IBM ThinkCentre M50 Overview and Upgrade!!

Let's explore this complete IBM ThinkCentre M50 Desktop system from 2004!! In this video we will freshly install a new O/S and upgrade the graphics, and test out a couple of games! #nostalgia #ibm #thinkcentre #retropc #retro #intel #pentium #vintage #windows #windowsxp #nvidia

[@Blue-Tube]

That was mine Tks to you!!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes sir!!!!! Thank you so much for your amazing system and excellent shipping!!!

[@rmcdudmk212]

Very nice, you kept it in pretty good condition. Thanks for letting it go so we could all enjoy it Blue. 👍

[@TheRetroRecall]

100%! Also very thankful to Blue for letting it go knowing it will be well taken care of!

[@maxtornogood]

I've barely ever gotten to use these IBM style desktops over my time so this is nice to look over!

[@TheRetroRecall]

It is a nice machine, great layout and has great potential!

[@livefreeprintguns]

My first PC was an IBM Aptiva... I think it had a 233Mhz Pentium II which was miles apart from the 33Mhz Apple Performa we upgraded from lol.

[@joshwalker4834]

One of the most beautiful IBM machines I’ve seen!!!

[@TheRetroRecall]

I agree and it is complete!

[@RuruFIN]

I remember using similar machines in school about 20 years ago. Gotta love that today's Lenovo desktop PCs still have a similar look.

[@TheRetroRecall]

IBM / Lenovo keep the basic same look across all of the years which is great! If it isn't broken, don't fix it :)

[@ClassicBMWFanInQuebec]

If you like this design style, take a look at the early Lenovo Thinkstation towers. They are beautiful machines. The honeycomb ventilation, memory card reader and the green LEDs behind the front ports really give it a fantastic industrial look. I hope to get one someday to build a sleeper into it. If only IBM had made a version of the Thinkstation with the IBM logo on it, it would be perfection!

[@TheRetroRecall]

I love all IBM. I'm happy that Lenovo kept the design. I have several IBM machines and many Lenovo. I love the design elements that you have noted above!

[@branscombe_]

I remember deploying lots of the systems or very similar IBM models during a contract gig in Calgary, after we did the XP Windows 7 upgrade across the whole company. Brings back memories! exactly why I keep coming back to the retro recall channel !!

[@TheRetroRecall]

It's all about the nostalgia! Stay tuned, this system is going to be featured in another video soon, as it needs some TLC :)

[@Rolatnor]

This is a nice looking PC

[@TheRetroRecall]

I agree - I love this era of IBM.

[@arthurmann578]

Really nice machine. It has a certain sleekness to the case that I really like! Definitely a keeper! 👍👍

[@TheRetroRecall]

This won't be going anywhere for sure!

[@tennickjestzajety69]

This PC needs a Radeon 9800 (XT/Pro) and P4 3,4 HT, but Northwood. It will be a great retro gaming pc to be honest. For XP 2 GB of RAM are sufficient, you not really need to increase it. Black case looks awesome!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Agreed and thanks!

[@rmcdudmk212]

Awesome machine. Love the look of IBMs from this era. 👍

[@TheRetroRecall]

100% agreed!

[@rmcdudmk212]

​@@TheRetroRecallalso love the upgradeability as well as ease of repair/maintenance of the machines.

[@TheRetroRecall]

So easy, all tool less!

[@rmcdudmk212]

@@TheRetroRecall I wouldn't mind having a case like that to put a slightly more modern board and chipset.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's actually a good idea!

[@pierreinthavong181]

Impressive IBM PC review, I'm so proud of you!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for your support and for watching!

[@branscombe_]

I actually just ordered a few M 70 Q models for my clients , it’s been out for a number of years but it’s the tiny models and they don’t have a lot of desk real estate, and I don’t put computers on floors anymore. Especially not in the winter when they have carpet! i’ll be flying out there to deploy them end of January.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's awesome and I completely agree. It's neat to see how small these systems have become and how well priced. Back in the day it would be a thin client setup, now you can put full blown systems out there in the same form factor!

