/tpg/ - ThinkPad General

Got $150-200. What should I get? Primarily want 1080p or something.

just to prove it works, here's my w520 with a VGA monitor
also make sure to run intel-virtual-output -b, if that doesn't work try running xrandr, getting your ouput names (like HDMI1 etc) and putting it before the -b.
fuck off low iq monkey

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>That wallpaper

Post it, please.

Yes, it's absolutely worth it, even if it's not as good as the laptop screens today. You don't need any kits to install an IPS screen to it.

So it's connected through the VGA port then?

might be a bit too late but the thinkpad optimus models are weird that way because the vga or hdmi ports if there are any are wired to the IGPU and the dp port are wired to the discrete gpu.
i have a optimus model t430. the dp port only works if i use the official nvidia driver rather than the open source one and only if i set the bios to optimus or discrete only.
also set the bios to igpu only. the discrede card is not actually turned off. it still eats a bit of power. only the hardware passwthrough for it is disabled.
its a stupide engineering deicision but it has something to do with the thinkpad motherboards. since most use custom bridges for connecting different parts rather than intels reference design.
there are third party motherboards in china that are expensive to get that grant the hardware ports universal access to pretty much everything so you can use all ports in any configuration but they are hard to get and very expensive since they are completely custom motherboards. not to mention all the non documented hardware on them could be any number of chink backdoors or lack driver support. its not advisable.

yup, obviously it works for the other outputs as well.
I'm also fairly sure that the dGPU memepads get one more screen output comapared to integrated models.

why is the thinklight so based?

>JIS keyboard
>Soft Rim
Absolutely disgusting

I am going to las vegas, and want to buy an x220 or x200 there, would bestbuy or something have it refurbished? Or i would have to try more alternative means of trade? If so, how may i find it?
I am hue, if that matters.

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I have a t430s, but due it's kinda short battery life, and the fact that my wife's laptop might die soon - HP 350 G1 or something, it's chasis is bent, she might inherit mine, I will get a newer one.

I guess there's no point in going for a *40 series, but for a newer generation ? Is there a rule of the thumb here, or should I just go for the newest and cheapest and best config-wise i can find ?

>bought a X220 in good shape for 120 euros
>is in pristine condition, runs smooth
>still has 4 hour battery life even though the battery is 7 years old

Should have bought one sooner. Jow Forums never disappoints

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nvidia-3xx package comes with PRIME, maybe give that a go

Buy your wife a new computer, buy yourself a new battery.

>67979583
I have a brand new main battery and a ~80% healthy ultrabay battery, I get around 4,5h with it, would appreciate more

I have a brand new main battery and a ~80% healthy ultrabay battery, I get around 4,5h with it, would appreciate more

Where's the microphone located in a T420, /tpg/?

Look it up in the manual

Thank you, I didn't know this came with a manual. The microphone is located in two holes that are next to the webcam.

the x220 ips screen is complete dogshit
bleeds like crazy and has some wild image retention problems, especially on greys

displays have never been a strong suit of the thinkpad line

Hi anons looking for some advice.

I have an x220t and I'm thinking of getting another workstation pc in lieu of this machine as the intel gpu and thermal constraints are not really up to the task of what I'm doing with it.

I'm thinking either the W541 or a Dell m4800, as I'd like a dedicated gpu that is not trash and a good cooling system. I have also contemplated going up to either a precision 7510 or a P50 for the nvme meme. Would not like to spend in excess of like $800 preferably, would probably go ebay used within the US.

yay or nay brothers?: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183454639042?ViewItem=&item=183454639042

>soft rim
>weeaboonese keyb
>fedora
Finally someone with actual good taste right fucking here.

