@@TheTechspert absolutely man, looking forward to seeing a retro desktop followup! Funny to see this 12 year old hardware called "retro," I was in college when this stuff came out so I remember when it was all the newest, hottest tech on the market 🤣
@@xakh Is it called "Retro" anywhere? It's being used to emulate retro systems, which is totally different. "Retro computer" and "dirt cheap" don't go together. Nor does a retro computer run Windows 10, of course. A 90s laptop with a 486/Pentium/Pentium II in it, for instance, that would be retro.
It's amazing how much tech has evolved that we could emulate older hardware so effortlessly even on a relatively older computer. Amazing video, I couldn't believe it's your first!
Hey everyone, I really appreciate all the words of encouragement! I also appreciate the feedback and criticisms, as I want to build the best channel and make the best content I possibly can. Several people have mentioned that the music should be turned down when I'm talking, and I will try to do a better job at mixing the audio to make it better for the next video! Also, I forgot to mention the exact processor that is in this laptop! This beast (used lightly of course lol) is running an Intel Core i5-2520M CPU, clocked at 2.50GHz. I want to thank everyone who has pointed this out and I will try to remember to give you all the important information about my next project. Thanks again everyone 🫶💯
This video dropped at the best time!!! I was going through my garage and I found an desktop. I wondered about emulating with it, please make a video!!!!
Wow, thank you so much for the encouraging words! I love doing this and I am trying to keep making content throughout college... which isn't easy haha. I really do appreciate the kind words and thanks for watching!! 🫶🏻💯
Good video man, only a little correction is that the slot that you called "CF card slot" was actually an Express card slot that you can use to add USB 3.0 or eGPU to the laptop
The Thinkpad T-series are TANKS! Up-gradable, solid construction, and easy to work on. My current main lappy is an old T-510 running Debian (Soon to be FreeBSD:) With Win11 and it's hardware "requirements" taking over the world, expect to see a ton of these beasts for sale as corporations upgrade their fleets.....they are keepers :) PS: That particular keyboard is legendary....
I know!! These laptops are still so amazing, because they are built so well and are incredibly upgradeable.. and dude that sounds like an awesome system ya got there! Also, I agree with you. As soon as more people start getting used to Linux and other operating systems, they have the potential to take over, which will bring a SURGE of demand for older systems like this that still run those operating systems really well, because the OS isn't trying to sell you a new computer. Anyway, thanks for watching! 💯👌
WAIT! This is only your first video. I wouldn't have guessed if you hadn't mentioned it. Excellent quality and very professional. Big fan of giving old laptops and desktops a second life. Subscribed.
I used to have a T-500, upgraded the ram to 8 gigs and bought a charger, worked great until it crapped out on me (100% my fault) scrapped it and kept the battery, hard drive, ram, and DVD drive all still working. I loved that thing, it was my school laptop until I killed it.
Off to a good strong start! And 10 bucks?? I am jealous. My local Value Village is still slapping $60+ price tags on Vista laptops missing keys, and every piece of hardware not soldered down. It's embarrassing. I do find occasional good deals, but for the most part, things are wicked overpriced around here. I'm usually looking for the ELDER tech, haha, Pentium 4, Windows XP and earlier etc, BUT I would definitely not turn down any working 8gb RAM system for 10 bucks!! High fives on a successful first video! Subscribed!
Dude, those are such encouraging words!! I just checked out your channel, and MAN I LOVE IT!! I don't know how you don't have more views, because your content is EXACTLY the type of content I love! Seriously, it's not gonna be long before the algorithm push-starts you and you'll be at 100K. I have a question for you, how do you make those cartoons? Those add so much to the flavor of your videos. Again, great work man, take my sub! 👌
@@TheTechspert I use a drawing tablet, and draw them in photoshop! :) Thanks so much for the kind words! 🧡 I've been trying to get my next video off the ground, but life stuff keeps getting in the way! My spine has been wrecked for the last month, and I can barely even walk, much less work on my projects 😭 Fingers crossed though, cause I miss it SO much!
Wow, that means a lot!! I really try to make them as good as possible and don't get me wrong, I have a LOT of learning to do, but one step at a time, right? 😆🫡
genuinely surprised at the quality of this video and the size of the channel!, definitely going to subscribe! its impressive that it can handle up to psp as smooth as it can!
i love playing my younger years games ! and I have a T420 that I installed Zorin Os on, I know that it won't run ps2 or GameCube titles but hey there's always older consoles games to explore
1st video? Yes, i would definitely eanna see you test other consoles, even maybe see if ps3 or xbox 360 could work but insane quality for your first video
Great video man - you've got a bright future for sure. I really like your attitude too - my personal motto is "if I don't cringe when looking back at my past, i haven't grown", so you can probably see why your closing resonated well with me! Subbed!
