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
Bought a t430, perfect condition but now I know you faggots weren't kidding about the cancerous screen, 1600x900 doesn't help one bit. Apparently the guy shipping those chink kits stopped doing his thing too: forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=118070
Am I fucked?
Benjamin Gonzalez
What's wrong with the screen?
Luis Barnes
My dilemma:
T60: 4:3, Old CPU, hard to find in mint condition. botnet (AMT) can be removed by software T400: 16:10, Oldish but very usable CPU, botnet can be removed through hardware T410: 16:10, newer hardware, BEST keyboard ever. Can't have botnet removed T420: 16:9, even newer powerful CPUs available, botnet not going anywhere, best keyboard T430: 16:9 chiclet shit but can be replaced manually with some modification giving you a god-tier keyboard. New CPU, but botnet can't be removed. T440+: dog shit
Landon Butler
Just got a T430 for school (i5-3320M, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD), and it has a lot of room for upgrades (8-16GB RAM, SSD, maybe eGPU). My currently Desktop PC (Q9400, GT610 2GB, 4GB DDR2) sucks a lot, and for my birthday I was going to make a build with an i7-6700K (or Zen if performance are really good for a fair price), a 8GB RX 470 and 16GB DDR4, but then I realized that the ThinkPad is better than I expected, so I don't really know if I should build a new Desktop or just buy a dock and upgrade the Laptop. What do you suggest? I'm not an hardcore gamer but sometimes I enjoy games (or at least I would, if this machine didn't suck this much), I do some basic graphics work, a lot of photo editing (I use a lot Photoshop and Lightroom), C++ and hopefully C# programming
Levi Wilson
My 4 year old L530 is getting somewhat hot on the bottom, CPUs are around 62°C now in summer, hdd is okay at 46°C. Should I do something against that or only if it gets hotter than that?
Robert Wright
Viewing angle is bad. Color contrast is shit. And somehow my eyes feel exhausted after like an hour working on the thing, as if I've been looking at a CRT screen or something.
Gabriel Thomas
Didn't they also remove the virtual numpad and add the battery DRM with the T430
Jack Torres
>368 charging cycles >battery only has 19% of it's original capacity
Is this normal for lenovo?
Andrew Bailey
Mine merely lost 50% of its charging capacity.
Colton Reed
That's still quite bad. I also have a HP compaq 6730b from 2009 and that one still has 86% of it's original capacity
Nolan Rodriguez
Depends on the battery manufacturer and number of cells. Obviously, a 6cell will see more cycles than a 9cell and subsequently get worn out faster. I have a T60 9cell from 2007 with 400 cycles on it and it's still at ~75% capacity.
Eli Ortiz
Actually, it's at 55% of its original charging capacity with unknown cycle count. It's a 6 cell x220 tablet I bought off ebay.
Adam Lopez
By the way, I meant "merely" sarcastically. Losing 50% is bretty bad.
Lincoln Rodriguez
>I have a T60 9cell from 2007 with 400 cycles on it and it's still at ~75% capacity Wow, that's exactly like mine, except this one's fucked
Gavin Morgan
Best distro for the x220? Installed debian and not very found of it
Jaxon Fisher
>battery DRM That's gutter tier cancer
FreeBSD
James Peterson
T60 has a better keyboard than any of those other models, and the 15" models have IPS screens. You can also swap in a T61 board and flash Middleton's BIOS on it to use Penryn CPUs and gain SATA II speeds.
Ayden Sullivan
And here's the HP one
Christian Myers
>and the 15" models have IPS screens Only some of the high resolution ones, and they seem to have problems with dust getting into them and rows of pixels breaking at the bottom because the lid flexes every time you move the display
Logan Rogers
But it's still very difficult to find isn't it?
Bentley Evans
Keyboard aside, is there any significant difference between the x220 and x230?
Jack Carter
Battery DRM
Liam Ward
antergos
Gavin Gutierrez
>Battery DRM Is there a way around this?
Josiah Turner
It's REALLY painful, you have to mod the embedded controller firmware and UEFI. A failed firmware flash and your board is basically toast (unless you know JTAG) zmatt.net/unlocking-my-lenovo-laptop-part-1/
Adrian Thompson
I wouldn't say very difficult. They're uncommon for sure, but nothing on the level of an R50p or W701ds. You just have to be patient and watchful. I got a UXGA T60p in near-mint condition with an almost unused genuine Panasonic 9cell battery for $95. The T60p is the safer way to go, since all 15" models had IPS screens, while you'd have to sift through a lot of crappy 1024x768 TN panels looking at regular T60s.
Justin Allen
It's worth doing if you want to keep it running for a long time... but may as well just get a T420 if you value your time.
Parker Torres
I guess manually recelling the battery is also an option. Are there any lenovo-specific instructions for this?
Nathan Thompson
Guess what came early lads? Hint, not me, as it usually is.
James Carter
Which CPU can I drop in one, like can I drop a T9900 or is that out of the question?
What about maximum RAM.