>displays have never been a strong suit of the thinkpad line
Not true--
They've always had premium screens and budget screens. Generally, executives bought the premium models, and the peons got the budget models that were bought by the tens of thousands.

sorry user historically this is not true, and has only been a thing since the W/TX40 series, which itself had some ips quality control woes. Business laptops have historically had dogshit screens, and only in the last few generations are they finally ok with probably dell on top.
See: the T420's "HD+" screen that was awful, etc. Think about why so many people want to do panel swaps for these machines.

used from semi-trusted vendor or REFURB

I have an 11.6" Macbook Air received as a hand-me-down from my sister, who now has one of those super thin Macbooks. I liked the size but I've decided I'm not a huge fan of Mac OS. It's also really beat up; has scratches everywhere and hotspots on the screen, plus a heart carved into the Apple logo. Amazingly, someone offered me $300 for this piece of shit despite the absolutely awful condition. What's the best small business laptop, Thinkpad or otherwise, that I could get for that kind of money? I was thinking of an X250, but the Elitebook 820 also looks promising.

the x230 and x220 ips screens are exactly the same so keep in mind

further 8GB of ram might be fine but depends on your workload, that SSD however is comparitively small and probably some old Intel drive that's just ok at best.

Also the keyboard is new style but you probably new that and don't mind. I think the x230 is worth it over the x220 if not just for the sake of not having an HD3000 honestly, but again depends on what you plan to do with it.

I would take an M4800 over a W541 any day of the week. Vastly better build quality and far more robust cooling system.It's bulky as all hell but that's the price you need to pay for a proper mobile workstation rather than a business laptop masquerading as a workstation.

>sorry user historically this is not true, and has only been a thing since the W/TX40 series
This is not completely accurate. The W series always had excellent displays UP TO the *40 generation, when it went to shit (IPS with shittier color than the old AUO TN panels), and the upgraded 15" panels in the T series were also really good until the same generation. But for the 14" models, which form the bulk of purchases, screen quality was terrible no matter which generation you got.

Attached: w540 vs w530.png (1714x1080, 890K)

majoring in compsci and needed something to bring to uni. i figured it'd do the job.

i'm a little sketched out with buying used as opposed to refurbished and im unsure whether that ebay listing is a normal price. what do you think?

Hey anons, looking for advice.

Have a beefy desktop but could do with a laptop for studying on the go and a bit of web browsing. Does anyone think buying this on a whim would be a mistake?(w/ 8GB RAM and a 240GB SSD for £269.99)
ebay.co.uk/itm/232949763168

I don't really have the time to get deep into the scene like I did for my PC and so probably wont be upgrading it for a while.

I like the bulk honestly, I wish the m4800 chassis was around for one more generation so I could get that body with 7510 hardware. I agree the P50 and W540/541 seem fairly weak in comparision, at least in build quality (flexing everywhere).

Only unfortunate thing about the m4800 is the mobo design is really not suited for the 3k panel so you're stuck with an always on GPU should you opt for that as the edp line from the intel gpu is straight up not connected. Being stuck with mSATA is also kind of a bummer but I think it's at least SATA3 so it would be a small bump in perf compared to my mSATA in my x220. For these two reasons I have considered the 7510 over it but I'm not super into the body but more than that the 4k izgo panels seem nonexistent second hand, at least at the pricepoint I'm aiming for, which is unfortunate. I'm sure the FHD ips panels are fine though, can't get any specs on them apart from their colorspace coverage %.

I had a x220 through uni and it was fine. If you end up doing docker or VM projects you'll probably find yourself wanting, though for small compilation jobs it's fine and if your school has unix servers you can always just run your compilation jobs remote. I ran OSX in a vmware VM to work on iphone apps and somehow it was better than my school issued mac mini so you can probably get by.

Awesome! Thanks so much

Looking for a new laptop, should be fastish and able to run simulation-heavy games (EU4, Hearts of Iron, Football Manger, etc.) Don't care too much about graphics, I don't play graphics-heavy games. I'm willing to spend £400. Is there any specific thinkpad I should go for that would be better at this, or am I best just picking the most expensive one I can afford?

pick one with a gpu at least, so a W series or a T5XX series that is configured with one.
Thinkpads ship with weak entry level quadro cards that are more meant for low end CAD work eetc.so keep your expectations low.

The M4800 is indeed SATA III, and honestly I have never seen the need for something faster than that. I'm sure in the future we'll want faster storage, but in the meantime I'm even fine with SATA II for most things. The vast majority of SSDs available aren't going to be bottlenecked so why bother with anything quicker. But I have to ask, why bother with mSATA? Why not just stick another SSD in the optical drive bay and get the standard 6 Gb/s

wasn't an option for me on the x220, so I used mSATA + an HDD in the bay

Who would've thought cat-posting would be more annoying that trap-posting?

