Your first thinkpad?

Message

bhtooefr · #61 Post by **bhtooefr** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:10 am

Exactly. There's a few people that run stripped-down Win2K SP0 installs on them, but then again, there's an insane person (IIRC, he's on cpu-museum.de) who runs a stripped-down Win2K SP0 install, running Opera and Photoshop, on a 486DX2 @ 66MHz with 16MB RAM. Swappity swap swap swap! (He runs DOS for day-to-day stuff, only booting into Windows for web browsing and photo editing.)

#62 Post by **Kyocera** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:58 pm

My first thinkpad was a 380ED, bought it used, fixed it and kept it for a couple of years, sold it to a friend who still uses it! Amazing.

First laptop was a toshiba satellite 1910CS, this one has the microsoft ballpoint mouse, what a bizarre looking thing. It still boots up and works fine for an oldster.

wolfman · #63 Post by **wolfman** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 8:31 pm

My first Thinkpad was an A21m model, PIII 750 mhz with 512 meg of ram and a 20 gig drive.

scrible88 · #64 Post by **scrible88** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 9:52 pm

My first Thinkpad is my current one, X22.

Pentium III 800mhz
256mb RAM
20gb hard drive
Windows XP Pro
WIFI

AndyL · #65 Post by **AndyL** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 6:01 am

bhtooefr wrote:...there's an insane person (IIRC, he's on cpu-museum.de) who runs a stripped-down Win2K SP0 install, running Opera and Photoshop, on a 486DX2 @ 66MHz with 16MB RAM.

Holy moly. I once had Windows NT 4.0 on a machine of exactly that spec, used as a print server. It was desperately slow.

bhtooefr · #66 Post by **bhtooefr** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 8:58 am

There used to be a competition for the worst system that Windows XP would run on.

The winners were a Pentium 60 @ 20 (the mobo had trouble at the 40MHz FSB and the 0.5x multi) with 32MB RAM (had to have 64MB RAM to install, though) and a Pentium Overdrive 83 @ 63 with 18MB RAM. (They never tried 17MB, but XP would BSOD saying that there wasn't enough RAM at 16MB.)

christopher_wolf · #67 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 8:08 pm

Well, my First IBM was a 701C that I still have; I got it at around the same time as an Apple Powerbook of the time. I still have both.

I do, however, remember using some *HUGE* (25lbs) luggable that had a red tinted screen and was more like a PC Tower. By the way, my 701C still boots, holds an hour + battery charge, runs Windows 95, and connects to the internet fine on dialup. I still love it.

440roadrunner · #68 Post by **440roadrunner** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 1:13 pm

First Thinkpad was a 360xx, I've forgotten about a 66mhz or less 486, had the 20mb ram card, and Whenblows 95. It developed a problem, and would not read the floppy. Back in those days, I had no CDROM.

I did later add a Panasonic 4x PCMCIA cdrom, which I still have. It's still useful for loading programs.

Later, when eFray came along, I did other things. I stupidly bought a 360PE, not knowing it was a "pen", then on eFray I found a board for the original 360xx that had an (Evergreen?) Pentium chip upgrade. THAT actually made the old 360 nearly useable for speed.

I eventually found ANOTHER 360xx cheaper, at a Thrift store, and with all the parts accumulated, I managed to get the "upgraded" 360xx as well as the second 360, both working with 20mb RAM, and sound cards in each. I still have them both, and use them for things like two way radio programming.

I also have an old P266 AscentiaM which was a "builder" out of two machines. It actually works pretty well, has 98SE on it.

I acquired a 380XD, and used it for quite a period. I lost that due to some fire damage,

Then I bought a refurbished 600X which I have now. I'm in the process of attempting to run down some problems with it, due to the 700mhz CPU upgrade. It's fussy. I've got some accessories for the 600x, extra memory, and several hard drives. I'll keep it

I don't like the sound of the Lenovo thing, but the thing I REALLY don't like is the stupid "download director" business at IBM

#69 Post by **GomJabbar** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 9:39 pm

440roadrunner wrote:I don't like the sound of the Lenovo thing, but the thing I REALLY don't like is the stupid "download director" business at IBM

I wish IBM still had full control of their hardware too. But as regards "download director". I love it! When my flakey cell connection drops while I am downloading a large software update; with Download Director I can resume the download (after I reestablish my connection) without having to start all over again. What's not to like about that? So what if it uses Java. The IBM Java that came preinstalled on my T42 uses up 11.71 Mb of hard disk space according to Add or Remove Programs. Not so bad IMO.

thinkpadfreak · #70 Post by **thinkpadfreak** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 12:03 am

My first Thinkpad was a 600E...probably the best built/designed of all thinkpads, hands down! My current Thinkpad's a T40...kinda flimsy, if you ask me. They sure dont build'em like they used to

yawnmoth · #71 Post by **yawnmoth** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:27 pm

My first ThinkPad was a 700MHz Celeron with 128mb ram and a 20gb hard drive. I don't recall much more than that, though, since it's kinda at my Dad's house...

turbolium · #72 Post by **turbolium** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:53 pm

k3vb0t wrote:
First and current Bimmer: 1995 Boston Green 318is (auto ), purchased with 127,800 miles, currently running 166,000+ miles. Want an E21 320 or E28 5er!

own 1988 e32 735i with 250+km on it never let me down not a single thing went wrong with it!!!!! get that!!!
smokes the new audi a4 1.8t with chip and '98 328 only draw back is 18L/100km in city

turbolium · #73 Post by **turbolium** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:58 pm

and for notebook not my first ibm is the one i currently own a t42 which i amazingly like but my first love was dell inspiron 8000 p3m 900 which served me well over 4 years!!!!!!!

bhtooefr · #74 Post by **bhtooefr** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:54 am

Wait, we're using first cars, too?

