Hacked Off!!! My Beloved R500...

[TheAuldMan76]

...has been stolen out of my brother's car!!! B*GGER!!!

Absolutely fuming, as it was locked away in the boot and wasn't visible at all - thankfully everything is fully encrypted on it (no way are they getting into that data at all) but it was an ideal little system for me, as the CCFL LCD was easier on my eyes.

Now I'm off to set-up an L430 (oh Windows 10, I hate thee so much!) which I've managed to purchase today...it won't be the same but it was cheap (off of a mate)!!!

[Omineca]

...has been stolen out of my brother's car!!! B*GGER!!!

Absolutely fuming, as it was locked away in the boot and wasn't visible at all - thankfully everything is fully encrypted on it (no way are they getting into that data at all) but it was an ideal little system for me, as the CCFL LCD was easier on my eyes.

Now I'm off to set-up an L430 (oh Windows 10, I hate thee so much!) which I've managed to purchase today...it won't be the same but it was cheap (off of a mate)!!!

Funny you should say that about the CCFL screen. I've found that I have the same issue. In fact, LED screens give me blurry vision and bouts of partial blindness. It's always temporary, but nothing that I like experiencing.

[RealBlackStuff]

Sorry to hear about your loss.
But if you liked your R500 so much, maybe you should have gotten another R500/T500.
They are cheap and cheerful nowadays.
And with a beautiful Sharp WUXGA screen (1920x1200 and CCFL) you'd still be the envy of your colleagues, back on a classic keyboard and have the much preferred 16:10 widescreen.
Plus your R/T500 screen would be a lot larger than the L430 16:9 television screen with LED backlight.

[unixed]

You could replace your R500 exactly if you know enough detail.
The WSXGA+ resolution hints that it may have had discrete graphics (ATI), is that correct?
Do you know the exact make of screen?

You may as well give the L430 a fair chance now that you've purchased it, but you have the option of replacing your R500 with the same or better if you know what you had.

[TheAuldMan76]

...has been stolen out of my brother's car!!! B*GGER!!!

Absolutely fuming, as it was locked away in the boot and wasn't visible at all - thankfully everything is fully encrypted on it (no way are they getting into that data at all) but it was an ideal little system for me, as the CCFL LCD was easier on my eyes.

Now I'm off to set-up an L430 (oh Windows 10, I hate thee so much!) which I've managed to purchase today...it won't be the same but it was cheap (off of a mate)!!!

Funny you should say that about the CCFL screen. I've found that I have the same issue. In fact, LED screens give me blurry vision and bouts of partial blindness. It's always temporary, but nothing that I like experiencing.

Yeah it's not good mate, as it was so much easier on the eyes - the LED LCD in the L430 is a bit better on my eyes but not by much.

Sorry to hear about your loss.
But if you liked your R500 so much, maybe you should have gotten another R500/T500.
They are cheap and cheerful nowadays.
And with a beautiful Sharp WUXGA screen (1920x1200 and CCFL) you'd still be the envy of your colleagues, back on a classic keyboard and have the much preferred 16:10 widescreen.
Plus your R/T500 screen would be a lot larger than the L430 16:9 television screen with LED backlight.

Unfortunately RBS I know I would have a right pain trying to get all of the additional parts needed to allow the R500 to support a WSXGA+ or WUXGA LCD over here in the UK (last time I did it for a relative it was nearly £80 on top, just for the cable & inverter card!). On top of that all of the R500 units (I honestly prefer them a lot more over the T500 series) are the lower-end spec WSXGA LCD spec from what I can see and it's a bit of struggle getting the exact specs from the sellers. I'm going to see how it goes with the L430 and fingers crossed it will work out well (it was pretty cheap to buy).

You could replace your R500 exactly if you know enough detail.
The WSXGA+ resolution hints that it may have had discrete graphics (ATI), is that correct?
Do you know the exact make of screen?

