An IBM Thinkpad in 2015!

[Stick_man]

I am yet to find a pc based laptop that looks as good as a thinkpad.

I had an IBM PC when I was a kid and they built expensive computers back then -- which was more PC than my family needed.

In any case, the thought of Chinese imitation Lenovo one is just disagreeable to me and it is like buying someone else's heritage in my view; the newer ones are not as attractive.

I always see this dude in a coffee shop with one, and love the look of it. I don't know if his is an ibm or not. I know Lenovo was branding them as ibm for a few years after which I guess then is ok. they had that same look to them though and you still got an ibm logo.

And speaking of coffee shops I can't go to one in my hood wo seeing 10 lemmings with that same gray apple laptop

so my question is that old a laptop worth buying? I understand they are easily upgradeable.

They are cheap also. With some new upgraded ram would it be worth it? I would need a 64 bit operating system though to do SAS enterprise guide.

Otherwise my current pc is an acer aspire 1800 series w only 2 gb of ram and it seems to be just fine.

 

[Draygoes]

Very nice! I might consider getting one for Cynthia, for she is an artist and would use that well.

 

[setishock]

It has to be a 64bit system to be able to run a 64bit OS.

 

[strollin]

The Thinkpads had a very good reputation as very reliable machines. You might be able to find a later model, something like a T60 in good shape that could meet your needs.

I had a T30 Thinkpad as my work machine from 2003 to 2010 and it was still going strong when the IT department took it from me and gave me a Dell in 2010. They said it was getting too old and they didn't want to support it.

Here's a listing of the various Thinkpad models: ThinkPad History - ThinkWiki

 

[cb600fshornet]

I use a new Lenovo Thinkpad T430 for my job role and can't fault it to be honest.

At the end of the day, IBM, Lenovo, Dell... they're all just brands, you'll find the components themselves are literally the same, my HDD for instance was actually manufactured by Samsung, and I've seen Toshiba laptops which have come with Western Digital drives and not Toshiba ones! Even a lot of Apple stuff was manufactured by Foxconn, not Apple...

You won't go wrong with a Lenovo version of the ThinkPad... but you'll probably pay extra because of the "ThinkPad" branding.

 

[Stick_man]

^ the Lenovo ones came with spyware installed on them! When have you heard of IBM doing anything like that?

 

[cb600fshornet]

^ the Lenovo ones came with spyware installed on them! When have you heard of IBM doing anything like that?

I'm sure the only difference between IBM and Lenovo is that IBM were clever enough not to get caught.

Besides, I was talking from a hardware perspective, all of my new laptops get wiped and a new copy of Windows 7 installed on them. Our work laptops just get a new pre-configured build on them, software isn't an issue.

 

[Stick_man]

I really can't be bothered installing an operating system on my machine. My time is too valuable. To be honest I don't remember how to do it or what crazy costs are involved to get a new windows. I am not buying a computer wo windows 7 installed on it. It is just too easy to buy a refurb that has it.

After dealing with my dell dimension 2350 and installing xubuntu without a bootable usb drive and a cd/dvd drive that required me to break the front lid; and jam a screw driver in it, to open it; and then bubblegum the lid back on...yeah I am not dealing with operating systems installs for awhile.

And I doubt ibm was clever enough not to get caught or ever did that.

I realize the components are the same but I like how the thinkpad looks. you can buy an old one that is fast and have the latest hardware. They are very upgreadable also. Or you can buy a Chinese imitation with spyware. I think the choice is obvious.

You can make that same argument for any computer except apple since all PC's hardware can be opened up & swapped in with something else.

 

[cb600fshornet]

I realize the components are the same but I like how the thinkpad looks. you can buy an old one that is fast and have the latest hardware. They are very upgreadable also. Or you can buy a Chinese imitation with spyware. I think the choice is obvious.

You can make that same argument for any computer except apple since all PC's hardware can be opened up & swapped in with something else.

The Lenovo version is visually very similar, aside from the Lenovo logo.

Unfortunately you will not be able to upgrade the old CPU to a brand new model, even if you can find a model where the CPU is not soldered to the motherboard, the CPU socket will still be out of date, meaning it will be impossible to put a modern chip in it.

You *may* be able to put a solid state drive in the older machine, but to be honest it's not worth spending the money.

Lenovo purchased IBMs PC division in 2005, so any machine produced post-2005 is a Lenovo machine. Lenovo also used IBM branding for a further 3 years, so despite the machine saying "IBM" on the case in 2008, it was in fact still Lenovo.

Even before Lenovo's takeover in 2005, IBM were no longer making their own machines, in 2004 a Chinese company was producing the IBM ThinkPads "FOR" IBM.

To summarise, if you want a original quality IBM ThinkPad, you'll have to go back more than 10 years, to a machine with at best a "Pentium M" chip.

Possibly better to go for the "chinese imitation" and uninstall the spyware.

Hope this helps.

-J

 

[Draygoes]

That would be adware, not spyware. Looking into this, I have found that the "fake" version comes with a lot of added programs, but nothing that cannot be cleaned out with some time.