/tpg/ - ThinkPad General

Previous thread: IRC: #/tpg/ on irc.rizon.net

Other business laptops are also welcome in /tpg/ (e.g. Dell Latitude/Precision, HP EliteBook/ZBook).
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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
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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.
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Used ThinkPad buyers guide:
ktgee.net/tpg

xsauc buyers guide:
dankpads.com

EPP discount for new ThinkPads (USA & Canada only, usually 15%+ off):
pastebin.com/ULHCY5ch

Helpful links and resources (Wiki, lookup tools and wallpapers):
pastebin.com/DYjEnVq1

Other urls found in this thread:

m.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X230-2-9-i7-3520m-16GB-RAM-250GB-SSD-WebCam-Win-19-Free-Shipping-/311687541365?nav=SEARCH
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SO-DIMM
insanelymac.com/forum/topic/285678-lenovo-thinkpad-t420-with-uefi-only/
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

First for Edge master race

Cool, thank you.

I read I need a SPI flasher so maybe I'll get some fucking use out of pic related

>IBM picture

Plz don't make me cry, user. I wish I had modern ibm hardware at home. I just have a stupid iseries at work.

Now that's edgy

If you do it tell me how it goes
I want to flash my t430 to get rid of the battery lock so I can use my 2 really good condition t420 batteries properly

Will report back in ~october.

I was reading thinkwiki and they no longer mention needing a spi flasher so maybe there's a better method now

Not sure why people hate the new ThinkPad keyboards that much.
I got used to it within a week. They layout really isn't that bad.

When does the epp discount expire?

When do you guys think the t420 will become too old to be used for everyday tasks?

>At Lenovo, we make every effort to provide a great user experience for our customers. We know that millions of people rely on our devices every day, and it is our responsibility to deliver quality, reliability, innovation and security to each and every customer. In our effort to enhance our user experience, we pre-installed a piece of third-party software, Superfish (based in Palo Alto, CA), on some of our consumer notebooks. The goal was to improve the shopping experience using their visual discovery techniques.

So what's a good ThinkPad alternative?

That was never installed on Thinkpads.

Elitebooks and Latitudes are the alternatives, but Dell and HP don't really have the best reputation for preloaded shitware either if you're going to drop Thinkpads for that reason.

Oh mama

Just got the mail

120gb 850 going out, this going in
Dual booting 7 Pro and Ubuntu
Installing the 850 in my girlfriend's laptop
I'm also smoking a pork shoulder
We're fucking tonight boys with whatever foreplay I request. I think 69 is the plan

Is getting a X220 tablet a good idea for art? I am thinking of getting one.

A long time
sandy bride to skylake has been

According to the comparison here and core 2 duos still being useful i'd say at least 2022-2025

Consider Ultimate or Enterprise instead of Pro
Also consider rimming as your foreplay of choice

>consumer notebooks
thinkpads aren't affected

This fucking meme again? Superfish never was, and never will be, present on the Thinkpad.

But if you're looking for an alternative, the HP Elitebook and Dell Latitude are two good lines. I personally prefer the older Elitebooks to the older Latitudes, but after HP started turning the Elitebook into another meme ultrabook, the Latitude sort of became the last viable alternatives.

I've been eyeing an E5770 to replace my aging W500, partially because I can get massive Dell discounts through my office. Right now I can get one with an i5-6440HQ, 1080p screen and an R7 M370 for about $1,300 syrupbux. Despite the chiclet keyboard, it seems to pretty much be one of the last real business laptops around, and even if you don't have insider discounts, it is still pretty inexpensive considering what you get. Just gonna be a hard pill to swallow since I only paid $500 for my computer back in 2011.

>All the Elitebooks since 2014 have been cancerous ultrabook models with low-voltage processors, questionable cooling, limited serviceability, high prices, and a keyboard that is even worse in terms of layout than the Lenovo chiclets.

That goes for almost every laptop series. Yes, even Thinkpads. All of the points you pointed out apply to Thinkpads as well.
You are right, but it is not Elitebook-exclusive. Sadly.
Hell, even the brands 'Thinkpad' and 'Elitebook' are getting washed out these days. People found out those series were godlike-tier so Lenovo and HP started slapping the sticker on sub-par laptops (still better than average consumer lines though).