new sub, great video pal, also as other user said, cheap laptop+batocera+quality joystick=winning, upscaled psp games looks like ps2 or even a bit better so i would stick with it, if you can play upscaled psp you definetly can play some 480p dreamcast flawlessly
I didn't know laptops with removable batteries were old model, and here I am thinking my laptop was slightly new even if my ppsspp emulation is staggering But love the video and I subbed and would love to have this laptop as my laptop cuz it's definitely better than mine at least
Haha I gotcha. Honestly, not all laptops with removable batteries are old... some laptops like the Framework line and Panasonic's Toughbook series still use removable batteries, but the majority of them are old(er). Thanks!! 💯
Nice find, and nice Vid. they may have tried to power the Laptop on with a low battery TBH, or just because of the age Assumed it had a bad battery. And i Love Batocera on a Lappy, i use a Older Acer Aspire V5 for Portable Bato, 500 GB ssd, 8 GB of ram, and for home a HP Pavilion Desktop 590 w/ AMD Ryzen 5 2400G, 1 TB ssd, 32 GB of RAM and a AMD FirePro W5100. Both work fine with a PS3 or Xbox One Controller. Looking forward to more stuff yo
Yo that's awesome! Those Pavilions are great for this type of thing and it sounds like that thing would do amazingly. Have you tried to emulate switch? I appreciate the kind words man!
@@TheTechspert I Have tried, but due to the HP's Proprietary psu and the case size, it limits what GPU i can chuck in the Machine, it works well up to some PS3/360 ect games, but thats about the limit of it.
I have T410 with 1st generation of i5 and 4Gb of RAM. I use it every day for Python, Go and Arduino programming. I haven't problems with money, it just 15 years with me, and i got used to old-fashioned ThinkPad keyboards. The most CPU and RAM expensive thing for old hardware in everyday use is internet browsing. Emulation of retro-consoles i think not so big issue. There 2 obvious but important things to deal with such old hardware: replace HDD to SSD, and use Linux :)
I have a T-420 from a job I left back in 2012. I swapped out the HDD for a 500GB SSD and added 8GB of ram for a total of 12GB. It's running Ubuntu and is blazing fast. My only complaint is the screen resolution is kind of low (1330 X 768). I might swap out the graphics and monitor one day, but for now I just use it for testing and writing JSON files for company routers.
I bought a Lenovo ThinkPad t530 for $15. I already had a SSD laying around so I put that in there. I think it was a 512 GB and then I upgraded the memory which was another like 15 bucks and I had to buy a power cord for it for another 15 bucks... I'm running Lennox on it and I can do emulation pretty well for older games. Kind of like you're doing pretty amazing for $45.
You can do a surprising amount of gaming on a laptop like this. I have a very similar thinkpad with the same specs I would assume and it can run a couple Wii games really well such as smash bros brawl and Mario kart Wii. And then there’s just tons of native windows games you can play on steam making it an indie and pre 2014 AAA gaming machine
@@TheTechspert I love the 7 row have been using it for the better part of 20 years and all other Keyboards in laptops just feel like I am fighting with muscle memory and losing.
5:05 If it's not third-party licensed music, video game music generally don't get copyright slams - there's a lot of videos about emulation handhelds that play game music just fine. The potential issue is discussing emulation itself, and if you fear using game music will attract "ninjas", demoing them at all is a bigger concern really.
If you want to stress test PSX games, Bloody Roar 2 is a go to to see if it stutters. For PSP the two God of War games are also really demanding and will give you an idea if it could handle all PSP or just most. Curious how it would handle Nintendo DS games. Haven't played around with too many of them to know which one to stress test.
Yes, you're exactly right. At noon today, a video is going live where I COMPLETELY restore a desktop and turn it into an emulation station. I tried to use all the critiques from this video and apply them to the upcoming one. Thanks for the kind words and good advice! 💯
Heyy, bro! Nice video! I also just converted my old Dell laptop to an emulation machine just the other day. I like the effort you put in your video. Looking forward to the growth of your channel! Here, take my sub!
I remember downgrading one to XP x64 and it often had graphical glitches just playing PC games from the late 90s due to such legacy drivers, it was not very good for retro gaming on that front.
Yeah... there were a lot of weird driver-related issues around the turn of the century. We started using x64 processors in 2003 and there was a weird scramble to try to make them compatible with the older games designed for 32-bit architecture. Nowadays, it's easy to run them because we've fine-tuned our built-in "emulators," but they can still struggle for sure. 🫡
Although you can find limitless hours of fun using emulation. installing linux or windows is a must. I have a laptop that is quite a bit worse (celeron from 2015) and I’ve been playing the shit out of indie games, visual novels and AAA up to 2010.
You're not wrong, but running an operating system in the background uses up a decent bit of resources that emulation doesn't. Still, it's a good video idea! Maybe I should install SteamOS on it 😂
Plenty enough for some Moonlight/Sunshine, GeforceNow, XBCloud, etc. I have a Toughbook from 2010 or so that will stream any of those very well. Still running quite well on it's original battery lol. Funny to see Cyberpunk2077 or something running at full tilt (from a 4070ti rig) being displayed and played on a little 15yr old toughbook lol. Also have a Surface Pro 4 that will do the same. Battery is almost toast at this point, but..
