Previous thread: Don't buy anything OTHER THAN IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T, X, and W/P Series if you want the Real Business Experience™ >Other business laptops are welcome in /tpg/ (Dell Latitude/Precision, HP EliteBook/ZBook).
Modern models: >X220/X230 - 12", 768p, cheap and light >T420/T430 - 14", 900p, widely available, socketed CPU, both Coreboot-compatible (Ivy Bridge CPU support on T420); Quad Core Compatible, Old keyboard swap on *30 series >T520/530; W520/530 - 15", 1080p, DTR, 32GB RAM on quadcore models, USB 3.0 >T440s - best price/performance ultra portable >T440p/540p; W540/1 - Last Thinkpads with socketed processors, easily replaceable trackpad (W541 doesn't need trackpad replacement)
Why ThinkPad? >Used machines are plentiful and cheap >Excellent keyboards - tactile feel and quiet >Great durability: magnesium rollcage for structural integrity, with high quality plastic body panels >Utilitarian design: e.g. indicator LEDs, 7 row keyboard layout on older models >Docking stations that easily turns your laptop into a desktop >Easy to repair (most models), upgrade & maintain thanks to readily available service manuals for every model, spare parts easy & cheap to obtain >The best TrackPoint™, great for those who type a lot or hate swiping their fingers all over a touchpad >Excellent GNU/Linux & *BSD support
Any thoughts on A485/E485? Want that APU life to have enough power to run some 3D gaymes and maybe virtual machines which I assume is a crapshoot on the old Intel dual core models
Carter Rivera
I have some doubt about how to know if I can replace the cpu on my laptop. It's an intel pentium t4400 and the socket is a PGA478. Is it possible to upgrade to something better?
Sockets are made to be incompatible with each other. Blame intel
Justin Garcia
but I can't put a better cpu in this socket?
William Myers
I know ThinkPad mainboards can be swapped between same-chassis-different-year models. Can the same be done between A and T series? Eg. putting future A495 board in a T470 provided they don't update the chassis just yet?
Caleb King
That is correct. Intel changes sockets with every upgrade.
Jeremiah Ward
yeah if you can find a model that's compatible with that socket and chipset
Juan Rogers
So, how is it possible to change cpu on t440p and t430? What I have to look for, exactly?
Aaron Price
They briefly had two models of a CPU that used the same socket. It was only one possible upgrade. They don't do that anymore.
Jackson Richardson
What is your chipset?
Luis Powell
the T9300 is probably as high as you can go if your chipset is 965 based.
That requires one f those completely useless "enclosures" that sell for over $100
William Ward
i bought a x200s with a 1440x900 for 50 buck. it's missing a keyboard bezel and a keyboard and battery. i think i'll put the screen on my x201 and maybe rebuild the x200s. i wanna libreboot it but my soldering skills are shit and i dont want to ruin the board
not that user yeah its good for reading text because it has a pretty high PPI but useless for video or games, it's not like I would watch anything on it, the screen has such a pathetic gamut it might as well be monochrome. I like it, but not as much as a decked out X200. don't even bother. It's not worth it and libreboot doesn't even properly support the graphics chip.
Benjamin Morgan
> libreboot doesn't even properly support the graphics chip what do you mean by that?
Chase Scott
so the hate and outcry the ThinkPad 25 got is just proof that the "classic" design is garbage and no one wants it
Joshua Bell
I'm looking at getting an X220 to go with my newer ThinkPad, is there anything I should know/look out for?
I was thinking of getting the x1 extreme those specs are elite but unfortunately so is the price.
Is there anything comparable? Want to do lots of virtualization and some gaming. Lightweight would be great but it's not a deal breaker.
Andrew Campbell
Hey I dont really know anything about computers but my dad needs a new laptop for emailing other oldfags and streaming porn. Will the T430 be good enough? Just trying to find him something cheap and functional that wont break easy.
Thomas Morris
nothing. you acquire one at an estate sale or in the dumpster of a company offloading old machines. This is the only valid method of acquiring a Thinkpad.
Kayden Collins
T430 would work but the stock screens are dogshit so maybe look at the T530 or T440s (or newer) if you want native 1080p and good screens. Unless if you hate your father and want his porn to be washed out, low-contrast garbage...
