/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:

bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1251645-REG/asus_gl502vy_ds71_15_6_republic_of_gamers.html
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

First for quad core t420 a best

>mom wanted one of those tablet/"laptop" hybrid to replace her old one
>ordered one a couple weeks ago, shit was already broken
>she just ordered a T420

if she broke it in 2 weeks then she'll find a way to break a t420

Why the fuck can't I get bluetooth working on my T420?

is it a 3rd party card with bt built in?

just got free T60, it's getting old but im surprised by the power it still has after installing linux, also this keyboar feels so goddamn good after using Acer's shitty cheap laptop for years

It was already faulted when delivered

then rma it ya donger

It's been returned. T420 was only like 30 bucks more than what she ordered

Ok so I read the guide but I'm still not sure.

I bought a 650€ Asus laptop rive years ago. Decent CPU and GPU.
Is there something in that budget that can run some averge games, and display HD ?

Also I could really use a small, cheap laptop for classes that can run Elementary or even Mint

either you turbo overpayed for your t420, or you bought a damn cheap hybrid thingy
x220 would be ideal for a small laptop

>x220
Don't even need that much power tbqh

>What is prime?
PRIME is a Linux way for GPUs to send display buffers to each other for displaying. In this case using an output from iGPU to display stuff rendered on eGPU. Pretty much like Optimus on Windows except you cannot turn off the eGPU.

My finding was that using PRIME with an eGPU causes massive tearing and lowers the performance so I haven't been using it. Next Xorg release should have fixes for Nvidia PRIME synchronization though which should reduce tearing.

>Are the drivers modded?
The drivers are from ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa to get the up-to-date official drivers instead of the stable drivers from Ubuntu repository. No driver modifications involved.

>eGPU boot is weird
I reckon it's because the BIOS notices unexpected display adapter and has to do some setup. It only happens when a display adapter is added or removed between boots so if I have eGPU attached for multiple boots it happens only on the first one. I never remove the battery and always am plugged to wall when using eGPU.

so put it in power saving mode and get longer than 2 hours of battery life
and IDK about you, but I like having a computer that isn't a laggy piece of crap. so 2nd gen core i with moderate power saving is the minimum that I'd go, and even then it can be a bit laggy.

Yeah, makes sense. Still hesitating with the x200

I have this weird problem with the optic drive on my T420.
Sometimes the LED light would start blinking and the tray would eject on it's own.
Any ideas?

are you 100% sure it's on it's own?
because I've found that it is stupidly easy to trigger the dvd drive button on my t420/30.
also remember ctrl e in certain programs ejects the disk

I used to think maybe I was hitting it without realizing it.
But after yesterday I'm sure it eject on it's own.
I left it running, and when I came back I saw the LED blinking and the tray ejected.
And my button isn't easy to push either.

Today, i brought the x200 to work.

Weird looks, "user wtf is this lol???" comments, and people telling me that I should get a new laptop. How little they know about comfyness.

I have a doubt. I have it charging now. Does the current keep on passing through the battery when full? or does it redirect through another circuit?

I remember old laptop screwing up the battery if you had them always connected, but I don't know how updated the power design is on this thing.

This isnt think pad but I dont want to make a thread about it

bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1251645-REG/asus_gl502vy_ds71_15_6_republic_of_gamers.html

Is this a good gaming laptop for the price? And is 16gb of ram too much?

>I remember old laptop screwing up the battery if you had them always connected, but I don't know how updated the power design is on this thing.
that hasn't been an issue for a long time.
>Does the current keep on passing through the battery when full? or does it redirect through another circuit?
the battery is used as a UPS when it's plugged in. It's also used when you draw more power than the power adapter can handle.
so basically yes it goes through the battery, but the battery is constantly going between 95 and 100% to prevent damage or anything
seems alright, but for that price I'd wait a little bit longer for the kabby lake/gtx 10 series laptops to come out.
kabby won't be a big improvement, but the 10 series gpus will be

Is it normal that my t420s needs 2min to start?

no
reinstall your os
if that doesn't fix it then get a new hard drive
if that doesn't fix it then replace your thermal paste/entire heatsink.
with a hard drive it shouldn't take too much longer than a minute to start up

HDD with windows? maybe
SSD with anything. no

What's your spec user?

