ThinkPad X61: The Subnotebook That Got a Second Chance

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To some, laptops should be as portable as possible. But in the case of this ThinkPad subnotebook from 2007, fans of its form factor went to extreme measures to keep the machine usable over a decade later.
Free Geek Twin Cities: www.freegeektw...
Sources:
HWM, February 2008.
Middleton's BIOS: www.thinkwiki....
ThinkPad X60 in docking station photo: / the_portable_thiccpad
ThinkPad UltraBay hard drive module photo: www.carousell....
UltraBay adapter with hard drive: store.flagship...
X61 display upgrade photos: geoff.greer.fm...
X61 display upgrade guide: ithinkpad.word...
X62 motherboard and left ports photos: imgur.com/gall...
X62 motherboard in bottom case; closeup of mSATA drive: web.archive.or...
PCper X210 mod article: pcper.com/2018...
ThinkPad X62 photo: mikejmoffitt.co...
X61 Hackintosh: commons.wikime...
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Music by
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Intro music by BoxCat Games (www.box-cat.com).

Опубликовано:

30 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 515

@ChrisKoehn 3 года назад

"Let me know which Linux distro I should install." This is one of the few things I'll never say on the Internet haha

@mjc0961 3 года назад

Haha yeah, you'd get one or two answers followed by an endless sea of infighting.

@tezinho81 3 года назад

To which my evil answer would be 'Arch Linux', since you asked (and good luck with that)

@macestillmace2514 3 года назад

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

@ChrisKoehn 3 года назад

@@macestillmace2514 Yeah.. maybe see above... thanks though, I guess?

@macestillmace2514 3 года назад

@@ChrisKoehn it's copypasta from that Linux guy.

@melissahealy1950 3 года назад

i noticed what appeared to be a sim card slot beside the ram at 3:45 that would have been so cool back in the day

@ThisDoesNotCompute 3 года назад

Yep, a cellular modem was a common option among business-class laptops for a while. Most people just use their smartphone as a WiFi hotspot now.

@lazy_gamer_dad 3 года назад

Thinkpad from Colin! Yesss! I used one of these and that keypad was wonderful.

@calzonemaniacsvideocorner0804 2 года назад

Cool video, keep up the good work

@VSigma725 3 года назад

I have a X61t and aside from the slow CPU (only 1.8GHz) it's very nice!

@jaygreentree4394 2 года назад

I have a t60 and I think an SL500 if I remember correctly. I wish I could say the SL500 was in working condition but sadly its sitting in a box because it needs a new power supply.

@madkvideo 3 года назад

I wish more Thinkpads came without touchpads

@cesartirado2985 5 месяцев назад

Hello, how are you, your videos are very great, you can make a video of an HP Compaq 2510p laptop with an update.

@BensOnTheRadio 3 года назад

I’m a simple man. Colin uploads a ThinkPad video. I click!

@anew742 3 года назад

I'm a simpler man. Colin uploads a video. I click!

@egiles 3 года назад

Excellent video. It reminded me that I have a X61 that I modded a few years back...T8300 CPU, Middleton BIOS, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and a SXGA+ LCD that I removed from a X60t. I also modded the LCD so that is uses an LED backlight. Amazingly, I was successful with that upgrade and the screen is excellent. I need to get that machine back out and use it again.

@PotatoFi 3 года назад

I enjoyed this one a lot! My brother-in-law is a Thinkpad nut. There was an X60 at work up for grabs, so I nabbed it for him. Not sure how similar they are. Part of me wishes I'd kept it... but it's in the hands of a true enthusiast now.

@dossen 3 года назад

It's good to hear that it ended up with a thinkpad lover :-) Mine's still in decent working order, but currently I'm not really using it. But I do still rock a pair of thinkpads (one from work and one of my own) with a triplet of thinkvision monitors and two lenovo keyboards with trackpoint 🙂

@BilisNegra 3 года назад

Mainly it mounted intel Core Duo (not Core2Duo) CPUs. There'll probably a number of other differences, but pretty minor overall. I mean, looks and feel the same, mounts the same type of memory and so on. Probably the stupid side of wifi card whitelist and thinks like that are the most significant.

