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Best classic traveling companion?

Older ThinkPads from the 300, 500, 600, 700 Series, iSeries, Transnote etc.
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fourthree
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Best classic traveling companion?

#1 Post by fourthree » Tue Apr 10, 2018 3:32 am

My research indicates that 240Z or 570E might the best ones. Performance is not a concern, battery life is more important.

Issues are:

I'm using my X61s as reference.

I assume both are quite rare. (expensive?)
I know nothing about the battery life.
Quality panels? Both have UXGA, TN for 240Z and E-INK(?) for 570E. (Look for them at panelook, finding them is a different problem..)
Stuff like wifi and the such.

The 240Z in particular is quite interesting; closest I can get to a Thinkpad netbook.
Dorkstation: T601f
Ultraportable: X61s

Thinkpad4by3
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Re: Best classic traveling companion?

#2 Post by Thinkpad4by3 » Tue Apr 10, 2018 5:34 am

The 240Z is BEYOND RARE. There are just a handful of units left in the wild. The 570E isn't too rare, but can be a little tricky to find. They both have XGA, not UXGA. All the batteries for these machines are long since dead so rebuilding is a must and then I don't know about battery life.
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thinkpadcollection
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Re: Best classic traveling companion?

#3 Post by thinkpadcollection » Tue Apr 10, 2018 6:06 pm

Typically most notebooks till Tx20 and 15W CPUs era are usually 3 hours and very rare ones makes to 5+ hours range. Just hunt down a ivy-bridge 17W or haswell 15W notebooks and go from there and they are more lighter and smaller, good 6 hour plus range with 6 cell battery pack or internal battery. I'd look at 13.3" to 12.5" with 15W processor for good portability and is not expensive, new battery packs easy to come by.

People who said finding older notebooks with pentium/PII era is not easy and parts hard to come by is correct. Besides they don't last on battery charge either even you are lucky to rebuild into a
perfect 100% battery. Also costly too. I looked at 380XD yesterday and they were more than 200 dollars let alone battery condition.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

fourthree
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Re: Best classic traveling companion?

#4 Post by fourthree » Sat May 12, 2018 10:45 am

I dropped the idea for now. Was really looking forward to trying an 240, but eh.

By the way, is there any better wifi card than the intel 2200 PRO for those machines? The PCMANIA wifi cards makes me feel like I'm using a dongle..
Dorkstation: T601f
Ultraportable: X61s

madicetea
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Re: Best classic traveling companion?

#5 Post by madicetea » Mon May 14, 2018 1:02 am

You aren't wrong about there being many peripherals. Even the wifi on the 240 is a PCMCIA peripheral card.
Last edited by madicetea on Tue Jun 11, 2019 8:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
MadIceTea, Thinkpad Enthusiast

Daily: X250 FHD
Museum: PC110 20MB, X61 T9300 SXGA+ LED
Donated: x2001 AFFS i5-530 (to my alma matter)
Past: 701Cs German, 535/X, 760E/XL, i-series 12/14xx, piano s30, R60e, X60, X61, T60, T61, X200 P8700, X121e

That chicken sure looks funny.

jaspen-meyer
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Re: Best classic traveling companion?

#6 Post by jaspen-meyer » Tue May 15, 2018 12:22 am

fourthree wrote:
Sat May 12, 2018 10:45 am
By the way, is there any better wifi card than the intel 2200 PRO for those machines? The PCMANIA wifi cards makes me feel like I'm using a dongle..
There are "Atheros mini pci wifi N" cards. The chip is a 91xx or 92xx. I can get exact details if you need them.

Are you sure you have the 2200 and not a 2100? The 2200 is a G card and shouldn't be THAT slow. The 2100 is only a B card, and is really slow.
T420 i7 3612QM seabios; T420 i7 3630QM; T400 Q9100 seabios; T61 P9600; T60 libreboot; x62; x60s libreboot, led; x24 xiphmont led

fourthree
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Re: Best classic traveling companion?

#7 Post by fourthree » Tue May 15, 2018 7:24 am

Icewobs wrote:
Mon May 14, 2018 1:02 am
Edit: We may have talked before, message me to confirm if this is the case.
Yep! But keep that a secret :)


jaspen-meyer wrote:
Tue May 15, 2018 12:22 am
Are you sure you have the 2200 and not a 2100? The 2200 is a G card and shouldn't be THAT slow. The 2100 is only a B card, and is really slow.
To be honest, that one was the best I found. If you have a better suggestion, that would be appreciated.
Dorkstation: T601f
Ultraportable: X61s

jaspen-meyer
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Re: Best classic traveling companion?

#8 Post by jaspen-meyer » Tue May 15, 2018 11:56 am

In my x24 I use a Qualcom Atheros AR922x -- bought from an ebay seller in Israel.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Atheros-AR9223/322223141848
T420 i7 3612QM seabios; T420 i7 3630QM; T400 Q9100 seabios; T61 P9600; T60 libreboot; x62; x60s libreboot, led; x24 xiphmont led

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