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ThinkPad R60 (X1400) for old games

R30/R40, A30/A31, G40/G50 and Z60/Z61 Series. NOT for AMD-Ryzen.
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vorob
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ThinkPad R60 (X1400) for old games

#1 Post by vorob » Fri Feb 28, 2020 5:04 am

Long story: I was searching for an ultimate retro gaming laptop, I had Dell Latitude D800 with GeForce 4, a good thing, but it had widescreen (bad for DOS) and can't run smth newer games like Doom 3, SWAT 4, Thief Deadly Shadows. So I bought 4:3 Toshiba Tecra S3 with GeForce 6600. This one is powerful but it turned out that GeForce 6 lost many old features like support for palleted textures so this video card is not a good option for old games. And then I saw some samples from newer Radeon laptops and saw that they run old games better than GeForce 6, so I decided to look into such laptops. And found IBM ThinkPad R60 with ATI Mobility Radeon X1400. It's not much weaker than my GeForce 6 and looks like it supports old stuff.

My question is, what the history told us about R60 with X1400? Are they reliable? GPU death is a common thing or not? What about the CCFL lamp on screen? Does it die fast? Became yellow? What about hinges? Are they reliable? Thx!

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Re: ThinkPad R60 (X1400) for old games

#2 Post by dr_st » Fri Feb 28, 2020 1:11 pm

I have a T60 with X1400.

The Flexview (IPS) screens do darken and yellow with time on these models, but not terribly. I think the non-IPS screens (which is what you will most likely find on an R60) are less prone to it, but we are talking about machines almost a decade and a half old, so you can't expect the screen to be very bright...

ATI GPUs on these models sometimes die due to VRAM corruption issues, but it's not very common. But again, a machine so old, can die a sudden death any time and one can't be too surprised.

Hinges on 15" units get a bit wobbly with time and then stay at a reasonable level. Hinge failure or them becoming so loose as to not properly support the screen is very rare.
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T490 (20N3), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad

vorob
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Re: ThinkPad R60 (X1400) for old games

#3 Post by vorob » Fri Feb 28, 2020 5:55 pm

Thank you very much!

vorob
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Re: ThinkPad R60 (X1400) for old games

#4 Post by vorob » Sat Feb 29, 2020 10:32 am

By the way, I just read a review that states that R60 and T60 are almost the same except some case materials. Maybe lcd’s are also the same and I can theoretically put ips from t60 to r60? Connectors are the same?

Ps was there any attempt to replace dead CCFL lamps to LED? How old ThinkPad fans solve dimming and yellowing screens problem?

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Re: ThinkPad R60 (X1400) for old games

#5 Post by RealBlackStuff » Sat Feb 29, 2020 12:39 pm

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=40808
T6x LCDs fit in R6x, connectors are the same, but inverters/cables are different.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
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vorob
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Re: ThinkPad R60 (X1400) for old games

#6 Post by vorob » Sat Feb 29, 2020 6:34 pm

Okay, i expect this R60 on Monday. It will be a machine that was mostly used on external screen in office. Seller promises me good hinges and screen :) For 30$

vorob
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Re: ThinkPad R60 (X1400) for old games

#7 Post by vorob » Mon Mar 02, 2020 5:34 am

I have it!
Condition is good, the screen is good, hinges are slightly loosened. I already tried some games that were broke on GeForce 6 and they work as they should here on ATI X1400!

https://sun9-46.userapi.com/c205516/v20 ... OL0jak.jpg

FORUM warning:
picture(s) WAY too big, tags removed. Please read the Forum Rules, especially Section 5: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14339

vorob
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Re: ThinkPad R60 (X1400) for old games

#8 Post by vorob » Mon Mar 02, 2020 4:49 pm

All drivers were okay from the official page, but I didn't get what's that is: https://sun9-59.userapi.com/c205224/v20 ... CZ9mMg.jpg Solved

Some people told me that it's better to maximize cooler while gaming, found this app IBM ECW/TPFANCONTROL, but it states that it's made for 4* and 5* ThinkPad's, not the 6*. GPU control doesn't work at all and fan speed can be just enabled/disabled, can't make it faster. Any advice?

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Re: ThinkPad R60 (X1400) for old games

#9 Post by dr_st » Tue Mar 03, 2020 2:56 am

There is only one heatsink and one fan that is shared by CPU and GPU. TPFanControl can control it on 6* series.
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T490 (20N3), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad

vorob
Posts: 11
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Location: Moscow, Russia

Re: ThinkPad R60 (X1400) for old games

#10 Post by vorob » Tue Mar 03, 2020 8:30 am

dr_st wrote:
Tue Mar 03, 2020 2:56 am
There is only one heatsink and one fan that is shared by CPU and GPU. TPFanControl can control it on 6* series.
Yes, my mistake, I thought IBM ECW / TPFANCONTROL is 1 program. And the second issue is that max rpm turns on in a minute or so, not immediately.

vorob
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Feb 28, 2020 4:53 am
Location: Moscow, Russia

Re: ThinkPad R60 (X1400) for old games

#11 Post by vorob » Fri Apr 10, 2020 5:41 am

Replaced Intel Core Duo Processor T2400 (2M Cache, 1.83 GHz, 667 MHz FSB) with Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7200 (4M Cache, 2.00 GHz, 667 MHz FSB) and did some cleaning job inside.

I was quite impressed by the artisanal way of cooler mounting. When I screwed CPU I noticed that GPU and Chipset part is not in contact with cooler. And this metal plate pushes cooler down. It's like they've engineered laptop without it, saw that cooler is not properly connected with these chips and implemented this on the go solution...

Image

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