@lbsiuk 3 года назад

@@BilisNegra My particular X60 is probably one of the later ones. It (appears to have) shipped with a Core 2 Duo T7200.

@BilisNegra 3 года назад

@@lbsiuk Sounds possible, but it's weird Lenovo themselves don't have their facts right on their website. The spec listing for the full size model T60 from the same era does mención both Core Duo and Core2Duo models. support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd010033-detailed-specifications-thinkpad-x60

@OverTallman 3 года назад

@@BilisNegra Probably because X60 with Core 2 Duo were produced very late in production (AFAIK they're quite rare) and Lenovo simply forgot to update the spec list, just like the 8GB RAM capability on the 61-series

@SuperNicktendo 3 года назад

Really love these communities that breathe new life into old tech. I still have my HP TouchPad. Wonder what those two people are up to.

@BloodAsp 3 года назад

They are HUGE in linux communities, esp since there are operating systems that largely do not use the mouse.

@BloodAsp Год назад

@The Eye of Cthulhu lol, yeah, I was tired and equivocated it to a thinkpad.

@JonThysell 3 года назад

I had a X61 I rescued for free from a PC recycle event at work, including the ultradock, around 2013. Everyone was "upgrading" to ultrabooks, but I snapped this up for that keyboard. I loved the lack of touchpad, which I always disabled on Thinkpads anyway. So light and portable for the time. I used it for years, until a statue fell off my shelf and smashed the keyboard.

@danekeating5224 3 года назад

The camera work and narration is always top level. A high level advertising agency should snap you up in a second. The highest quality of all retro channels I have seen.

@nikovbn839 3 года назад

100% agreed.

@trandinhvietdung9357 2 года назад

Better than any channel i have watched before, even better than the 8-bit guy

@j2simpso 3 года назад

A colleague of mine was so proud of the "waterproof" feature of Thinkpads that he once dumped a whole bottle of water on the keyboard and the Thinkpad promptly stopped working. Needless to say it was in for warranty repairs and he looked like a knob! 😅

@kztech1319 3 года назад

Well it's a lesson that these water drainage features are designed for emergency situations and not something you wanna torture of! I had a T43 with also water spilled on it. It works fine but I had a lucky escape there and also I did all the right things after a water spillage!

@cee128d 3 года назад

Louis Rossman (the Mac repair guy who hates Macs and loves Thinkpads) did the same thing on a live stream a few years ago and it kept on running. As far as I know it still works.

@houghwhite411 3 года назад

@@cee128d it died and he do warranty repair. Lenovo repaired his for free

@cee128d 3 года назад

@@houghwhite411 How long after the stream did it die?

@mayhair 3 года назад

Wish I read this before I did the same

@berkant_k 3 года назад

I remember using a ThinkPad X60s 6 years ago and it was an awesome little machine.

@EgoShredder 3 года назад

I still have an X60s and apparently they are sought after for use with Libreboot.

@ivaniliev2272 Год назад

the most important things for x61 1.Have good quality fast sata SSD 2.Forget about Windows. You will lose too much performace. Install Lubuntu (there are other lightweight distros but I haven't tried them yet) 3. Install Middleton's BIOS . It is very important because it unlock SATA2 that gives huge performance boost in SSD at least in my experience. 4. Use AHCI , NOT compatibility mode to run drives(bios settings) 5. 4 GB is enough for lightweight linux for this laptop in 2022. 6. check also power options in BIOS. Dont use power-saving options on AC, because they will clog the performance. Maybe consider removing them on battery if you feel lag. Use high brightness for display, otherwise you wont be able to set brightness to max at battery. This is for me must have steps to have fast, snappy and usable x61 in 2022.

