Other business laptops are also welcome in /tpg/ (e.g. Dell Latitude/Precision, HP EliteBook/ZBook). ---- If you're looking for purchase advice, READ THE BUYERS GUIDE FIRST. Then post, stating budget and requirements (e.g. size and performance). Don't buy anything OTHER THAN T, X AND W/P SERIES if you want the Real ThinkPad Experience™
Recommended models: T420 - 14", normal size X220 - 12.5", ultraportable ---- Why ThinkPad? (also applies to other business laptops) >Used machines are plentiful and cheap. >Excellent keyboards - tactile feel and quiet. >Great durability: chassis uses a 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, upgrade and maintain thanks to readily available service manuals for every model. Spare parts are easy and cheap to obtain. >The best trackpoint (that red thing in the middle of the keyboard). Great for those who type a lot or hate swiping their fingers all over a touchpad. >Excellent GNU/Linux & *BSD support. ---- Used ThinkPad Buyers Guide: ktgee.net/tpg
Installed a mod for my 1.40 bios on x220. Now my ethernet port doesnt work wat do senpai? I modded cuz i wanted to change my network cards from intel to atheros.
Tyler Jenkins
Bought a T420, what should I expect?
Easton Sanders
A lot of rage when changing thermal compound.
Owen Johnson
touchpad or pimple
Ian Evans
touchpad for generally everything, nipple for precition when editing something.
Christopher Morris
A comfy reliable laptop
Michael Powell
I have my touchpad completely disabled.
Xavier Hughes
It seems like the W420s are the best bang for your buck when it comes to getting a good processor. Only thing I dislike is the size. You can get a W420 with a intel i7 2760qm quad core for 250-300.
I don't need the dedicated graphics card are there any other smaller thinkpads with a cpu that is equal in performance for around the same price range or only a bit more? Other laptops would be find too if they have a good trackpointer type nub.
Brandon Wright
T430 and T420 owner here. I'm trying to give the T430 the classic keyboard. I have posted this issue for the past couple threads, and no solution has come.
My problem is the following section:
>Method 1: Replace the xx30 Palmrest with a xx20 Palmrest
>The least invasive method is to replace the entire xx30 (T430/X230/W530) Palmrest with the xx20 (T420/X220/W520) Palmrest. The palmrest costs about $10-20 on eBay, search for these FRU numbers:
>Remove and unplug the original palmrest. >Install and plug in the xx20 palmrest. >Then insert the keyboard; it should fit perfectly.
This at first makes sense; Swap the palmrest at the same time to avoid filing down the nubs on the classic keyboard. However, as mentioned earlier I own both a T430 and a T420 and I can safely say that the palmrests are not the same. I have physically tried to swap the T430 palmrest with the T420's and it simply does not fit, despite the swiki stating otherwise.
Why is this? Am I missing something plain and obvious?
The picture attached is my problem. You can see that the lines absolutely do not match up, and the palmrest swap seems impossible.
Someone, please tell me what's up. I want to hear back from anyone who has ever swapped a T430 palmrest adn keyboard with a T420's.
You can get a a x220 on ebay for around that price and for just a touch more you can get an x230.
Ian Roberts
Starting uni @ september and will probably need a new laptop. what Thinkpad would you recommend? I'm starting computer engeneering btw (Or however it's called outside Spain) My budget would go from 600 to 800€ probably
Julian Jones
Tried out my friend's brand new X250 last night
how the hell do you guys manage with such a tiny-ass screen? the resolution is pretty bad as well
new to thinkpads in general does it get better/is the X250 just bad?
Brody Ward
I usually just dock my X230 and use an external display. I'm mostly just using terminal and web browser so that helps too as they don't require that much screen estate.
I wouldn't try running an IDE with the integrated display.
Nicholas Martin
>dock >external display
so I would need a bunch of accessories to make it actually usable?
what's the point of having a laptop then?
Nathan Ortiz
The T420 was the last real Thinkpad.
Justin Wood
Should I get the x220 or the x230?
x220 pros + better keyboard + cheaper
x230 pros + backlid keyboard + way better graphics card + fingerprint reader + usb 3.0 without needing an i7 model / pci slott
I have never typed on an old thinkpad keyboard so I don't know what I'll miss, I currently prefer the x230 because of the backlid keyboard and the better graphics card
Benjamin Bell
TrackPoint™
John Torres
Backlit keyboard is a meme.
