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COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

Older ThinkPads from the 300, 500, 600, 700 Series, iSeries, Transnote etc.
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kony
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Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#31 Post by kony » Thu Mar 24, 2016 4:52 am

Khipata wrote: T500 light gaming
W520 (moderate gaming on weekends
You should make an eGPU build with W520 for some heavy gaming too ;)
My T430 with GTX 560 Ti (Now with GTX 670)
T430: i5-3320m, 8 GB, SSD + HDD, 1600x900.

popsmoke
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Location: toronto, canada

Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#32 Post by popsmoke » Sun Jan 29, 2017 11:43 pm

Weighing in a bit late here, with a few random thoughts

* my collection of T42s started one day when I had bad case of the flu, high fever, and was in bed watching a movie on only true fair-weather friend, a used R40 I had picked up which, to that point, had never let me down. In the middle of the film, it gave me an error saying that the wireless card was not a proper card for the machine and shut me down. As soon as I was up and running a few days later (me, not the R40) I picked up a used T42 to replace the R40 -- and sort of fell in love with the thing. (Yeah, mental disorder, maybe, sure, I guess).

* so, trying to convince myself that I needed lots of backups in case the T42 met "catastrophic failure" like the R40, I started picking up used units and parts. I currently (this is perhaps embarrassing) have 11 T42s, of which 8 are souped up the max (max ram, max IDE drives, dual boot to XP and 7) and three are "donor" machines only.

* so my wife would not think me completely mad (emphasis on word "completely") I set up working computer stations in every room of the house. We do not own a single smartphone but we are never more than 60 seconds away from a fully loaded, ready to do battle T42.

* I do have other "more modern" machines in working condition -- usually gifts from friends trying to cure me of my T42 addiction -- but I always gravitate back to the T42s. I do all my work on the T42s and am writing this on a T42 that was donated with bad keyboard. Took me 2 minutes to replace the keyboard. (Thinkpad! Duh!)

* Parting thoughts: T42 still seems the perfect amalgam of fit and function. Think "smartphone with a full keyboard that you could edit video on" and you will get the picture ---- For any other T42 junkies out there, MPC will run most of the tricky videos but the latest iterations of MKV are proving to be a nuisance -- and, oh yeah, there REALLY IS a design flaw with the chassis -- if you pick up the machine by right-front corner you really can crack a motherboard in about 10 seconds or less. So don't say I didn't warn you.

Did I tell you that you can pour coffee over it while running and it will soldier on?

One of the last great IBM laptop innovations -- check it out on Youtube -- actually built drainholes in the chassis -- who does that anymore?


:wink:

mario_a
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Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#33 Post by mario_a » Sun Oct 22, 2017 12:25 pm

My Thinkpad collecting addiction started because I realized that Lenovo is slowly moving away from everything that made Thinkpads so great to use. To be honest, CPU speeds aren't increasing nearly fast enough anymore (core numbers are, but most apps don't take advantage of them), and have become good enough for most of my purposes, years ago.
For me, the keyboard layout is far more important than a 40% increase in CPU performance. Nowadays I can even do CAD through the cloud, so local CPU speed isn't critical.
And I also don't need to do my simulations on local CPU - I submit them to a supercomputer/cluster.

So..... when Lenovo threw away the 7-row mechanical keyboard, and then doubled down on stupid with the T440 trackpad, I saw the writing on the wall and started buying "old" thinkpads, like the X200-X220 and the T400-T410 series.

mario_a
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Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#34 Post by mario_a » Sun Oct 22, 2017 1:50 pm

popsmoke wrote:
Sun Jan 29, 2017 11:43 pm
Weighing in a bit late here, with a few random thoughts

* my collection of T42s started one day when I had bad case of the flu, high fever, and was in bed watching a movie on only true fair-weather friend, a used R40 I had picked up which, to that point, had never let me down. In the middle of the film, it gave me an error saying that the wireless card was not a proper card for the machine and shut me down. As soon as I was up and running a few days later (me, not the R40) I picked up a used T42 to replace the R40 -- and sort of fell in love with the thing. (Yeah, mental disorder, maybe, sure, I guess).

