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Created: 2026-05-30
I was heading back from San Diego one weekend and was browsing Facebook Marketplace to see if there were any cheap Thinkpads I could pick up on the way back (as one does). There didn't immediately appear to be anything good, but I kept scrolling until I came across a diamond in the rough; it was an older model, evident by the IBM logo, and was listed for only $25. At that price point, I was fully expecting the screen to be cracked or the keyboard to be in horrible condition (the listing did not have any pictures of the inside) but for only $25 it was worth a shot. I stopped by the address in Irvine and knocked on the door.
A middle aged Chinese man opened the door with the laptop in his hand, and handed it to me. I gingerly raised the lid to reveal the keyboard, to be quickly overcome with joy seeing that it was in pristine condition. The laptop booted up into a Chinese Windows 7 install, and came with the original power brick (with a Chinese plug and adapter). The man noted that I would likely have to replace the battery, which I fully expected given the age of the machine. Realizing I had gotten a good deal, I thanked the man and quickly walked back to my car. I almost tripped on his steps out of excitement, the machine was beautiful and I couldn't believe my luck.
I also stopped by an In-N-Out on the way back, giving me time to research my new toy. It was an x60, which I found out likely meant that it had a 32-bit processor. This was a bit of a let-down, as it meant I wouldn't be able to install the latest versions of most Linux operating systems (Arch Linux dropped 32-bit support in 2017). "On the bright side", I thought to myself, "at least I can say I have a 32-bit computer now!".
When I got home I checked the bios to see what CPU it had: a Core 2 Duo T5600. I was delighted to see that the CPU was 64-bit! It turns out there were some x60's that shipped with Core 2 Duo 64-bit CPUs, and my model was one of those rare exceptions. The system also had 2GB of installed RAM, which I immediately looked to upgrade. However, even though the CPU is 64 bit, in this particular chipset the northbridge is still 32 bit. This means that the system is limited to a 4GB address space, as it would be in a 32-bit system. Can't win them all I guess. And even though you can install 4GB of memory (DDR2), 1GB of the address space is reserved in firmware for various peripherals, so you can only get up to 3GB of usable memory. Not the end of the world, but a bit of a bummer in 2026.
As the processor was 64-bit, I grabbed my Arch bootable USB and quickly went to work to install the new OS. I didn't run into any bumps in the process, and was able to boot into the system the same night. I setup dwm and started playing around with the system.
The system felt snappier then I expected for a 20-year old computer, pulling a 2.81 broswerbench score in Firefox. The previous owner had installed a 128 GB SSD, resulting in quick loading times. Terminal-based tasks are where this machine really shines though. The 4:3 aspect ratio provides a large amount of vertical space for code and text, while the 7-row classic keyboard is the greatest typing experience I've ever experienced on a laptop. All of this in a 12" laptop is very impressive. I firmly believe that this is the greatest Thinkpad ever created (Although I do have a preference for smaller laptops).
The battery life of this laptop is abysmal. The 65nm Core 2 Duo chip burns considerable power; simply sitting idle with the screen off it dissipates 13 watts. This is with tlp enabled with default settings. With the screen on, still idling, it dissipates about 17 watts. The screen is not very energy efficient, as the backlight is provided through a CCFL tube. There are mods which can replace this backlight with an LED backlight, improving brightness and energy efficiency. Another drawback of CCFL backlights is that they lose brightness over time, unfortunately losing much of their brightness in just a few years. This is the main reason that causes me to limit my usage of the machine, so I hope I can complete the LED mod in the coming years.
Under load the system can easily pull 25-30 watts, getting quite toasty in the process. Even the wifi card runs hot; it is located under the palmrest, giving a warm feeling while typing. My unit came with a 4-cell battery, with a design capacity of 37 Wh. Under moderate usage (25 W) this gives about 1.5 hours of usage from 100-0. 8-cell 14.4 V 5.2 Ah battery packs are also available, giving about 3 hours of battery life. Given this terrible battery life I am of course thinking of ways to improve it. The most obvious is to replace the CCFL backlight, which could probably save about 3 watts at constant brightness. Another modification could be to replace the wifi card, which conservatively might save about 1 watt. This would extend the battery life from 3 hours to 3.5 hours on an 8 cell battery. Still not good by 2026 standards, but usable.
The best part of the display is the aspect ratio, 4:3 gives ample room for text editing and reading. The resolution is quite low (1024x768) but can be mitigated by using bitmap fonts. The x60's and x61's came with TFT displays, giving limited viewing angles and subpar color reproduction. Although its nothing to write home about, the display is better then I expected. Coming from a T420 with TN display, I've seen worse. Another modification is possible here, the tablet variants of this model actually shipped with an IPS display, and can be dropped in to the X60 display chassis. This is another high priority mod for me.
The stock wifi card surprisingly supports 5 GHz wifi, but tops out at about 15 Mbps in real-world usage, getting quite hot in the process. This is another high priority modification, and is not very difficult either as the card is not soldered down. However due to the stock BIOS enforcing a wifi card whitelist, you would also have to flash another BIOS such as libreboot.
The lack of digital video output is a bit of a bummer for me as I was planning on using the machine for giving presentations, for which I will have to fall back to an external VGA to HDMI converter. It is also possible to develop a PC card with HDMI output, although sourcing the connector might be difficult.
Here is a list of modifications that I plan to make to the machine, sorted by difficulty, ascending.