You may as well give the L430 a fair chance now that you've purchased it, but you have the option of replacing your R500 with the same or better if you know what you had.

I know the rough specs of it (documented everything down for the sake of redundancy except for the precise FRU # of the LCD!) and it was the 2714-AAG series, which came only with the Intel 4500MHD GPU (ran a lot cooler than my X200s! lol). I'm going to see how it goes with the L430 and hopefully I'll be able to get used to using the LED LCD - the only pain will be losing all of the additional screen space that I had with the WSXGA+ LCD in the R500.

[bit_twiddler]

This goes to show that Scottish thieves are much more discriminating than their American cousins...

You could just pick up a W500. This is your chance to "upgrade."
I've always noticed that my W500 has a dim screen, suitable only for indoor use.
Was this the case with your R500?

[TheAuldMan76]

This goes to show that Scottish thieves are much more discriminating than their American cousins...

You could just pick up a W500. This is your chance to "upgrade."
I've always noticed that my W500 has a dim screen, suitable only for indoor use.
Was this the case with your R500?

LOL They've probably opened up the laptop bag and thought 'what the heck is this???'.

Actually from what I can remember it was a pretty decent screen for using outside - it was still pretty bright to use. I was never that keen on the T500 & W500 series, as I had relatives running with them who encountered a lot issues with the hinges going along with the LCD structure frame cracking on the left-hand side. I'm tempted to go and put together another R500 (I have spare CPUs, RAM and Wifi Cards) but as I replied back to RBS it's the cost of the LCD cable and the inverter to support the WSXGA+ & WUXGA LCDs that will push it well over (it was a right pain getting my hands on them a couple of years back for another relative).

I'm going to see how the L430 works out over the next couple of weeks and if it's not up to scratch I'll have a serious think about it at my local with a few pints of Tuborg.

[Hans Gruber]

If your signature is accurate. Your greatest loss was your 480GB SSD and 2TB HDD. If you considering a T500 with a 2.8ghz processor or a W500 with either the 2.8ghz or 3.06ghz processor you could have a nice backup to your L430. You do not necessarily need the 1920x1200 display. 1680x1050 is all you would need. The other consideration would be a well equipped T61 with either the 1680x1050 or a 1920x1200 panel mated with a 2.4ghz or 2.5ghz processor. I suggest a 120-128GB SSD boot drive because of the SATA 2 bus in these models backed by a spinner drive in a Ultra SATA caddy in the optical storage bay.

Sorry for you loss, those dirty [censored] thieves!

[TheAuldMan76]

If your signature is accurate. Your greatest loss was your 480GB SSD and 2TB HDD. If you considering a T500 with a 2.8ghz processor or a W500 with either the 2.8ghz or 3.06ghz processor you could have a nice backup to your L430. You do not necessarily need the 1920x1200 display. 1680x1050 is all you would need. The other consideration would be a well equipped T61 with either the 1680x1050 or a 1920x1200 panel mated with a 2.4ghz or 2.5ghz processor. I suggest a 120-128GB SSD boot drive because of the SATA 2 bus in these models backed by a spinner drive in a Ultra SATA caddy in the optical storage bay.

Sorry for you loss, those dirty [censored] thieves!

Actually Hans it was more the R500 than the internal storage! lol I have a number of spare high capacity SSDs and HDDs, so replacing them is easy for me (especially considering how expensive they are just now) but it was more down to the CCFL WSXGA+ LCD that I had. I'm going to see what I'm going to do over the next few days, as I'll be away doing job interviews (oh joy!) with a few companies down south.

[CPC464]

Sorry to hear about your loss.
But if you liked your R500 so much, maybe you should have gotten another R500/T500.
They are cheap and cheerful nowadays.
And with a beautiful Sharp WUXGA screen (1920x1200 and CCFL) you'd still be the envy of your colleagues, back on a classic keyboard and have the much preferred 16:10 widescreen.
Plus your R/T500 screen would be a lot larger than the L430 16:9 television screen with LED backlight.

