/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:

wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/ThinkPad#Used
ebay.com/itm/LENOVO-THINKPAD-X220-INTEL-CORE-I5-2520M-2-50-GHz-NO-HDD-CADDY-4GB-RAM-SKU178622-/182355542100?hash=item2a753cc054:g:7jIAAOSw5cNYK9Jm
ktgee.net/post/49423737148/thinkpad-guide
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

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>tfw bought a GTX 1060 to upgrade my T420
can't wait

Should I buy a Gen4 X1 Carbon?
Anyone have one?

First stop using Firefox.
Then if you still need an upgrade just check ebay for cheapest offer.

...

What are you looking for in a laptop?
Obvious disadvantage of X1 Carbon is hardwired RAM, but I think they come with 8 minimum so that should still be plenty.
Besides that, they are solid - lightweight, good battery life, comfortable to use.

How is the trackpad? The clicks etc
smooth?

I don't use firebox though. I don't even have that much open.

what did he mean by this

Is there a chart about thinkpads recommendations? like this one about headphones.

Toasting in the new bread.

In your opinion are consumer grade Lenovo laptops worth the trouble of upgrading?

I've had this u430 touch for a little under three years now. It still works flawlessly but there are some things I'd like to change.

Questions:

I'm replacing the hard drive with a small SSD for primary storage. This would require moving things like /var, /tmp (which already is a ramdisk on most modern distros), cache's, etc. to ramdisk, so....

1.) Is 8GB RAM enough to do this comfortably? This would drop me to about 6GB ram usable, all I'm doing is shitposting and email with it.

2.) Where can I buy an Atheros chipset to replace the Intel Wireless one that came with it? I'd like to use vanilla Debian or Trisquel/Parabola/etc. with this.

3.) Anything I missed that would be a good upgrade at the same time?

Sorry if this is in the wrong spot, just curious. I already opened it up and took out what I would be changing, along with redoing the thermal paste and just cleaning it out in general.

That i'm upgrading my memepad from a 950 to a 1060, not that much but still.

Is the x200s the GOAT for small form factor?

X201s is a straight upgrade in every way except libreboot support.

That's true but I prefer not to have a trackpad. There is no need for one. Also a core2duo does the job just fine for programming. And it's hard to find an x201s worth the price. I got this for $55 on ebay.

forgot the mention it's got the 1440x900 screen and a 2.1ghz core 2 duo

Smooth. Coming from T430, I would say perhaps too smooth.

...

Why don't you do some research and make one yourself?

>not checking the wiki. wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/ThinkPad#Used

Same on a nigga.

i do, here
ty

You can just swap the palmrest. The price sucks, but it's to be expected of the rarer models. Mine cost twice as much as the X220 I used before it. Totally worth it for 1440x900 with a decent processor and the older T60-style keyboard.

Would I do gud to buy this Sup Forums?
x220
works but no HDD or battery
I would get an SSD and extended battery anyway.
$74.95 free shipping

ebay.com/itm/LENOVO-THINKPAD-X220-INTEL-CORE-I5-2520M-2-50-GHz-NO-HDD-CADDY-4GB-RAM-SKU178622-/182355542100?hash=item2a753cc054:g:7jIAAOSw5cNYK9Jm

nice

My x201 has no trackpad

bump

I once saw like a zillion of auctions for T420/T430/T440 ThinkPads on eBay, all starting at around $10. All from the same seller, iirc.

How trustable are these uncommon massive auctions? Been planning to get me a T420 and see if I can get a Ivy Bridge i5 working on it (Found a few between $110-$150 on another site).

Worse thing that could happen is something isn't right and you have to ask eBay to refund your money. There are a bunch of x220's on there right now sitting at 15-20 dollars all from the same seller. They all end tomorrow night. Thinking about taking the chance.

show me your stickers Sup Forums

x200 is super comfy

Has anyone here successfully upgraded their T420 to a quad-core? I'm debating doing this around christmas time, I'd love to get those 2 extra physical cores. Just worried about temperatures and battery life. If any of you have done it, what's your take on it?

That user has one right above you, see

That user right above you has one*

had a mental failure there.

I like it. Did you make it?

Ah, thank you.

Good sir how is your battery life affected by the upgrade? I don't have the NVS version, I just simply want the improved performance from 2 more physical cores and extra cache. Never been more satisfied with a laptop before, but I'd like to give it that extra kick. Just worried my battery life is gonna lose like a whole hour or something on the go.