Why are they called business laptops? You can use commerce and productivity tools on any computer.

Emphasis on battery life, keyboard quality, docking station support, security features
No emphasis on GPU performance or sound quality

>When do you guys think the t420 will become too old to be used for everyday tasks?
Microelectronic engineer here.

The good news is the answer is never.

Development on CPUs pretty much stalled around the year 2005. The fastest CPU today is around 2 times faster in terms of single core performance than the CPUs made 10 years ago. Most of the time you will not notice the difference unless you use deliberate bloatware shit.

It's why Apple gets away with using the same fucking hardware for 5 years. It has forced OS developers to remove bloat rather than add it though -- a plus.

It's great news. T420 will remain "good enough" for anything you want to throw on it while on the road.

How comfy are T420's for watching movies on your lap? I could buy one with a 1600x900 display for €229 right now.

I have a 13,3" samsung series 5 laptop now, but the screen is small, the keyboard is not good and it gets rather hot on my lap. Studying on a 13,3" isn't comfy either.

Is it worth buying the T420 for the comfort? I think they have the same processor, though the samsung is clocked 1GHz lower.

I like it aside from the screen issue of the viewing angles being shit.

Also if you find 13.3" small, i doubt 14" will be a significant upgrade. Better go with the T520.

I just bought a T400, am I fucked because of keyboard flex?

How can I correct that issue?

buy a T60 keyboard if you are shit kicked about it

Replacement keyboard.

I have a T400 as well and I don't have the keyboard flex issue, not sure if it's real, if it's dumbshits spreading fud, or if mine had its keyboard replaced before I bought it (it was a corporate unit so not likely).

To correct the issue (assuming it exists) you can get a replacement keyboard from another model, I forget which model though.

Congrats though, T400 is a nice machine. With 8GB of RAM and an SSD it's a solid daily driver. Did you get the IGP only model or the one with the HD3470? 1280x800 or 1440x900?

all right cuckbois what are you thoughts on the x240?

I'd like the T520's screen size, sadly the weight and overall size are a dealbreaker for me. I have to carry my laptop around a lot.

thanks /tpg/ my T420 is the best

> Chiclet keyboard
> No touchpad buttons
> Built in webcam
> Looks like a black Mabook knockoff

Overpriced meme machine

When upgrading RAM from 4 to 8, is it alright to add any 4GB stick or is it better to buy an 8GB set with two identical sticks?

I got one with the 1440x900. It's got the IGP only, but I don't mind, I will want to go full LibreBootard on that one anyway.

Going to stick in a good SSD and 8GB RAM as well as a T9600 6mb cache/2.8GHz CPU in. Will grab the RAM tomorrow.

Speaking of RAM, anyone had luck using faster than rated DDR3 memory? PC8500 is becoming harder to find.

>To correct the issue (assuming it exists) you can get a replacement keyboard from another model, I forget which model though.

Hmmm! Speaking of that, any advice on the keyboard replacements on ebay? Any good or are they chinky

it's a thinkpad in name only

identical stick, never mismatch the RAM. Always use two sticks to make full use of dual channel memory.

daily reminder that the X62 exists. making a post here, maybe a thread when i get mine.

>identical stick, never mismatch the RAM. Always use two sticks to make full use of dual channel memory
Is this a fact for all RAM, or can some random sticks function as dual channel? I brought a x220 with 8GB, but one stick is stock, while other is mismatched.

I re thermal pasted my t430, but my cpu is still running hot under load (idle is about 5-10c lower)
what do?

Most of the time mismatching RAM won't cause any issues, but I would avoid buying a mismatched stick to add to an existing one because RAM is cheap as shit and you should just save yourself a potential headache. If your system works fine as it is, don't worry about it.

Maybe you put too much.

never had any problems before with putting too much on

Have T410 and new T420 will be arriving soon. T410 is running linux,

I'm almost always on my linux machine, and beyond needing it for work I'm much more familiar with it. At the same time, I haven't played games in a long time and am thinking of having one stick with windows to try some MMORPGs.

