Thinkpads Forum

Hi,
Reluctantly, and with some sadness, my 600x will soon be entering into a state of semi-retiredness. With all the flash on the internet, its too slow. Whats the nearest match but in a more powerful machine. I'll list whats important in order.

Essential.

1.I'd like something in the region of 1.5 mhz and 1 gig ram otherwise its not worth the upgrade.
2.Good build quality including the keyboard.

Preferred, but willing to compromise.

1. Smaller than 15 inch, but larger than 12 inch.( i already have an x61)
2. No touchpad
3. Ability to use some of the accessories of my 600x (unlikely i know)
4. Vista compatable.

It'll be an ebay purchase, up to £200 ($350)

I think your problem will be finding a machine that is not an absolute dog at running Vista for $350US. in the UK. I took a quick look on EBay UK and you can get a 14" T60 for a bit more money. It does have a touchpad but it can be disabled in BIOS. I'd get one of those and max out the RAM to 3GB, then load up Vista and Bob's your Uncle. Of the modern (within the last 3 years) model Thinkpads, it's one of the best if not the best models for durability and reliability. Keyboard is great too. You really need a dual core machine with loads of RAM for Vista, otherwise it's a waste of time. Now, with Windows 7 you can get away with an older model, like a T43.

I'm willing to compromise on Vista, Windows 7 is okay. I fact i nearly never added it to the list.

Look for a 14" T43 then. Max out the RAM (2 x 1GB PC2-5300). Same deal with the trackpad, it can be disabled in BIOS. The T43's with the X300 GPU's kick a.s.s on W7.

paul*robertson wrote:I'm willing to compromise on Vista, Windows 7 is okay

Vista and Win 7 are basically the same as far as system requirements are concerned.

harryc wrote:Look for a 14" T43 then. Max out the RAM (2 x 1GB PC2-5300).

I have a T43 with 2GB and Win 7 Ultimate x86 on it.... not recommended!

Cheers,

Bill B.

I had the same T43 setup and it worked just fine...it was fast in fact, and Aero worked great.

I have an upper-end T42; w/1.7GHz CPU, ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 GPU w/64MB VRAM and 1GB RAM. Windows 7 works quite well. Windows 7 Professional is somewhat snappier than Vista Ultimate on my T42 even though the Windows Experience is the same at 2.0 with both. Aero running on both Vista and Windows 7. I am not a gamer, so I don't know how well games run. Commercial DVD videos play fine.

Windows 7 Experience Index on my T42.
Processor 3.2
Memory 4.1
Graphics 2.0
Gaming Graphics 3.6
Primary Hard Disk 4.9

I'd agree with Harry on a T43, but it must be (IMO) a machine with ATi GPU (model numbers starting in 26xx) and not with Intel integrated graphics (model numbers starting in 187x). Also, if you're lucky enough to find one, 14" T4x units will take a palmrest without a touchpad, FRU 91P8399.

A higher-end T42 (mostly in the GPU aspect, with Radeon 9600 or a "p" unit with Fire GL T2) like one in possession of GomJabbar would also be worth considering as long as you know the owner and his/hers user patterns since these machines are more prone to GPU problems than their T43/p siblings. I'd buy a machine like that from someone on this forum, but not on fleabay.

Happy hunting.

http://homepage3.nifty.com/eugene/DSCF0072.JPG

Palmrest.

Regarding the keyboard if the 600x is a 9.5 out of 10, and the everyday non thinkpad keyboard is a 6/7 out of 10,how would you rate the T43.

You seem to belong to the vast majority of ThinkPad users who perceive the 600 series keyboard as the best ones ever.

Most of them would agree that a NMB T4x keyboard are the second best, very closely following the ones used on 600 series.

ajkula66 wrote:You seem to belong to the vast majority of ThinkPad users who perceive the 600 series keyboard as the best ones ever.

Even amongst those who have used 600 series ThinkPads and still use ThinkPads, it is very clear that there is an extremely wide diversity of opinion on what keyboards are "best", so your vast majority is just another fabrication.

Cheers,

Bill B.

bill bolton wrote:

Even amongst those who have used 600 series ThinkPads and still use ThinkPads, it is very clear that there is an extremely wide diversity of opinion on what keyboards are "best", so your vast majority is just another fabrication.

Well...I used 600 series a lot, and never really cared for it, but have always felt that it was the best loved ThinkPad overall, including - more precisely starting with - its keyboard.

I'm willing to bet that if we ran a "best ThinkPad keyboard ever" poll, the 600 would win hands down.

If you have a more scientific approach that you'd like to suggest, Mr. Bolton, I'm completely open to it...

I'm with you on that one George. I have not used as many different Thinkpads as you, but I have owned three or four T4x machines, and several T2x, T30 and a few "A", "R" and "X" series as well. None of the keyboards on any of those felt as solid as the 600X I'm using at this very moment. Guess I'm one of those 600 series fans, as nothing I've used feels as solid. And the size is just right for me also.

I'm actually pretty stoked about this old 600X as I recently re-installed Wn98SE using 98lite and Revolutions Pack to make the desktop look modern (Vista theme, presently) with K-Meleon web browser, this old beauty really flies. I even add KernelEX and have Firefox 3.5.6 install (and running) for when I need a full featured browser. But I'm getting off topic, aren't I?