IBM ThinkPad 560E - Pentium 166 MMX, 80MB RAM, ESS1688 Sound
Posted by erikfriend@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 15 comments
This ThinkPad is a solid Pentium MMX DOS/Win95 machine. The ESS1688 sound has excellect Sound Blaster compatibility and a physical volume wheel on the side. No internal floppy or CD-ROM, so an external drive module is required. The screen can run unscaled or with unfiltered upscaling (typical for the era) and looks great without much ghosting. It's also very small (no banana for scale)
cbelt3@reddit
The actual IBM Thinkpads were tough as nails
asterisk_14@reddit
Always love to see a 560 or it's variants. I have one of the original model, with a 120MHz Pentium (non-MMX), 40MB RAM, and a 2.1GB hard drive, upgraded from the 810MB that it came with. I remember loading Windows 95 onto it from floppies. Need to get it out and spruced up.
RetinaJunkie@reddit
True vintage, and a nice looking system- but I'd be scared to open two apps at the same time
agent_flounder@reddit
I had to go look it up to refresh my, err, memory. You could upgrade these to 80M ram. (16M default).
erikfriend@reddit (OP)
This one has the full 80MB installed. Time to install CorelDRAW 6 and Photoshop 4. Definitely need to watch the Weezer "Buddy Holly" and Edie Brickell "Good Times" videos over and over again.
agent_flounder@reddit
I love vintage IBM thinkpads. I have a couple laying around. I should resurrect em so I can play some of these classics as intended.
agent_flounder@reddit
Man the figure animation in that game was just beautiful. Never did finish it (like 99% of all the games I've played lol).
mrcbo@reddit
Funny what you remember. prince megahit for cheat code
Wrong-Target6104@reddit
I can hear the speaker and fan
cycle-nerd@reddit
I had a 570E back in the day and man, these things are so cool, I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately at some point the display cable broke and I sold the whole thing for parts. For the past couple of years I have been looking to get my hands on one again, but no luck so far.
JasonMckin@reddit
I still can't tell if it was lazy or brilliant that ThinkPad didn't changed their case design for like 15 years even through the company being acquired and every other component being swapped out. It's the only laptop that you can't tell when it's from by looking at it.
Early_Macaroon_2407@reddit
I miss the old screen ratios. Widescreen is miserable for spreadsheets.
erikfriend@reddit (OP)
Agreed. 4:3 is superior.
Life-Breadfruit-3986@reddit
Oh shit I think that's the same model I have. I'll have to dig it out of storage to look. Mine has a floppy drive built in though. I think the internals r really original in their form/form factor. Bulky, but easily hot swappable.
JJDoes1tAll@reddit
A true multimedia powerhouse