So I'm wondering if T410 with G1 i5 will be sufficient for some basic gaming. I'd really like to keep the T420 as my main machine.

Is there such a thing as a brand new t420? I've seen a couple of brand new t430' on ebay for ridiculous prices but i have never seen a brand new t420. I'm sure there a t420 in a warehouse somewhere brand new and unopened which some idiot would sell for only a couple hundred, but i have never seen such a listing.
From last thread,

Are the T440's worth it, or do they go too far into "Lenovo screwed everything up" category?

Depends what you define as basic gaming. What games are you going to play?

maybe you should look at a few benchmarks. i'd say that speeds started stagnating around 2013 with more focus being on efficiency and cooling.

my fave laptop for watching movies is the x1 hybrid. great for long trips. can get at least 11 hours of movie time out of it. for actual productivity, can get up to 17 hours.

I just bought an X200 with the 2.4Ghz cpu and 4GB of RAM. How screwed am I for browsing the internet, coding, and streaming movies and music from Netflix, Kodiak, and hulu?

>>Built in webcam

What's wrong with this?
if you're paranoid about
>muh nsa
just put tape over the goddamn thing

Whats the model of Optiplex that's a really good deal on the used market again? Any other alternatives, like specific business class HPs or Thinkcentres?

Read the guide for retards, but still feel retarded. Need a ThinkPad for school that can run a vm or two without chugging on top of other shit. Battery about 8 hours. Prefer it to be lighter so I don't break my back walking. Watching Chinese cartoons in nice quality would be a plus.

x230/t430 + 9 cell

does anyone else have a lot of lag in the UI on a T400 under Ubuntu Gnome?

Its a new HDD, (fuck you, im cheap) and its been doing this even with live distros. the system monitor says its running well, and not maxing out or even coming close to it on anything.

So, a month ago I got my T420 and I love it.
I live in a country where everyhing is overpriced and I finally saved up for a SSD and a RAM stick.
I got 2 questions, first one is which kind of RAM should I buy, it's my first notebook, si I'm kinda confused on which type of RAM should I get.

Second one it's about the SSD.
I'm planning to install W7 on the new SSD and partition the old hard drive; one partition for music, movies, shows and stuff like that, and the other one for a GNU/Linux distro (Don't really know which one). Question is; where should I install GRUB? Would that setup slow down the boot time of W7?

>which kind of RAM should I buy
DDR3 1333MHz or DDR3L 1333MHz, if you get 1600 MHz works too but it'll downclock to 1333 MHz unless you flashed a custom bios so basically just pick the cheapest ddr3 or ddr3l.

>SSD
I'd say get an mSATA SSD so you can use two hard drives + the msata ssd simultaneously if you need that much storage in the future.

>where should I install GRUB? Would that setup slow down the boot time of W7?
ssd and aside from the prompt to choose your OS, i don't see why it should slow it down.

Thank you!
For some reason mSATA SSDs are even more overpriced here. So I will go for a normal one.

I know that feel, which is i order everything from AliExpress and Chinese sellers with free shipping planning a month ahead.

which is why*

leave

Nice trips, any good SSDs on AliExpress?

Is this a good deal?

m.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X230-2-9-i7-3520m-16GB-RAM-250GB-SSD-WebCam-Win-19-Free-Shipping-/311687541365?nav=SEARCH

>Chinabrand that looks like it's /csg/ approved
aliexpress.com/item/chinabrand/32620853134.html

>The usual samsung 850 evo everyone shills
aliexpress.com/item/850evo/32595160612.html

Also now that i read again i realized
>it's my first notebook
Make sure it's SO-DIMM laptop memory of course.

16GB of RAM is $60, 250GB SSD is $80, and I don't know how much a X230 is normally, but I would guess $200. But this one has a i7, which would raise the cost, but I wouldn't personally wouldn't pay for it.

