Any way to make my 600X seem faster?

[pit1337]

You can add firewalls and AV software to protect from internet problems. Quit browsing porn sites and you will be fine.

Anti-virus - seriously?
ALL of them are real performance killers... Just do not download crap form net and you'll be fine.

If I were you, I would do: (if you don't have some of it already) buy 850MHz CPU, 512MB RAM and 5400RPM HDD - those are really cheap nowdays.
Also, switch OS to Linux, but if you are afraid of it, go for XP.

[ThinkRob]

Anti-virus - seriously?
ALL of them are real performance killers... Just do not download crap form net and you'll be fine.

That's a very ineffective and rather risky policy. Ad networks can be (and are) exploited to serve malware, and sites are often compromised and modified to act as vectors for malicious software. We're not talking low-profile sites either: even Lenovo's site has been compromised and used to serve malicious software.

[pianowizard]

ALL of them are real performance killers...

Yeah, but anti-virus programs are too important to not install. Avast is not too bad, faster than AVG or Avira.

If I were you, I would do: (if you don't have some of it already) buy 850MHz CPU, 512MB RAM and 5400RPM HDD - those are really cheap nowdays.
Also, switch OS to Linux, but if you are afraid of it, go for XP.

With such specs and with Avast, this 600X should run XP SP3 fairly well. I had an i Series 1124 with 500MHz PIII, 256MB RAM and a 250GB 5400rpm HDD, and XP SP3 was tolerable.

[pit1337]

That's a very ineffective and rather risky policy. Ad networks can be (and are) exploited to serve malware, and sites are often compromised and modified to act as vectors for malicious software. We're not talking low-profile sites either: even Lenovo's site has been compromised and used to serve malicious software.

I've dropped ALL anti-virus stuff 3 years ago on all my Windows powered machines and surprisingly... all of them are virus-free.
I'm using HijackThis form time to time, and manually analyzing output, just to make sure that my systems are still clean.
With browsers like Chrome or Opera it's really hard to get infected from web...
Best weapon to fight viruses is... (surprisingly again) ...brain.

[pkiff]

If I were you, I would do: (if you don't have some of it already) buy 850MHz CPU, 512MB RAM and 5400RPM HDD - those are really cheap nowdays.

I wondered whether these CPUs and memory had actually become cheap these days, and I'm not so sure.

A quick search on e-Bay did not turn up any PIII 850MHz MMC-2 boards at all, for any price. I found a PIII 800 going for $50-60 USD, but I wouldn't call that "cheap" when you are talking about replacing a piece on a machine that you can purchase complete for just $100-200 total. I didn't check the memory, but remember that you need to use "low-density" 256MB memory chips, and while these I'm sure are cheaper than they used to be, they are still a bit of a rare, speciality item compared to standard high-density 256MB or 512MB chips. When you add the CPU and memory together, you'll definitely be over $100USD in upgrades, which, as I say, sounds pretty expensive to me, considering the value of the machine.

Not saying you shouldn't do it (I have), but I'm just saying I don't think it'll be cheap in terms of relative cost.

Phil.

[ThinkRob]

With browsers like Chrome or Opera it's really hard to get infected from web...

Right. About that...

All software has bugs. The best defense is a layered one -- and deliberately removing one of the reasonably-effective layers is not (at least in my opinion) a great idea.

[pit1337]

A quick search on e-Bay did not turn up any PIII 850MHz MMC-2 boards at all, for any price. I found a PIII 800 going for $50-60 USD, but I wouldn't call that "cheap" when you are talking about replacing a piece on a machine that you can purchase complete for just $100-200 total.

In polish auction like-an-ebay site called Allegro you can find right now PIII 800MHz for 12 PLN (about 4$) so for myself, I found them rather cheap. You are certainly right about memory, low-density ones are really rare, so they can be even more expensive that the whole 600x.

All software has bugs. The best defense is a layered one -- and deliberately removing one of the reasonably-effective layers is not (at least in my opinion) a great idea.

It's good option if you are someone important in, let's say, goverment or big company. I highly doubt that some experienced h4x0r will actually attack me. Even if, I hope he will enjoy my photos form holiday, couple of emails with family and friends and other diffrent things not important for everyone apart from me. This is why I've stopped beeing so paranoid about security (but it doesn't mean that I completly don't care).
BTW. If my server would get infected by some botnet that helps fighting for internet freedom, like shutting down websites fighting with Wikileaks, I would be pround and definitely keep that virus working

[ThinkRob]

It's good option if you are someone important in, let's say, goverment or big company. I highly doubt that some experienced h4x0r will actually attack me. Even if, I hope he will enjoy my photos form holiday, couple of emails with family and friends and other diffrent things not important for everyone apart from me. This is why I've stopped beeing so paranoid about security (but it doesn't mean that I completly don't care).