Years ago I replaced my broken T61p WUXGA with this Sharp. Much bether than the broken one. Later I sold that T61p and bought a W500 with an awful, dim WUXGA screen. I removed it and installed the Sharp screen I had in my old T61p.

I still use my W500 as dedicated laptop for multitrack live audio recording (it runs silent and cold, it is very reliable, and with 8Gb RAM it is still powerful enought for this task). Its Sharp WUXGA is still as crisp and bright as new. Nothing to do with the dim original W500 WUXGA screen. And it has 16:10 form factor!

I think too that R500 or, still better, T500 or even W500 are very cheap nowadays, one can easily find a decent one as replacement for the stolen unit, and it will still be a good classic Thinkpad.

[TheAuldMan76]

Sorry to hear about your loss.
But if you liked your R500 so much, maybe you should have gotten another R500/T500.
They are cheap and cheerful nowadays.
And with a beautiful Sharp WUXGA screen (1920x1200 and CCFL) you'd still be the envy of your colleagues, back on a classic keyboard and have the much preferred 16:10 widescreen.
Plus your R/T500 screen would be a lot larger than the L430 16:9 television screen with LED backlight.

Years ago I replaced my broken T61p WUXGA with this Sharp. Much bether than the broken one. Later I sold that T61p and bought a W500 with an awful, dim WUXGA screen. I removed it and installed the Sharp screen I had in my old T61p.

I still use my W500 as dedicated laptop for multitrack live audio recording (it runs silent and cold, it is very reliable, and with 8Gb RAM it is still powerful enought for this task). Its Sharp WUXGA is still as crisp and bright as new. Nothing to do with the dim original W500 WUXGA screen. And it has 16:10 form factor!

I think too that R500 or, still better, T500 or even W500 are very cheap nowadays, one can easily find a decent one as replacement for the stolen unit, and it will still be a good classic Thinkpad.

I'm starting to think about purchasing another R500 and upgrading it up the specs I need - agree that the T500 & W500 series are decent systems to go for but I'd hate to get caught out with a broken hinge and/or LCD structure frame that I've encountered before with my relatives systems. As it stands I've been running the L430 with W7 and W10 Pro (dual boot configuration) for the last few days but it's not my cup of tea - whilst it's pretty fast (especially under W7) the LED LCD is just bugging my eyes and I'm stuck waiting for the 2nd HDD Caddy to come through from NewmodeUS, for the much needed additional internal storage.

I'm going to see if I can replace the LCD with a better version (that won't irritate my eyes so much) and see how it goes.

[Hans Gruber]

To me it's not worth it to seek or desire a 9 year old laptop to function well in these modern times of 2017. With that said, I completely understand why someone would want a fully loaded vintage thinkpad from the T500 era. The cost of a really nice LCD panel is not worth the price of admission in my opinion based upon the return on investment or the cost of acquiring such a panel. I do not see the difference visually between the R500 and T500. I cannot imagine the hinges on an R500 being vastly superior to the hinges on a T500 or W500 which are essentially identical.

I do understand the sentimental side of thinkpads. I got a couple T43p's for no other reason than to have fully loaded T43p and a backup in case one breaks. I still need a 15" T43p to compliment my 14" T43p but I am in no hurry to get one. One has a 2Ghz processor and the other has a 2.13ghz processor. Both with the 1400x1050 and ATI Mobility FireGL V3200. I use XP on both but have an extra HDD with linux.

I do like the T61 models but feel as if their hinges are inferior to the T500 hinges. The T61 feels more solid than the T500 by a bit but the hinges on the T500 are a little more durable than the T61. Neither are good in my opinion.

With the prices of the T500 today, it makes sense over an R500 considering the increased specs of the T series. You could simply buy a junker T500 or an extra for parts as a backup.

Good luck on your journey.