@Charlesb88 3 года назад

Someone once accidentally spilled water on my Thinkpad laptop and when I saw him again later he keep profusely apologizing and I said don’t worry, it water under the Southbridge.😂🤣

@c462- 3 года назад

I loved this video and the mention of those x62 models! I, personally, would love to see Ubuntu server with jwm running on that machine, it isn't a distro per se, but it's a solid choice for such a machine (it'll probably use around 120mb of ram and only 1% of the cpu, in idle)

@BoomChockolaca 6 месяцев назад

I had a X60 as a personal machine in my company's secondary office where I worked 1-2 times a week, and even with limited memory and CPU power, I absolutely loved it. I really miss having it and love that someone found motivation to place modern hardware into it. This machine deserves better life!

@p_mouse8676 3 года назад

Hey Colin, it's everyone. How is it going?

@doxanthropos 2 года назад

I love my x61 and x61s. The lack of a touchpad is for me one of its features: no accidental clicks only because I touched someting, every interaction is based on actual physical movement. They run both Linux and BSD very well and at a nice speed. So far both run with the stock BIOS, but Middleton sounds tempting.

@andrewsampson9065 10 месяцев назад

Have you done Middleton yet

@doxanthropos 10 месяцев назад

@@andrewsampson9065No. But my collection has grown and now includes a x61t. The only bios modification I did so far was on a x60s where I installed libreboot and Trisquel GNU/Linux to have at least one system that runs on completely Free software.

@MichaelAChang 3 года назад

I have a couple of X61 tablets running Windows 10 and perform admirably with the same sorts of upgrades you've made; there are plenty of applications where speed is of no concern, and the Wacom pen input adds a new dimension to its usability. It's probably not going to work with Windows 11 even if I upgrade to 64bit, but I'm plenty happy with what it's capable of as it stands now.

@lionheart0750 2 года назад

i have a x61 tablet as well…what is necessary to run windows 10 on it?…do i have to make modifications to the BIOS like Colin describes in the video?

@MichaelAChang 2 года назад

@@lionheart0750 Windows 10 32bit will install on your X61 Tablet without any modifications, but an SSD upgrade is highly recommended with the Middleton BIOS mod as described in the video. You can install Windows 10 64bit if you have more than 4GB of RAM.

@laboye 2 года назад

These things were fantastic for their time. I refurbished a bunch of these in the day and was always impressed at the full-voltage processors in such a small package (the next model, the X200 switched to medium and low-voltage CPUs). The also made an X60s and X61s that sacrificed the full-voltage CPUs for the low-voltage L models. Still felt fast for most tasks, and the modification allowed them to use a slimmer heatsink, making the bottom flat (without those contours on the base matching the contours in the battery). It was sold with an optional "prismatic" slim battery exclusive to the 's' models that stayed flush with the bottom profile of the machine, although it could take the cylindrical 4-cell and extended 8-cell batteries with a little spacer bracket. All that brought it down to something like 2.7lbs, which is still impressive today.

@andi 3 года назад

I really love what Free Geek is doing! Wish there was more like that here in Germany :D

@ross-carlson 3 года назад

We had several of these where I ran IT back when these were new - and my users LOVED them. They were FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC for road warriors given it's light weight, small size and relatively usable power (when the memory is upgraded). Great little machine for sure.

@brv002 3 года назад

Love these old ThinkPads! I have an old T410 that I've updated to the max with Windows 10 Enterprise and it's starts up faster than my 2yr old work computer. It also got flooded in my car during a storm inside my computer bag. I opened it up to let it dry on my work bench for a few days, then dropped it while putting together and it's still working just fine!

@darkknight8139 10 месяцев назад

A great video about a great laptop! This laptop is really old by today's standards, but could still be able to support simple daily tasks, especially if you need a lot of typing. I bought a Thinkpad X201 tablet in 2010, with the reversible touch screen and built-in Wacom tablet and pen. It has always been a fantastic companion, and I still use it sometimes. The keyboard is unbeatable, I updated the hard drive and RAM, and bought an Ultrabay. Everything still works (no major driver issues), I am so happy that it is a 64 bit machine, it will even run Windows 11 if I want to. I do not know what I should buy as a successor, today's Thinkpads are good but they lack the upgradability this X61 and my X201 have, because of soldered-on components. I also consider a Framework laptop, but I want a touch screen and are really used to the Trackpoint... Call me old-fashioned, but modern laptops just are not as good as they were 10 years ago.