I know! They're finally realizing that people like to have IO on their devices again without needing a breakout dongle. My laptop only has 2 USB-C ports and it drives me crazy haha
Nice video quality, what is the bg music used in this video and from where do u get bg music for tech videos, I am trying to make vids too, inspired by you
Also, I checked out your channel, it looks good man! The video you posted about running GTA V on that laptop was a good one. Keep it up man, we'll grow together!
an i5 any gen is good enough to browse the web or do streaming, probably at 1080p, but you'd have to look for Radeon or Geforce graphics to do much more than indie or old games And you could get a universal Onn (walmart) charger for around $20 or a little less (in clearance), I have 3 of them (all 3 different models of universal charger though but they do the same thing) Would be useful for anything taking a laptop power brick. And you could always look up the battery for replacement (if you want a good one) or mess with any number of cheap chinese or alternate 3rd party options (if you don't care about the long term health of the laptop And you could force it to run win 11 as well probably can say the same for i3 or celeron or pentium G on the i series platforms.
You're exactly right. That's why I decided to run Batocera as opposed to Windows because it can do so much more with these older processors. I actually have one of those ONN universal laptop chargers, but luckily I haven't had to use it yet. I just assumed that the battery would be shot but it actually worked just fine! But even if it was, you can buy replacement batteries on eBay for around $35... which is funny because it's 3.5 times the amount I spend on the laptop itself haha. And yes, you could force the laptop to run Windows 11, although I wouldn't recommend it. Windows 11 isn't very well optimized to work with older hardware like this. Don't get me wrong, you COULD do it, but it would run Windows 10 so much better (I actually have installed Windows 10 on an SSD since making this video)
@@TheTechspert true but you can also use custom iso builds (tiny11 and others) and shutupwindows10/11+ to make it a LOT better. I have one of those onn chargers on duty to power a 11th gen i3 (sadly the most up to date hardware i have, 2 of them technically but i need a usb to nvme adapter to format the other one's nvme. Works great no issues. you can also do the same with win 10, a tweaked install with a lot of the background crap and spying turned off will run a lot better. My 11th gens are just lenovo ideapad3 i got for cheap (just some cosmetic damage)
HAHA I know!!! We went from 3 inch thickboi laptops that you could sit on and they'd be fine, to these paper-thin laptops that you have to whisper kind words to the hinges every time you open them, to try to convince them not to snap😂
Biggest test for PSP is any of the god of war games on it. Dreamcast will run on it all day, by the way. I would say you could play Wii, ps2 and gamecube as well.
You could buy an t430 motherboard, swap it out and flash the bios to use the t420 keyboard ivyrain I believe it's called. And that will run PS2 a lot better The integrated graphics of the hd4000 is a big leap from hd3000
That would be a very interesting video idea! The only thing is, the motherboards for the T430 on eBay cost anywhere from $15 to $45, meaning it would cost me well over the price of the laptop itself. I have a BUNCH of other laptops lying around, so I'll be sure to do some more videos like this one!
What Goodwill has laptops for $10.00!? I have a ThinkPad T420 running Linux Mint 22, it's a great machine. I swapped the optical drive for a caddy and added a 500GB SSD.
My T530 didn't cost me a penny. the only money I have into it is a 128GB SSD boot drive and a 1TB HDD storage drive. I need to replace the keyboard. Other than that it runs like a tank. I am able to play GTA 5 at 25-30 FPS on it with Intel HD4000 GPU and 16 GB RAM.
Bro I'm telling you these machines are so underestimated! Now yours is a t530 which is a little more powerful than my t420, but STILL! Keep it up man! 💯
Good video! But that laptop would DESTROY ps2 games lol. an i5 with 8 gb of ram will throw any pcsx2 game you throw at it XD Gamecube too I think. + with drastic the entire ds library 100%. Also dreamcast FOR SURE. The only thing I doubt is ps3, though even there i figure light to emulate games like project diva will probably run fine. I mean, my ally runs it perfecly in 10W silent mode!
1st gen has a crappy igpu. I know 3rd can deal with a lot Of Game Cube at native resolution, some PS2, psp etc.. not sure if 2nd will be close enough to this but please test it !!
Ok this video is about Emulation... I have set up an old Dell optiplex Mini for that Purpose, but the real Reason i clicked on this Video is because i bought a Dell Inspiron 8600 also for 10€, but for PC Windows XP Retro Gaming :)
Well, this is clearly the best $10 spent I’ve ever seen in a long time, what a score!
I know! I'll reveal my secret one day:)
Funny enough, around twelve days ago I got an original XBOX for 10$ at goodwill bins. It does work and has a warranty seal intact😂😂
@@notmanz4275 Dude that’s so sick!! That’s a really great deal. I’m telling you, thrifting for old consoles is SO much fun!! 🤩
@@TheTechspert I'm thinking about scrapping the consoles and selling the parts. Making a tiny home PC inside of it.