DDR3 SODIMM RAM. They are not as long as regular desktop RAM sticks.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SO-DIMM

So today the left click on the track pad of my T420 stopped working. It effected both the track pad left mouse button as well as the trackpoint left mouse button in such a way that unless I disable the track pad, the trackpoint LMB won't work. I used the track pad and trackpoint about 30-70, so I kinda want to be able to use both. If left enabled it would periodicaly effect the RMB too, but the functionality would come and go.

It's still under warranty, so I can get a replacement. Is the fix easy enough that I can just do it, or should I get a replacement.

Thank you again my friend.

wheres a good place to find a used thinkpad?

so i bought a new toy

Literally why

because it looks like a fun refurb project

next OP should be clear in this: ThinkPads and ThinkCentres *never* had superfish installed.

See how well it'll run windows 10.

To the guy asking about my t420 hackintosh last thread.

insanelymac.com/forum/topic/285678-lenovo-thinkpad-t420-with-uefi-only/

No idea about dual booting of one drive. Should be doable, but i just change my boot order int he bios/f12 menu.

How are you getting yours?

Have an X61s here, great machine, but getting a little long in the tooth.

If you just want to use 20-series batteries, you can do that by software flashing the embedded controller.

They came out around the peak of Lenovo's fuckery. Some of the bullshit they pulled with it (clit buttons combined with touchpad) was removed from subsequent models after the inevitable outcry.

At least they aren't 2014 Carbons.

>Have an X61s here, great machine, but getting a little long in the tooth.
So get an X62 board.

Turn off desktop compositing and transitions/animations and see if it improves. You're probably beating the GPU to death.

Why get a ThinkPad? MacBooks are thinner, lighter, they run MacOS, and you can use iMessage on it too

x62 board fits the x61 chassis. That user would need to verify it fits the slimmer x61s chassis beforehand.

Because I don't like penises in/around my mouth/anus.

What kind of battery life should I expect from a T430 with a 9 cell? Would mostly be watching and browsing shit.

Actually ThinkPads are thinner at .66"
The thinnest Macbook is .68"

Depends on the load and screen brightness, etc but figure around 1hr per cell for moderate shit posting loads. Video watching probably a bit less. Maybe a lot less if you're software decoding 30GB BRrip 10-bit Jap propaganda films.

The oldest thing i got running windows 10 was a thinkpad R30
1ghz p3, 1gb of 133mhz ram
it worked, barely, but it worked

makes me wonder how fucking overkill that thing must have been when it was new

How'd I do?

80% shows 5 hours and 22 minutes, wifi is on screen brightness 2 notches above medium, but cpu is around 0-10 very lazy browsing of web pages, plus I have an SSD. Lenovo genuine extended battery.

Not bad to start. Now you need mSATA SSD and the ayylienware panel + HD+ cable.

OK, sounds good. Thanks for the advice.

>x62 board fits the x61 chassis. That user would need to verify it fits the slimmer x61s chassis beforehand.
It does. (I have a few from the first run)

Has there been any update on the new retro thinkpad

>> No touchpad buttons
>> Built in webcam
>> Looks like a black Mabook knockoff
these are all selling points for me

test

>Has there been any update on the new retro thinkpad
We have the X62.
Fuck any attempt from Lenovo to recapture what they shot, fucked the holes, and pissed on.

Any thoughts on new thinkpad 13s

>Thinkpads post-2012
I wouldn't recommend it.

Thanks fellas.

Does anyone use acme? How can I configure the middle button to be able to sweep on Linux?

What you're describing actually sounds really nice for the price.
That's very different from the more recent Latitudes I've been looking at which are horrifically overpriced in comparison to the recent ThinkPads.

Pros:
>Chiclet Keyboard actually feels stronger and more reliable than previous models.
>New modern hardware that won't suck as long as it uses an SSD
>Muh minimal design

Cons:
>Shit keyboard layout
>No trackpoint buttons
>No right and left click buttons
>Shit keyboard layout
>Keyboard layout that is shit

I can't stress this enough. If you have ever used any of the older thinkpads you will pick this up and be fucking lost for words at how bad this is.

what model is the alienware panel? I already have a HD+ cable presumably (i have the 1600x900 version t420)

Dell Latitude E5470 is my next choice for a laptop for work.