@sargera1 9 месяцев назад

keep it at 22h2 win 10 too old and prob dodgy driver on win 11

@tonka301180 3 года назад

i watched this on a Lenovo ThinkPad T410. ;)

@Tall_Order 3 года назад

Specs are similar to my Dell Latitude D630 of the same year. I upgraded the ram to 8GB, got a 512gb SSD, swapped out the dvd drive for a module bay battery (more useful these days), and installed Windows 10. It runs great. I can run a lot of 3D games on it even though its intel graphics.

@nyanpasu64 2 года назад

Haha, the Latitude D630's NVIDIA model was infamous for dying to the GPU overheating plague. I have two dead laptops of that model.

@Tall_Order 2 года назад

@@nyanpasu64 Yeah I heard about that when I was looking up info on the laptop. I guess I should be grateful I got the intel graphics model, even though it's hard to get updated drivers for it. I would love a more modern version of OpenGL than the last one intel bundled with the last graphics driver.

@cristianooliveiraamaroferr4522 Год назад

Greetings! My name is Cristiano Oliveira. I'm from "Brasília" Brazil. The peace of Christ Jesus! Very nice video. I have a ThinkPad X61. Indeed, I would like to purchase a more advanced motherboard that is capable of supporting two coolers (fans), an i9 processor, and DDR5 memory RAM with a maximum capacity of 64 GB for my retro X61 Laptop. If you could recommend a place where I can purchase a high-quality motherboard that meets all these criteria for my x61 chassis, I would greatly appreciate it a lot my friend.

@ALAPINO 3 года назад

I regret giving mine away.

@acumenium8157 3 года назад

Ah god... I would LOVE a 4:3 laptop so much. I can't express how much I freaking hate 16:9. Even 3:2 would be way better, but I can't afford any of the 3:2 laptops...

@sittingstill3578 3 года назад

Great work Collin. I think the _Hackintosh_ mod of your X61 would be really interesting to see.

@brunoais 3 года назад

I'd like to see: 1. Hackintosh 2. Zorin OS (with all animations "bells and whistles" turned on) 3. Linux Mint XFCE edition Seeing how it handles the heavier distros but also the lighter ones in an unusual way of trying on that old laptop

@sargera1 9 месяцев назад

due dan just go puppy or xenial puppy esp after that 32bit win7 with 200mb speed read it prob be like running win 10 in a 4gb ddr4 win a i3

@halfsourlizard9319 Год назад

Not even trolling but wtf did 'road warriors' even do? Were they doing derpy sales nonsense or academics travelling around to rake in those sweet corporate-consulting dollars or ... what?

@MaryJane-op6qc 2 года назад

I have a thinkpad X61 laptop and I love it. Bought it for around £100 off eBay. It has a Core 2 processor, 3 GB of RAM and runs Windows 10 32 bit. It’s a bit slow but I still like it. It’s a lovely little square laptop. Great for retro gaming and light task such as Internet browsing and Microsoft office. That X 62 is amazing. A 4:3 laptop with modern specs is my dream laptop. I will have to look into that some more and see if I can even buy one.

@Bawkr 2 года назад

A beautiful machine. I really want to buy a modded one of these someday but for now all I can afford is a t430 with nvidia chipset and a quad core, which is pretty awesome for me and should be for anyone really who knows what they can run with that.

@Angelgreat 3 года назад

Can it run Windows 11?

@ThisDoesNotCompute 3 года назад

very unlikely lol

@Angelgreat 3 года назад

@@ThisDoesNotCompute Bruh, that reply was from two days ago?

@ThisDoesNotCompute 3 года назад

@@Angelgreat 2 days ago we didn't know what could run Windows 11...now we do ;-)

@dcfuksurmom 3 года назад

As much as a love Linux, I think a Hackintosh with this thing would be hilarious, another possibility is also Android x86. Also while I never had an X61, I did have an X41 tablet, the one I had was a lower end version but that thing was awesome.