"since this was my first video" caught me off guard, I assumed this was an established channel I'd stumbled across, great stuff man.
Man I'll be honest that is my favorite comment ever. Thanks for the encouraging words!
@@TheTechspert absolutely man, looking forward to seeing a retro desktop followup! Funny to see this 12 year old hardware called "retro," I was in college when this stuff came out so I remember when it was all the newest, hottest tech on the market 🤣
@@TheTechspert Superb quality video; I thought this channel had at lest hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Keep up the good work!
@@xakh Is it called "Retro" anywhere? It's being used to emulate retro systems, which is totally different. "Retro computer" and "dirt cheap" don't go together. Nor does a retro computer run Windows 10, of course. A 90s laptop with a 486/Pentium/Pentium II in it, for instance, that would be retro.
It's amazing how much tech has evolved that we could emulate older hardware so effortlessly even on a relatively older computer. Amazing video, I couldn't believe it's your first!
Thanks so much!! Yeah, if you think about it, it's insanely impressive!! 💯
Hey everyone, I really appreciate all the words of encouragement! I also appreciate the feedback and criticisms, as I want to build the best channel and make the best content I possibly can. Several people have mentioned that the music should be turned down when I'm talking, and I will try to do a better job at mixing the audio to make it better for the next video!
Also, I forgot to mention the exact processor that is in this laptop! This beast (used lightly of course lol) is running an Intel Core i5-2520M CPU, clocked at 2.50GHz. I want to thank everyone who has pointed this out and I will try to remember to give you all the important information about my next project. Thanks again everyone 🫶💯
Wow the quality on this vid is insane! Should be having at least thousands of views
Hopefully so... thanks!
I agree, this channel and video are going to blow up
@@m3g4ninja I really appreciate it man!
This video dropped at the best time!!! I was going through my garage and I found an desktop. I wondered about emulating with it, please make a video!!!!
Well this aged like fine wine
For $10 I'd say it did an excellent job. Batocera + a decent desktop or laptop is almost always a winning combo. Great video man!
Thanks so much! 💯
If we are honest, it wasn't 10 dollars for whole set up. SSDs and gamepads aren't free and old Thinkpads typically have awful TN 768p screens
Watched all of your videos, both short and the standard ones - you are amazing! Hope you continue like this and get those subs exponentially fast!
Wow, thank you so much for the encouraging words! I love doing this and I am trying to keep making content throughout college... which isn't easy haha. I really do appreciate the kind words and thanks for watching!! 🫶🏻💯
Good video man, only a little correction is that the slot that you called "CF card slot" was actually an Express card slot that you can use to add USB 3.0 or eGPU to the laptop
I appreciate the correction man! I didn't look as closely as I should've haha. Thanks for the info!
Bro, these videos are super amazing quality holy hell!
Thanks man, I really appreciate it!! I'm just trying to improve something each time, ya know? 👌
I NEED to see the desktop video, new subscriber btw!
Thanks man!! Working on that video now!💯
great job all around with this video, i'm very impressed
Thank you so much! 💯
The Thinkpad T-series are TANKS! Up-gradable, solid construction, and easy to work on. My current main lappy is an old T-510 running Debian (Soon to be FreeBSD:) With Win11 and it's hardware "requirements" taking over the world, expect to see a ton of these beasts for sale as corporations upgrade their fleets.....they are keepers :) PS: That particular keyboard is legendary....
I know!! These laptops are still so amazing, because they are built so well and are incredibly upgradeable.. and dude that sounds like an awesome system ya got there! Also, I agree with you. As soon as more people start getting used to Linux and other operating systems, they have the potential to take over, which will bring a SURGE of demand for older systems like this that still run those operating systems really well, because the OS isn't trying to sell you a new computer. Anyway, thanks for watching! 💯👌
This video was absolutely amazing and engaging most of all which is is really hard to find so I can’t wait to see more about this channel
Thanks so much for the encouraging words!
YES PLS TEST THEM - great video
Thanks so much, will do! 💯
Great vid and work up. Keep on keeping on.
Thanks man, I appreciate it!! ✌️
Great video! Also yes, a desktop version would be funnto watch.
I appreciate it man!
That was a steal. I got a £35 x220 and dock a few months back and it's currently sitting under my TV as a media centre and emulation station.
Awesome! Yeah these machines are great!!
WAIT! This is only your first video. I wouldn't have guessed if you hadn't mentioned it.
Excellent quality and very professional. Big fan of giving old laptops and desktops a second life.
Subscribed.
Wow, thanks so much for the encouraging words!! I appreciate you!!
I used to have a T-500, upgraded the ram to 8 gigs and bought a charger, worked great until it crapped out on me (100% my fault) scrapped it and kept the battery, hard drive, ram, and DVD drive all still working. I loved that thing, it was my school laptop until I killed it.
