This is the Best ThinkPad Ever Built. It's Awful.

[@emdotrod]

If anything, the Thinkpad keyboard is basically trickled down to other Lenovo's product. Obviously not the same keyboard and no Trackpoint, but Lenovo laptop's keyboard is still one of the best I've type for a laptop.

[@Big-Chungus21]

Definitely. The keyboards on the Yoga, Legion and LOQ for example are all really nice. The first is about £400 off at Currys right now in the UK, about £1,700 for a really nice, premium and thin laptop with a 4060 and 13th gen i9, 32gb RAM and really nice screen.

[@xmlthegreat]

I think the funniest thing ever is the fact that I love ThinkPad keyboards and love typing on them, but I'm somehow slightly faster on the modern Apple Magic keyboards which I hate typing on, it feels like I'm barely in control and hitting tic tacs instead of keys, but I still type faster on it. It baffles me.

[@emdotrod]

@@Big-Chungus21 I love using my Legion keyboard lol it has great tactile and response

[@rotors_taker_0h]

"Took incredibly long time to install, like 20 minutes", oh, young man...

[@MarantzSt153]

Remembering the first Windows XP days where a fresh CD install could take over an hour..

[@rotors_taker_0h]

@@MarantzSt153 one of my first computers randomly hung at install, so I waited for hours couple times at first 😅

[@eduardoavila646]

My i7 4500u crappy dell laptop took longer than that just to boot! (wich a crappy hdd tho), under windows 10, 20mins is nothing!

[@Sero3_]

I had a single core Celeron back in 2007 when I'm a small kid, that thing originally came with vista, a capacitor blew off from the motherboard, I had to reinstall Windows XP, waited for 3 hours, that's not even a PATA drive, that's a SATA II 300 Drive.

[@suionyou]

Fun note about replacing that hard disk drive with that ssd. Hitachi bought IBM's hard drive business in 2003, basically merging it's own disk drive unit with IBM's. That combined unit was sold to and merged with Western Digital in 2012. Due to a series of anti-trust considerations in China, Western Digital couldn't fully combine with the spun off disk drive unit until 2015~2017. In the middle of that in 2016, Western Digital also bought flash manufacturer SanDisk-- which is how a product like the WD Blue solid state SATA drive became possible.

[@Dave102693]

That explains why I don’t see SanDisk around anymore

[@deathsinger1192]

@@Dave102693 nah, I bought a 64 gig SanDisk USB a month ago

[@WeirdSkeleton]

dont you dare ping the discord server again without linking the vid

[@TrenchReynolds]

Hook it up to the internet and let chaos reign.

[@aChairLeg]

Nooooooo I really wanted to tho

[@kyuthefox]

@@aChairLeg honestly It's only in danger if you connect it without a firewall (your router) in the middle. so hooking this up over ethernet to your router isn't bad because the router blocks all traffic to a device that didn't request for it. there was a video from someordenarygamers where he ran an xp vm hooked up behind the router and there was nothing wrong with the vm.

[@biggoobers]

Interesting

[@ItsAlce]

ThinkPad without Linux = Blasphemy

[@SuperOldrocker]

It’s the Nvidia GPU. I sold one in excellent condition a couple of months ago, and Ubuntu is not good for Nvidia. Even Pops! Sucks on it. I use Linux Mint on my T500 6g ram and 120g hd, and it’s great.

[@mistrotech8894]

​@@SuperOldrockerJust wondering, but how does it suck? Could you elaborate? I've never used Linux on Nvidia before...

[@rumenjanro]

Kinda funny to think that you believe that, I've been using Windows on a ThinkPad T60 and I've not experienced any problems.

[@NickLetsom]

"I really don't know what this would be used for" damn that made me feel old! That's the dial up modem, that's how we got on the Internet!