[@georgez8859]

A Complete System Very Nice. looks very easy to upgrade Thanks for the Video

[@TheRetroRecall]

For sure and you are welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@justsumguy2u]

I especially enjoyed this one, because these are my favorite pc's of all time due to the case design. I just love the flat-black case with big IBM logo at the top, it looks so serious and even a bit sinister. That's a really nice one you have there, and the video card really made a big difference. I think you'd probably like my 2003 Netvista that uses the same case. I have a Radeon 9200 video card and Soundblaster audio card installed in it (the latter out of necessity), and it came with it's original XP Professional install and restore discs. I'm glad yours came with the plastic swivel clip that holds the card in place---those are oftentimes missing, because they have a tendency to fall out

[@TheRetroRecall]

I agree - this system is so slick looking! Yes the Netvista machines were also nice. I'm looking for the Aptiva line in my search as well. Heck - all IBM's are great :)

[@zoeyzhang9866]

Nice review!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks!

[@MixShadowlight]

This is giving me lots of throwback memories. Had used these in school when they were new as a child alongside with those clamshell Dell Optiplex GX series and Dimension 2xxx and 4xxx mini towers and later on saw a bunch of them piling up at a corner of a computer lab in my tertiary school. The ones in my tertiary school had a larger 17 inch IBM monitor that look similar to the one you have while the ones I had used as a child came with IBM branded CRTs instead.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Ahhhh nostalgia! Mission accomplished :). Thanks for sharing this memory and for watching!

[@MixShadowlight]

@@TheRetroRecall I wish I could save one of those. The ones in my tertiary school had the Radeon 9200 in them and were pretty well specced. These always get listed at ridiculous markups whenever I encounter one in where I live.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's unfortunate for sure. Hopefully one comes up that is a decent price. I find it is hit and miss here a lot of the time. I always have to be looking :)

[@nushnume]

This minitower version is so compact! I found the desktop version of this same computer a few days ago. Trashed,very rough shape and 2 blown caps but it somehow still works. Same exact board and power supply as this one but with a different style cpu cooler and a 3 ghz Pentium 4 with HT,case is so friggin huge it could even fit a new gen RTX gpu lol

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's amazing!! Yes, the Lenovo are definitely built to last!

[@fra4455]

Great video✌

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you!

[@fra4455]

@@TheRetroRecall thanks

[@marcash3862]

Still got one of these at home running Lubuntu for my mom

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!! It's not a bad machine, but this one needs some capacitor repairs.

[@dave4shmups]

Great video on this beautiful IBM PC! I love the tool-less design of this case! I didn’t know that it was possible to run Windows 7 on a Pentium 4 system (even though the Pentium 4 does have hyper threading). But I don’t what the minimum system specs are for running Windows 7. That’s really cool that it came with the original keyboard, mouse, and monitor!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks and I agree! I think Windows XP was the right version for this system though :)

[@dave4shmups]

@@lurch789 I didn’t know that you could run it on a PIII!What’s a C2Q?

[@TheRetroRecall]

Core 2 Quad I think.

[@Revivify]

What a nice system and in great condition. I've had mixed results using Snappy Drivers and tend to do as you do, and get the drivers from the manufacturer if available. I've also been experimenting with using a Windows Vista style Experience score testing method for XP. It gives you details of how the PC is performing through the CMD interface.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I've never heard of that before, I will have to check that out. I've heard nixed reviews on snappy, jwoever mostly good. Yes you will run into the odd driver that messes things up, however I'm sure one can navigate that. Thanks for watching!!

[@eukat3ch]

omg IBM. so cool! i got a Lenovo from 2007 and its not as well build as this

[@TheRetroRecall]

This system was one of the last before Lenovo bought out IBM's computer line of business.

[@mavo95]

i had one long time agoo omg i love this

[@TheRetroRecall]

Awesome! Yeah, they really are nice machines.

[@mavo95]

@@TheRetroRecall yhh Bro

[@stevencamp6824]

Wow i like that hdd caddy

[@TheRetroRecall]

Pretty slick! Some tool less designs are actually good!

[@livefreeprintguns]

There was a moment in time where IBM towers went kinda hard, ngl...

[@TheRetroRecall]

I find this system pretty neat. I've always loved IBM's (and eventually Lenovo) up until recent years. The notebooks are still a fav of mine however. Well, the Thinkpad line.