>between 95 and 100%
I thought that was only if you installed some package.

ALSO
I want to know if the cpu is good, i wanna play arma 3 on it and i know itll be a bitch to run. is 2.6hz good enough?

that's inside the battery
what you are talking about is to the computer itself, so really it's more like 90%-100%
arma 3 should run fine I think
you are mostly limited by the server you play on, and not really the computer you play on.
like with my desktop I saw literally no performance difference going from a 4670k + a 7970 to a 4790k and a 970.

btw sqt probably would have been a better place to post the original post, but things tend to get ignored there

>constantly going between 95 and 100%

B-but that's bad isn't it? It wears down the charge capacity.

do you know anything about overclocking, ive never done it but how far could i overclock 2.6hz before it gets too hot(over 65cel is too hot for me)

no, it's best for it
well besides taking it out at about 60% charge and only putting it in when you need it.
but that would make your system run at 800mhz when plugged in, you run the risk of it powering off randomly, and it just being damn inconvenient for the battery only lasting 5% longer after a year or two.
it's an hq so you can't overclock it.
if the bios allows you (which it probably won't) you could overclock it to it's max all core turbo boost (general max turbo -0.2ghz).
But the only advantage would be slightly cooler temps.
also this is a laptop, expect 80c under full load at minimum.
and with turbo boost expect like 95-104c for 20 minutes, then down to 95 or lower
and yes, running that hot for that amount of time is perfectly safe, and your cpu will most likely outlive the first component to die on that computer

>expect 80c under full load at minimum
are you saying that if i play arma in ultra, my computer will melt? So itll basically last a year?

80c won't make your computer melt
105c is technically overheating, but it can still function at that temp.
you'd need to be running at like at least 200c for something to actually melt
and considering that pretty much every laptop runs at atleast 80c under load just fine I think yours will be fine

>running that hot for that amount of time is perfectly safe
Not him but where to find info about this?
Specifically for Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2520M CPU @ 2.50GHz

wtf? my current notebook (dv6) runs around 70 max load, and i havent dusted it in months. This cant be, gaming laptops usually are this hot?

personal experience
the fact that most laptops survive just fine
google
putting 2 + 3 and getting 5 (assuming that 2 is all laptops run at like 80+c under load, and 3 being that most laptops survive for 3+ years unless you break it somewhere else)
have you run prime 95 for longer than 10 minutes?
and are you stress testing the gpu at all?
also if your laptop doesn't support turbo boost it will run a lot cooler than one that doesn't (since going from say 2.6ghz uses ~18 watts, and 3.4ghz uses ~45 watts on my 3720qm)

>go to hit escape
>hit F1 every time
>go to hit f1
>hit F2 instead

REEEEEEEEEEEEE I wish the X200 had a different style of keyboard

another reason to get a more modern laptop

i havent really tested it, but it doesnt matter. I have a few other questns, if its idle or running just the browser it will be around 60c right? And are gaming laptops quiet when running big games, like if i ran arma it wouldnt be louder than a highway in the distance?

I wish but the X220 has a 16:9 screen. There's no middle ground, except getting a T410

This.

Open pause menu in DooM opens help screen. Help screen saves game.

>unless you break
Well, I had a core melt down.
With HP DV6 Pavilion laptop with 2.10 GHz AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core Processor for Notebook PCs QL-64.
One of the cores became faulty after a few years and can't use it anymore.

>if its idle or running just the browser it will be around 60c right?
sounds about right for most laptops
especially if you have a quadcore in a laptop that turns off the fans at low temps
>And are gaming laptops quiet when running big games, like if i ran arma it wouldnt be louder than a highway in the distance?
no laptops are quiet under full load
gaming laptops tend to be louder under full load, but their fans tend to be a lot less annoying since they are bigger and less whiney
the difference between 1280x800 and 1366x768 is practically unnoticeable for real world use.
quit falling for autistic memes.
also I'm going to tell you something that you probably don't want to hear
1440x900 16:10 < 1600x900 16:9
huh, you actually managed to kill just one core, and have the rest of the laptop still fully functioning?
Impressive, I've never seen that before.
but yeah HP (heating problems) are known for running a wee bit too hot under load.
pretty much every manufacturer designs proper laptops though

