Thinkpad R50E

[ziloo]

Hello Folks,

A friend has offered an unused and mint R50E for sale!
How much would be a good offer and is this Thinkpad really worth it?

Thank you for your comments!

ziloo

[dr_st]

As a museum piece, an unused and mint Thinkpad may always be worth it.

For a very underpowered office machine, it may be OK, if you have absolutely nothing else. Otherwise it is hard to justify such a purchase nowadays.

We are talking about ~18-year old technology here, single-core, sub-2GHz CPUs, low and slow RAM. And even back then, the R50e were the lowest-end Thinkpads on the market.

[ziloo]

...
Are R50E Thinkpads along the same technology and capability of
the rest of the T4x series?

ziloo

[TPFanatic]

https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:R50e

R50e has XGA display, only one speaker, no dock connector, some models were not Wifi capable (no slot, card, or antennae). Regardless of its features like dr_st said it's running on 20 year old tech. Outside of sentimentality there's really no good use for a machine like this beyond an IBM branded typewriter.

[axur-delmeria]

Outside of sentimentality there's really no good use for a machine like this beyond an IBM branded typewriter.

Some people actually need a distraction-free typing machine, of which this R50e seems to be a good candidate.

Another minus for the R50e is the lackluster Intel Extreme Graphics 2, especially compared to the Radeon 7500 (or 9000) found in the T41 and T42.
IIRC even the Linux driver for the Extreme Graphics 2 was buggy for a long time.

[ziloo]

...
And now that we are at it, the question is why the thread about T4x series
has the largest number of posts in this forum?

ziloo

[dr_st]

especially compared to the Radeon 7500 (or 9000) found in the T41 and T42.

Or Radeon 9600!

why the thread about T4x series has the largest number of posts in this forum?

Because when these forums first went online, T4x was the hottest newest Thinkpad series, and naturally many posts were about it. It is also the last T-series released fully under IBM brand, and for that reason holds a special place in the hearts of many Thinkpadders, which also contributes to its timeless popularity. I am certain other forum members can come up with additional reasons.

P.S. Moving this thread to the R-series forum, since I only now noticed it is in the T4x one.

[axur-delmeria]

I got here much later, but I guess the hardware hacks and mods extended the lifetime of the T4x series, giving us more things to try and talk about.

The discovery of T4x and R5x motherboard compatibility. I myself transplanted an R52 board into a T42 chassis.

The T43/R52 SATA mod. Didn't try this but it sure was amazing.

FSB overclocking via pinmod.

[RealBlackStuff]

And the T4x Forum would probably have continued to grow, if it hadn't been for that darned RoHS.
It totally effed up the endurance of motherboards etc. for a number of years!
Even today I still refuse to use that crap lead-free solder.

[kfzhu1229]

I got here much later, but I guess the hardware hacks and mods extended the lifetime of the T4x series, giving us more things to try and talk about.
The discovery of T4x and R5x motherboard compatibility. I myself transplanted an R52 board into a T42 chassis.
The T43/R52 SATA mod. Didn't try this but it sure was amazing.
FSB overclocking via pinmod.

If you transplant R52 board into T42 chassis don't you need a different PCMCIA cage since R52 has one expresscard while T42 does not? I learnt the hard way that when swapping T42 and T43 boards, if you don't swap the PCMCIA cage, you have to isolate the connector pins or else they short out and have weird problems like sleep not working (no fatal problems found though)!

And the T4x Forum would probably have continued to grow, if it hadn't been for that darned RoHS.

Well it is the combination of lead free solder, poor chip placement and cooling, and pushing design to their limits (chassis flex) that has these problems.
After knowing enough about T43 I got to know its competitors, Latitude D610 and Compaq nc6230. The former is much bulkier than T43 but immune to all the motherboard problems while the latter has the exact same problems as T43.
Also AFAIK the same T43 motherboard in R52 is much less prone to these problems. But with my short time with (regular) R51 the plastics feel much bulkier and cheaper than T4x and for whatever reason have worse speakers. Thicker heatsink helps though. I did cable mod on that as well and fitted UXGA (TN) panel and then sold it off.
There are more parts shared between T4x and R5x actually. The touchpad assembly and cable are actually the same, just AFAIK the R5x has an additional rubber cap stacked on the rubber cap on the connector to make up for the thickness difference

[axur-delmeria]

If you transplant R52 board into T42 chassis don't you need a different PCMCIA cage since R52 has one expresscard while T42 does not? I learnt the hard way that when swapping T42 and T43 boards, if you don't swap the PCMCIA cage, you have to isolate the connector pins or else they short out and have weird problems like sleep not working (no fatal problems found though)!

I used the R52's PCMCIA cage. The donor was a complete, working R52 with broken plastics, so the dead but decent T42 was the perfect recipient.