[@livefreeprintguns]

@@TheRetroRecall Yah the ThinkPad was one of the last to keep things mostly all hardware when everyone was transitioning to things like WinModems.

[@chrisrudi7162]

Very nice system and above all everything around it very suitable 👍👍👍 I'm looking forward to the video with the capacitor exchange. Was right to put XP on it again. Especially since 2 GB of RAM for Windows 7 isn't really much either. Vista and 7 feels very sluggish and slow on these machines. I also recently replaced all the capacitors on an old MSI Mega PC 400 Barebone from 2003, the device would no longer start and some of them were blown up. Now the whole computer works like new again. Back in the 2000s it was a really bad time with the capacitors....

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yes I'm starting to see more and more of these bad caps in the older systems. The next video on this system I will replace the caps, update the ram to ddr400 to give it a little boost, possibly give it a slightly better video card again and run a new benchmark to see how everything plays out! Thanks for your support and for watching!!

[@Trevorodunne]

Would be nice to have a capture card to get video source instead of camera capture some looks very wash out and hard to see. Great KZbin Video keep up the great work.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Great recommendation and I definitely will move in that direction.

[@retrogamer33]

I love IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad, ThinkCentre machines. I have a Lenovo Thinkpad X280, Lenovo Chromebook, Lenovo Yoga (Not Working Correctly) and 2 AIO Thinkcentre's, One AMD A6 and the other is an i3.

[@TheRetroRecall]

They really are great machines!!!!!

[@captainwasel8377]

Really cool to find a whole system even with the mouse and keyboard. I've found a Lenovo computer from a flea market I got it for $10 US that's a bit more than I normally pay for older computers but still not bad for a computer with core2duo, 2 GB DDR3, built in speaker, wifi card and I think 250gb hdd.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That sounds like a pretty decent system for 10.00!! You could still do a lot with that.

[@captainwasel8377]

@@TheRetroRecall will definitely turn it to a sweet retro gaming PC 😋🙌🏼

[@TheRetroRecall]

Love it! Let me know how it goes :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

I feel like Linux would allow many of these PC's work quite well in today's world.

[@captainwasel8377]

@@lurch789 I have a laptop with an old AMD apu and 4gb ram and it's running very well with Linux mint and can handle some light or old games.

[@lucasrem]

Need to have, this is the last IBM PC

[@TheRetroRecall]

It's quite a nice machine and I was quite happy the seller sent it my way!

[@anumeon]

It is somewhat unusual for a computer of the Pentium 4 era to be a tower and only have one HDD tray i believe.. But aesthetics over upgradeability i suppose.. Neat system that. :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Never thought about that but yes for sure. Could always use an adapter in one of the bays if needed :).

[@matthewday7565]

The appropriate 3DMark might have shown a more convincing increase in GPU, I don't think PCMark was leveraging the difference. Also, an 800MHz FSB P4 truly flies with dual DDR400 (2 or 4) as it can operate with the full quad pumped FSB.... Dual channel is not just a modern thing.

[@TheRetroRecall]

For sure. I will run that test in a future video. I will be trying out a different video card and will be locating ddr400 memory for this system when I do the video on the recapping repair :)

[@lucasrem]

2004, the first Unreal engine i modded, build my own games.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahaha that's pretty cool!!

[@laurencejohnson4106]

That system is in excellent condition for it's age!👍👍 Does it have hyper threading?

[@TheRetroRecall]

It is and yes It does!!

[@BRBTechTalk]

6:28 Hmm, I will need to see inside. I have worked on many IBM machines and I don't think I have ever seen that coin sized port on the back of one. IBM is mainly business focused so I don't think it would be a water cooler port. 14:42 I

[@TheRetroRecall]

Yeah I have no idea.. I almost feel like a grommet should go in it so I am not sure what it would be used for. You are right, having a complete setup is great. I'm hunting for a few other setups.. Namely Packard Bell and Compaq systems. Keep your eye out!! Fellow Canadian eh?! Well welcome to the channel!! My French is enough to be dangerous haha. I actually picked this up from an awesome person in Québec. I will for sure reach out if I have any questions about any unique systems. Take a look at the Vintage E-waste Trio I did a few videos back. Some interesting systems!

