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Can the T41 be used successfully in 2019?

T40/T41/T42/T43 Series
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singleslammer
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Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2019 10:18 am
Location: Hallsville, MO

Can the T41 be used successfully in 2019?

#1 Post by singleslammer » Mon Jul 01, 2019 10:28 am

I found a really nice condition T41 over the weekend for free. Had some fun figuring out how to put Lubuntu on it. Once installed, it worked pretty smoothly. However, it doesn't seem to have the power to be an internet machine. I had two tabs open in firefox and the cursor was really laggy and I couldn't get the browser to recognize any actions. I know that there are lighter weight browsers that I can try but will that be enough? I only have 512kb of ram and know I can get up to 2 gb but don't really feel like spending $20 on that if the ram isn't really the limiting factor. It has the 1.5ghz proc. What do you folks think? Is it a better idea (likely) to jump to a T420 or something with an I series chip?

axur-delmeria
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Re: Can the T41 be used successfully in 2019?

#2 Post by axur-delmeria » Mon Jul 01, 2019 11:34 am

singleslammer wrote:
Mon Jul 01, 2019 10:28 am
I only have 512kb of ram and know I can get up to 2 gb but don't really feel like spending $20 on that if the ram isn't really the limiting factor.
I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be 512MB. :lol:

Kidding aside, that's exactly the limiting factor. Modern web browsers are RAM hogs-- Firefox will happily eat more than 200MB RAM on startup with a blank tab open.

One of my Thinkpads is definitely slower than a Penium M 1.5GHz -- it's an X60s with a Core Solo 1.06GHz CPU, but it can manage at least five tabs because it has 2GB RAM.
Is it a better idea (likely) to jump to a T420 or something with an I series chip?
If you need an actual workhorse rather than a glorified typewriter, get something with at least two cores + Hyperthreading. So by all means, grab a T420. To be honest, I'd recommend a T430 instead since it has USB 3.0 ports. It does have the chiclet keyboard though, but the T420's classic keyboard can be made to fit in the T430 (though it requires some mods).
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons :lol:
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E :cry:

singleslammer
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Location: Hallsville, MO

Re: Can the T41 be used successfully in 2019?

#3 Post by singleslammer » Mon Jul 01, 2019 12:00 pm

Oops, yes 512 MB. Ok, I am looking for a linux learning box and beater word processor so I will grab the ram and try it out. Thanks for the input.

axur-delmeria
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Re: Can the T41 be used successfully in 2019?

#4 Post by axur-delmeria » Mon Jul 01, 2019 12:09 pm

singleslammer wrote:
Mon Jul 01, 2019 12:00 pm
Oops, yes 512 MB. Ok, I am looking for a linux learning box and beater word processor so I will grab the ram and try it out. Thanks for the input.
Just a reminder, the T41 has one RAM slot at the bottom, and another one under the keyboard.
Also, you can choose to keep the 512MB and just add a 1GB RAM stick to make it 1.5GB total.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons :lol:
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E :cry:

TPFanatic
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Re: Can the T41 be used successfully in 2019?

#5 Post by TPFanatic » Mon Jul 01, 2019 7:05 pm

With 2GB RAM, an SSD, and a light browser eg. Flashpeak Slimjet you may even get some web use out of the old dog.

singleslammer
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Re: Can the T41 be used successfully in 2019?

#6 Post by singleslammer » Tue Jul 02, 2019 9:06 am

Alright ram and Cd tray SSD tray on the way.

A friend recommended Midori browser. Any experience there? I installed it last night but can't get it to work properly. I am a linux noob.

singleslammer
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Re: Can the T41 be used successfully in 2019?

#7 Post by singleslammer » Wed Jul 03, 2019 7:47 pm

2 gb of ram made it tolerable for web browsing and google apps. Mission success. I tried an SSD in a cd tray adapter but couldn't get it to recognize. For the intended purpose, it is fine with the HHD.

