Recommendations for 4x3 Thinkpads with PC-CARD

[tw1sted1981]

I have a Thinkpad X61 which I’m using mostly for emulating an Amiga via WinUAE. I like the setup due to the PC Card and 4x3 screen. This particular model I’m running a hacked bios for SATA II speeds and have added an SSD and maxed the RAM. Sadly the emulation experience is not quite optimal, some slow downs occurring. With the above in mind I’m looking for something that has more CPU power, 4x3 screen and similar connections. I could live without the PC Card but it would be nice to have. My initial research has led me to some models that I’ve since read on here potentially have reliability issues, I’m also finding it tricky to know if a different model is faster than what I have currently.

I’m hoping for some suggestions that tick some of the boxes above based on the great wealth of knowledge some of you have. I could then further research, and check availability within the 2nd hand market.

Any guidance that can be offered would be greatly received.

Kind regards
-C

[TPFanatic]

X61 is pretty much it, PC card and 4:3 arent coexistant in further generations.

The singular greatest upgrade to get the most speed and usability out of a machine is use an SSD. You’ve already done this.

I’ve uncovered a new way to sneak more usability into full-size machines like T60 by adding an NVME SSD over PCIE either expresscard or the MPCIE wlan slot and designating it for the OS as effectively unlimited swap space. X61 is sadly physically unable to benefit from this as it lacks an expresscard slot and it lacks physical space above its MPCIE slots to fit SSD-adapters.

T60 retains a PC Card slot.

The other alternative models are:

T61, ideally without Nvidia
T601 FrankenPad
R61 in rare 15”
R61i in rare 15”
R60

If you can stomach widescreen, look at W500 and T500 as the final PC card equipped models.