Thinkpad X series advice?

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miazmaticdotcom

Gawd
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May 3, 2003
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I'm getting ready to sell two useless desktops and buy a Thinkpad X series notebook for Linux. As it stands I will end up probably making a total of about $500-$600 from the sale of the two desktops.

Thus the only X series notebooks in this price range are the low-end X20/X21/X22s.
At this point 600 vs. 800MHz makes very little difference to me, and 128mb RAM is just fine. The two things I'm worried about are wireless and the ability to add a media base so I can use CDROM/DVD/CDRW drives.

Thus I'm leaning towards a high-end X20/midrange X21. My only question is do these have miniPCI spce for a wireless module? I am prepared to rip out the 56k modem and have Wifi instead. If not, I'll be going for an X22.
 
if you look around, you can probably find an X30 for around the price range you're looking at
 
johnson said:
It doesnt say it does from this page.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4UTL7B

Is a T20 too big for your needs?
Click to expand...

That page says, "Integrated mini-PCI 56K V.90 modem and 10/100 Ethernet combo on select models". Now, I'm prepared to sacrifice 56k modem for integrated wireless, but if the onboard Ethernet is driven by the same miniPCI card, then I don't want to take it out.

I don't want anything bigger than my current 12" iBook, and I think most T-series are 14".

I will look at the X30, if those are a later model they should have miniPCI.
 
the x22 & 23s I know have a mini-PCI, as the wifi card I tried to get for my x30 was made for the X2x series, and it didn't work.

Here's a thought: go to IBM's support page for the X21s. if you see something for an internal mini-PCI wifi card, it should support it.


*edit update*
22-24 supported an IBM internal wifi card.

the 20 & 21 did not, according to the driver matrices.
 
Hmm, what about other internal Wifi cards (Intel, Cisco?)

But I think that the X20/21 don't have wireless antenna in the screen, so I would have to run one myself. So X22 it will probably be.
 
miazmaticdotcom said:
Hmm, what about other internal Wifi cards (Intel, Cisco?)

But I think that the X20/21 don't have wireless antenna in the screen, so I would have to run one myself. So X22 it will probably be.
Click to expand...

Do not buy an IBM or HP/Compaq laptop thinking you're going to be able to do whatever you want with the mini-PCI slot. They both use a BIOS whitelist that will only allow the machine to boot with an 'authorized' card in place. Authorized == whatever they shipped the thing with. If you get it without a card, and try and add one later, you'll have to make sure to get one from the manufacturer or it likely won't work (will have the wrong pci id's).

Adding antennas isn't the end of the world, but I wouldn't do it to save an amount less than $150 dollars. Been there, done that, would do it again (saved lots of money on a Black Friday Laptop), but only if it was a cheap cheap laptop to start with.
 
^^^
IBM hadn't started doing that with the X20-X24 laptops, I think it started from around the X30 onwards.

I've tried a mini pci wireless card in my X20 and have had little luck, the card works and gets a good signal with the mini pci antenna outside of the case, but as soon as you put it inside the case (on mine, the bottom left by the battery) where there's a gap for it and less magnesium casing - it get's a terrible signal. It's about the best place you can put it though, the newer IBMs have the antennas mounted on the screen in little plastic bits that stick out from the sides because the casing kills signal. I suppose you could put it in the screen if you could find room and use a second antenna. But really, putting internal wireless on an X20 isn't going to be anything more than a hack job.

The only IBM X22-24 laptops that had suitable antennas for internal wifi are the ones with wireless already fitted, so unless you can find one of those, you're going to have to buy a new screen casing if you want the internal wireless.


also, if you think the 600mhz > 800mhz makes little difference, this is where you're very wrong, the X20/X21s are really limited laptops, 4meg ATI mobility M1 video cards that don't even work quite right in XP. Crappy crystal audio sound which pops (at least on mine) and the limitations of a BX chipset and a coppermine processor, you're stuck using expensive low density SODIMMs and are limited to 320/384 megs of ram maximum.

The X22 and upwards are superb laptops by comparison, 133mhz bus speed, 512kb L2 cache, lower power requirements (tualatin based mobile P3). Better chipset, less memory limitations and the addition of wireless in a few models makes them really capable laptops compared to the X20 series. Battery life should be almost as good as a centrino laptop.


edit: the X30 is also a good laptop, much like the X22/24 but with a new casing/design. It doesn't have a new chipset as far as I know, but is one of the few IBM laptops that uses intels integrated graphics, which isn't a good thing.
I own both an X20 and an X31, I can say that the X20 has the better built keyboard of the two, if you care about that sort of thing.
 
Gila724 said:
^^^
IBM hadn't started doing that with the X20-X24 laptops, I think it started from around the X30 onwards.

I've tried a mini pci wireless card in my X20 and have had little luck, the card works and gets a good signal with the mini pci antenna outside of the case, but as soon as you put it inside the case (on mine, the bottom left by the battery) where there's a gap for it and less magnesium casing - it get's a terrible signal. It's about the best place you can put it though, the newer IBMs have the antennas mounted on the screen in little plastic bits that stick out from the sides because the casing kills signal. I suppose you could put it in the screen if you could find room and use a second antenna. But really, putting internal wireless on an X20 isn't going to be anything more than a hack job.

The only IBM X22-24 laptops that had suitable antennas for internal wifi are the ones with wireless already fitted, so unless you can find one of those, you're going to have to buy a new screen casing if you want the internal wireless.
Click to expand...

Heh. On my Black Friday Toshiba (no antennas), I drilled a hole in the case for an RP-TNC connector, and I use external rubber ducky antennas. Works great. You can get the RP-TNC with pigtail from netgate.com.
 
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