Thinkpads Forum

My Thinkpad family portrait: (front, from left) A 380xd with 98 SE and 96 MB of RAM for my late DOS games, an A20m in the middle of being blown out and getting a fresh copy of 2000 SP4, (rear, from left) an A31 with 2 GB of RAM and XP Pro SP3 for my early 2000s gaming, and a T420i (with an upgrade to an i5, moar rams and an SSD) with 10 Pro for surfing on the couch. The docks for all are off screen, but I have them.



Things I need to do: Install a Mini PCI b/g wifi card and maybe an SSD in the A31, figure out what I want to do with the A20m (maybe Windows 98 so I can have my W9x and XP gaming stuff using the same dock?) and find a good place to put stuff in my apartment. Now if I can find a 755C and an IBM 5155 I'll have my PC stuff pretty much done, haha.

Nice little collection here. If I were you I would try to upgrade the LCD of the A31 into 15" SXGA+ IPS or UXGA IPS. Well the crappy Samsung LCD that came with my A30 had lines going through and now it won't even show anything unless you bend it in a certain angle. A3x series have a very good upgrade potential.
https://www.impactcomputers.com/05k9967.html
And if you can't find the UXGA cable, go for this one (It is overpriced):
https://www.impactcomputers.com/27l0683.html
You also need another screen bezel for this too (impactcomputers always include an inverter card for their CCFL LCD shipments).
This is going to take work, but you will literally "smile" at the final product!

Nice collection and I have always been a contrarian so I would leave them basically as they are. I would only have internet connection for the T420i though.
The others will be fine for retro gaming and their display will be fine also. Only the T420i was designed for today's internet. Save time money and heartache. YMMV

shawross wrote:Nice collection and I have always been a contrarian so I would leave them basically as they are. I would only have internet connection for the T420i though.
The others will be fine for retro gaming and their display will be fine also. Only the T420i was designed for today's internet. Save time money and heartache. YMMV

True. But my point is A30p/A31p is much more collectible than A30/A31 due to their dream specs back in the days. And the Samsung 14.1" XGA screen in A30/A31 is just ashamed to use because IDTech UXGA LCD is one of the reasons why A3x are so great! But then you still get great speakers, solid build quality, great expansion capability and great keyboard