[@Rangerman9404]

I'm surprised they got something that old to run Windows 7

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha always a way :)

[@melvinmartinali]

I recently got one of those boards whit a 3.0ghz p4 and installed it in my xp rig and it works like a charm but i cant seem to find all the drivers for the ting thy are realy hard to find.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Check out Snappy Driver Installer :)

[@michaelwood9866]

cool machine....i have a lenovo thinkcentre

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!!! I don't think they changed all that much.

[@michaelwood9866]

@@TheRetroRecall yea i have 2 of them and they are both 4th gen i5 pcs...i just like the design of them.

[@TheRetroRecall]

100%!

[@waize]

The psu screw placement is not normal ATX standard.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I figured that out afterwards. I failed to mention, that you can also see when I cracked open the case it is slightly different. That said, it would seem like an easy modification if push came to shove assuming the connector is the same.

[@branscombe_]

14:30 Beautiful! (in a corporate sense) heh

[@TheRetroRecall]

100% agree. Was so happy that when it was shipped to me it arrived in one piece!

[@Quiparounddreams1999]

IBM changed to Lenovo in 2006-07, that particular machine is a late pentium 4 as the board that both PATA and SATA. If it was from 2003 it would be PATA all around

[@TheRetroRecall]

I clarified in the video overlay that Lenovo acquired IBMs computer division in 2005 - this is a published fact. They may have taken some time to transition which would have involved branding. Secondly as I mentioned in the video it's 2003 pushing early 2004. The BIOS date is 2004 putting this system in that era. Here's some additional clarity : en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkCentre_M_series. Thanks for watching!

[@mp9x]

Does this model of ThinkCentre take SATA or IDE drives? I want to know because I ordered one of these computers and I need to know if I should go ahead buy a IDE to SATA adapter before the computer arrives, I only have SATA drives and IDE drives can be expensive.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I think it does both, however I would need to confirm. If you watch the video, you may be able to spot the board connections.

[@mp9x]

@@TheRetroRecall Okay

[@mp9x]

Looks like SATA. Good thing I have 3 spare SATA drives!

[@BenState]

Lol i take responsiblity for the snappy driver pressure :) hahah Why you torment yourself :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha so true!!! I'm going to be in trouble soon if I don't get it lol!

[@TNTUP]

1000GB is 1TB to me, is it correct? Because Windows 7 won't install on a 1GB disk/partition^^

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hi, it is 1TB, you are correct. Windows 7 was installed on this system and was working 'ok' so I am not sure what the restriction would be? I put on Windows XP Professional as it was original to the system.

[@TNTUP]

@@TheRetroRecall I believe its 16GB for 32bit systems! Also noticed the installation is french canadian, I am from Canada ! Love to watch your videos, really entertaining to see!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Welcome!!! And yes, this system was actually sent to me by a great person in Québec! I may have misspoke on the video however it is a 1TB drive that is installed in this system, so 16gb would be a walk in the park. I am happy that you are enjoying the content! Stay tuned!

[@TNTUP]

@@TheRetroRecall Thanks!!! Dam, nice! I'm from Québec aswell, u have fellow canadians watching your channel and I'm happy to be part of it! Don't worry about typos or misspellings, the most important part is to understanding^^

[@Rolatnor]

Sp3 needs 3 or 4gb to run smooth

[@TheRetroRecall]

Good to know, I'll do an upgrade when I get some additional Memory.

[@Rolatnor]

@@TheRetroRecall xp sp3 is a memory hog tbf

[@Rolatnor]

Get a graphics card while you're at it

[@TheRetroRecall]

Will do, the Nvidia is all I had on hand during filming, but I know there are much better. Will be cool to do another benchmark with more memory and an even better video card. I'll do that when I replace the caps.

[@markosejic7383]

I have Think Centre A55 core 2 duo

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!! They really are great systems.

[@markosejic7383]

@@TheRetroRecall fund it next to a dumpster and saved it fixed aded cpu core 2duo 1.8 and ddr2 it had some strange Bios glitch so i needed to reflash bios now it runs lubuntu

[@TheRetroRecall]

See, I live these stories. Saved from complete ewaste and in production today! Great work!