thinking of getting a thinkpad, 600x or 570e?

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sleepkyng · #1 Post by **sleepkyng** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 3:05 pm

I'm a college student with basically no money. I want a computer that I can do work on (so no internet capability) and it seems like a thinkpad is the working person's laptop.

I want to buy something reliable that I can use for a LOOOONG time but that I can tweak and mess around with.

it seems like the 600x is a good choice - I'm also thinking about turning the laptop into a Compact Flash based drive so that it is real rugged.

a couple of questions:

how portable is the 600x or 570e?

Can I find a thinkpad for sub$70 or is that too cheap?

thanks everyone. I've browsed this webforum for a while and really like the community so i decided to join!

#2 Post by **rkawakami** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 3:26 pm

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

As the owner of several 600X and 600E systems (no 570e) I can say that they are pretty rugged. My 15 y.o. daughter is still using a 500Mhz 600X with WinXP. She does mostly web surfing and Microsoft Word documents on it. The palmrest is totally beat from her bracelets, the LCD is dimmer than it was when I gave it to her a couple of years ago, yet it is still functionally reliable. She tends to leave it on 24/7 and travels around the house between the couch (where it's pluggd into an AC adapter) and her room, where it's docked. The 600 series seems to be more rigid than the T2x systems and the keyboard on the 600s is a lot more firmer than the T23 I'm using at the moment. With any laptop, as long as you are careful with picking it up with both hands and/or supporting it in the middle of the bottom (instead of grabbing it by one corner), then it should last many more years.

$70 might be a stretch for a fully equipped system. By that I mean with an optical drive, a good battery and AC adapter. You can max out a 600X with 576MB of memory (64MB on board, plus two 256MB PC100 SODIMMs). A 650Mhz CPU was the fastest factory CPU installed. The only thing that the system lacks (in my point of view) is ethernet and USB 2.0 capabilities. Both can be had by using PCMCIA cards. I've replaced the MiniPCI modem card with an 802.11b/g wireless card and installed both internal and external antennas so there's possibilities for hacking this system.

You can check some specifications by downloading a copy of the "twbook.pdf" file from here:

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pcinstitute/psref/

sleepkyng · #3 Post by **sleepkyng** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 3:32 pm

Thanks for the fast reply!

what about for a barebones model?

I was thinking of trying to find a cheap one and then running puppylinux on it until I could afford to upgrade it.

is ~$70 not feasible for one without an optical drive and good battery?

i don't need wireless or anything like that - though usb 2.0 might be handy in the future.

do laptops wear out over time (not including the hard drive)?

#4 Post by **rkawakami** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 4:40 pm

Barebones system, without any extra memory, an optical drive and a 2.5hr battery could probably be found for $70 or less. Here's a couple of recent sales of 500Mhz systems on eBay:

$48 shipped
$76 shipped

The rest of them that I can quickly find are for more than $100. Some are going for $200+ but those are probably with a full boat of memory and/or an operating system and applications already installed.

The last two 600X systems in the kind of configuration you are talking about that I bought about a year ago were $115 each. I'm surprised that I can still reference them in eBay's system:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 6873813172

Besides the bad CMOS batteries, they needed more memory to be able to run WinXP on them. Also, the case on one is cracked and the lower PCMCIA port on the other appears to be dead. If you are willing to buy a unit which needs a little work, then you shouldn't have any problem finding one for under $70. Just be aware of the "upgrade" costs. The main problem with trying to get a 600X cheaply is that a PC100 256MB module is running about $40 on eBay. And that price is if you are lucky. You will not be able to upgrade the system's USB port. In order to get 2.0, you will have to use a PCMCIA-USB adapter.

I'd say the hard drive is the part that will probably give out the most often. Right behind that, it's the LCD panel. Both are fairly fragile but then again, all laptops have those issues. If you treat the system kindly, it should return years of usefulness.

unrortit · #5 Post by **unrortit** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:38 am

mate these things have titanium composite throughout,
if you find a complete working one with a dead battery +NO FLOPPY CASE +MISSING OR DEAD HARDRIVE ,
YOU DONE EXTREMELY WELL.
THESE MACHINES ARE GONNA HOLD THEIR VALUE IN THE LONGTERM BECAUSE OF COMPATABILTY ,DURABILITY+
DECENT SPEED.
YOU MAY ALSO CONSIDER THE 600E WHICH IS FASTER THAN THE X
WITH A P111 INSTALLED (DESPITE 1.5MB LESS VIDEO)WHEN YOU UPGRADE LATER.

thinking of getting a thinkpad, 600x or 570e?

thinking of getting a thinkpad, 600x or 570e?

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