VOGONS


First post, by Mk.558

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Picked up a T610 Plus not that long ago.

It's larger than I thought it would be, but makes sense. I want to use it for XP era stuff. Questions:

1) What upgrade to stick in the PCIe x4 slot? Graphics card? If so, which one? Sound card? For what? Ethernet interface? Maybe, but I don't have a use for that just yet. If it's going to run XP, it will have Ethernet enabled, but it won't be hooked up to the home network for obvious security reasons.

2) Windows 98 -- Yay, or Nay? Can't disable MS Dos Compatbility Mode for Drive C on my HP T610 Thin Client

That thread is inconclusive, if I could get 98 on it, that'd be cute, and/or DOS. Driver support is dicey even for XP, I think that might be asking too much.

So far it's quite quiet, the fan only comes on in specific situations, the PRAM battery was dead dead, so the first boot was a difficult affair with a black screen and no response for a bit. I want to stick a second drive in it and probably upgrade the DOM, not sure yet. The sound drivers are period-appropriate: if you plug in headphone set, the driver control panel takes control of the system and wants to know what you just plugged in. Not my favorite. This page has drivers for XP in case you're interested in one, but I found the Lenovo ThinkPad drivers to be a non-starter. Instead I used these Dell drivers, which worked fine.

Classic Mac Networking v4.3 applefool.com/se30/
"Linux assumes you know exactly what you are doing." -oboedad55, ubuntuforums.org

Reply 1 of 5, by Mk.558

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

After poking around it seems like it has the AMD Radeon HD 6320. While it's not a great integrated graphics chip, it's not terrible either (like the Intel GMA950). The CPU is "ok" but not great. The hardware feature list for a thin client is pretty good: parallel port, two serial ports, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, PS/2, SATA, IDE, mPCIe, PCIe 2.0 x4?

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon- … d-6320-igp.c675

I think the problem is that according to Wikipedia, PCIe 2.0 is limited to 25W per port. Then you remember that graphics cards of this era came in the wake of AGP, and are usually x16 for obvious reasons. There's not going to be a lot that will have a low TDP but also good performance: the PCIe equivalent to the integrated graphics barely outpaces it.

Classic Mac Networking v4.3 applefool.com/se30/
"Linux assumes you know exactly what you are doing." -oboedad55, ubuntuforums.org

Reply 2 of 5, by The Serpent Rider

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

I've managed to boot up this thing with 80nm GeForce 7600GS on 120W PSU. There's plenty of room to put short full height card in Plus case. Radeon X600/X700 might fit for Windows 98, not sure what to do with the sound though.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 3 of 5, by weldum

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

i have mine with XP currently, the biggest issue is the processor, is simply too slow for many things, the ipc and frequency is not very high (certainly better than most, if not all VIA and DMP thin clients), the gpu is rather decent and compatible
also the uefi implementation is pretty mediocre, but is the same as other hp computers of the time
for the driver side of things, most drivers intended for the AMD E-450 igpu will work, such as the chipset and gpu drivers, for the rest i simply use SDI origin
in xp the performance is okay-ish, windows 7 feels alright, windows 10 struggles almost always and 11 doesn't even boot (both ltsc versions)
in the linux side of things, most distros will work fine but the terascale gpu is very unimpressive here, also a heavy distro like ubuntu will strugle with this processor
don't know about 98se but i think it'll be a little bit cumbersome to make it run decently, as even the uefi is not very compatible

https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hp/t610/

DT: R7-5800X3D/R5-3600/R3-1200/P-G5400/FX-6100/i3-3225/P-8400/D-900/K6-2_550
LT: C-N2840/A64-TK57/N2600/N455/N270/C-ULV353/PM-1.7/P4-2.6/P133
TC: Esther-1000/Esther-400/Vortex86-366
Others: Drean C64c/Czerweny Spectrum 48k/Talent MSX DPC200/M512K/MP475

Reply 4 of 5, by Mk.558

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
The Serpent Rider wrote on 2026-06-13, 22:31:

I've managed to boot up this thing with 80nm GeForce 7600GS on 120W PSU. There's plenty of room to put short full height card in Plus case. Radeon X600/X700 might fit for Windows 98, not sure what to do with the sound though.

Maybe a USB sound device?

Whether it'll boot on Win98 is a different matter. I'm not certain of that yet.

weldum wrote on 2026-06-14, 02:46:

i have mine with XP currently, the biggest issue is the processor, is simply too slow for many things, the ipc and frequency is not very high (certainly better than most, if not all VIA and DMP thin clients), the gpu is rather decent and compatible

What do you do with it? It seems ok for the gaming i'm doing with it, but i will need to try NFS IV and V at some point.

Classic Mac Networking v4.3 applefool.com/se30/
"Linux assumes you know exactly what you are doing." -oboedad55, ubuntuforums.org

Reply 5 of 5, by Mk.558

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hmmm okay so if a GFX card is not really necessary, and a sound card is not, because the jury is still out on Windows 98...

What other cool or novel PCIe cards can I put in it? Capture card? Definitely not, too much for this thing. What else?

Classic Mac Networking v4.3 applefool.com/se30/
"Linux assumes you know exactly what you are doing." -oboedad55, ubuntuforums.org