[@gingertrash64]

I got an old thinkpad probably around the same age when I was younger for free from a local community center that had Ubuntu 12 or 14 on it and I played so much Game Dev Tycoon and emulated snes games on it, it was heaven

[@joel06sk]

My mom still uses a thinkpad t41 and doesn't want to upgrade. It's definitely enough for her.

[@nickthaskater]

0:58 you mean the FireWire port?

[@samue5370]

I was about to say it looks like one mini FireWire port to me as well!

[@flippypwnage2789]

He didn't get the dial up either

[@breademoji]

i love this channel even though i am a certified linux dork and cannot help but go NotLikeThis every time you mention how much better you prefer windows over linux on thinkpads lol. this was one of the first laptops i owned as a young adult and i have fond memories of running kde3 on gentoo on it and it being an absolute powerhouse. the keyboard was a highlight for me too. everyone was so mad when lenovo switched to the chicklet style keys and imo it was justified

[@TECHNIKVERBOT]

6:05 if anything, flash the Middleton BIOS on it to unlock SATA 2 speeds and remove the temp sensor warning when installing Penryn based CPUs (like the T9300) on older Merom T61 (T7xxx) boards

[@kittenzrulz2314]

Ubuntu isn't good for this, you need Debian with XFCE

[@lukastram4990]

Such a Dualcore is my Docker/Portainer Homelab now 😊 running on the Armbian x64 Cli Version. After baking the old GPU in the oven i got graphics back to life, new thermalpaste and the Laptop which was lying around for 10years is now perfect in work and idle for my iot projects at home.

[@KeritechElectronics]

Old school Thinkpad afficionado here. My first one was a T61p, it's been through so much that it eventually ended up in parts donors box. Got a 380ED, T42, T43p, T60, T61, R400, T500, W500, T410, T520 and W520. Discombobulated and recombobulated every single one of them, replacing any parts broken, sometimes cannibalizing a unit to fix another. Most of them run Debian, my distro of choice.

[@lilxsalama]

Oml this is the earliest I’ve ever been to a chair vid

[@aChairLeg]

This is what you get for staying up late :)

[@finnbianga4189]

I had a t400 a few years ago. It also came with 3gb of ram but it was ddr3. The cpu was a core 2 duo p8600 paired with a mobility radeon hd 3450. I ended up selling it to someone who needed it more than i did but i still kinda regret selling it. It was such a nice old school machine

[@filenotfound__3871]

I still use a few laptops from that era: Compaq 610 - C2D T5870, 4GB DDR2, 320GB WD Blue, Windows 7 HP 6720s - C2D T7200, 4GB DDR2, 160GB Hitachi, Windows 7 Toshiba A300 - C2D T5800, 3GB DDR2, 320GB WD Blue, Windows 7 Great little things, Still do a deacent job for web browsing, playing old games, movies and such. I had to fix the Toshiba... twice...and the speakers on it are foam rotted...and a few other things... The HPs tho never had any issues

[@IgoZoom1]

BTW, I think the mystery slot next to the DVD drive is an ExpressCard slot. I never used it, but I know one use was for cellular modems. These systems really struggled to run Windows Vista. Then again, I struggled to use Vista! What a freaking nightmare!

[@jakeparkinson8929]

Two words, skill issue. Gnome is pretty heavy on old igpu's and so is kde. You would have had a better experience if you had installed freebsd with xfce.

[@xmlthegreat]

Or any of the huge number of actual Linux distros that have Xfce desktops. Hell Archcraft running Openbox might have been a good experience...

[@NickLetsom]

I have a T400 (literally the next generation after this one), and I just installed Mint XFCE last weekend, it's a good fit

[@trrjecto4459]

With a custom bios you get faster Sata and a quad-core CPU, there is also ibm_ecw where you can under volt the CPU.

[@Veg-Power]

Even an X9000 OCed dual-core works quite nice with AntiX Linux, I paired it with 8gigs rams, sata2 ssd-speed, fx570m graphics and 15" IPS 1200p screen from T60p. Trackpoint is damn accurate and the trackpoint buttons, especially with new-like NMB keyboard.