@WantBadtime Год назад

I agree. Although this comment is a year old, this laptop reminds me of Apple's newer iBook G4s with its compact design and flushed keyboard.

@arekplewa599 Год назад

It should be relatively easy to do, the hardware is similar to those of early 2008 macbooks

@shankar4330 Год назад

Op: "let me know what Linus distro y..." Viewers: so you have chosen the death

@Dexerinos 3 года назад

Spend my first 12 years of my career with ThinkPad T/X series, iconic machines!

@BilisNegra 3 года назад

Pretty expensive, though... but rather affordable used on the other hand, which I think is what has extended its fanbase the most!

@Dexerinos 3 года назад

@@BilisNegra Yes for sure, it was not cheap - I was getting them in work , for work. I dont think I could afford it back then. Aftermarket made them much more affordable, and by then everybody knew about them. Even today I would buy a used ThinkPad rather than what shi!t you would buy for the same price as new - incomparable.

@Garrettdx1988 8 месяцев назад

I wish retrofitting modern hardware onto older chassis was a more common practice

@eatincrabmeats 8 месяцев назад

no kidding

@talkinghat88 3 года назад

Didn’t it have a SIM card slot next to the RAM sockets? May be 3G?

@Gromitdog1 Год назад

X61, T41, T42, T43 all amazing durable machines.

@tweakpc Год назад

I don't know about the X61 but my X200 had a performance boost from Intel Sata drivers. Intel has limited the support and you can not install the ACHI drivers but only the standard MS. Some users have unlocked the drivers and the performance increase was quite good considering it is only SATAII.

@Aeglos15 3 года назад

A Colin video on a ThinkPad is a fantastic one-two punch. I find the X61 intriguing but I'm absolutely head over heels in love with the X61 Tablet; I own two including one in amazing condition that came with the dock.

@ThomasBacka 3 года назад

I had an X60/61 ”tablet” in those days. It was a bit too clumsy for my taste. Still has it somewhere in the garage.

@juanignacioaschura9437 3 года назад

Same here, I had the X61 Tablet and used to do artwork on it. It was my first ThinkPad.

@terrydaktyllus1320 3 года назад

Someone recently sold me three X60 tablets for the equivalent of $50 US - two were in really good condition, and included the pens, the third one was a non-worker but I used it for parts to repair a couple of broken clips on the other two. I put SSDs in the two workers and installed Gentoo Linux on them - everything works great, including the touch screen.

@zeero4ever 3 года назад

Same, me and my (now) wife each had a X61 Tablet. One is pretty worn out now (fan bearing is dying, display hinge is loose, heavy usage marks), while the other one is still in pretty decent condition. TBH it's just used once or twice a year for car diagnosis, but it's still a cool laptop. Most useful addition while I was still at the university was the secondary battery which could be snapped on the bottom in the docking port, giving around 1.5 - 2 hours extra.

@ProjectPhysX 3 года назад

I didn't know that 4GB DDR2 sodimm sticks exist. A great way to give old devices a second life. But they are damn expensive, like ~90 Euro for two sticks!

@Chaoticmass 2 года назад

You don't prefer the track point? Unsub. Bye.

@r12fre0n 3 года назад

Bye bye, cheap eBay Thinkpads. Was nice knowing you.

@Riccardo_Mori 3 года назад

I have the Tablet version of the X61 and I love it. I definitely need to update the BIOS so I can take advantage of SATA-II speeds. Great video as usual, Colin! Cheers!

@JayChapman025 3 года назад

Thanks for another great video! My T61 now mysteriously has faster SSD access! That Middleton bios is pretty slick.

@SaudadeSunday 3 года назад

The full version of that keyboard is still unsurpassed today.

@kielagut 3 года назад

Watching this video on my T61 running on Windows 10! I have an X61 as well, but I don't use it as much, with the screen looking like a hot mess. Hoping to find an affordable replacement for that!