* so, trying to convince myself that I needed lots of backups in case the T42 met "catastrophic failure" like the R40, I started picking up used units and parts. I currently (this is perhaps embarrassing) have 11 T42s, of which 8 are souped up the max (max ram, max IDE drives, dual boot to XP and 7) and three are "donor" machines only.

* so my wife would not think me completely mad (emphasis on word "completely") I set up working computer stations in every room of the house. We do not own a single smartphone but we are never more than 60 seconds away from a fully loaded, ready to do battle T42.

* I do have other "more modern" machines in working condition -- usually gifts from friends trying to cure me of my T42 addiction -- but I always gravitate back to the T42s. I do all my work on the T42s and am writing this on a T42 that was donated with bad keyboard. Took me 2 minutes to replace the keyboard. (Thinkpad! Duh!)

* Parting thoughts: T42 still seems the perfect amalgam of fit and function. Think "smartphone with a full keyboard that you could edit video on" and you will get the picture ---- For any other T42 junkies out there, MPC will run most of the tricky videos but the latest iterations of MKV are proving to be a nuisance -- and, oh yeah, there REALLY IS a design flaw with the chassis -- if you pick up the machine by right-front corner you really can crack a motherboard in about 10 seconds or less. So don't say I didn't warn you.

Did I tell you that you can pour coffee over it while running and it will soldier on?

One of the last great IBM laptop innovations -- check it out on Youtube -- actually built drainholes in the chassis -- who does that anymore?


:wink:
I understand you more than you can imagine.

edik
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Location: Moscow, RF

Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#35 Post by edik » Thu Nov 02, 2017 8:32 pm

I don't collect ThinkPads.. but I go through them at a fast rate.. using every generation and many machines.

If I were to collect I guess I would only collect the 7XX series... I loved those machines and although only owned a 760XL, 760XD, and 770 have seen and experienced most of the other 7 series... would love to play around with 770Z for instance and 701C...

Saying that, increasingly I am thinking of dumping the T450 and buying a used minty T61p (good "NVidia" date) and maxing to 8GB and SSD.. it's about the earliest original machine I could work with today using Linux and the tools I use.. yes computations would be slow... but I can live with that.

2020: P50/E3-1535M/24GB/3xSSD/FHD
2018: T550/16/IPS 3K/72Wh
2007-2018: T450, T520/i7, X200s, T500, A31p, A30p, T42p, X60s, X32, X31
Gone but not forgotten 1998-2006: 2006 T43p 2668-H2G (2GB/60), T22 2648-8EG (128/20) 2005 X40, X31 2004 T30 SXGA+, 600X, 2003 770 P233+DVD Card, 760XD 1998 760XL+104MB

Dragunov
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Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#36 Post by Dragunov » Thu Nov 30, 2017 9:06 pm

I guess we're "ThinkHoarders".

Up until about ten years ago, I had an IBM PC-AT with original keyboard, 1 mb, Orchid VGA card, Soundblaster, IBM 8518 VGA monitor, 4 mb/Ram, a 50mb, and a 70mb HDD (formatted RLL), all running on Dos 6.22, a buttload of Sierra games, some of which I still have on 5.25", and 3.5", floppy disks. Deluxe enhanced paint II, Autocad (Don't remember the version), all the original disks, and manuals, and PFS First Choice, and my Assy language compiler.

Come to think of it, I still have my original CP/M, DOS 3.3, DOS 6.22, and Windows 3.11 in storage somewhere. :P

This computer also had a 1.2mb 5.25 floppy drive, and a 1.44mb 3.5" floppy drive, and somewhere around 20 DIP switches to control (or cause) the nightmares. It was the Bee's Knee's, when I purchased it new in '86. Most ran 6-8Mhz, Mine was one of just a few 10Mhz "Beasts" that came out. I believe only 100 or so, were built. I paid almost $5000 for it.
I wish I still had it. :(

I also had a 386/20Mhz PS2, and all the little "Micro-channel" goodies, that went along with it. Still wish I had that too.

