of ram.
But still has some room for upgrade.... your can use the spare pcie port fot USB3.0 or FHD WEBcam.
No obsolencence for those ones !!!!
Are you from PH?
Nice wallpaper btw ^^
What is the music used in this video? I love it.
install gentoo
Windows 10 early releases would be the best choice here. 360p was never considered high quality on the internet just necessary.
22H2 runs just fine. My personal recommendation would be to run Win 10 LTSC
really loved the thinkpad design but my parrents didnt allow me to get 2nd hand stuff back in 2020:( with prices of even higher end thinkpad like the carbon x1 gen 5 being priced at 250usd at best I think I'm going to sell mine and get myself a better experience rather than a cheap tn panel that doesnt even hold up in office task
I'll be honest I didn't think to put anything else but linux onto an old thinkpad
For these old machines on youtube, try use h264ify as it can greatly improve performance due to h.264 being more simple than av1, the default, and most older machines from maybe the 2010-2011 period, they have dedicated encoders which is even better 👍👍
Nice Kasumi ;o
The first laptop, the Thinkpad 365, I recently bought one. I actually want to put a rasberry pi or something modern in it to use it. Only recently bought it, so I got no clue what I'll be able to do.
1:52 - Tomoyo Sakagami
amazing...
You could test games like BallisticNG and Half Life 2 on these machines, as well as a few other lighter titles.
Do they come with DVD playes. Bought a book and the back of it has the requirements I'm looking for. Any help woul'd be apprecitated. Book's name' The complete new Yorker' introduction by David Reminick. Has 8 dvds with the book. System Repuirements: Windows 2000 and Windows XP. DVD drive (750 MB hard space drive and 1024×768 srceen resolution
lynx ftw I you know what I mean!
I have the same laptop and I installed windows 11 too
I agree what happened to the internet website!! now they are too slow and too big ever for modern computer's. tired of this
Really interested in building one myself! How much did the mods cost?
Just be aware from an online listing it's hard to tell the many models of T61's apart from each other so lookout for that.
DDR2 memory is dirt cheap perhaps $5 for 2GB however 4GB sticks are rare and pricey
SSD's you can now find them for less than $15
T9300 Core2duo's can be around $20
Battery will be the hardest to find perhaps around $30, I'd recommend trying to find one with a battery already inside.
are you into other laptop brands?
I have 3 laptops that aren't IBM or Lenovo. Dell Inspiron 1120, Latitude E5430, and an Acer Aspire V3-572PG. They're all pretty good but I don't have any plans to buy any more computers for a long time
What about the k61
Can someone help? I've got a used X61s Thinkpad. It was in a OK shape, had to clean it and restore to the factory settings. But for some reason I can't install windows 10 or even Linux on it. It has 4 Gb of RAM core 2 duo and for some reason doesn't want to install other OS than Win xp.
What am I doing wrong?
Hmm very odd. Drive issue maybe? What kind of error is Win 10 giving you?
I have ThinkPad R61i, processor is T2390 duel core 1.86 GHz .
I want to change my processor for increased performances. Can I change the processor I mean have I that option to change?
You definitely should. R61 is just a lower end version of the T61
I have one X61 with a T7300 cpu. Too bad its an intel GMA gpu, i would like to have a windows XP laptop for some games. I have other brands XP laptops but is not the same.
I would install win 7 even when it’s run win11 Great
Just use Windows 10, and a bit of GNU/Linux on the side to learn for 2025.
old computer is only good for watching old anime show and browse image board
Hello my good sir. Hows ur old visual novel experience?
Quite good. My personal favorites are otome visual novels.
@@os2kouhai331 💀Really. No problem with that but im shocked because of ur wallpapers. Whats ur recs, and i know for a fact u play pc 98 translations
@@chengxiaoshi3461 Well in terms of the classic ones Season of Sakura and True Love are pretty good. Emit and Kakyuusei are also well known ones from that era. If you want something a little bit more light hearted perhaps Sentimental Graffiti or Marriage on the Saturn could be also good. Don't count out the VN's on the switch and PS4 though. Otomate makes the best modern ones.
@@os2kouhai331 Bro, ive only recently got into vns because of danganronpa and chaos head and child and fata morgana. HOW TF DOES ONE FINISH SO MANY VISUAL NOVELS. Like i swear most vn players finished atleast 30-50 and all of them are like 20+ hours long lIKE HOWWWW. Anyways, yeah ill give them a try, just downloaded true love and Kakyuusei.
I still daily a dell 1501 from 2006. 4 mb ddr, and a 1.8ghz AMD turion, 120gb sata ssd. Works well for what I need it for. Runs windows 7 like a champ because there is no graphics driver for windows 10.
You can install the same driver in compatability mode in Windows 10 and Windows 11, and it will be fine.. (I have the same laptop). Also you could upgrade the RAM to 8 GB.
@@GeorgeVassilev I'll have to try that one day. The only drive i was able to use previously was the Microsoft standard vga driver, which is poop. I never tried compatibility mode.
I have an r61 with a core 2 duo and 2 gb ram. Cant figure out why but its unusably slow on any os (even puppy linux) with HDD or SDD
2gb of ram is your big issue regardless especially if it's a new OS. I assume you're trying to browse the internet. 2gb won't cut it on modern web browsers or websites.
@@os2kouhai331 I mean unusably slow as in the mouse curser has a massive lag to the point it’s unusable on any os. It was in storage for around 12 years. It didn’t used to do this :(
Next install Linux
Please for the love of everything that is holy, get Linux on it.
These machines are only worth it if you want to do some text editing and you really like the keyboard.
Otherwise it is just a waste of time to use these in this day and age. You don't need to pay much more for a acceptable machine and you won't have to wait all day for the machine to execute basic os calls.
Sorry old thinkpad fanboys but this is the harsh reality.
It really isn't a waste of time. And also, if your life that sad that you need to go out of your way to make dumb comments like this, then you need to go touch some grass.
says the guy waiting for the machine to load all day instead of spending 100 dollars more