@madcat4563 Год назад

I'm amazed how far people have modified the X61.

@NathanChisholm041 2 года назад

I've got a X200 and the X220 with their docks and they are still fantastic machines.

@kirisame1919 3 года назад

actually, you can even order a 13 inch 3000x2000 x61 modified display and a completely new mod motherboard with i5 5th/8thGen processor (X62/X63 project) from chinese thinkpad fan forum 51nb.

@kirisame1919 3 года назад

they also offer modifications which can change the conventional charging port to usb-c

@grafknives9544 3 года назад

X61 tablet version was AMAZING. The screen is 1400x1050 IPS. Stylus was excellent pointing device, even in excel. I learned to type with stylus in right hand. It had 8cells extended battery and a Hsdpa card. This laptop kicked even years after release. And no other (x200,201,230) matched x61t.

@Rivenworld 3 года назад

Got a T60 and a T420 which I have just upgraded (with a second hand motherboard) to a T420i with an i7 and 16 gig of RAM, love these old machines.

@robl9767 3 года назад

I would go with pure Debian you can never go wrong with that distro Colin. I have always ran it on the majority of my hardware and it does a real nice USB install.

@VictorNoelCoryPaz 3 года назад

This calls for GNU/Linux :)

@anonymousidea9119 3 года назад

I have an x60 tablet edition, gotta say it’s been a pain in the ass finding a battery but once I do it’ll be all set up, tablet drivers and all.

@pixelnbits 3 года назад

Keep it Clean , as Original !!! Nice Laptop, I got a X201 And love it ! and try to keep it clean/original

@kztech1319 3 года назад

I remember the ThinkPad forum members can push it further by using a rework station and solder on a T9300 CPU on it. And that CPU to the T7250 is a night and day upgrade! So with that said, while it definitely packed the performance of the 14 and 15 inch counterparts back then, that's no longer true today as the 14 and 15 inch counterparts can easily have their CPU upgraded to the Penryn CPU's like the T9300, exotic ones like the X9000, or an inexpensive one like the T8300, all of which will wipe the floor off the T7250. Essentially, you are getting last gen performance as the predecessor 14 and 15 inch models can take T7200 and T7400 CPU's now. But the X61 is actually amazing engineering that they managed to cram in 2 SODIMM slots while also using 2.5" drives, something the X4x series failed to do. I really wish subnotebooks had removable CPU's... I had one of the subnotebooks and I had to perform clock generator FSB overclocking to get it up to the speeds of laptops of the same generation when they are open to CPU upgrades.

@kztech1319 3 года назад

@Tano yeah I know that I have a t61 and I managed to upgrade it's poor T7100 to a much more respectable T8300 for a good price

@sokpisethlalalanno 2 года назад

Hey everyone it's colin how's going

@shanapagdilao3580 3 года назад

We have the same specs laptop, i have a Dell D630 having the same core 2 duo processor and RAM

@nukeum9535 3 года назад

I had one of these mounted in my car for music,movies what ever. The drain holes do work as long at the drain tray isnt overloaded.

@user-nRQmAdTuu09tFR5l1cRkQ 14 дней назад

I have a X61 upgraded dual band WiFi and a X230 bluetooth 4.0 module. The OS is Linux Mint xfce, keyboard function key was supported with this Linux, it works great today.

@davie655 3 года назад

i have a T61 and it still works and it in great condition only issue is the battery

@K0ukku Год назад

Used X61 during my studies 2010-2014, was a beast of a machine, and with used price a total banger.

@CommodoreFan64 3 года назад

I use Linux on various different Lenovo Thinkpads in my collection, and I've become very fond of Manjaro W/Mate DE for it's overall compatibility(Wifi/bluetooth have been on my only issues to do whitelisting, but it's rare), ease of use/lightness thanks to MATE DE, and the fact that Manjaro is based on Arch, it's fairly well up to date with the latest Linux kernels. If you don't like Manjaro another Linux distro I would give a shot is Solus W/Budgie DE, as it's fairly well up to date as well, only being a kernel or 2 behind Manjaro.