Elijah Moore
How hard is it to upgrade for someone who's never been inside a computer but routinely does power tool repair
Jackson Murphy
not hard at all. All thinkpad maintenance is very well documented in each model's hardware maintenance manual.
Hunter Gonzalez
Cool. I think ill get him that see what he thinks and upgrade it as needed.
Josiah Robinson
there was nothing classic about the Thinkpad25. That's who folks hated it. It was a modern T series with a different badge.
Jayden Miller
s/who/why/
Adrian Johnson
t430
Parker Martin
Lenovo W510 Core i7 8GB Ram 320GB HDD Win 10 Pro NVidia Quadro FX 880M Win10 Pro for 500 is that good?
Wyatt Parker
The T430 is good if you are going to put the time into changing it, the t420 if not.
I don't know why win 10 matters, but no that's a horrible deal.
Easton Lewis
I'm mainly going to be using it for programming and messing with 3D stuff.
Brody Brooks
Oh I'm trying to find a decent cheap laptop to experiment stuff with, any ideas?
Carson Thompson
T440p
Nolan Robinson
Refer to T430 if you're going to put in the old keyboard, t420 if you don't want to bother with it. You can get either completely work for ~$100 U.S. or cheaper if you get lucky. If you want a bit bigger get a t520.
Tyler Ward
Where did you get that screen?
Luke Collins
ebay. The screen is about $60 and the chink adapter (that works perfectly for some reason) is about $70.
Jordan Powell
muh keyboard though honestly it’s garbage style keyboard 7 rows is too much and just takes up too much space.
Justin Russell
Alright I found one with these specs for 200. Lenovo ThinkPad T420 14" LED Notebook Intel Dual Core i7-2640M 2.80GHz 8 GB DDR3 RAM 1 TB. That should be more than enough right?
Brody Scott
What's the biggest game that l can play on my X60?
Any mad lads using W10 on their T420? I was using it a month ago, and kept getting a power state driver failure that caused the computer to crash. I really want to go back to using Windows, but there's no point if there's no solution.
>had a bunch of x230s I was looking at on newegg a day before thanksgiving/BF >was busy during those two days, could not shop >check after >everything sold out AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH
What ThinkPad does moot have there in that picture?
Leo Martin
need something that can multitask and play games
Jacob Parker
Just installed the aliexpress 1080p mod with an ips panel in my t430. Works flawlessly, replacing my w520 with that currently moving files over.
Jayden Smith
How much expertise you need to replace the keyboard in the new models? I never done anything like this before.
Michael Brooks
>fail to get the usb device for the mobile internet work ONCE >can listen to my family how the linux sucks, for the rest of my life >user why are you buying this heavy-ass thinkpad? >linux is only used in america (be europoor) >Don't you want to try the brand new (and expensive as fuck) laptop/tablet hybrid?
Neat. Anyone knows if opening it like that voids the guarantee?
Joseph Nelson
>linux is only used in america what?
Brandon Taylor
Finally rebought my ThinkPad 25 again for a little easier to swallow price from release, $1,120. Selling my ThinkPad T430 for about $350 so I’ll only really be paying $770 for my T25 which makes me feel a little better about it.
Kinda bummed that older ThinkPads are slowly dying. Getting tired of the battery life and it’s just not worth the meme anymore. Used to collect these fuckers and now I’m down to my T430. Why can’t Lelnovo fuck off and go back to the good ole days? ;/
because the colossal failure that the ThinkPad 25 will be used as an excuse to never ever go back
John Carter
I don’t necessarily think it was shit, I just think it was overpriced and only true to the pre-XX30 era by the keyboard. I voiced my thoughts on it the first time I sent it back and supposedly it was passed onto someone higher up.
I personally just want a machine that had four cores (can live without it though), GPU-less model, and a few LEDs (even if they did something like the MacBooks do with battery indicators). But overall it’s a pretty comfy machine in my opinion, it was just a massively missed opportunity for the people that actual care about ThinkPads.
Benjamin King
Yes those are plenty, bt that is still over priced. It shouldn't be more than 150.
Ian Jackson
If it's 1600x900 then it's worth it, but try to negotiate out harddrive, you probably want your own
Nathan Ward
What external audio card /g recommended for quality listening music on old thinkpad?
