Thinkpads Forum

I been reading regarding the 600 series and i am interested in buying one but id like to find the top of the line model.

Can anyone let me kow what is the top model maybe the one with the fastest cpu? Better features?

Your input is needed.

Check the twbook: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pcinstitu ... twbook.pdf , pages 46-52

Orevin wrote:Check the twbook: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pcinstitu ... twbook.pdf , pages 46-52

Excelent!! Now i know which way to go!

I would skip past the 600 since the 600E features a faster CPU and usually runs for not much more as far as price goes. The 600X is the pinnacle of the 600 line with a Pentium III CPU and a miniPCI slot but these computers usually run for as much money (and many times, even more) than a good ThinkPad T23.

For a budget, a 366mhz or 400mhz 600E upgraded with at least 128mb RAM and a good hard dive (prefferably 5400rpm or better and with 8mb cache or better) would be the best value, in my opinion. This setup would also be very capable of running Windows XP SP2 with respectable performance.

Thanks!

I am bidding now at a 600x I notice it got a 650 p3 cpu I plan to use it as my 2d lappy.

The lcd's are all the same?

Are there any other diffrences between it and the 600 or 600E? Is the body identical between them? Sorry to ask.

Thanks

The 600 was availible with a 12" SVGA TFT or a 13" XGA TFT and either a 233mhz Pentium MMX CPU, a 266mhz Pentium II or a 300mhz Penitum II CPU. The 600 has 2mb PCI graphics. All 600 laptops have 512kb off-chip half-speed L2 cache.

The 600E, with the exception of the original models produced in late 1998 and early 1999 had 256kb on-chip full speed L2 cache (the early models had 512 half speed), 13" TFT standard, 2.5mb AGP video and your choice of a 300mhz, 366mhz or 400mhz Pentium II CPU.

Body on the 600 and 600E is identical.

Thanks for the info.

I have used a 366MHz P2 TP600E and a 366MHz P2 TP600 and the former performed much much better. So, I too recommend not getting the TP600.

As a guy who has two of these, and has had one for quite a long time, frankly I'd look for something newer. If you look through the posts here, you'll find two "complaints." One is that even though the 600 series can have the cpu upgraded to a certain degree, it's not without problems. Two, the machine just doesn't "like" 800 x 600 screen setting, a complaint that if I'd known, probably would not have bought mine at the time.

Last, somewhat fussy XP compatability. If you're willing to put up with these downsides, go for it. I still use mine, one hard drive has 98SE, the other has W2K I have NOT been able to get XP to run on the faster (700-750mhz) cpu

After using two 600Es of my own and through a variety of hard drives, I've found XP to always work just fine. I see nothing fussy and with the exception of the modem, everything was covered by XPs built in drivers (though I highly reccomend IBMs drivers anyway). If you have a 300mhz or better CPU and at least 128mb RAM, nothing should hold you back from installing XP on a 600E.

For 800x600, I'm hard pressed to find a real reason to use it. For the color settings, 600E does work better with 16-bit than with 24-bit but my eyes see minimal difference if even that. Unless you are working in video editing or something else that's highly taxing on a CPU, I really don't see many downsides.

I agree with Alpha. I recently upgraded a 2645-3AU to 288MB RAM and a 60GB 7200RPM hard drive. I installed Windows XP Pro from a T30 recovery CD and everything installed properly with the correct drivers. I don't even have the latest BIOS-currently still running 34W-and there are no issues. The only tweak I did was set XP to turn off all of the eye candy for best performance, and it runs very smoothly. At some point I might upgrade to a P3 processor, but at the moment it is fine. The video performance is very lacking, but it is ok for basic tasks.