@pgreendale9931 3 года назад

I ran the older X60s for a very long time, then sold it to a friend, it is still in use today. Initially I bought it because of the firewire connector because firewire interfaces were cheaper back then. The X6xs can take a lot of misuse if you dont try to lift them by only the handrest. Together with the 12" G4 Powerbook and the Thinkpad 570, X6xs are my favorite laptops of all time. We used to swap X201s with X220 Hardware at work also and ran a lot of T6x (had a couple of keyboards removed to clean up because of spilled coffe, the "waterproof" feature worked fine). Damn, that was a great era for notebooks back then. I would recommend Lubuntu, since it seems to be lightweight and is easy to use on a daily basis.

@jjohnson71958 3 года назад

i have the lenovo t61 notebook and love it

@MichaelAStanhope 3 года назад

I have an X61 that I use quite often whenever I need a PC to do light work on (I use a Mac normally). I love mine. Mine is also the 2ghz model, and has the fingerprint reader and cellular modem in it. I also have the dock for it and a good battery which really makes it quite usable. Running Windows 10 on it is also a decent experience so I can keep it mostly up to date. Great machine! I also have a stack of X60's here that are decent machines, but lacking in the speed department since they use lower end processors.

@shakymctwitch8615 2 года назад

Thinkpad fan here... the TP community is huge and the X61 is just the tip of the iceberg. The Middleton bios applies to many different models from the mid to late '00's and has allowed many of these machines to remain viable even today. I use a T61 and a T61p on the regular and they run W10 just fine if need be though 7 or Vista are the better choice. Great video Colin...from another Colin.

@emaheiwa8174 Год назад

Love the crazy mods ❤😎

@gato38 3 года назад

Highly recommend Linux Mint, I tried over 20 distros and it works the best on laptops and older gen desktops as well .

@vuicung_beyeu 2 года назад

what version you use for? i have x60 32bit, i only found linux mint version 19.3 for 32bit

@gato38 2 года назад

@@vuicung_beyeu Unfortunately Mint stopped 32 bit releases, there are lots of 32 bit lightweight distros around but 19.3 was a good version of mint , not sure if its still supported or not.

@vuicung_beyeu 2 года назад

@@gato38 thank bro, i have a problem, i can't creat usb boot to install linux mint, bios didn't recognize, i used rufus to creat iso, could u tell me some advide?

@gato38 2 года назад

@@vuicung_beyeu When making the bootable usb make sure you are choosing MBR and not GPT, GPT is for UEFI BIOS which Im pretty sure the x60 doesnt have.

@Shittyke Год назад

I have a t61 from 2007 with Ubuntu, still rocks, my kids use it. Thanks for tge nostalgia :)

@michael_everywhere 2 месяца назад

I had a T61 from this era that I love so much. It was my college laptop. At the time I believe I was dual booting Vista as well as MacOS X 10.4 which barely worked but I used it anyway.

@andresbravo2003 3 года назад

Hopefully I really liked the IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad Laptops. I still kinda liked it. Andres Bravo Approves it.

@kristopherkoontz3839 4 месяца назад

The X61 runs Peppermint Linux really well and brings the machine, with an SSD and the Middleton BIOS, into the modern age.

@nathanbaker8245 3 года назад

Still use mine daily, runs Windows 10 pro perfectly.

@MrKillswitch88 3 года назад

What Lenovo should have done was an 17 inch with good cooling and a mxm slot that didn't have whitelist much sooner as that would have been a great combo for both gaming and more demanding cad work. I ended up moving on to using Dell Precisions despite their issues and plus they got nicer display panels. Would have given HP another chance had they not been so terrible. Still would have been nice if the W720 or W730 existed though no efforts towards developing such machines that I am aware of.

@WalterKnox 2 года назад

I love how people act like a core 2 duo is "retro" that is still a perfectly good CPU for even modern tasks.

@NathanChisholm041 2 года назад

I've got a X200 with the Core 2 Duo and its decently showing its age. Chromes sluggish like most programs it runs...