However, I am now even more impressed with the build quality of these PCs. They are made to be worked on and tons of thought went into making that happen. So nice. The keyboards are fantastic and I am looking at newer versions for a daily driver.

olex126
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Re: Can the T41 be used successfully in 2019?

#8 Post by olex126 » Thu Jul 04, 2019 4:24 am

singleslammer wrote:
Wed Jul 03, 2019 7:47 pm

However, I am now even more impressed with the build quality of these PCs. They are made to be worked on and tons of thought went into making that happen. So nice. The keyboards are fantastic and I am looking at newer versions for a daily driver.
Aha! Another Thinkpad convert!

Welcome to the fold!

Eventually we conquer the world :banana:

Regards.

Dave
Previous & Collection Thinkpads: 701C A22m A30/A31p T23p x2 T30 T41 X31 various 750's 760's & 390's.

Test Benches: X41T, X60T & X61T's, various T42p-T43p's, x200 x201 x220T x230 T520 W530 T601F LED (X9000/8Gb/250SSD/W7 U)

DD: P50

"Life Is A Journey...Enjoy The Ride!"

joeu
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Can the T41 be used successfully in 2019?

#9 Post by joeu » Fri Jul 05, 2019 8:59 pm

singleslammer wrote:
Mon Jul 01, 2019 10:28 am
I found a really nice condition T41 over the weekend for free. Had some fun figuring out how to put Lubuntu on it. Once installed, it worked pretty smoothly. However, it doesn't seem to have the power to be an internet machine. I had two tabs open in firefox and the cursor was really laggy and I couldn't get the browser to recognize any actions. I know that there are lighter weight browsers that I can try but will that be enough? I only have 512kb of ram and know I can get up to 2 gb but don't really feel like spending $20 on that if the ram isn't really the limiting factor. It has the 1.5ghz proc. What do you folks think? Is it a better idea (likely) to jump to a T420 or something with an I series chip?
Ok, the T420 is definitely faster hardware, and can be a daily surfing machine. HOWEVER it has the less-than stellar 16:10 14" 1440x900 screen. And yes, you really do miss that 1" and 150 vertical pixels.

Until about 5 years ago I was rocking a T41p with the orignal XP, but with a SATA SSD in the ultrabay. It was chugging, and I felt that the video chip was probably the bottleneck, although I didn't do much to investigate that theory. Instead I got a T43 (non P), which gave me a better GPU and 2 GB ram (vs 1.5 on the T41). That worked a little better, but internet graphics and video still seemed to cause a lot of heat creation. The point here is that in terms of hardware, while the T43 is certainly more powerfull, I'm not sure there's a world of difference in browser performance.

Shortly after, I installed a Fedora spin with the xfce lightweight desktop. This is the change that has made it a very serviceable daily surfer. The SSD is a must-have for any vintage T to be useable.

ajkula66
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Re: Can the T41 be used successfully in 2019?

#10 Post by ajkula66 » Fri Jul 05, 2019 9:30 pm

joeu wrote:
Fri Jul 05, 2019 8:59 pm


Ok, the T420 is definitely faster hardware, and can be a daily surfing machine. HOWEVER it has the less-than stellar 16:10 14" 1440x900 screen. And yes, you really do miss that 1" and 150 vertical pixels.
It's actually 16:9 and the resolution is 1600x900...or even 1366x768, depending on the screen.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

onespeedbiker
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Re: Can the T41 be used successfully in 2019?

#11 Post by onespeedbiker » Mon Jul 15, 2019 9:13 pm

What ssd do you have in mind? Assuming you are running XP, I read any ssd is going to need support for Garbage Collector (utility) as Trim is not supported by XP.

ajkula66
SuperUserGeorge
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Re: Can the T41 be used successfully in 2019?

#12 Post by ajkula66 » Mon Jul 15, 2019 9:55 pm

onespeedbiker wrote:
Mon Jul 15, 2019 9:13 pm
What ssd do you have in mind? Assuming you are running XP, I read any ssd is going to need support for Garbage Collector (utility) as Trim is not supported by XP.
A lot of interesting stuff here:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=106749
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

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