Dude that’s sick! They’re just so solid!
Off to a good strong start! And 10 bucks?? I am jealous. My local Value Village is still slapping $60+ price tags on Vista laptops missing keys, and every piece of hardware not soldered down. It's embarrassing. I do find occasional good deals, but for the most part, things are wicked overpriced around here. I'm usually looking for the ELDER tech, haha, Pentium 4, Windows XP and earlier etc, BUT I would definitely not turn down any working 8gb RAM system for 10 bucks!!
High fives on a successful first video! Subscribed!
Dude, those are such encouraging words!! I just checked out your channel, and MAN I LOVE IT!! I don't know how you don't have more views, because your content is EXACTLY the type of content I love! Seriously, it's not gonna be long before the algorithm push-starts you and you'll be at 100K. I have a question for you, how do you make those cartoons? Those add so much to the flavor of your videos. Again, great work man, take my sub! 👌
@@TheTechspert I use a drawing tablet, and draw them in photoshop! :) Thanks so much for the kind words! 🧡 I've been trying to get my next video off the ground, but life stuff keeps getting in the way! My spine has been wrecked for the last month, and I can barely even walk, much less work on my projects 😭 Fingers crossed though, cause I miss it SO much!
Great video. Well paced! Thanks.
Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed it! 🔥💯
I got one of these, i7 swapped it, Xtra large battery, dual hdd and 16gb ddr3
It's such a great laptop for everyday
That's awesome!! These things are tanks, aren't they haha
Absolutely killed it, I hope you post more.
I really appreciate the words of encouragement my man! 💯🫡
great contact and perfect editing ,def need more views
I really appreciate it man! 💯
nice vid and production value, feels like something a 1mil channel would make
Wow, that means a lot!! I really try to make them as good as possible and don't get me wrong, I have a LOT of learning to do, but one step at a time, right? 😆🫡
Its pretty amazing that your goodwill sells stuff like that
I know!
nice vid bro super high quality except of that echo in the mic regardless of that tho super high quality stuff you got going in there
I really appreciate it! Yeah, I'm working on a better mic setup and I'm working on getting rid of that echo. I appreciate the kind words!!
@@TheTechspert btw you can use ai tools to get rid of that echo thats what used back then on my projects
@@thedislikebutton3564 What exactly did you use?
genuinely surprised at the quality of this video and the size of the channel!, definitely going to subscribe! its impressive that it can handle up to psp as smooth as it can!
Wow, I really appreciate that!! 👍
i love playing my younger years games ! and I have a T420 that I installed Zorin Os on, I know that it won't run ps2 or GameCube titles but hey there's always older consoles games to explore
Exactly! These systems are still so much fun to mess around with! 💯
Really good quality video, but the miusic coudl be a bit quiter
Noted. Thanks for the guidance!
1st video? Yes, i would definitely eanna see you test other consoles, even maybe see if ps3 or xbox 360 could work but insane quality for your first video
Gotcha. Thanks!! 👌
Great video man - you've got a bright future for sure. I really like your attitude too - my personal motto is "if I don't cringe when looking back at my past, i haven't grown", so you can probably see why your closing resonated well with me! Subbed!
Man I really appreciate the encouraging words! Who knows, maybe I WILL look back and cringe one day! 😂💯
new sub, great video pal, also as other user said, cheap laptop+batocera+quality joystick=winning, upscaled psp games looks like ps2 or even a bit better so i would stick with it, if you can play upscaled psp you definetly can play some 480p dreamcast flawlessly
Heck yeah... I'll have to give it a try!! Thanks for the kind words!! 💯
Good video, dude. Just try lowering the background music's volume a little bit for the next one.
Noted, thanks!!
550th sub here, I love what I'm seeing already!
Thanks so much!! I really appreciate it!
Great video man ! The quality is impressive! I'd love to see some GameCube and PS1/PS2 ROMs test next. Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much! We'll see:)
Cool video, earned my subscription
Thanks so much!! 💯🫡
First video? Holy moly the quality
Thanks man!! 💯
1:18 well the slot that you called "CF card slot" is actually ExpressCard slot for adding ports and other peripherals
Yeah... I appreciate the correction man 🫡
love the video man
Thanks boss! 💯
Crazy good video man
Thanks so much man! 👌
you did my energy star boi dirty 😂
Hahah yep
I didn't know laptops with removable batteries were old model, and here I am thinking my laptop was slightly new even if my ppsspp emulation is staggering
But love the video and I subbed and would love to have this laptop as my laptop cuz it's definitely better than mine at least
Haha I gotcha. Honestly, not all laptops with removable batteries are old... some laptops like the Framework line and Panasonic's Toughbook series still use removable batteries, but the majority of them are old(er). Thanks!! 💯
Nice find, and nice Vid. they may have tried to power the Laptop on with a low battery TBH, or just because of the age Assumed it had a bad battery.