@WalterKnox 2 года назад

@@NathanChisholm041 on older systems like that I always find that firefox and kmeleon run the best, chrome is sort of a resource hog.

@NeonSonOfXenon Год назад

I had an x61 convertible tablet in university that I used for taking notes with OneNote. Handed it down to my sister who used it until it died in 2015. It was a little trooper

@ranimungcal 2 месяца назад

that original ibm and thinkpad hdd ultrabay caddy are so expensive!same as the price of used x220 in my country!

@TVVDINAKARAN 3 года назад

I have a thinkpad x60, upgraded the ram and trust me this 13 year old machine can dual boot and does incredibly well for its age and it looks something from future but its from the past

@refusist 3 года назад

10 years ago rocking my T43p and a top spec X60 the T43p finally died from overheating a couple of years ago (playing gzdoom of all things lol) and the X60 died from a spilled beer serving as a music station at a party. Damn I miss those two machines. perfect design and form factor

3 года назад

Second? Oh boy! Many many chances

@Charlesb88 3 года назад

I would install Gentoo Linux on this machine and make sure you upload a RU-vid video of you compiling the entire system from scratch using the the Portage package management system for all us to see.😁

@fn0va 3 года назад

you NEED to install Mac OS X Tiger on it. I uploaded a hackintosh iso of it to the internet archive which shouldn’t be hard to find if you wanna try it

@stephenroberts7554 6 месяцев назад

I've never owned an IBM ThinkPad but when I was in college several students had them and refused to update to a more powerful laptop because they loved how easy it was to carry around and of course it's keyboard since most will be doing a lot of typing in college. All of them sweared by their ThinkPads and at the time I had an older Ibook G4 that had tiger installed with Mac OS9.2 installed as well for my work at college and done well overall since at home I had a new 24 inch imac that my dad bought me and he spent almost 3000$ for it. Things have changed a lot since then 😂❤

@GeiPeeruPuutin 4 месяца назад

my friend has a x61s with smashed screen (it has very big dark spots everywhere but it was still usable) and 120 gb ssd and 1.5 gb ram

@eggspresso 3 года назад

I wonder if it’s possible to retrofit a Pi 4 with 4 or 8 GB into one of these chassis and get it to talk to the keyboard and screen. You’ll lose x86 compatibility, but I’m sure it’s a much cheaper option than the custom mobo and should get great battery life too.

@mayhair 3 года назад

No matter if your laptop has drain holes or not, turn it off as soon as possible if you spill liquid on it. (Do this by holding the power button.) Then open the lid as wide as possible and leave it with the screen facing down for 48 hours. This gets rid of droplets hidden in your laptop. (This works better if you put a fan in front of it.)

@LemonChieff 3 года назад

Errr. Why are you not blown away? I've just watch you increase the throughput of your main drive by 100% installing a firmware update. THAT IS INSANE. HOW IS IT NOT COMPLETELY BLOWING YOUR MIND?

@oldtechie6834 2 года назад

X61 succeeded in where X41, X61's predecessor had failed. X41 (and X41T, the tablet version) would had had been a very nice machine had it not for the ultra slow 1.8" 4200RPM PATA mechanical hard drive. Ironically the X41 was equipped with a SATA interface but a PATA-to-SATA bridge was used to facilitate a PATA drive. The 1.8" hard drive was single sourced from Hitachi who had bought IBM's mobile hard drive division. Years later thanks to newer mass storage technology Thankpad enthusiasts would put a SSD in a X41 to speed up the hard drive and X41 would become a peppy machine. X41 RAM space however is confined to 3GB maximum.

@PaulSpades Год назад

Man, do I miss my tablet x61. I use a modern touchscreen yoga laptop nowadays, and it's fine.... but I really seriously miss coding on that old keyboard with the trackpoint. It was right there, in the middle of the keyboard, I was more productive on that old laptop because of the trackpoint than I am on my workstation with mechanical keyboard and a good mouse. I guess I should find an x220.