[@wmameer]

I have the same laptop. Use it with Windows x lite Windows 10 (from fb conan)

[@tankermottind]

I have a T520 and it's much, much more usable than this machine, it is perfectly fine using Linux for KZbin, web browsing, and retro games, especially since I have it upgraded to 12 gigs of RAM. I am definitely one of those people who swears by the old 7-row keyboard--for me it was love at first touch and I hope one day to be able to afford the anniversary model (a T480 with an old style keyboard), which still sells for outrageous prices.

[@FunFoxHD]

I would say, any Laptop with first gen Core i CPU is usable today... I put Windows 7 on my i7-5500U Laptop, cause Windows 7 is old enough to run on basically anything smoothly but got long enough supported to use it nowadays

[@FlyboyHelosim]

What's the other chipset at 1:58 besides the CPU and GPU? Looks like another CPU with the arrow indicator in the corner!

[@RegisteredAmericancitizen]

This laptop with me before chipsets were integrated into the CPU, so this one has a dedicated chip set

[@FlyboyHelosim]

@@RegisteredAmericancitizen But what is it, a separate integrated GPU?

[@RegisteredAmericancitizen]

@@FlyboyHelosim no it handles allocating different storage or ram to the CPU

[@Z4KIUS]

I know back then combo jacks weren't popular but for all your audio needs the combo + mic setup is required, that way you will never need a dongle to connect your headset

[@ChickenBG7]

If you ran the laptop without the battery that would explain why it is extra slow, the CPU throttles itself when one isn't present. Also for Linux it's possible the GPU drivers weren't set up. I have an X41 which is miles slower than this and somehow handles Linux better lol

[@bruhmomento4197]

why would it throttle when theres no battery? source?

[@ChickenBG7]

@@bruhmomento4197 because the charger alone cannot provide enough power to run the laptop at full speed, please google "do laptops throttle without battery"

[@derekbrewer9681]

so, got one of these for 35$, stripped chassis with a locked supervisors password back in 2011, fixed the bios, kitted it up (mines a base model with intel integrated graphics) and proceeded to daily it for the next 6 years. It was a great machine in its time and still work OK today even in 2011 debain was a much better OS then win 7. The widescreen version with the 1680x1050 looks the best imo, but the era of the core 2 duo is over and so i think its unfair to really judge a t61 on a modern basis. Its a stalwart machine from the last of the IBM designed thinkpads.

[@cairnex4473]

Man Zoomers getting all nostalgic about things that happened "back in their childhood" always makes me laugh, it feels like two weeks ago to me.

[@revarine.]

Finally... My favorite Thinkpad thematic channel

[@knight808]

Chair when there is no leg. (i tottaly watched the whole video, amazing work!)

[@Technerd207]

Please make a video on the Thinkpad P1 gen 2 with OLED screen. Show the people what 550$ get you on the second hand market compared to your t14 and the other Thinkpad you teased. I know it's a bit expensive, but it's worth it. Who knows, it may become your new daily driver.

[@sebscharpf]

Nice ironic vid. But you got it all wrong. Its not a Thinkpad. Its. TANKPAD.

[@ST-RTheProtogen]

I love how my t520 has a similar style to this while still being very useable. Id prefer if it had this much i/o, but it’s still an amazing computer!

[@backpackmusician]

The T420 is a great laptop for me. I think it just hits all the sweetspots with its classic keyboard and good enough upgradability

[@eduardoavila646]

For intel iGPUs older than 6th generation, you should aways install the manufacturer's drivers or custom modded drivers, because windows' ones are total crap. No openGL support basically (and the little support it has is through software emulation on the cpu, not on hardware). Makes all things slower, several games not even opening it, etc. Tho you had a nvidia gpu in there, but the recomendation also applies to it, windows drivers even for my gtx1050 are bad and choppy at best. For youtube playback at 720p60-1080p30, you need to get google chrome and get the extention h264ify wich forces youtube to deliver the older much more lightweigth on the cpu/gpu, instead of the awfull VP9/AV1/h265 we have nowdays (it saves up network bandwidth but it's a burden to the cpu/gpu).

