TRUE old tech users, using today

[ThinkPad560X]

How many people are using old PCs or phones that you consider still better or comfortable using in 2020.

For me I am still running on my IBM ThinkCentre M52 (Intel Pentium 4 HT 3.40GHz) Witch I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit. I did test Windows 10 Pro 64bit on it with another HDD, but didn't like it, So still using 7. Highest machine I have out of my desktops is a Intel Core 2 Duo. I have a motherboard swap in a old ThinkCentre M51 (not completed yet can support a Intel Core i7 4th gen, I believe the motherboard is out of a lenovo ThinkCentre M93p) As for laptops, My current one I use all the time is a ThinkPad T61 and the highest system is my ThinkPad T500 in processor power since both T61 and T500 are Intel Core 2 Duos. So I don't own a Core i series laptop and don't really need one as everything I do on my laptops is web search and word typing. As for phones, I am still using my 2007 Motorola Razr V3m. I don't have a use for a smartphone and just need my phone in case someone needs to get a hold of me or text.

[Omineca]

I still use a BlackBerry Bold 9900. I suppose that qualifies as ancient these days. But I like the physical keyboard and there's nothing as accurate for text selection as that trackpad.

[TonyJZX]

I still occasionally pop open a T400s or Dell e6400 type era... running Win7... they do feel a bit slow in this day and age even with SSDs. 4gb ram is ok, the Intel 5300 type wifi is good.

[cadillacmike68]

Still running several T61s on W7 pro (FUBAR'd up my T500s and need replacement boards) and a T30 (XPP) and a T22 W98SE) once in a while. No internet on the T30 or T22, just for old games that I'm too lazy to port over to the T61s. I'm getting a T530 and will try to resurrect the T500s.

[Brian10161]

I have an HP desktop with a Core i5-2500 in it, an older Asus EEEpc second generation thing with Windows XP on it, runs great. The HP is my home automation server, I can remote into it to see my PLC that I have on the furnace.

Speaking of which, the PLC I have on my furnace is 18 years old, an old Reliable Controls Mach 1, runs my furnace, ac and HRV.

For work I have a 4 year old smartphone, works fine for me. And finally, at work I have a T410s and a T430s that I'm using for field PLC programming and commissioning. Love the older stuff.

[axur-delmeria]

I have an X601 Frankenpad. Designated backup machine but gets used just as much as the primary machine, an X220. That said, the X220 is already "old", as it's almost a decade old by now.

TBH, I'm loathe to get a post-classic Thinkpad because I don't like the layout, especially the loss of the "Context Menu" key which used to be lodged between the right Alt and Ctrl keys (it was replaced by PrtSc in the T440 and newer). The TP25 is rare and expensive.

The most powerful computer I have is an HP Elitedesk 800 G1 small form factor desktop PC with Core i5-4570 (3.2GHz) that I managed to acquire just before the lockdown took effect. I got it for around 50 USD without RAM and HDD , but I already have 4GB DDR3 and a 120GB SSD so I got it up and running within the day.

It has a lot of nonstandard, HP-only stuff that's quite annoying, including the CPU heatsink mount-- meaning I can't install a better heatsink without fabricating an adapter.
But the price was hard to beat, especially since a bare i5 4570 processor cost around 50-60 USD-- in other words, the HP chassis, board, heatsink, and PSU were practically free.

[RealBlackStuff]

My PC is a home-built mongrel with varying age.
Lian-Li PC-67 aluminium tower chassis from ca. 2001.

Motherboard and CPU last updated in 2010.
Motherboard ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 with an AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Label (unlocked) 3.2GHz CPU.
Never bothered to update the BIOS.
The monitor is a 19" HP LP1965 (5:4) Monitor with 1280x1024 resolution, from 2008.
Still runs like a champ with 8GB RAM on a 120GB Samsung 830 SSD with W7-Pro/SP1 64-bit, and a 1TB HDD for storage.
I could put in 32GB RAM, but who needs it?
W7 has not had any updates since 2016.
The only 'modern' part is a back-lit Tyrfing V2 88-Key RGB Tenkeyless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
Alternative Amazon link
The back-light colour is permanently set to a soft baby-blue.
I see no need to update/upgrade this machine any time soon.

[axur-delmeria]

Lian-Li aluminium tower chassis from ca. 2001.

Wow. I have a similarly-aged Lian Li chassis (a variant of the classic PC-60) in storage, beside an IBM eServer Xseries 220 chassis that's been modified to accept standard ATX motherboards and backplates.

The two have some problems, mostly involving aged plastic parts disintegrating (the IBM's front bezel has gotten quite brittle), missing drive bay covers, and dead/missing front USB ports, but the big reason I'm not using them is that their design and layout haven't aged well, not in aesthetic terms (I do like how they look), but more technical aspects like cable management, airflow, and support for modern cooling components.