First car, first veedub, first diesel: 85 Jetta diesel. 1.6L naturally asthmatic engine (diesels really do need turbos to have performance). Five speed. EPA estimate of 46 mpUSg (5.1 L/100km) highway. Personal estimate, based on how the EPA estimates are and how I'll be driving: 50-55 mpUSg (4.3-4.7 L/100km).

epbrown · #75 Post by **epbrown** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 7:00 pm

bhtooefr wrote:Wait, we're using first cars, too?

Someone previously mentioned he wished he'd kept his first ThinkPad and his first BMW, which got all of the other Bimmer owners chiming in (such as my mention of still having my first two).

epbrown (got to drive the Z4 with the top down today - a miracle for Chicago in January)

jogego · #76 Post by **jogego** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:06 am

If we'retalking Bimmers, I have owned two.

First one was a Black 318i E30 wonderful car which once went for God knows how many kilometres without any engine oil in the engine.

Second one was a white 320i touring.Which was also an E30.WOnderful pieces of machinery.

My first IBM was a 600E which I still run, my second one is a 570 which is currently my main laptop.

First ever laptop and computer was a Toshiba 1715XCDS and after that a Dell CPi

Temetka · #77 Post by **Temetka** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:27 am

First thinkpad: 770
Current thinkpad: T23 - I love it.

AIX · #78 Post by **AIX** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:29 am

1st - 390X - I didn't like it, huge and heavy (but sturdy) - 15" XGA, P2 400Mhz; I sold it after 2 months and I bought:
2nd - 600X - good machine! 13.3" XGA, PIII 500 Mhz + Xircom CardBus Network Adapter (red)
3rd - T22 - very nice, I did like it. In fact - I like it!
4th - T41 - I love it! My precious!

Red_October_7000 · #79 Post by **Red_October_7000** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 1:37 am

Had a VERY early 3XXx(x) series that was so old it had a monochrome display (and thusly the blue IBM logo you don't usually see outside the 730 series tablets.) I fished it out of a corporate dumpster a long time ago; the complete laptop in its case was so tempting; but it had a cracked mainboard and would shut down at random times. More often than not, in fact. Sad. I think I still have its enormous power supply somewhere. Years later I came into the little leather notepad that is technically a "THINKPad"

. After that I got the 730TE, and then the R30. I am nothing if not impressed with the machines, actually.

pianowizard · #80 Post by **pianowizard** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 2:20 am

My first Thinkpad was the 600E (366MHz Pentium II, 128MB RAM, 6GB HDD) that I purchased used from Computer Geeks in Sep 2002 for $403 including shipping. I had bought a brand new Dell Inspiron 8200 (1.6GHz Pentium 4, 256MB RAM, 40GB HDD, $1,676) just a month earlier, but was unhappy with how big and heavy (8.1 lbs!) it was, so I bought the lighter (5.1 lbs) 600E. Noticing how much more reliable and sturdy the Thinkpad was compared to the Dell, I quickly became a big fan of Thinkpads. Since then, I have owned 7 Thinkpads and expect to receive one more (X22) next week.

ThinkPad R · #81 Post by **ThinkPad R** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:52 pm

daeojkim wrote:This is my first Thinkpad... I am wondering why I did not by them before.

I'm not buying a ThinkPad again b/c it's Lenovo now.

I hear that they got rid of every IBM on the PC's. The power-on screen says "ThinkPad". Not IBM ThinkPad.

I'm not buying a Lenovo ThinkPad either if they ever change the name that way.

A lot has changed since Lenovo came in. For example, the hatch lock is colored silver now & it looks so cheap compared to the beautiful black body. The buttons are also silver. They've made everything silver! And they got rid of the blue color on certain buttons (i.e. CD-RW/DVD).

And they are rounded @ corners, not rectangular like IBM's. And they don't have the slanted edges any more. It's flat box.

Sorry. I don't have anything against Chinese or anything. It's just that IBM is SO MUCH better than Lenovo in everything & it feels like Lenovo's messing everything up.

christopher_wolf · #82 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 7:44 pm

ThinkPad R wrote:
daeojkim wrote:This is my first Thinkpad... I am wondering why I did not by them before.

I'm not buying a ThinkPad again b/c it's Lenovo now.

I hear that they got rid of every IBM on the PC's. The power-on screen says "ThinkPad". Not IBM ThinkPad.

I'm not buying a Lenovo ThinkPad either if they ever change the name that way.