[@yanngoarant1302]

Have a T440P and it’s awesome ! I7, 32GB Ram, LED mat screen perfect !

[@stuartgreen5631]

Still have T60p, w500. Very similar. They were outstanding.

[@Geardos1]

RJ11 = dial up modem...

[@aChairLeg]

but for why???

[@TubeHeader]

​@@aChairLegIn case an end user doesn't have broadband

[@xmlthegreat]

​@@aChairLegbefore wifi you needed wires to connect to the internet, and that meant the landline telephone jack... Which is what an RJ11 is. It's for plugging a landline into... Honestly I feel weird and old having to explain this to you.

[@randomgamingin144p]

@@aChairLeg because dial up internet exists as people didnt have broadband internet access

[@Biaanca5036]

Probably the lack of practical uses or accessories. Even the parallel port is more interesting. RJ11 is just - eh.

[@jammies701]

Nice vid mate

[@dodditydod]

I bought one of these in 2017 for my birthday and it was still extremely usable for stuff like minecraft 1.8 and roblox at the time

[@mememe37]

I didn't know the thinkpad saga was still going on!

[@aChairLeg]

I didn't either until I ended up with this

[@mememe37]

@@aChairLeg Apparently h264ify makes KZbin less miserable on those old CPUs, so you might try that out in the future. Cool video, as usual!

[@ASplashOfJer]

I just got a t61p at the thrift for $10, planning on upgrading the OS, ram and SSD. Curious on where you’re able to find the OS? TYI 🤙

[@ToraSapphire]

while I don't have a T61 anymore (all of them either had the Nvidia GPU or the one Intel GMA model I did have had a bad board), I do have an X201 and I love it. Lovely little laptop, and it still feels pretty usable with Linux Mint even 14 years after release.

[@lainnux]

Overall, which one do you think is better between these both

[@andystech101]

Great video as always! I’m going to have to get me on of these ThinkPads 😂

[@aChairLeg]

Thank you! Get yourself a T480 to start out with, it's a really great little work laptop

[@ChingasoClown]

Install the Middleton's BIOS on it sata1 to sata2 and 8 GB ram

[@dcfbf]

All thinkpads have hardware maintenance manuals that will tell you everything about how to take apart any particular thinkpad. Oh and I agree the full height trackpoint is definitely better than the little things that they include on thinkpads today. Also idk if it is true, but in my experience the full height trackpoint also got drift a lot less than the lower profile ones. Cool thinkpad though :)

[@flipkibblez]

I force fed my t61 a T9900 then pinmodded and fsb modded it. Used it till earlier this yeah when it got water damaged from our roof leaking.

[@xplayerplaysyt6461]

Keep up the amazing work! Also try older (Before 2010) Toshibas, they are reliable just like the thinkpads

[@mistrotech8894]

I've also had great experiences with HP Elitebooks and Dell Latitudes (pre 2014)...even a better reliability track record than newer Lenovo ThinkPads.

[@wenenwo5341]

How do you hyper max a thinkpad like can you add a high end cpu if you change motherboard and can you swap out monitor

[@paololololol]

I loved my x60s but it was old and kept getting hot. But damn was it a workhorse.

[@grumps5940]

Thats the only issue I have with my Thinkpad X60 runs too hot even after a thermal repaste.

[@celiekgra1553]

With core2duo p8300 AND 5gb of ram i used this laptop for notes AND even a small amount of java proggraming

[@GreatMossWater]

If you think that Cpu is slow try a T5750!!! Feels like it's gonna karoshi someday.

[@ToraSapphire]

nah, gotta try a Celeron 540 if you want to suffer with one of the slowest CPU's for Socket P.