For example, the Lian Li casing has 4 optical drive bays, 3 floppy bays, and 3 vertically mounted HDD bays-- the first two are mostly irrelevant in modern PCs. All its fan mounts are 80mm and located such that it's impossible to upsize to 120mm, though 92mm may be possible. To its credit, it has some notable gimmicks like the one-piece removable motherboard+back panel tray.

Personally, I'd love to modify and update it, but I'll need to make a new front bezel for it, and I've yet to find a source of sheet Aluminium thick enough-- most local shops that work on Aluminium make screen doors like this, and don't have have plain Aluminium sheet.

[RealBlackStuff]

My case still looks like new, even after all these years and a few (international) moves.
Mine has a total of 12 drivebays: 4x 5.25" external, 3x 3.5" external and 5x 3.5" internal drive bays.
It has four powerful, but very quiet, 80mm Noctua fans in it, still the same from when I bought it.
Since the mobo doesn't have a floppy connector, I use an external USB-floppy if I (rarely) need one.
At one time this machine had 6x 3.5" HDDs in it, nowadays only 1x 2.5" SSD and 1x 3.5" HDD.
Much as I like it, it's actually quite a space-waster nowadays, since I am mostly on my T440p.
One of these days I think I'll flog it.

[axur-delmeria]

One of these days I think I'll flog it.

Your T440p is more powerful that that desktop anyway.

I'm keeping mine because maybe... just maybe... I'll build a Ryzen desktop sleeper around it.
Actually, I was planning to, but then I got the Elitedesk for cheap. Part of me regrets it, as the nonstandard heatsink mount prevents me from transplanting it to the Lian Li and use a much better (and quieter) CPU cooler. The HP casing has threaded inserts directly underneath the 72mm x 100mm heatsink mounting holes; I think I can replicate that on a normal casing, but I still won't be able to upgrade the CPU cooler unless I make some sort of adapter-- the closest I could find is this 3D-printed adapter for an HP Elite 8300 convertible minitower, but I'm not 100% sure it's compatible, and more importantly I don't have a 3D printer.

[wujstefan]

but I'm not 100% sure it's compatible, and more importantly I don't have a 3D printer.

I could print it for you, no problemo!

No way to test it though!

[kfzhu1229]

Well for tech that are old by today's standards, I have:
An OptiPlex GX520 with Pentium D 820 for media PC (Paired with a GTX 550 Ti running off an external PSU though)
A custom built LGA2011 Ivy Bridge Xeon (this isn't the old part), but it is inside a Cooler Master Centerion V case from 2004 that I got locally for free (along with an Athlon 64 X2 system with a pretty nice overclockable, SLI-capable Asus mobo and I will be holding onto those until their values go up). It is one of the first computer cases to come with a dust filter. It is coupled with a Dell E772c CRT monitor, '93 Lexmark Model M and a two buttoned IBM mouse from the same era.
A ThinkPad T43p maxed out that I used up until very recently that I switched to a Latitude D830 after that T43p's mobo died and thus deeming that thing too old to survive the standard backpack abuse on a daily basis. It is a GPU soldering issue led by horrible TIM under its heat spreader (My replacement T43p mobo's GPU ran 5-10 degrees cooler with the same heatsink), NOT a southbridge issue since that thing was under my custom heatsink

[axur-delmeria]

I could print it for you, no problemo!

No way to test it though!

I appreciate the offer, but shipping costs from your country to mine would probably be exorbitant.
Also, the expected temperature precludes PLA as the filament. I dunno if PETG is good enough though.

There is one way to test: make a mockup, but of ourse you need the right parts.

Take a piece of plywood, make holes in the corners of a 72mm x 100mm rectangle.
Mount the adapter on the plywood with nuts and bolts. Cut and fold a piece of cardboard until it approximates the size and thickness of a processor that's mounted on its socket. Put said cardboard piece at the center of the mounting, then plop an AMD stock cooler on top of it. If it locks in place, then it's good.

@kfzhu1229
I have no love for the Pentium 4 and other Netburst-derived processors. They run hot--very undesirable in my country's tropical climate, and waste electricity, which is always a bad thing. If the system board and BIOS allows, I upgrade to a Core 2 Duo, which I did for a few of my relatives' desktop PCs.

[wujstefan]

I appreciate the offer, but shipping costs from your country to mine would probably be exorbitant.

Well, if the likes of $2,5-3 are that bad I won't press on it

Also, the expected temperature precludes PLA as the filament. I dunno if PETG is good enough though.

What is the expected temp?

[axur-delmeria]

Well, if the likes of $2,5-3 are that bad I won't press on it

Sounds reasonable then. But another problem is that my poor country is in lockdown, and I doubt mail and parcels are being processed.

What is the expected temp?

Since this is a heatsink mount we're talking about, at least 60c?

[wujstefan]

Sounds reasonable then. But another problem is that my poor country is in lockdown, and I doubt mail and parcels are being processed.

Sure about that? For People I guess this is right, but for wares I think you should be opened

Since this is a heatsink mount we're talking about, at least 60c?

