Classic ThinkPad Thread

[RogerWilco6502]

The T530 is a great machine. I have repaired and refurbished several. It is the last "classic" T-series before the Tx40 series design with a chicklet keyboard and many drawbacks including an awful trackpad.

Yeah, it have the chiclet keyboard but still retains many of the classic design features such as the trackpad with the discreet buttons, the ThinkLight, and the lid latches. Mine just arrived in the mail, so here are some pictures of mine.

And here's the dock alone (which also came with the unit):

 

[sracer]

The T530 is a great machine. I have repaired and refurbished several. It is the last "classic" T-series before the Tx40 series design with a chicklet keyboard and many drawbacks including an awful trackpad.

What true aficionado of classic ThinkPads is concerned with the trackpad?

 

[TSE]

These thinkpads are amazing! Love that industrial design on them! The new ones are nice too, but something about that blue enter key, the quirky off center displays, and funky IBM logo gets me a little too excited!!!

 

[Tekguy0]

What true aficionado of classic ThinkPads is concerned with the trackpad?

The right/left-click and scroll buttons are now integrated with the trackpad, so unless you use an external mouse you are interacting with the trackpad in some way.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

What true aficionado of classic ThinkPads is concerned with the trackpad?

I mean, to be fair, it was still under IBM's ownership that trackpads got added.

 

[sracer]

The right/left-click and scroll buttons are now integrated with the trackpad, so unless you use an external mouse you are interacting with the trackpad in some way.

I don't consider those to be "classic" ThinkPads.

 

[Tekguy0]

I don't consider those to be "classic" ThinkPads.

I consider them to be sort of in-between the new case design 40-series and the old case design 20-series. Some elements of the new but with many features of the old.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

Just paid for a T42p a few days ago from the UK. It has a German keyboard so I'll need to swap it with an en-US one once I receive it, but after that it'll be good to go.

 

[CasualFanboy]

Thanks! Primarily that its a decently modern T series ThinkPad. I wanted to get one to compliment my P53 and to have as a Linux machine. I was browsing offers and found a T530. Upon looking at it online, it appears to be quite a nice machine.

I have a T530 laying around. Got it around 2013 I think. I just wish it had better resolution than 1600x900.

What I really love is that it runs FreeBSD on bare metal very well. It's definitely a good Linux laptop too, of course, but FreeBSD hardware is tough to stumble upon in a mostly stock laptop. Mostly stock, because I changed out the wireless card in it and added some RAM.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

I have a T530 laying around. Got it around 2013 I think. I just wish it had better resolution than 1600x900.

What I really love is that it runs FreeBSD on bare metal very well. It's definitely a good Linux laptop too, of course, but FreeBSD hardware is tough to stumble upon in a mostly stock laptop. Mostly stock, because I changed out the wireless card in it and added some RAM.

Epic! I'll keep that in mind about FreeBSD. Mine runes Ubuntu Cinnamon. This generation of ThinkPads must use hardware that is pretty universal in terms of support, as they're also known to be easily hackintoshable.

 

[CasualFanboy]

Epic! I'll keep that in mind about FreeBSD. Mine runes Ubuntu Cinnamon. This generation of ThinkPads must use hardware that is pretty universal in terms of support, as they're also known to be easily hackintoshable.

What kind of wireless card does it have? I think mine came with a Realtek and it wasn't very good, so I replaced it with an Intel Taylor Peak 6150. Much better.

Also if you're into the BSD's, this thing runs OpenBSD flawlessly. The hardware support - including all trackpad/trackpoint features - is better than OEM. It's unbelievable really. I just prefer FreeBSD to OpenBSD for everything but that.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

What kind of wireless card does it have? I think mine came with a Realtek and it wasn't very good, so I replaced it with an Intel Taylor Peak 6150. Much better.

Also if you're into the BSD's, this thing runs OpenBSD flawlessly. The hardware support - including all trackpad/trackpoint features - is better than OEM. It's unbelievable really. I just prefer FreeBSD to OpenBSD for everything but that.

Ok, thanks for the information! It is much appreciated.

I have a Taylor Peak 6205 in my T530.

 

[Steve Adams]

Work provided me with an ibm TP back in the day, It was a tank, but I didn't like the red dot staring me in the face all the time. I would doing work and start playing around with it constantly. ha ha. It never failed. They replaced it with a compaq after that.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

Work provided me with an ibm TP back in the day, It was a tank, but I didn't like the red dot staring me in the face all the time. I would doing work and start playing around with it constantly. ha ha. It never failed. They replaced it with a compaq after that.

Epic! Do you know what model?

 

[Steve Adams]

Epic! Do you know what model?

I can't remember. It was in 2003-2004.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

I can't remember. It was in 2003-2004.

Ah, cool! So that would probably some 3x or 4x model if I had to guess. My X40 and the T42p I'm getting soon are both from 2004.

 

[Steve Adams]

i think it was a 4x model of some sort.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

i think it was a 4x model of some sort.

Epic! I have a soft spot those, I used a T42p as a kid.

 

[Steve Adams]

Ha ha. I was out of school for 10 years at that point. ewwww I am old!

 

[RogerWilco6502]

Ha ha. I was out of school for 10 years at that point. ewwww I am old!

I'm actually about to finish off my first year of college! Got the T42p in 2009-ish.

Sadly don't have that exact one, but am working on getting another T42p for nostalgia.

 

[Steve Adams]

My son finished university this past month. HA HA.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

My son finished university this past month. HA HA.

Epic!

Is he into ThinkPads too?

 

[Steve Adams]

No unfortunately he has a macbook air.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

No unfortunately he has a macbook air.

Still a good machine!

I personally love both Macs and ThinkPads. My go-to pick for most any computer would be one of the two.

 

[mi7chy]

Only things I miss on the x61s are the key switches and aspect ratio but the x200 has more usable performance, doesn't run as hot and can boot off of SD card slot. Not bad for a 2008 device that's still usable in 2021.