[@todorsamardzhiev144]

As soon as you put Win XP it will fly like a rocket. And you'll realize the problem is modern software, not 2006 CPUs.

[@bobdylan6454]

I suspect that the drive wasn't formatted as GPT. It was probably MBR

[@TechDave]

rj-11! modem! makes me wanna dig out my X200 & review it! damn fine video either way! been looking at x61s on eBay a bit lately!

[@aChairLeg]

You should dig it out and review it! Sadly I am out of touch with old tech

[@TechDave]

@@aChairLeg ill get on it!

[@troubledpickle5986]

my bday is in an hour and i love my early gift from my fav youtuber

[@Jayson37497]

I put hours of Minecraft and TF2 into one of them things, it was quite fun imo, loved the hell out of it

[@muhammad-bin-american]

I have the T61 4:3 model (Better IMO) with the advanced dock. The dock has Nvidia GT 730 card and it handles YT at 720p with no issue. Windows 11 Enterprise LTSC 2019. 8 GB RAM. Its my main PC. I have more powerful PCs but this is my favorite. Gets the job done even in 2024. My other favorite Thinkpad is the T440s with i5 4210U. Love how efficient it is. Can run for without the fan coming on.

[@jardonic]

lol I had basically the same experience with this laptop... In 2018! I can only imagine how slow doing literally anything is in 2024 lmaooo

[@seanbrewer5337]

That thing would run the hell out of bunsenlabs or something else suitably lightweight

[@juderuiz1445]

calling a thinkpad "such a vibe" lol

[@mayorbotak2437]

I had the t400, it looks extremely similar

[@Soul_Cinema]

damn i was really looking forward to seeing you run sh2 on there, i'm assuming it didn't work though lol

[@crubsalt]

love these videos, would be cool to see you test linux mint on some thinkpads in the future!

[@Donald-mo2oe]

I think I had one of those before I knew what a Thinkpad was

[@mateusspadari5171]

What is the name of the game you playing at 0:11 ?

[@quamont]

Factorio

[@mateusspadari5171]

@quamont thank you brother!

[@mari2.]

I think your problem with Linux was the fact that you used Ubuntu 24.04. Gnome 3+ is a very heavy desktop, especially more recent gnome 4x versions. Something like Mate, or xfce would be a MUCH better Desktop to use for anything nearing a usable experience. Also, 4 GB of RAM is a very desirable upgrade, probably a better upgrade than an SSD. My Turion II Ultra M600, 4 GB DDR2, and 256 GB SSD HP G61 is a very usable experience with Windows 7 and Arch Linux with the MATE Desktop. Also, a few years ago I used a Dell Latitude D630 with a T7500 (The same as your thinkpad's), 4 GB of RAM, and a 500 GB HDD as my main Laptop, from until late 2023 TL;DR - Gnome bad

[@al3xel_]

you should have used a more lightweight linux distro

[@kosztaz87]

I am actually still using a T60 with 3gb RAM, but indeed that much memory is barely enough anymore. Soon I will upgrade to my Frankenpad (basically it's a T61 motherboard in a T60 body, to keep the glorious 15 inch Flexview panel), and that will be much better with 8gb RAM. Oh and you absolutely need an SSD, these machines are basically unusable for modern tasks with a spinning disk.

[@mubinmuhammad9713]

Next time you try, make sure to install Arch.

[@YagizIsHere]

upgrade ram and replace the hdd with ssd and install windows 10 x64 again i have a laptop that has really close specs to your thinkpad and its running really smooth rn

[@antonvoloshin9833]

I guess Windows is a main problem here, concerning gaming. I used to play Terraria on much older T41p without any issues, under WinXP of course.

