T22 too old and slow??

BrianC72bgt · 03-11-2008, 02:55 PM

Planning my first. I've got a cast off Thinkpad T22 that needs a hard drive. Figure I can get a docking station with USB2.0 ports for $20. So for under $100 I've got a working T22 900mhz P3 384 megs of ram. Figure docking station on a slide out tray in the trunk....Miata...small trunk but NO parcel shelf speakers.

Want it to run:

Road Runner
Windows 2000 or XP
GPS
HD Radio
line out to small Amp (or can that come from the HD module directly?)
DVD player
Music Library
Maybe XM later on.
Back up camera for laughs

Am I throwing good money after bad or will the Thinkpad get it done.

TIA,

Brian C.

FusionFanatic · 03-11-2008, 09:08 PM

that setup should be fine for those basic uses...

I run a very similar setup. I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 (650MHz P3 with 384MB RAM) in a docking station in my trunk. I have Windows XP on it, I use it for GPS (iGuidance4.0), Videos, Music, Internet, OBDII, etc.

It all runs fine on my old laptop. I don't use a front end so I'm not sure how much of a resource-hog RR is, but your P3 is 250MHz faster than mine, so it should be fine.

good luck

skuller · 03-11-2008, 09:51 PM

the only concern I have is the memory size.
you have to strip xp to make it very light on the memory.

xelz · 03-11-2008, 10:09 PM

i'm running a T21.5 (i had a T21 and a T22 and put the parts together), and it does what i need it to do and it only has 256megs of ram. I got xm which uses the serial and the line in (i believe HD radio does the same). I removed the LCD screen because it was broken and it caused the vga video out to flicker every time i hit a bump and it's also smaller without the LCD! I got ones of those PC cards that have 4 ports of usb 2.0 also because the docking station took too much room. it was a breeze to tap into the power button on the docking station, but it was a little harder on the actual laptop. only thing i wouldn't know anything about would be the backup camera, never had one of those so i'm not sure how smooth it would run. videos run fine on it though. everything else you mentioned runs perfect on mine. hope i answered yoru questions.

FusionFanatic · 03-12-2008, 11:18 AM

while it will run a little smoother 'stripped down'.. 384MB is enough for full XP install. just turn off the unecessary services and background programs and it will run fine.

chaksq · 04-10-2008, 08:12 AM

I actually use a T20 fairly regularly. Mine has a 700mhz cpu and 256mb of ram. I run XP on it. It runs a little slow but is workable. I do have a little trouble playing DVDs. I think adding a little more ram to it will help a lot. I am fairly certain the T2x series has a max supportted of 512mb with a max of 256mb in each slot (2 cards). I think the laptop will work well though.

cMags · 04-10-2008, 08:23 AM

The T22 is a workhorse - I've used and abused mine and it handles it all with the best. I think it should be fine. Hell, many of us run the VIA M10K which is only 1GHz. My buddy used at T22 for a truck PC for a while. It should be fine. Good luck!