I was expecting the likes of 120-130. Melt point for quality PLA is 180C. Softening point is around 110-120. 60C should not be a trouble at all

[axur-delmeria]

I was expecting the likes of 120-130. Melt point for quality PLA is 180C. Softening point is around 110-120. 60C should not be a trouble at all

I did a bit of reading regarding 3D printer filaments, and it's said that it's not just the melting point that's important, but also the glass transition temperature, where it's still solid, but begins to flex and deform. Standard PLA filament has a glass transition temperature of 50-60c, and if the 3D-printed adapter deforms, the heatsink will not make proper contact with the processor.

[kfzhu1229]

@kfzhu1229
I have no love for the Pentium 4 and other Netburst-derived processors. They run hot--very undesirable in my country's tropical climate, and waste electricity, which is always a bad thing. If the system board and BIOS allows, I upgrade to a Core 2 Duo, which I did for a few of my relatives' desktop PCs.

Yes I know that loud and clear, but I have like 4 of these things (2x OptiPlex GX520, Dimension E510 and E310) and 3 of them I got for free and that I already gave the E310 out for free to my friend as well to replace their failing $50 Android TV box. Out of the 3 units that I have, only one is active for playing stuff on the TV, and the other two are just sitting in my place and I use them only when I need to clone a hard drive for example (as these things have both legacy and modern connections including floppy, UltraATA IDE, SATA 3Gb, USB 2, Serial, parallel, gigabit ethernet on the GX520). I keep them because throwing them away would generate even more environmental harm if anything.
Also these things are midrange office PCs and low-mid range home PCs so they can't really take the TDP of the real insane 90W+ chips anyway. These all have 85W chips and only generate more heat for being utilised much more often than the Core 2 CPUs.
I do have an OptiPlex 755 fitted with an LGA771 Xeon that also runs at 85W (but 6-8 times the performance ofc) and I use this far more often. In fact, this is typed on that.

[axur-delmeria]

I use them only when I need to clone a hard drive for example (as these things have both legacy and modern connections including floppy, UltraATA IDE, SATA 3Gb, USB 2, Serial, parallel, gigabit ethernet on the GX520). I keep them because throwing them away would generate even more environmental harm if anything.

That's a good reason to keep it.

[ajkula66]

My Blackberry 9900 Bold unfortunately dropped dead and now I'm using BlackBerry Classic which I've had for a couple of years now, but only used it on my trips to Europe. I guess that still qualifies as "old tech", although I sorely miss the 9900...

[axur-delmeria]

I'm still dreaming of a plug-in keyboard for Android phones. My electronics skills are nowhere good enough to build one for myself.

[RealBlackStuff]

https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/connectin ... o-android/

[Radioguy]

I'm still dreaming of a plug-in keyboard for Android phones. My electronics skills are nowhere good enough to build one for myself.

USB kb with and OTG adapter not work?

[Radioguy]

Frankly, for a number of reasons, I'm inclined to break out an IBM-era machine for routine use. I actually do use a 760XD every so often as I loved that series dearly, and it can handle composing a letter at least.

Typing this on a P53 right now though...must do better!

[axur-delmeria]

USB kb with and OTG adapter not work?

I was thinking more like a phone case with a keypad/keyboard. It would look a bit like the Nokia Communicator line,

or better yet, a slide-out one like the Blackberry Torch 9810.



Re: 760XD

It's the first Thinkpad I ever used. Had good memories of it... except when lugging it around.

[zoltan87]

I use a Thinkpad T60 with SSD and Flexview screen as my main computer, and use a Nokia 808 as primary phone. I really don't care about social media and apps that much (apart from the few essential ones that Symbian has anyway), so I don't really feel the downsides of not being current. And the way things are looking, I can easily see myself using the same setup even 5 years from now (probably will upgrade to my T601 Frankenpad from T60, but you get the point).

[MikalE]

If Fed-Ex doesn't damage it in transit, I should be using an IBM A31p tomorrow.

Next to that a T500 seems almost new. But I use one of those too.

[kfzhu1229]

If Fed-Ex doesn't damage it in transit, I should be using an IBM A31p tomorrow.

Oh nice! I have a A30p and a Latitude C840 all with 3 spindles and the first 1600x1200 screens and they are definitely amazing pieces of laptops to collect.
How is the screen condition? All of the A3xp I have had my hands on have a broken backlight and I fixed all of them myself but they now have yellowing, dusting and uneven backlight.
But for the A31p, be careful about the non-heatsinked GPU and the RAM slot soldering issues.

[MikalE]

The machine is near mint.

[fatkatsupra1]

When I used to go into work, would use an IBm 760EL to admin some servers via putty, chat on IRC and poke around to find usable websites....

During lockdown the a21m is getting a workout during the day doing email and web browsing and Z61P at night running Ubuntu 19.10 or winxp for gaming...

Want to trying sharing an internet connection over IR in win98... something to tinker at