>you actually managed to kill just one core
Apparently I started to have random BSoD, and then some suggested to use linux which also gave kernel panic.
But nobody seems to know what causing it.
Updated BIOS/Formatted/MWB but nothing seemed to help.
I noticed if I set the CPU power from the Power management I get none to very few BSoD.
While many suggested that it a lot HDD was dying, I realized it was the CPU so I ran CPU benchmarks but everything seemed normal.
Until I run S+M benchmark and it detected that my CPU 0 was faulty.
So I manged to use it for a few months by disabling that core.
Until it couldn't boot anymore.
Still like to fix it, but some "shaddy computer repair guy" asks for 300$ to fix it, which I doubt he can since he though lubuntu was infected windows install.

Anybody own a T460? My T420 died and I want something with current specs. Is it any good?

>well besides taking it out at about 60% charge and only putting it in when you need it.

Never heard of that. I've been always told to not putting out until full charge.

And, what about when putting it in? is it OK to wait for the battery to reach 5% or so? (I was told that too)

>buy X230 "good" condition
>turns out shit, palmrest has damage from these small standoffs located over the screen, antenna cover is loose, screen has tons of white spots
>send back and get mad
>they replace the cover and plamrest with new ones, put in factory new IPS panel, disassemble and assemble to check if its good and send it to me again
should i be happy? $250, EUropoor

So, how much effort will I have to put into a used thinkpad if I buy one? I found a T430 that I like for $428, but if I'll add $200 I can buy a new device with roughly same specs, worse build quality but in mint condition and better warranty

$250 for an x230t (I assume it's t since you talk about the antenna cover) is pretty good.
especially now that it should be pretty much perfect.
$428 is a terrible deal for a t430.
you could get a t440 for that easily
I spent $200 on my t430 (not in perfect condition, but nothing wrong with it).
so expect to pay between $200 and $300 (max) for the laptop

$380 is the cheapest T430 I've found around here, used T440 is $635
If I want them cheaper I'll have to gamble with ebay and international shipping, which makes me feel a bit uneasy

its normal X230, antenna cover i mean that plastic bullshit tip on edge of screen cover, picrelated.
it was slightly loose on one side.
im only afraid that this laptop has some kind of history of being tossed around so that damage was effect of it and it has something broken inside. case wasnt damaged except for that plastic thing though.

hdd w/ ubuntu

Reinstalling it l8or

Thank you guys

Sickest T420 in the game checking in

Every meme fallen for

obey? what a fag

I sold a T430 that I got free from work about a year ago for $350, which seemed tk be the trending price. Even if it was one of the 1366x768 models, I really regret doing that because now my T400 is starting to act up and likely needs a few hundred bucks worth of repairs.

Anyways, point being that if $350 was the going rate a year ago, then $380 is way too much today. Where are you buying from?

Wallpaper please?

elementary os? What a cuck.

tpg.com.au

how to see if my battery is original? i bought 44++ for X230, original Lenovo box with tape and all, but when at numbers on battery and box cant find anything like common serial number.

>kernel panic
This stuff is real?

Which one should I chose? All same price of 210$
>HP6470b
CPU i7-3520
1600 X 900
16 GB DDR3
240GB SSD
>T430
i7 3520
1600x900
8 gigs of ram
500GB hdd
NVS 5400 graphics
>t420
i7-2640
1600*900
16 gigs of ram
512GB SSD
quadro 4200

I've checked a bunch of local shops that mass buy used devices in western Europe and re-sell them here in my shithole of a country, bretty hard to find one to buy off hands and it won't have any warranty

I have an x200 with xubuntu, and I can't seem to update opengl above 2.1
Is that really the maximum the gpu supports or am I just retarded

in the US i bought my t430 with 8gb and ssd for $210

its 1366x768, but i don't care. the seller is a refurber, so the palmrest/touchpad, keyboard, were in nice and new condition

it looks like a new machine, there are only scratches on the front faceplate, but you can't tell unless held at an angle against light because of the dark matte finish

W520 i7 qm with a faulty quadro 2000m
Yes or no and fromw what price is it a yes?