The company I worked for, upgraded their systems every 3 years. They sort of gave me all their old systems! My first lot, were Apple IIe. I got roughly 30 of them, all with monitors, and disk drives. The second lot I got were IBM 5150, 4.77Mhz, no HDD, and 128K/ram. That was in 1981. I got 30 of those. I got 30, 5160 PCXT's in 1984.

How much did I pay for them? I had to teach DOS classes for the company, and I wrote menu systems for the plant computers. That's it! I sold most of them with a menu system to make them easy to use. I made a LOT of money in the '80's, and '90's on computers, and repairing Nintendo game "consoles". I wish I would've kept at least a few of them.

Sadly, I'm too impatient with slow computers, and don't like anything slower than my T400's. I have two, R400's, but they're Merom processors, and are noticeably slower than my T9600 (OOOPS! Nope! T9500), T400 laptops. I never cared for any of the 1stGen "i" series computers, so I collect 2ndGen and up. I REALLY like the third gen "Ivy bridge" computers.

If it won't play Sims 2/3/4 without any struggle, I get rid of them.
Last edited by Dragunov on Fri Dec 01, 2017 11:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

kfzhu1229
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Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#37 Post by kfzhu1229 » Fri Dec 01, 2017 12:59 am

I collect some vintage powerhouse ThinkPads as something for me to enjoy its glory, though at wrong times. My A30p is still wonderful in its own ways (and in a very good shape) and I will still use it at least once a week. I will end up building a A31p soon when parts arrive. I have several T4x with UXGA display, with one of them (T43p) completely maxed out and is my daily driver because it does what I want it to do done (work on the go, notes, sometimes YouTube playback, etc.) and take all the heavy work to my 2007 powerhouse desktop computer (absolutely maxed out OptiPlex 755 with GTX 1050 Ti, Xeon and SSD and all that awesome stuff) Those things show how they can still be better than cheap chromebooks and awfully priced ultrabooks of today. I don't pay for portability unless it's absolutely for practicability (You cannot expect a desktop to be brought to lectures and you cannot expect a laptop to take your phone calls, etc.)
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

MikalE
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Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#38 Post by MikalE » Fri Dec 01, 2017 10:24 am

The only Thinkpad considered vintage that I really want is an A31 or A31p that was configured by NASA for use in space on the ISS and STS. The ultimate in a CTO Thinkpad.
A31p P-IV 2Ghz, 2MB, 2653-R6U
T500 T9600 2055-BE9
T510 i5 4384-DV7
T510 i7 4349-A64
T520 i7QM 4242-4UU Highly Modified
T16 i7 1260P 21BV000SUS

jaspen-meyer
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Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#39 Post by jaspen-meyer » Fri Dec 01, 2017 12:58 pm

edik wrote:
Thu Nov 02, 2017 8:32 pm
...T61p [is] about the earliest original machine I could work with today using Linux and the tools I use.. yes computations would be slow... but I can live with that.
The computational power of the T61 is equal to the entire sum of the world's computational power in 1970. If you took the machine back to 1970 and presented it to the world's top engineers as "slow", they would raise their eyebrows and their jaws would drop. You would be asked to demonstrate how it was slow.

In 1980. it would still be the world's fastest computer.

In 1990, it would still be world's fastest computer.

In 2000, it would be the world's fastest laptop.

In conclusion I collect vintage thinkpads because I consider them as, second hand, world-leading tools; the modern-day Don Quiote uses an IBM thinkpad.
T420 i7 3612QM seabios; T420 i7 3630QM; T400 Q9100 seabios; T61 P9600; T60 libreboot; x62; x60s libreboot, led; x24 xiphmont led

kfzhu1229
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Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#40 Post by kfzhu1229 » Fri Dec 01, 2017 9:23 pm

Well, I can still enjoy seeing my 5 year old i7-3720QM T530 smashes most of today's laptops in terms of CPU performance. I hoped I can upgrade the GPU on that thing
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

MikalE
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Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#41 Post by MikalE » Sat Dec 02, 2017 9:52 am