And i Love Batocera on a Lappy, i use a Older Acer Aspire V5 for Portable Bato, 500 GB ssd, 8 GB of ram, and for home a HP Pavilion Desktop 590 w/ AMD Ryzen 5 2400G, 1 TB ssd, 32 GB of RAM and a AMD FirePro W5100. Both work fine with a PS3 or Xbox One Controller. Looking forward to more stuff yo
Yo that's awesome! Those Pavilions are great for this type of thing and it sounds like that thing would do amazingly. Have you tried to emulate switch? I appreciate the kind words man!
@@TheTechspert I Have tried, but due to the HP's Proprietary psu and the case size, it limits what GPU i can chuck in the Machine, it works well up to some PS3/360 ect games, but thats about the limit of it.
@@O5-XIV I gotcha. That's awesome!
I have T410 with 1st generation of i5 and 4Gb of RAM. I use it every day for Python, Go and Arduino programming. I haven't problems with money, it just 15 years with me, and i got used to old-fashioned ThinkPad keyboards. The most CPU and RAM expensive thing for old hardware in everyday use is internet browsing. Emulation of retro-consoles i think not so big issue.
There 2 obvious but important things to deal with such old hardware: replace HDD to SSD, and use Linux :)
I agree completely! These systems are so solid!! 💯
thats a really nice vid man
I really appreciate it bro! 👌
I have a T-420 from a job I left back in 2012. I swapped out the HDD for a 500GB SSD and added 8GB of ram for a total of 12GB. It's running Ubuntu and is blazing fast. My only complaint is the screen resolution is kind of low (1330 X 768). I might swap out the graphics and monitor one day, but for now I just use it for testing and writing JSON files for company routers.
Heck yeah man! It's so cool to hear of these systems still being used... they still kick!
I bought a Lenovo ThinkPad t530 for $15. I already had a SSD laying around so I put that in there. I think it was a 512 GB and then I upgraded the memory which was another like 15 bucks and I had to buy a power cord for it for another 15 bucks... I'm running Lennox on it and I can do emulation pretty well for older games. Kind of like you're doing pretty amazing for $45.
th-cam.com/video/IG4FJAUDoU8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=58geucJ7nti3TuxL
Dude a t530 for $15? YOU won with that one haha! That's boss man, those machines are amazing! ✌️
good video man good luck, i think you just reduice the volume of the background music a little bit also i wonder if it can run wii and 3ds
Thanks so much! I don't know, I'll have to test it!
not very well, you're better with gen 6 or later intel processors
Nice one! Glad to see you're repurposing something that some might dump in an ewaste bin.
For sure, thanks!
You can do a surprising amount of gaming on a laptop like this. I have a very similar thinkpad with the same specs I would assume and it can run a couple Wii games really well such as smash bros brawl and Mario kart Wii. And then there’s just tons of native windows games you can play on steam making it an indie and pre 2014 AAA gaming machine
That sounds like a good video concept! That's awesome, I may try some native Windows games on it!
this is actually quality, goodluck on ur channel bro!
Wow, I appreciate it!
With this kind of Quality Content, 1 Year bro, You might reach 100K Subs. Great Work
Ya think so? That would be cool. Thanks so much!
The t420 is one of my faves even if i now use a w520 now... The x220 is also fun send help my crippling thinkpad addiction knows no bounds.
HAHA yeah I love the thinkpad line🤩
@@TheTechspert I love the 7 row have been using it for the better part of 20 years and all other Keyboards in laptops just feel like I am fighting with muscle memory and losing.
First longform video... Damn, good job man
I really appreciate it!! 👌
Im a little late but- Holy shit this was his first video? Nice!
Thanks man, I appreciate it!!
5:05 If it's not third-party licensed music, video game music generally don't get copyright slams - there's a lot of videos about emulation handhelds that play game music just fine. The potential issue is discussing emulation itself, and if you fear using game music will attract "ninjas", demoing them at all is a bigger concern really.
Yeah... I did a little research but I got mixed results so I just decided to avoid it all together. I appreciate the info my guy!
Interesting. Now I will try this on the $1 Toshiba laptop I picked up a few months ago to see if I can do the same lol.
Heck yeah, do it!!
If you want to stress test PSX games, Bloody Roar 2 is a go to to see if it stutters. For PSP the two God of War games are also really demanding and will give you an idea if it could handle all PSP or just most. Curious how it would handle Nintendo DS games. Haven't played around with too many of them to know which one to stress test.
Dude those are all great suggestions. I'll definitely test it further to see how it does... and I may feature this comment!
HI great vid and subscribed the only thing i would suggest is when you say what cpu it is add the generation so i5 4570 for example.
Yes, you're exactly right. At noon today, a video is going live where I COMPLETELY restore a desktop and turn it into an emulation station. I tried to use all the critiques from this video and apply them to the upcoming one. Thanks for the kind words and good advice! 💯
Would like to see Win 10 performance stats. I5 processors vary from slugs to OK but standard stats are a good way to tell!