is windows XP a good alternative to win 7 for speed on an x61?
dont want to do linux

no

what is a good slim speedy OS for a slow laptop
[spoiler]linux?[/spoiler]

Should my X201 with an i5-540M be struggling to emulate gba games? I get that some N64 games are choppy, but I've tried 3 different linux gba emulators and two google chrome emulator extension things and they all lag with choppy sound. I'm tempted to try a windows emulator through Wine, or even use a spare hard drive and install windows 7 or something and try a windows emulator natively

It must be able to emulate gba games properly, surely, so where am I going wrong?

after being on Sup Forums since 2013, i've learned its not worth it to fall for the OS memes

there is no reason whatsoever to use anything besides Ubuntu, everything else is just difficult for the sake of being difficult. desu, it isn't even that its difficult, but you have to do things yourself. what is the point of installing your gpu drivers and editing the xconf manually when ubuntu just works.

anyways, my experiences with things like Lubuntu and other derivatives of Ubuntu have had ridiculously fucking insane issues that the parent distro did not.

just install ubuntu, and install a lighter unity theme if you need to.
if that doesn't work, get lubuntu/xubuntu

Must be great to live in a civilized country, I guess

Just bought a x220 for $160. I do OK?

the US is meh

could be worse, but its certainly not terrible

Just got a used X200 in great condition for 100 EUR. Only thing that bothers me is the sticker on the back. What can i use / should avoid to remove it?

Got a friend who's going to uni wants a laptop for "word and facebook".

What's the cheapest thinkpad I can recommend to him that isn't total shit?

Decent battery life would be a plus.

X220

Got 9-12 hours of the juice

X201

x201 is still quite decent
x220 if you got a few more bucks to spare

Cheers senpai.

X201

Hey /tpg/, need a laptop suggestion.
Budget: ~$600
Will be installing GNU/Linux on it.
I'll be using it for some gaming and college work. Dota 2, Minecraft. CS:GO should work good.
It should be portable too.
I'll be buying retail. Probably from newegg or similar.
Thanks (sorry for the bad post. I only lurk).

Which model should I get for old (pre-2004) games?

an Edge

my x220 works fine for older games
quite a lot post-2010 titles work quite smooth after turning the graphics to minimum

Anyone know if there's a way to get the T410 keyboard onto a T400? The T410's keyboard looks way better than the T400's.

not possible

I'm buying an E460. Please tell me it isn't so bad.

why?
not going to tell you it isn't so bad

boyos? Which one is the best?

>E-series
T or X. Everything else is just a totally overpriced laptop with nothing special.

edge is garbage
>t. owned E540

It's not a real thinkpad, but it's a very good laptop.

Apart from the build quality which is still pretty decent, what's so bad about the E series?

E540 fag here.
battery was weak, mediocore screen, terrible build quality especially hinges

it's literally just a chink budget laptop, there's no good reason to buy one

>edge
If you want an amazing(ly shit) laptop you should get an IdeaPad 300.

>HP6470b
No nipple mouse, dropped
>T430
Best if you want to spend some extra dough for a SSD
>t420
Best if $210 is all you are going to be spending on this

>faulty quadro
stay away, likely has other issues as well

I'm tempted to buy this w520 for €450 (~$500)
> Intel Quad Core i7-2670QM
> NVIDIA Quadro 1000M
> 4GB DDR3 RAM
> 320GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA HDD
> 1600x900

It would be my main machine while at uni (like some kind of desktop replacement).
I would mostly use it for uni related work (programming and whatnot), high definition chineese cartoons and some gayming.

Is it worth the money?

Yeah I let a bit too much of the Sup Forums autism get into my head, because really, a 4-year-old machine that functions perfectly fine but has a shitty screen is still preferable to an 8-year-old machine with a dead fan, dying SSD and dying monitor.

Basically anything from the T60 onwards is good, although you will want to get dedicated graphics cards with Core2Duo models.

I had an E520 at my first internship, and aside from the awful screen it was not that bad a laptop. It just wasn't as well built as you would normally expect from a Thinkpad.

>1600x900

Why would you get a W520 without the 1080p screen? Absolutely pointless, that's its main selling point. Just get a T520 and save yourself a few hundred Euros.