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Can someone with more knowledge on Thinkpads go over this listing for me?
Have £400 to blow and could do with a laptop to kick around on when chilling on the couch and maybe to take into uni on occasion. From what I can tell this one seems decent.

ebay.co.uk/itm/323288824276

The optical drive on the T420 is so shitty. Every time I grab the laptop from the side, I accidentaly open it. Every fucking time.

>sorry user historically this is not true
Uhh, FlexView was *totally* a selling point of thinkpads from early on, the whole IDTech joint venture with Toshiba was about making cutting edge displays for the Thinkpad. It was one of the original selling points from the very first model, the 700C, which had the largest TFT color screen ever seen in a laptop to that point.

I like how this Thinkpad has grey function keys. I have a T420, and would like to put these grey keys on my keyboard. Would they work? Do they have the same switches?

>I like how this Thinkpad has grey function keys. I have a T420, and would like to put these grey keys on my keyboard. Would they work? Do they have the same switches?

Forgot the pic

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>I like how this Thinkpad has grey function keys. I have a T420, and would like to put these grey keys on my keyboard. Would they work? Do they have the same switches?
The X/T 3x and 4x series had gray keys. Three companies made keyboards at that time, and you could swap ahead to some of the X/T 6x keyboard models by the same company. I think the T400/500 410/510 and 420/520 still used the same keyboards so... maybe. If you match right.

Haas nothing to do with the switches. They have to match the scissors.

eg, swapping from a Chicony X40 keyboard forward onto a Chicony X61 keyboard.

Attached: keyboard.jpg (1280x1057, 801K)

[and swapping some of the buttons backwards from the X200, which took a lot more surgery]
Stock X6x is on top, obviously. One below is modded. Subtle.

Thanks user, I have read that the three different keyboard models are NMB, ALPS, and Chicony. How can I identify which one I have? Below the keys, mine has red pads.

Attached: alps_chicony_nmb.jpg (577x451, 82K)

Ok, so I have an ALPS. According to the internet, the NMB and Chicony are much better. How true does /tpg/ think it is? I may swap my keyboard for another one if there are much better models.

the three feel slightly different. One is not better than the others.

Not him, but there is something different about the keyboards, even within the same generation and even if the switches are theoretically identical. At one point my brother and I both had a T410, and while he was really happy with his, I found the typing experience fell short of what I expected from the Thinkpad hype. At first I chalked this down to him having lower expectations, but eventually I found out that his keyboard felt more crisp and precise, while mine was mushy and had weird response times. Turns out his was an NMB and mine was an ALPS. I ended up calling Lenovo's warranty service and told them my keyboard stopped working, and I was sent a Chicony board as a replacement. It was basically as good as the NMB model in my brother's laptop, only a little less firm. Over time the Chicony keyboard seems to have gotten worse (developed a bit of a mushy feel). However, this could also be because I used my laptop a lot more than he did, so not sure if that should be a point against the Chicony. Either way, when my brother sold his T410 in late 2016 to "upgrade" to a Mac, I ended up swapping the boards and I've been happy with the NMB ever since.

Generally speaking, people seem to be fond of the Chicony and the NMB keyboards, and the ALPS ones are almost universally hated. Why Lenovo bothers using them, I cannot say. Based on my experience, I would disagree with anyone who says that "one is not better than the others", the Chicony and NMB are definitely better than the ALPS.

Gf's T420 had this problem, I bought a ultrabay and put it in.. problem solved, doesn't even have a hdd / ssd in it either.

How much should I pay for a T430 i5-3320 4gb ram HDD?

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I want to buy a thinkpad for my mother. She wants to use Photoshop comfortably. I was thinking about a T450. Thoughts?

Not him, but I'm at a loss with this. When I put my serial number on the Lenovo website, I get pic related. So it seems like I have the 45N2223 keyboard, right?

Here (thinkpad-forum.de/threads/124681-T420s-selber-quot-bessere-quot-Tastatur-einbauen) it says that the keyboard with this number is an NMB one. And here (forum.notebookreview.com/threads/thinkpad-keyboard-identification.634208/) it says that, if it has red caps, it's an NMB.