My CPU benchmark is 7763 for the i7 2760QM. Not the fastest, but still moving right along.
A31p P-IV 2Ghz, 2MB, 2653-R6U
T500 T9600 2055-BE9
T510 i5 4384-DV7
T510 i7 4349-A64
T520 i7QM 4242-4UU Highly Modified
T16 i7 1260P 21BV000SUS

kfzhu1229
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#42 Post by kfzhu1229 » Sat Dec 02, 2017 5:06 pm

MikalE wrote:
Sat Dec 02, 2017 9:52 am
My CPU benchmark is 7763 for the i7 2760QM. Not the fastest, but still moving right along.
That is more than enough. My Xeon X3363 desktop OC to 3.2Ghz gives me around 4500 for PassMark CPU benchmark, and that can still play cutting edge AAA games when paired with GTX 1050 Ti.
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

madicetea
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Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#43 Post by madicetea » Sun Jan 07, 2018 9:06 am

Is there a difference between collecting vintage and modern Thinkpads in this sort of situation?
Last edited by madicetea on Tue Jun 11, 2019 7:57 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.

rimmer
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Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#44 Post by rimmer » Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:07 pm

The topic should be "COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, AFFAIR OR ADDICTION?

I would say I am having an affair with my thinkpad behind my compaq's back :D

Collecting anything that is vintage or classic is not any more unusual than collecting old stamps or
classic restoring cars.

kfzhu1229
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#45 Post by kfzhu1229 » Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:26 am

MikalE wrote:
Fri Dec 01, 2017 10:24 am
The only Thinkpad considered vintage that I really want is an A31 or A31p that was configured by NASA for use in space on the ISS and STS. The ultimate in a CTO Thinkpad.
Huh btw I have dealt with 2 A31p in the past 2 years. sold one, and don't have much use with the other one, since my A30p is better in battery life and stuff, and that A31p has the T30 famous RAM slot desolder problem
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

f13dev
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2018 2:49 pm
Location: Margate, UK

Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#46 Post by f13dev » Mon Mar 12, 2018 3:05 pm

It's definitely a mental disorder, I just love being surrounded by chunky black boxes, some of which have rather sticky rubberised paint on them. Interesting hint here as I removed the rubber coating from my 600E the other day, nitromethain gets it off with ease and doesn't appear to damage the plastic underneath.

My issues came about by getting a second hand 701CS sometime around 1997 when I was a teenager. For some reason, seeing Windows 3.11 just makes me feel complete again. Strangely enough I bought another 701CS a couple of years ago and it cost me about 3 times what I paid for my original one, although I ended up reselling it as it developed a number of issues. Perhaps somebody on here still owns it.

I recently bought a not quite so iconic keyboard wielding 755CD to keep my Windows 3.11 issues quiet. Eventually I'll have to track a second HDD caddy for it so I can easily swap out the drive to a Windows 95 drive and back again.

rmcd
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 9:34 pm
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#47 Post by rmcd » Mon Mar 02, 2020 9:36 pm

Recovery is possible !!

One of the local universities has a computer museum. I'm starting to donate my collection to them. So far, they have one of my Butterfly's and (sob) my Transnote. More will be cleared out over the coming months. It's a good thing to do as the prof and the students seem to appreciate them. Better than sitting in totes in my basement.

Now all I need to do is start getting rid of motorcycles.

kfzhu1229
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Posts: 2484
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:59 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: COLLECTING VINTAGE THINKPADS: HOBBY, MENTAL DISORDER OR BOTH?

#48 Post by kfzhu1229 » Tue Mar 03, 2020 12:40 pm

rmcd wrote:
Mon Mar 02, 2020 9:36 pm
Recovery is possible !!

One of the local universities has a computer museum. I'm starting to donate my collection to them. So far, they have one of my Butterfly's and (sob) my Transnote. More will be cleared out over the coming months. It's a good thing to do as the prof and the students seem to appreciate them. Better than sitting in totes in my basement.

Now all I need to do is start getting rid of motorcycles.
Really? I live in Toronto too but I have no idea there is such a thing lol. But I guess my computers are just ordinary business class laptops from 1-2 decades ago so not really memorable in any way.
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

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