I gotcha! I may do that in the future!
Hello, fellow Tallahassee Goodwill Computer Store patron. :)
No way!!! How did you know?
@@TheTechspert That sticker is unmistakable, my friend. :)
That is so cool! Maybe I'll see you there!
awesome video, i really enjoyed watching it!! keep up the sick work
Thanks so much for the encouraging words!
Wow I didn't expect that laptop to be 10 dollars. I was expecting more of a laptop from the early 2000s and maybe running SNES and GBA games.
I know! For that price-point, I got insanely lucky!
Heyy, bro! Nice video! I also just converted my old Dell laptop to an emulation machine just the other day. I like the effort you put in your video. Looking forward to the growth of your channel! Here, take my sub!
Wow, thanks so much for the encouraging words! Doing stuff with these old laptops is fun, right?? Keep me updated man!
I remember downgrading one to XP x64 and it often had graphical glitches just playing PC games from the late 90s due to such legacy drivers, it was not very good for retro gaming on that front.
Yeah... there were a lot of weird driver-related issues around the turn of the century. We started using x64 processors in 2003 and there was a weird scramble to try to make them compatible with the older games designed for 32-bit architecture. Nowadays, it's easy to run them because we've fine-tuned our built-in "emulators," but they can still struggle for sure. 🫡
not even a 100 views on this?
this is pretty high quality tho
I appreciate it!
Although you can find limitless hours of fun using emulation. installing linux or windows is a must. I have a laptop that is quite a bit worse (celeron from 2015) and I’ve been playing the shit out of indie games, visual novels and AAA up to 2010.
You're not wrong, but running an operating system in the background uses up a decent bit of resources that emulation doesn't. Still, it's a good video idea! Maybe I should install SteamOS on it 😂
i like the video a lot. the music could be a little more quiet when youre talking, tho ^^
I've gotten that comment quite a lot, and I'm working on better audio and mixing. Thanks for the advice!
Good content! Although I suggest more B-roll of the item. Subbed 😁
Thank you, I appreciate the criticism. I'll try to add some more videos for the viewers in the next video.. Thanks for the sub!
Nice Video....How did you Install those Games ???
Thanks man! So I linked a video in the description, and if you go to 4:20 in HIS video, he explains how to transfer your ROMs to Batocera! 🫡
Got a few of these from my school for 20 bucks apiece pretty cool laptops.
Gotta love 'em! 😍
Plenty enough for some Moonlight/Sunshine, GeforceNow, XBCloud, etc. I have a Toughbook from 2010 or so that will stream any of those very well. Still running quite well on it's original battery lol. Funny to see Cyberpunk2077 or something running at full tilt (from a 4070ti rig) being displayed and played on a little 15yr old toughbook lol. Also have a Surface Pro 4 that will do the same. Battery is almost toast at this point, but..
Yeah I love cloud gaming on these older machines too. It's always funny to see someone walk up and notice me playing RDR2 on an older laptop....😂
apple been pretty good on io recently. SD card slot and HDMI. Good luck finding those on XPS these days
I know! They're finally realizing that people like to have IO on their devices again without needing a breakout dongle. My laptop only has 2 USB-C ports and it drives me crazy haha
you just won scrapyard wars 2024 ^^
HAHA you follow that too??? 😆
I might have to try Batocera on my T420.. if it will play nice with the Quadro GPU.
I'm sure it will! As long as you're emulating any of the older systems, it should perform well!
Nice video quality, what is the bg music used in this video and from where do u get bg music for tech videos, I am trying to make vids too, inspired by you
I got it from no-copyright-music.com! You got this man!
Also, I checked out your channel, it looks good man! The video you posted about running GTA V on that laptop was a good one. Keep it up man, we'll grow together!
@TheTechspert ✌️ Thx a lot, man,
an i5 any gen is good enough to browse the web or do streaming, probably at 1080p, but you'd have to look for Radeon or Geforce graphics to do much more than indie or old games
And you could get a universal Onn (walmart) charger for around $20 or a little less (in clearance), I have 3 of them (all 3 different models of universal charger though but they do the same thing)
Would be useful for anything taking a laptop power brick. And you could always look up the battery for replacement (if you want a good one) or mess with any number of cheap chinese or alternate 3rd party options (if you don't care about the long term health of the laptop
And you could force it to run win 11 as well probably can say the same for i3 or celeron or pentium G on the i series platforms.
You're exactly right. That's why I decided to run Batocera as opposed to Windows because it can do so much more with these older processors.
I actually have one of those ONN universal laptop chargers, but luckily I haven't had to use it yet. I just assumed that the battery would be shot but it actually worked just fine! But even if it was, you can buy replacement batteries on eBay for around $35... which is funny because it's 3.5 times the amount I spend on the laptop itself haha.