Carson Carter
It is my main system and I carry it between work and home. I put much value in low cost of ownership, mobility, good quality keyboard and having a TrackPoint.
The small, low resolution, screen is a minus but it is enough for when I'm not doing any serious work. Most of the time I'm docked though.
Jeremiah Jackson
Any of you have experiences with 9-cell chink batteries from AliExpress? There are plenty for cheap and a few old but supposedly original Lenovo ones for slightly more.
>inb4 amazon I live in SEA
Thomas Scott
My experience with cheap Chinese batteries is that they are a hit or miss kind of thing. I had as good as original for X61s but one I got for X201 was useless in half a year.
I haven't ordered batteries from AliExpress specifically though.
Brandon Johnson
>The T420 was the last real Thinkpad. this meme again... And nope, it's the T430, but only because you can put the old-style keyboard on it.
Hudson Peterson
Why not just have a tower at home though?
docks aren't exactly cheaper than building your own pc, especially since the X250 isn't high-end at all
Matthew Hughes
This isn't a Thinkpad, but it's close, I just bought this:
I only care about the processor it comes with mainly, but there are so many different sizes of this thing... It looks smaller, but I'd like to find a video on it and take a look at it before it comes in a few days. Like, seriously, either way it doesn't matter, it's just going to sit under my bed and be server hardware, but if it's small that would be cool.
Liam Torres
And you're a meme too.
Jackson Wright
I think I found it... Just over a foot in length, and a third of a foot in width. Very nice.
Charles James
With a name and picture like that I'm surprised you haven't killed yourself yet.
Liam Taylor
woof
Wyatt Cooper
So I ordered a lenovo t510. with the following specs:
· Processor: Intel Core i5 M540 @ 2.53GHz · Memory: 4GB DDR3 RAM · Graphics: NVIDIA GT218 NVS 3100M · Screen Resolution: 1600 x 900 · Optical: CD/DVD RW · Storage: 500GB HDD Should I install ubuntu or gentoo on it? I am pretty new to linux, so I am inclining more into installing ubuntu. Second, can I install the 64 bit version of either in this machine?
Chase Walker
install debian, 64bit
David Perry
>34°C in the shade >put wet towel rag on my TP's keyboard >still able to use the clit and keyboard perfectly fine, while not getting them oily due to the shit weather feels good man
Jose Reed
dude, you could get a real battery from amazon for like 35 bucks. Got myself 2.
Cameron Lopez
Oh debian, interesting. Would you mind explaining your reasoning behind it?
Hunter Lewis
Is 12'' screen any good for productive work? I'm currently stuck using an ancient ThinkPad with (I think) 14'' screen and 1024x768 and life is suffering. Will increased resolution on 12'' make any difference? Should I go for X220 or T420?
William Hall
not him, but debian has a lot less bloat than ubuntu (which you will learn to appreciate with 4GB RAM) also Gentoo might not be a great idea if you're new to Linux.
Bentley Kelly
pls explain
Joshua Lopez
>i can't buy from amazon >dude get one from amazon ok
Ethan Robinson
Bumping.
Josiah Walker
Is there any notable difference between the T420 and the T430 ?
Kevin James
which thinkpad has NOT soldered cpu? im just thinking about possible replacement in case of some issues/problems with hardware
Aaron Allen
t420
Xavier Kelly
newer processor, usb3, and chiclet keyboard
Jaxson Morgan
thanks
Evan Foster
My left click on my x220 is double clicking, what do?
Liam Mitchell
T420s here, where can I buy a backlit keyboard
Ryan Green
I like to have all my important files on the same disk and boot from there. The X230 is powerful enough for my home and professional use so I don't see point in buying a separate desktop system. I guess it would be useful for gaming, CAD or heavy video editing but I don't care too much about those. For heavy data processing I usually buy instances from Amazon.
I have full disk encryption and backups so if I break it or it gets stolen I can just buy a new refurbished one for
Jason King
the clitmouse will grow on you
after you use it for a while it's hard to go back
Joseph Diaz
>backlid keyboard this is only useful if you are a child or a women who has to look at the keyboard while they type
also my x220 has a fingerprint reader
John Bailey
--30 can only use lenovo batteries. I never see this mentioned here. They're old laptops and the batteries won't be new when you buy them used, and lenovo batteries are expensive and designed to stop working soon. Just get the x220 The backlit keyboard sounds cool but it's no backlight The graphics are still sub-par for any graphics related work. Do you need USB 3 or would you have to buy a new USB stick? What would you need to use it for? Just to have it? Get an x220
Tyler Thomas
keyboard nipple by far the only pointing device that's better is the mac's trackpad in mac os.
