Just wondering what the 600 series cost brand new when first brought to market ?

I remember around $2,700 or more for a standard configuration.

Brad

I tried doing a Google search but only found a thousand websites wanting to sell me a new battery.

Ah, but you need to restrict your search to IBM sites, like this:

thinkpad 600 first sold original sales price site:ibm.com

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/2512.wss

I like the following sentence:

I love the 600 series. Not that much form factor and haptic difference to modern Txx series and its was build ten years ago.

I kind of like that the 600X has a higher RAM limit than the T20 (though only by 64mb). As far as formfactor, I find the 570 to bear a closer resemblance to the T20 than I do with the 600.

It makes me laugh to think that I paid $2999 for mine just two months after they were introduced. And yet I still have it today and its a 9 out of 10, both cosmetically and functionally. The way laptop prices plummet on the open market, is the reason I have a ThinkPad museum today. I simply can't justify giving them away for so little money....heh!
.
Cheers...

It was a heck of a good deal at the time though, wasn't it?

"dsvochak"]


Yep...compared to a lot of the other TP offerings. Remember what a 701 went for...or a top of the line 770!!!

Don't quote me,but if I remember correctly my first laptop in the early 90's (true laptop..not a case with a handle) was around $4,500 and compared to the X60 T (cost was under $3K) is like comparing an RC plane to the Space Shuttle...so now a days you get A LOT more for your money.

If it puts things in perspective, I paid $80 for my 600X (specs listed in sig) last week and it was ready to use out of box. This machine will be pulled from my cold, dead hands, btw.

...to make it better, I rummaged through my desk yesterday (it's free of bugs and rats because they wouldn't be able to survive in those junk piles on it) and found a DVD drive and spare 600 battery. Both batteries I have still last over two hours despite being stock IBM.

I got my $3000 frisbee for nothing a few weeks ago. I can't believe they cost so much back then.

I'm kind of mad at the whole 600 line right now. I got a 770Z on eBay just before my computer dealer gave me the 600e (it was in their way) and ordered an internal/external floppy for both, but mostly for the 770Z. (more features. Ok, so it's heavier. I needed a good workout anyway...Just call me Arnold Schwartzanerd)

Right in the middle of partitioning the new hard drive so I can install some operating systems, THE TOP HEAD FELL OFF!!! I was already unimpressed with the plastic flaps over the ports, but now I'm really irritated. This is not IBM quality.

Go to http://www.archive.org and look up ibm.com .

> This is not IBM quality.

Maybe not, but compared to more recent machines, it's robust.

Notebook prices today are literally a fraction of what they were then -- 10-20% in some cases -- but they're essentially disposable machines. The "netbook" range takes this a step further.

Look at how long the old guys hung in there. I still have the 1996-vintage 760EL I bought used in 2000. It still works, though the screen flickers some now, and it hasn't seemed urgent enough to hassle with changing the backlight, so I seldom boot it any more. It even runs for about 20 minutes or so on the ORIGINAL battery.

My 600E isn't in as good a shape, though to be fair I got it with many more miles on it. It won't charge its battery, which means I also can't update the BIOS, so I've relegated it to printer server duty and Ebay bid-sniping. If not for the latter needing more cpu grunt, I would have used the 760 instead.

The 600E uses MUCH less energy than the old K6 desktop I was using for those purposes before. It's idled along 24 hours a day for months now with never a complaint.

I just wish I could figure out why I can't get it to take a nap while it waits for something to do. I guess it's afraid it'll miss something interesting. The fan runs most of the time, which concerns me. It's also not as energy-frugal as I was hoping it would be because of this. Someday I'm going to try yet another fresh OS reload (running good old win98SE on that one but might try Win2K or Ubuntu) and see if I can get it to cooperate better.

Anyway, my rambled-round point is that the earlier TPs cost a LOT more, but they were very solidly built and ran just about forever. Almost nothing is built that way today, certainly nothing from the major brands.

However, I've heard (but haven't pursued it) that there are a few "armor plated" notebooks available, intended for heavy duty field service. Presumably they're more comparable in construction to my 760 than to my T22. I doubt that you'll find them offered by Newegg and Best Buy, however.

Recently, I did notice a hairline crack under the base of my 600X. However, having never observed cracks in that spot on a 600 series machine before (I've worked with many), I dismissed it thinking it might have once been dropped. I do find it annoying the lid will slightly warp from use (most ThinkPads have that) and the easily-losable port covers are a cosmetic annoyance but I still pick this thing up by a bottom corner and not worry about damage from flex and I know it'll survive most drops. However, I will admit that the only reason I'm able to use it now is because I typically do very few things with a computer. I also consider myself lucky that the stock battery with it still lasts a good two and a half hours despite age.

Other than the port covers, (is there a higher quality replacement?) the 600's I've seen are as good as any other ThinkPad. I just got mad about that &@%$ drive falling apart. Even that wouldn't have annoyed me so much if it wasn't for the timing. Now I'll have to wait another two weeks before I can set up the new hard drive.