Levi James
Also, there are two 701c's on eBay right now One beat to shit for ~250 And one beautifully restored, working one with the Japanese key set and AMD processor for almost 600 I can't afford more than 100$ at a time with these things but maybe a richfag could find enjoyment in such a rare thinkpad
Other pic, it's thicker than my G40, that's for sure
Samuel Ward
Inb4 the screen is DSTN or similar crap
Christopher Collins
If you do the T61 board swap I mentioned, I think the absolute best you can get in there without physical modification is an X9000 or so. That's stupid, though, because those CPUs cost like $150 for nothing but a 300MHz increase over the much more practical T9300, which only costs ~$20. The T61 board supports a maximum of 8GB of DDR2. Again, it's not really practical to max it out, that'll run you $100+. If you can live with 4GB, do so, and only go over 6GB if you absolutely have to. If you leave the stock board in, your options are much more restricted. Merom is the best CPU generation you have access to, and RAM is restricted to 3GB due to the shitty chipset. You also won't get SATA II, even with BIOS mods.
Grayson Rogers
Just found an i7 2670qm on Craigslist for 50 bucks. Planning on putting it in my t420, which had 12GB ram and ssd already.
Anyone have experience with creating the ultimate memepad? How are temps?
Jordan Diaz
>ultimate memepad Isn't that the W701ds or a fully specced T61p?
David Richardson
Can I use my thinkpad in the bathtub or will the humidity be bad for it?
Brayden Green
Tell me good people - is 8470p in a really good shape worth 180$? It has 320gb standard disk, 1600x900 screen, 8 gigs of ram and bios password. The seller seems trustworthy.
is $60 for a t410 a good deal even though it has a crap battery.
Jacob Ramirez
Is it normal that the T60 volume buttons are not linked to the windows one?
Julian Brooks
Thanks, but why BIOS password would cumber in anything? I planned to use it with eGPU, would that password prevent that? I see russians have a method of removing it, but don't know how well it would work unless I tried it. And the screen is shitty in T420/T430 as well.
Luis Taylor
Anybody running Elementary OS on a T420? Any issues I should know?
Ethan Martin
>tfw I have the parts to max out a T61, but lack the laptop itself
Isaiah Gray
i forgot to metion that it has 4 gigs of ram and an i5
Nicholas Thomas
>Any issues I should know? Yes, elementary sucks
Parker Anderson
Hmmm damn, why do people do the board swap instead of sticking with the T61? Is it over the monitor?
So you really have to buy the T61 mainboard, does that cost a lot?
Ryan Davis
You have the WUXGA screen, 8GB RAM and a main board with a non-defective nvidia?
John Robinson
So I just bought my first Thinkpad. Got a t40 for goodwill with 512MB RAM and a 30GB HDD for $10. Had to do the GPU trick. Installed gentoo. Its currently compiling xorg and other things while I'm at work. I'm loving the look and feel of it. Its making me want to buy a x220 or a x230, maybe another t series. Should I go for it? I already have a MacBook running gentoo, along with my ideapad (its a y510p) any advice?
That's true. But it's working for now, I mean, it was $10 and I'm just seeing how long it'll work. So far it's working well :)
Jaxson Jackson
Hi guys! Back from yesterday with the x230t. I installed Antergos as one of you recommended. It was easy to install as you told me, and works quite nicely. I already found some courses on learning linux but I'm wondering if you have/know any sites or source for learning it efficiently. (For those who didn't see my post yesterday, I want to learn linux server admin stuff [from scratch]) Thanks again and have a nice day! c:
Jonathan Brooks
The screen, yes. There are no 15" 4:3 T61s, and the 15.6" 16:10 T61 does not have an IPS screen.
It's more cost effective to just buy a whole T61 than to fuck around buying separate motherboards. Get an Intel model, because the Nvidia ones like to kill themselves and you can buy an Advanced Dock to add external graphics if you need it. You need to get a 4:3 14" T61, no other shape will fit. There's also a couple of modifications you have to make to the T60 chassis, but it's fairly easy. This video should cover anything I forgot to mention: youtube.com/watch?v=-m74otZqd2Y
Leo Garcia
The laptop starts windows 7. Does that mean it doesnt have admin password? I was one click away from buying and you guys scared me, lol. It seems like pretty good value for Ivy Bridge with docking and eGPU capabilities.
Evan Watson
>Does that mean it doesnt have admin password? no, that just means no startup password. Keep in mind that it might not even allow booting from anything else than the HDD. If it has a fingerprint reader, it probably won''t work since you can't reset it. Some other things might be also disabled in the BIOS and you won't be able to enable them.
Christopher Thompson
Ok, I see. Will search for something else. Thanks for help.
Wyatt Martin
There is a refurbished X1 Carbon on woot for $500.
Could be ok
Grayson Lewis
There are 3 generations of them
Charles Edwards
can a t420 keyboard fit on a t400?