But the fact is, that the scissors on my keyboard look like if it was an ALPS. I don't get it.

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What's the name of that laptop? Looks comfy.

The part numbers do not generally distinguish between the manufacturers.
The color of the innards vary. And between generations even the scissors vary.
You have to go by the specific scissor mechanism of a specific generation.

I see. A Google search of that picture tells me that it is made with T60 keyboards. Are they the same keyboard generation than the T420 ones?

here you go

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Yes. Should be.

My T420 just doesn't want to start anymore, sometimes I have to press the power button 20-30 times for it to properly turn on instead of just go blank.
Anyone else heard of this problem before?
Are there any fixes besides getting a new laptop and throwing my t420 out?

Lenovo/IBM has rebranded some keyboard types as others before (Chicony as NMB), that may be the case too, but remember many times the same serial keyboard can have some differences between different laptops.

Need something to learn linux with, take to uni to take notes and watch anime/browse the web.
Do I get x220 or x230 with 720p ips? How bad is the x220 screen if I cheap out and get that.

Trying to pickup more of a travel laptop, looking to spend under 100.

So far this seems like the best deal

ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X220-Intel-Core-i5-2410M-2-30GHz-4GB-RAM-No-HDD-12-1-Pro-Laptop/273500705106?epid=1024521947&hash=item3fade99152:g:Xx8AAOSw1SJbls8o

yeah it's a good deal.

aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=AS_20181009061407&SearchText=t440 backlit keyboard will any of these do for my t440?

this
fuck the W540/1, you need to fucking dissasemble it completely just to repaste.
What the fuck kind of "workstation" design is that? It's just as fucking heavy as the W530 too, saving 1/3 of an inch of thickness is not worth making the machine completely unservicable.
That being said for around 600 bucks for a fully specced out one it's still better than some shit an amerifat would get at walmart.

thinkpads (old and new) are too popular now.

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where do you get those tilied flower walls?

I want a Thinkpad that can play 720p weeb cartoons without stuttering, not shit display and a not shit keyboard for $150-250. Is it doable?

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yes
why dont you read the OP

I did, too much shit to sift through with relevant information not being readily available.

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then there is no hope for you
never post on here again

Rude
Post your programming socks nerd

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No more than $200 usd

X230 refurbished for $100, yea or nay

Pretty good

i got them from here github.com/wallace-aph/tiles-and-such

My current dell laptop is fine but i would like to get a thinkpad as a netbook, any good tools and distro i may want, probably would put ubuntu on it because it would be nice to not have problems on it, just install like openbox on it or xfce

>not shit display
sorry user wrong thread

thanks fumofag

Time to switch to the Toughbook market.

I wanna get a ThinkPad but already have a Toshiba Satellite. Should I just keep the Satellite? It uses an AMD CPU so it isn't Intel botnet shit.
Are Satellites accepted by /tpg/?
I really do wanna sell the Satellite to get a ThinkPad but it's currently bricked (please don't ask why). Should I fix it and sell it or just fix it?

Sony Picturebook.
They're a right cunt to get Linux working on.

Is $158 good for a refurbished T430 with an i5, 128 GB SSD and 4 GB ram? I plan to upgrade to 16 GB of ram since I have those at hand, as well as an ultrabay for an HDD.

Thoughts on the T470?

What's a good beginner ThinkPad for someone who is into modernist designs?

yeah, make sure the screen is 900p though

>It's just as fucking heavy as the W530 too
The W540/W541 are actually 200 grams lighter than the W530. But I agree that sacrificing repairability and upgrade paths for the sake of a tiny bit of thickness and a tiny bit of weight is fucking idiotic. I can't wait for this trend to die off, or for professionals to have a fucking revolt over it. I wouldn't even be so angry if I had something else to choose from, but as Louis Rossmann says, the market just wants to copy Apple's bad shit without any of the good shit.

My first computer was a Satellite A10 handed down to me from my dad. Was an okay computer, but since then Toshibas seem to have just taken a nosedive in terms of quality. They're just typical consumer laptops, with all the traps and bullshit that comes with that. If it is an AMD CPU, pre-Ryzen, I'll bet it's also slow and hot.