[@Wisankara]

Nooo, you are doing things wrongly. I have an X61, same year and same T7500 with 4gb ram (8gb is possible) in 12 inch format, 1.4 kg weight. Its perfectly usable, plays 720/1080p yt videos no problem (with a bit of a tweak), opens up multiple tabs in Floorp, boots up in 35 secs even with that Sata I speed limit of 150mb/s. The difference being, I installed Linux Mint Xfce on it, something like Gnome is bloated too much, and Windows 10 with no tweaks as well. I managed to load Windows 11 lite on T61 I sold, it wasn't that bad. The only issue I have with X61 is no media decoding, meaning if I want to watch something on an external screen, it has lines when a lot of movement happens, which I will solve by buying 20$ broadcom media decoding mpcie card. I just bought 2 X61s untested on ebay to get L7500 which has 17W TDP, so I can transfer its motherboard into X61, and get much better thermals.

[@robsquared2]

it's really that old? Well that's depressing.

[@GamerEnLinux]

this need Debian Linux and maybe with XFCE as Desktop Enviroment

[@IndigoVoltage]

I will buy it thanks

[@Sykxezn]

Id say use linux mint instead of ubuntu, just easier to deal with

[@ekim4926]

I am willing to recycle this horrible computer for free u know

[@HIDLad001]

For how expensive these are it really isn’t worth it. Just get a T430 and mod it with a classic keyboard.

[@NickLetsom]

I was just messing around with Linux Mint (Which is Ubuntu based) on a T400 (basically the same machine) and it was unusably slow like this in Linux, and I found it was keeping the CPU at only 800mhz. The only fix i could find was to go into BIOS and set the CPU SpeedStep settings to Max Performance. It was much more usable then, even KZbin videos were playable.

[@thefireddragon0815]

I used a 2006 toshiba Laptop With 2gb ddr 2 it threw out Heat Like an Electric heater

[@nirui.o]

Terraria? That thing may take 6GB of RAM to run, and you only have half of what's needed 😅

[@robertbauer3793]

*lying around

[@TeH.j0keR]

Dude, try AntiX Linux. You don't even have to install it, the default is USB bootable.

[@robertbrand5139]

Love your old ThinkPad videos ❤ Made me chuckle with the HDD swap 😂

[@cairnex4473]

Yeah that's really more a Windows XP or a Windows 7 machine. I think Windows 10 is pushing it a little too far.

[@Karti200]

You searchin for another thinkpad xd? I am getting rid of my L14 based on i5-10210U xd

[@hackr11007]

U wot m8

[@Rivenworld]

Got a T420 with Win 10/Linux and a T60 running XP with all of my old games, still runs a treat. There is still life in the old laptops even after all these years.

[@drewmfie]

the reason why youre having a bad experience with the t61 is because youre making a jump from the core i architecture to the core 2 architecture and youre still trying to install oses too modern and heavy for it! when you installed xp, you were going in the right direction! this laptop should be treated like what it is: a classic; no need to be afraid to resort to very light oses especially made for older machines.

[@leonidas14775]

73 processes and 100% percent CPU usage? try disabling windows defender and windows update. They are resource hogs.

[@Sithhy]

It probably would work well with Linux if you didn't go for the Win 10 of Linuxes lol

[@robertbrand5139]

BTW - Classic X Series ALL THE WAY !

[@bestcreate1417]

It was updating, thats why it is slow

[@t.a.p4554]

i have t430 i7-3540m nvs5400m 16gb... i play Valorant 900p 100+ fps average and Gta V 900p 50+ fps average... i hope i can run Gta 6 on this beast... 😂😂

[@kutay7243]

you are pushing really hard

[@EinsNameLezz]

Nice video 👍

[@shirakamishiro]

Got pinged without the link

[@lFlRlAlZlEl]

:)

[@mabuchild]

没必要啊! T61 是隔了一代人的设计,

[@fnmayo]

WHY UBUNTU?

[@aChairLeg]

The system works

[@fnmayo]

@@aChairLeg damn i did not thought that u will respond but i just think that even something like lxqt will just work 3x times or better or fancier ArCh