How long a max-ed out T601 FrankenPad will last until obsolete

[600X]

Since 2016, somewhat surprisingly, 3:2 has become a mainstream aspect ratio. My 28" desktop monitor is 3:2 and although I don't own a laptop anymore (unless you count my ThinkPad museum that is for show only and not for use), I could quite easily buy a 3:2 laptop (like the Framework 13 or Surface Laptop) if I wanted to.

[sentabrina]

T601 FrankenPad using nVidia Graphics chips are still supported and usable even in 2024

[Medessec]

Man... 2016! I looked at the rules and I'm not seeing anything about reviving old threads, but it's a topic I've always had to talk about with others I know still have a T60/T61, or T601 of any sort whether it's a UXGA or a SXGA+.

I personally feel like they are obsolete as a normal, open-ended computing platform. Unless it's absolutely maxed out and modded (Middleton, 8GB RAM, SSD, at least a T9300) it won't find a lot of favor from a casual user, and will be sluggish in a lot of situations, especially with Windows 10. The nice 4:3 is really its only saving grace. If you know exactly what you're doing and know how to configure both the laptop and the OS, I'd say there's still a lot of potential in the T601 and T6x/X6x for that matter, for years to come. It can still be a smooth experience with few hiccups, depending on what you're doing exactly. Obviously don't expect to play Death Stranding on it, or be able to do content creation or be able to run a bunch of different things at once. If you use your laptop for basic web browsing, maybe some light to medium Office use such as Excel, you could absolutely do that. You may have to experiment with different media players.

For those out there looking to piece together a cheap one, There's still 4:3 T61s around from time to time and the best way to upgrade one to be smooth in daily use is at least 4GB of RAM (not expensive, 8GB is very expensive for most) and an SSD, because Windows 7 and 10 have a lot of background page-file action, and also OS-cache stuff will spill over from the RAM to the storage drive. So having a fast storage drive when Windows 10 needs it, really helps. T60 doesn't really have any enabling BIOS mods other than Whitelist removal, so you're kind of stuck with the sub-4GB RAM limitation and SATA 1. Not too bad, but T61 with SATA 2 and the ability to mount up 8GB makes a huge difference with modern computing, and is way more futureproof in case you have any anxieties about being able to use your 4:3 Thinkpad long term.

One thing I think a lot of people miss the trick with T601 and that gen of Thinkpad in general, is pairing it with a 2503. They can be a bit hard to find and expensive, but if you land a good working one and put a decent GPU in it (I've tested NVS 510 and Quadro P400, they both work great) then you can have your Thinkpad in stock config on the go... limited processing power of course but still good for basic things like I mentioned. But when you get home, smack it on the 2503 and suddenly you have a semi-modern low-power GPU to power your multimedia needs.