I really like that keyboard a lot more
Daniel Diaz
I don't think it'll fit, but even if it does, it would be electrically incompatible because of the added LEDs and microphone mute button. I think it is possible to swap in a T60/T61 keyboard for that sweet steel backplate though.
Henry Harris
My second 10 dollar t400 arrived. This guy's keyboard is more beat up and dirty and thing is missing a few screws...
Gonna give him a bit of a clean up at work.
Aiden Jenkins
>tfw i want to get a t400 to replace my t420 just because of the 16:10 screen
Benjamin Gomez
benis
Jordan Baker
What should be the ideal temperature for x230 for light tasks like browsing. Getting 70 degrees here.
John King
Curiosity peaked
Xavier Davis
X260 or XPS13?
paid for by my company. Each with similar specs: i5, 1080p, 8gb, 256ssd.
Help pls
I love my x220, but I know I'll never get another keyboard like it :(
I want to get the 128GB SD card but I don't know if it will work in the T420's card reader
Benjamin Watson
XPS13 is a flimsy toy compared to any thinkpad
Aiden Peterson
the x260 keyboard is same/better for writing, but the layout otherwise is shitty. The color gamut is the other downside, but if you like 15 hour battery life over 9 hours, you can probably rationalize it.
Xavier Cox
That SD card looks appealing, I'd probably get a USB/SD Card adapter just in case.
That other SSD looked refurbished so I would get the first one. Although I'm not at a point yet where I see the benefit of a large SSD on a laptop when you have a large HDD as a storage drive and an external drive.
Evan Robinson
There is no best distro. There is only the best one for each individuals capabilities, taste and needs.
get a t430, the better performance of hd 3000 and hd 4000 is actually very noticeable, and keyboard sucks but takes getting used to. i've found that it isn't the chiclet so much that is unbearable, but the ass backwards layout.
also, can anyone recommend me a battery solution for my t430?
can you trust non-oem batteries, or should i buy a used 9 cell battery for $30?
i don't have $90 dollars to shell out on a single battery, i would rather put that towards another thinkpad, or a ram upgrade to my backup laptop.
Leo Taylor
if that's all you're gonna do, get something cheaper
Angel Walker
you can buy the kit from 51nb however I believe there are flickering issues
Aiden Martinez
> Land on fuduntu > domain name doesn't work
Blake Jenkins
Mmm it's only 250 and I like the design Never used a thinkpad before
Charles Ward
i have a t420 9cell from 2011 with 555 cycles and 80% capacity
currently i'm using a 2011 9cell with 300 cycles and 90% capacity
I checked it out, yeah it's a bit outdated. If you run a netbook, then Xubuntu is somewhat similar to your choice of fuduntu, yet xubuntu is also stable light and very active.
Sebastian Thomas
>I'm not at a point yet where I see the benefit of a large SSD on a laptop when you have a large HDD as a storage Ever since I dropped my 5th generation ipod and shattered the disk ive never been comfortable with spinning disks in portable devices.
Isaiah Baker
I made the switch to thinkpad and SSD at the same time, three months ago
its fucking amazing. totally silent except when the fan starts, and that only happens during 1080p HD playback on youtube, not from external storage.
sometimes it doesn't even kick in at all and stays quiet and cool. i wouldn't recommend a large SSD either though to be honest, $100 for a 256gb SSD still is nowhere near the price per GB of a HDD. I'd get a 128gb ssd, load the OS on it, and then get a flash drive or small external hard drive.
Dylan Davis
Is the keyboard connection supposed to have pins that are a little bit off? I tried to take a picture but my autofocus is FUD.
Brayden Mitchell
yes i do, and thank you
Adam Murphy
Oh, laptop side, by the way.
Juan Bailey
Got a picture, finally.
Michael Reed
Will Windows 7 or 10 make an x100e explode? I'm not having overheating issues with Debian, but I was hoping to run my MIDI sequencing software and Wine isn't cutting it. Single core, 4GB RAM, 120GB SSD.
Matthew Roberts
2720qm here
do it
Justin Cooper
7 should be fine, it's pretty lightweight if you don't install too much stupid shit. If you want to use 10 make sure there's still driver support for critical things (wlan, igpu) as even a lot of newer laptops got shafted.
Christian Torres
I replaced the garbage default TN on with a great samsung IPS on my 450. The new panel is gorgeous but I notice the controller part (underside of the screen) gets very hot if I run it on max brightness. Is this normal on IPS, or is it just because its an aftermarket display?
Is not big deal as max is way too much anyway, I just just thought that it was kinda weird that it allows it to get so hot.
Zachary Baker
What's the best 12" laptop around $250? I'm going to use it for some light gaming (like GTA V with the lowest settings at 800x600)
Angel Thomas
Thanks! I think I'd like to dual boot, but I'll have to wipe it and install Windows first I guess.
Juan Johnson
x220/x220t for hd3000 gpu x230/x230t for hd4000 gpu I don't think any of those will run gta v but both can do an eGPU setup if you want to play heavy shit.
Nicholas Cooper
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