A lot has changed since Lenovo came in. For example, the hatch lock is colored silver now & it looks so cheap compared to the beautiful black body. The buttons are also silver. They've made everything silver! And they got rid of the blue color on certain buttons (i.e. CD-RW/DVD).

And they are rounded @ corners, not rectangular like IBM's. And they don't have the slanted edges any more. It's flat box.

Sorry. I don't have anything against Chinese or anything. It's just that IBM is SO MUCH better than Lenovo in everything & it feels like Lenovo's messing everything up.

Until I get hard proof of anything like that; it remains just that, somewhat baseless speculation. If they have the same R&D engineering teams, quality control, and production procedures...It is the same thing. The name may change, but it will still be the same old Thinkpad behind it.

bhtooefr · #83 Post by **bhtooefr** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 7:46 pm

Note my sig.

I've got mixed feelings about the "hide that it's an IBM as much as possible" strategy.

christopher_wolf · #84 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 7:51 pm

If that is the case, why are they allowed to use IBM's name on the Thinkpads for 5 years? Seems to me that they would not have paid for the right to use the name as usual on the Thinkpads for 5 years if they didn't like it?

Branding is the only thing that I can come up with for now; it would be very unusual for them to rebrand them Lenovo Thinkpads quickly as they would lose some of the brand name recognition.

#85 Post by **schen** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 12:31 pm

My first ThinkPad was a 701C, then I got a 600. The build quality was just beautiful on both with covers and sliding doors and such. But when you sell at $4000 to $6000 in 1998 dollars, you can do those things. It's like my (dearly departed) BMW E28 M5: absolutely unparalleled engineering and build quality. Again, $49,000+ in 1988 dollars buys that kind of workmanship. Unfortunately, unlike highend car companies, no computer maker can sell any significant number of notebooks at a pricepoint of very much over $2000 these day!

So, for my part, I walk a fine line between build quality, useability and affordability. And I'll continue to use ThinkPads as long as I can get well-built machines that will run what I need. After that (hopefully never), they'll be like the 701 in my closet or the M5 poster in the garage.... a tribute to a different time.

christopher_wolf · #86 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:36 pm

schen wrote:My first ThinkPad was a 701C, then I got a 600. The build quality was just beautiful on both with covers and sliding doors and such. But when you sell at $4000 to $6000 in 1998 dollars, you can do those things. It's like my (dearly departed) BMW E28 M5: absolutely unparalleled engineering and build quality. Again, $49,000+ in 1988 dollars buys that kind of workmanship. Unfortunately, unlike highend car companies, no computer maker can sell any significant number of notebooks at a pricepoint of very much over $2000 these day!

So, for my part, I walk a fine line between build quality, useability and affordability. And I'll continue to use ThinkPads as long as I can get well-built machines that will run what I need. After that (hopefully never), they'll be like the 701 in my closet or the M5 poster in the garage.... a tribute to a different time.

True; unless you are catering to a really high-end market, you won't be moving very many laptops priced at $2000+. To some extent, half of the market has slid into the cheap-quick-easy category and buy accordingly, i.e. Dell. Then there are laptops like the Thinkpads and Powerbooks that endure because of Engineering, Looks, and a dedicated user base.

I actually wouldn't mind if IBM/Lenovo came out with something like the 701C again (or a re-make of the 600 Series, or a ultra-portable tablet/handheld like the PC110 or Z50 Workpad), since that was very impressive and was my first Thinkpad, it also doubled as my first laptop along with a Powerbook. I still take it to meetings and use it to take notes; quite suprising for someone to see a 10/4" laptop sprout out a very high-quality, full-sized keyboard all of a sudden.

#87 Post by **KristianJ** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:36 am

Seems like a good place to make my first post!

About 5 years ago I bought my 1st ThinkPad, which was a second hand 760XL - P166, 72MB RAM, 3GB hard drive, a battery that didn't work, Win 98 and a simple little 33.6k PCMCIA modem. It was okay for a little while before I bought a Dell CPiA second hand about a year later, but yesterday I rejoined the ThinkPad fray with my refurbed T40, and am certainly proud to have done so. It's pretty much what I need in a notebook, perfect size and I'm sure it'll last me a fair while!

JHEM · #88 Post by **JHEM** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:20 am

Welcome to the Forum Kristian.

Regards,

James

princeatul · #89 Post by **princeatul** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 6:53 am

My first TP is T43 (just a few weeks old now). For that matter it's my first laptop. Wanted to be a litter conservative and play safe so didn't jump for Z-series or T60s.
And I'm glad I opted for TP. Now, I would hardly think of buying any laptop other than TPs! Rugged, simple yet powerful!

Thanks to this forum, its moderators and users, I have got so many of my doubts cleared. Before deciding for one, I watched this forum for 2-3 months and came to a conclusion that if one can afford, TP is the way to go!

Great going buddies, keep it up!

The Spirit of X21 · #90 Post by **The Spirit of X21** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:12 pm

My first ThinkPad was an X21 I bought last year off of eBay. I gave it to a kid who didn't have a computer of his own - have to start him off right!

Your first thinkpad?

1st IBMs and "Build Quality"

Re: 1st IBMs and "Build Quality"

Who is online