Joseph Allen
>backlit keyboard ew tbqh senpai
Sebastian Gutierrez
Clitmouse. After owning an x200 when it was new, I can't go back to mice or touchpads.
Carter Moore
anyone have a link to that dell screen that works in the t420? also what's the FRU for the hd+ video cable?
Austin Jackson
MAGA
Ryan Flores
It's an OK price, but getting an x220 with an IPS screen would be a much better option. for casual laptop use on a 12" screen1280x800/1366x768 is perfectly fine. Even Apple knows this and that's why the 13" macbook pro runs at 1280x800 effective the x230 also runs a LOT cooler under light loads and from what i've heard the chicklet keyboard on the **30 feels better than the keyboard on the **20 laptops. the one I had for my x220 only got about 4 hours of battery and was pretty useless after a year or two, but the original 9 cell I bought for my t410 was still at 80+% after 3 or 4 years
Andrew Ross
There is nothing wrong with gentoo. It's not newb friendly but you could install it if you dedicated an hour to the manual.
Ubuntu's "linux for human beans" it's a good start but many people don't like their roots.
Debian's solid and has a friendly interface to install it. Default everything would work if you get confused.
Liam Smith
How would I go about removing the internal mic of the T420?
Cooper Smith
What is /tpg/'s opinion on Fujitsu Lifebooks?
Wyatt Gomez
Disable it in bios. If you're on windows disable visualization so spyware can't turn it back on.
Kevin Baker
You should upgrade the memory and switch the HDD to SSD. Also if you have 8GB or less memory you should apt install zram-config for some compressed in-memory swap (thanks Android developers for this gem of a feature).
Gentoo is for advanced users only. Anyone claiming otherwise is either a fool or trying to fool you. If you're a new Linux user you should consider Fedora or Ubuntu.
I'd like to recommend Ubuntu but recently Canonical has been driving it away from collectively agreed upon GNU+Linux base with Snap and Mir without good reasons. This may cause serious compatibility problems in near future. Still it is currently the best supported commercial distribution for consumers and most proprietary Linux software target primarily Ubuntu base.
32bit is obsolete on Linux unless your processor cannot handle it (T510 can). You should default to 64bit as it'll give better performance and better software support.
Camden Brooks
anyone here upgraded the panel on a t420? what resolution did you go to? is there any noticable decrease in performance?
Robert Campbell
t420 needs a mod for higher than 1600x900 res The mod's not working properly and causes flickering and is finally being remade if you're going from the
Gabriel Morales
exactly what I meant
Daniel Adams
So I've removed all non-free software from my T420s but I still have this wifi card that I won't be able to use without this proprietary driver. Can I replace the wifi card or is there no other way?
>pic related
Bentley Sanders
To replace the wifi card with freedumb one, you need to remove the whitelist from the bios. This requires you to flash a new bios.
Ryan Gutierrez
What's everyone's opinion on the x250? I'm upgrading from a samsung series 9 (first gen) which was a poor choice to begin with.
>budget is flexible around the 300-600 range >going to primarily use it for school/work on the go
I've found decent options on ebay so far around 550 with i5 cpus (5300u) and decent ssd storage. The only problem I came across when I was looking for one was the display resolution. I could only find the 1366x768 res models and nothing with 1080 that wasn't touch and well over my budget. Coming from the samsung which is 13.3" and is the same resolution it looks okay but I wanted something more crisp. The x250 is 12.5" so it should look better but what's your opinion?
Chase Hughes
Thanks for your reply! I just don't like the idiea of spyware/non-free software constantly running (I'm almost always using WIFI)
Adam Ortiz
Be sure to pick up a WiFi card that is whitelisted by the bios. Otherwise your ThinkPad will refuse to boot. You can also try to reflash the BIOS with more compatible version.
Personally I can live with non-free software device drivers as I'm already running the Intel Management Engine which I cannot do anything about.