Targeted, "live" attacks are rare. Yes, you're not going to be the target of some individual malicious software author singling out you and you alone. You're right in that regard.

Where you are wrong, however, is in assuming that the vast majority of threats are in any way targeted. They're not. Vast quantities of malicious software are designed to infect anyone and everyone that they can, adding them to botnets, searching drives for financial information and login credentials, monitoring network traffic for the same, etc. These are all activities that prove exceedingly profitable when carried out on a large scale, thus they are. Nobody is targeting you specifically -- but you absolutely are exposed to such threats on a regular basis, whether you choose to believe it or not. Heck, most of the exploits used to gain access to a website and use it as a distribution point for malware are themselves automated -- it's literally as easy [for the bad guy] as launching an application and heading off to the pub while it does its work.

You, and (I suspect) most other regular users seem to believe the threat model is much the same as it was 15 or 20 years ago. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nowadays, the threats come from organized, profit-driven criminals, and the barrier for entry into the business is so fantastically low that you simply cannot count on being "uninteresting".

[pit1337]

I have no idea how it was 20 years ago, as I'm 18.
Is brain really too little? IMO anti-viruses are targeted for peoples, who can't fight with viruses by themselves.
I'm checking everything when doing maintance for machines (logs etc.) so I still can't believe that I must have anti-virus on Windows powered machines.
I'm using firewall, so I would see diffrent app asking for permission for internet. Even if not, I would see in server logs that there is not-usual net traffic.

[pkiff]

A quick search on e-Bay did not turn up any PIII 850MHz MMC-2 boards at all, for any price. I found a PIII 800 going for $50-60 USD, but I wouldn't call that "cheap" [...]

In polish auction like-an-ebay site called Allegro you can find right now PIII 800MHz for 12 PLN (about 4$) so for myself, I found them rather cheap.

Just FYI, that PIII 800 will not fit in a 600X. You need a PIII 800 that is mounted on an MMC-2 board. Those are relatively rare. The PIII 850MHz on an MMC-2 is even more rare. That is where the maximum of 850MHz comes from: there were lots of PIII chips made that were faster than 850MHz, but a 600X specifically needs the CPU to be mounted on an MMC-2 board.

By the way, I'm glad to see that there are some young Thinkpad users taking an interest in older machines like the 600X. They sure don't make'em like they used to!

Phil.

[pit1337]

Just FYI, that PIII 800 will not fit in a 600X. You need a PIII 800 that is mounted on an MMC-2 board. Those are relatively rare. The PIII 850MHz on an MMC-2 is even more rare. That is where the maximum of 850MHz comes from: there were lots of PIII chips made that were faster than 850MHz, but a 600X specifically needs the CPU to be mounted on an MMC-2 board.

Thanks for clarifying this for me

By the way, I'm glad to see that there are some young Thinkpad users taking an interest in older machines like the 600X. They sure don't make'em like they used to!

Yeah, I love retro computers.
I'm in business since I was 6 (my dad introduced me his 486 PC) and I'm still in
I'm glad I can beat the stereotype of young peoples nowdays - no facebook zombie for me

[ozzymud]

bummer this will be ended prolly by the time anyone see's it

25minutes remaining... Mobile Intel MMC-2 Pentium 3 800 MHz PIII MMC2 Upgrade
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mobile-Intel-MMC-2- ... 414eb816d6


But the 700MHz ones are more common at least... 3 of em listed for around $50...

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=MMC-2+ ... m270.l1313

[banyanleaf]

Although I have owned and used T30 for a long time, I have to say the RAM slot design flaw plagues a lot of T30. Be careful with that problem otherwise you may end up with a non-functional but physically decent machine.

[/quote]If the OP is attached to the 600X, another suggestion I have is to upgrade to a newer Thinkpad that has some resemblance to the 600X: the T30. Like the 600/E/X, the T30 was built like a tank, and IMO it's the second toughest "thin and light" Thinkpad that IBM ever made (the 600 Series was #1). It's fast enough to run modern Windows, and yet old enough to feel kind of like the 600 Series. The T2* wasn't as tough, and the T4* was even worse.[/quote]