And yes, you could force the laptop to run Windows 11, although I wouldn't recommend it. Windows 11 isn't very well optimized to work with older hardware like this. Don't get me wrong, you COULD do it, but it would run Windows 10 so much better (I actually have installed Windows 10 on an SSD since making this video)
@@TheTechspert true but you can also use custom iso builds (tiny11 and others) and shutupwindows10/11+ to make it a LOT better.
I have one of those onn chargers on duty to power a 11th gen i3 (sadly the most up to date hardware i have, 2 of them technically but i need a usb to nvme adapter to format the other one's nvme.
Works great no issues.
you can also do the same with win 10, a tweaked install with a lot of the background crap and spying turned off will run a lot better.
My 11th gens are just lenovo ideapad3 i got for cheap (just some cosmetic damage)
Great Video! The echo is a bit distracting though and the music could be a bit more quiet
Noted. I really appreciate the criticism, I'll try to make it better for the next video!
Nice video!
Thanks!
that thing is a tank ,not like these days ,we moved from hulk era to egirls era
HAHA I know!!! We went from 3 inch thickboi laptops that you could sit on and they'd be fine, to these paper-thin laptops that you have to whisper kind words to the hinges every time you open them, to try to convince them not to snap😂
+1 comment for desktop emulation station
Working on the video now!! 💯
I hope u test thinkpad series for gaming 😂
Biggest test for PSP is any of the god of war games on it.
Dreamcast will run on it all day, by the way. I would say you could play Wii, ps2 and gamecube as well.
I know man, I plan to test God of War and then some higher level systems.
You could buy an t430 motherboard, swap it out and flash the bios to use the t420 keyboard ivyrain I believe it's called. And that will run PS2 a lot better
The integrated graphics of the hd4000 is a big leap from hd3000
That would be a very interesting video idea! The only thing is, the motherboards for the T430 on eBay cost anywhere from $15 to $45, meaning it would cost me well over the price of the laptop itself. I have a BUNCH of other laptops lying around, so I'll be sure to do some more videos like this one!
@@TheTechspert fair point... I may have been thinking of the x220/x230 I know they fit
Good work, stranger!!
Thanks so much!!
dude, your videos are too good. just the music is v distracting
I appreciate the feedback man, I'm working on getting better at music equalization! 🫡
What Goodwill has laptops for $10.00!? I have a ThinkPad T420 running Linux Mint 22, it's a great machine. I swapped the optical drive for a caddy and added a 500GB SSD.
That's awesome! These systems are so cool and still so capable today. And as for the Goodwill, I'm making a video explaining it:)
First!! Looking sharp bro w laptop can i plat GTA POR FAVOR?
HAHA I'm not sure you'd want to on this thing😂
You got super lucky those machines go for around 110€ here.
I know it's a really good find!
My T530 didn't cost me a penny. the only money I have into it is a 128GB SSD boot drive and a 1TB HDD storage drive. I need to replace the keyboard. Other than that it runs like a tank. I am able to play GTA 5 at 25-30 FPS on it with Intel HD4000 GPU and 16 GB RAM.
Bro I'm telling you these machines are so underestimated! Now yours is a t530 which is a little more powerful than my t420, but STILL! Keep it up man! 💯
Hey if you want to test the game test Star wars galactic battlegrounds. It should play on it. And it's an older game from the early 2000s
Will do!! Thanks:)
$9 beast, old still good
Absolutely right!! There's still a bunch of really cool things you can do with these older machines 🤌
@TheTechspert indeed
Great content but the background music is so loud to the point where it became annoying sometime
Thank you, I really do appreciate the feedback. I'll try to bring it down for the next one!
Good video!
But that laptop would DESTROY ps2 games lol. an i5 with 8 gb of ram will throw any pcsx2 game you throw at it XD Gamecube too I think.
+ with drastic the entire ds library 100%.
Also dreamcast FOR SURE.
The only thing I doubt is ps3, though even there i figure light to emulate games like project diva will probably run fine. I mean, my ally runs it perfecly in 10W silent mode!
Thanks man! I'm seriously considering making a second video... We'll see!
What intel generation is the i5?
2
It's an Intel i5-2520M CPU, so it's a 2nd generation processor👍
1st gen has a crappy igpu. I know 3rd can deal with a lot Of Game Cube at native resolution, some PS2, psp etc.. not sure if 2nd will be close enough to this but please test it !!
Is it T410 or T420?
Lenovo T420🫡
nice vid
Thanks!
@@TheTechspert do you have a po box?
I do! There's an address for you in my channel description! 👍
@TheTechspert when I get the chance I have a so so working ibm ThinkPad for you to try out
Great video! I’d like to see more of the laptop, and desktops.
Will do!
Ok this video is about Emulation... I have set up an old Dell optiplex Mini for that Purpose, but the real Reason i clicked on this Video is because i bought a Dell Inspiron 8600 also for 10€, but for PC Windows XP Retro Gaming :)
Dude that's sick! Yeah retro Windows gaming on a machine like this would definitely be a ton of fun! 💯