Jaxson Howard
> Thinking you can liberate any computer with recent Intel processor.
Christopher King
If I owned a 250 I'd gladly tell you what I think of it but I don't so I won't.
>going to primarily use it for school/work on the go Why not get a T420s then? It's a lot cheaper, and can easily be upgraded to a 1080p screen for around $130 (upgrade set + monitor). Also it's more comfy The only real downside of the older laptops compared to the new ones is the battery life
Logan Sullivan
I have no illusions but I'd like to keep the spyware down to a minimum. I'm thinking of installing libreboot on a cheap T400.
Jason Sullivan
>Be sure to pick up a WiFi card that is whitelisted by the bios Yeah I'm looking for one right now but can't seem to find it I can live with non-free software too, but only if there really is no other option, but now there is (it seems)
Luis Cruz
I looked at that model as well as the x220,230,230 too. Only thing that I didn't like about the t420 was the size of the screen. Im trying to keep it around 13. I've had 14+ sizes before and they're a little to big for me personally.
Jayden Wilson
Try disabling the touchpad.
Jackson Hall
Is $450 CAD decent for a refurbished T430? CPU: i5-3360M Screen: 1600x900 RAM: 8GB SSD: 128GB
Zachary Richardson
Not too shabby, considering canadabux and it comes with an SSD.
Michael Mitchell
if you're that autistic why wouldn't you just take it and the speakers out? because speakers are actually pretty good microphones
Oliver Powell
Fuck off. That guy answered a question. Take your autismo bullshit to a different Sup Forumseneral
Jordan Brooks
how is that autismo bullshit, but disabling the mic isn't?
Ayden Gray
The fuck are you even on about? Unplug the speakers, remove them; they have tiny screws. Snip the mic.
Alexander Richardson
the fuck are you going on about? he wanted to remove the mic originally which is already in the autismo zone, and so is disabling it in the bios.
Luke Peterson
Fuck off. Why is Sup Forums so anti-privacy lately. >I want to turn my mic off for privacy >>why are you autists? you know they also blah blah blah and this invalidates wanting privacy somehow
Tyler Garcia
Are there any models with thunderbolt 3 capabilities? I'm thinking I could use an external gpu when I'm at home.
Elijah Richardson
why not go full blown autism then like I suggested. there's no point in disabling just the mic since the speakers are just as good as a mic
Ryan Powell
Thinkpads had eGPU capabilities ten years before memebolt 3 came around
Anthony Fisher
yeah but it's never been good
Christian Rogers
>put GPU into thing >plug thing into Thinkpad >it just werks I'm not sure what else you could want. It's not like you're going to see full desktop performance even if you had more PCI-E lanes, you'd run into the limits of mobile CPUs long before you run out bandwidth for the GPU.
Jacob Taylor
how is the t400? too old?
Parker Evans
Is there any way I can repair this smudge on my Thinkpad where I removed the auction lot number with rubbing alcohol?
The camera flash makes it look a lot worse than it is, but it's still noticeable.
I guess I could put a sticker over it.
Isaiah Price
Makes for a good slave laptop that browses the web, wouldn't use it as a main machine.
Andrew Fisher
Would this be too edgy or weeb to make into a sticker?
Jaxson Cooper
Looks neat. Go for it Satan.
Ayden Gutierrez
i know this is tpg but i have question about other business-type laptops
local craigslist ad for a HP EliteBook 2540p, i7, 4gb for $50 is this worth buying
Henry Butler
I have a t530 but I was wanting something more portable and maybe mess around with different distros
Was looking for a t440, found a t450 instead for a decent price. Good deal against the ~$450 t440? Leaning toward the 450 senpais.
James Johnson
So I'm thinking of buying a Lenovo X220 i5-2520M 2.5ghz 4GB 120SSD off ebay for $250AUD I was hoping to upgrade to 16gb RAM, I'm not sure which one to buy though? (I live in Australia) I've been reading that some aren't compatible I'd probably try and buy an i7-2620M Processor Anyway, is this good enough to run MATLAB as an engineering student? Or am I going overkill? Do I need that much RAM/processing power? does anyone have any MATLAB experience with the x220?
Josiah Torres
Hey anons I'm looking for a decent cheap used laptop/thinkpad for around $100 used. My only requirements are:
- SB i3/i5 dual core or better - 4GB RAM - 12" screen or bigger