>Has anyone here successfully upgraded their T420 to a quad-core?
Tons of people
>worried about temperatures and battery life
Yeah those tank, you might consider upgrading to a t430 heatsink 2 pham

Damn. Would an upgrade to the dual-core i7 even be noticeable over an i5-2540m that's in there already?

Depends what you're using it for
Shitposting machine: no
Remember you got to keep the same socket, so it's still relatively old; not a huge leap in any real direction.

>Good sir how is your battery life affected by the upgrade?
Not at all, or at least in a non noticeable degree but that's mostly because i tend to do intensive CPU stuff when docked, not so much on battery. Getting ~6 hours of normal usage with my 9-cell battery with 12/15 screen brightness.

>I don't have the NVS version
Me neither, I'd rather use a desktop GPU as you can see in that picture.

>Just worried my battery life is gonna lose like a whole hour or something on the go
Nah, not going to happen unless you run a lot of CPU intensive stuff.

Hmmm. Might think about it. I mostly just want it because sometimes I like to play games on the go (older ones), like Torchlight II or COD4 possibly, and while TL runs pretty well on the 2540m (on low), I'm not sure COD4 will or other games of that time. I don't really do anything CPU intensive on battery besides shitposting and work-related things, but I'd still like the ability to have power when docked or just on AC.

ktgee.net/post/49423737148/thinkpad-guide

As for the t430 heatsink, can this be done pretty easily? I can get one for like $15.

>I like to play games on the go (older ones), like Torchlight II or COD4 possibly
Doubt that a Quad Core CPU will help with that, the point of the quadcore cpu is that the single core performance is almost the same as the stock i5 cpus but the multicore performance is massively improved, otherwise just get one of the dual core i7s.

if you don't have the dedicated card it should be a simple pop off and replace

Understandable, just need to weigh in on what I actually do with the thing to justify the upgrade.

Okay awesome. I might just do this anyways even if I don't upgrade the CPU. If it's that easy I don't see why not, if it will benefit temps somewhat.

Anyone have an expresscard USB 3.0 in their T420? All the ones on Amazon I've looked at claim it tanked their battery, as if the card just stays active all the time despite nothing being plugged in.

It also works if you can a quadcore cpu for very cheap, then there's no reason not to upgrade.

Temperatures vary a lot according to the internet, for me my 2720QM maxes at ~93c with HT enabled and 8 cores at 100% load which is pretty similar to what my old 2520m had.

Oh and ~44c on Idle with the fan turned on and ~50-55c with fan turned off.

>changing the t420 heatsink for a t430 one
for what purpose they're the same

I'll definitely think about it. It'd just be nice to have a full quad-core CPU available in this thing. I came from an Asus dual-core i7 with 745m and it gathers dust now. I'm that satisfied with this brick of a laptop. The sheer ability to upgrade almost everything on it and easily repair it is just too good to pass up.

I was just going off of what the other user recommended. If they are identical than I'm glad you corrected me.

>The sheer ability to upgrade almost everything on it and easily repair it is just too good to pass up
I know right.

Funny how this T420 with a docking station, quadcore CPU , a desktop GPU and 3 drives at the same time, two which are SSDs replaced my desktop entirely.

Also the feature of having spare ultrabay caddies with HDDs in them and hotswapping them is awesome for backups, like a giant microSD card.

Yeah, I have an msata 250GB 840 EVO in mine, with just a WD blue (rarely gets used). Surprised how well it runs the few games I feel like playing on the go, despite being a 2nd gen i5.

Fuck this place is boring.

Hey I just bought and received a t420 over eBay, what do I do to make sure everything runs perfectly, sorry this is my first Thinkpad.

Check if it boots into BIOS, and has no Supervisor Password or any password in there for that matter.

If it doesn't boot into BIOS, or has a supervisor password, you're screwed.

If it has Computrace turned on you're screwed too, but to a lesser degree.

Is this good, how do I check for computrace

yeah that's OK, if you are paranoid of something going wrong, just disable the unattended boot one

Does anyone have some experience with an x260?

If your ThinkPad has Windows, boot into it, then start the Task Manager and look for a process called rpcnet.exe , or look for the same thing within x:\Windows\System32\, where x is the letter of the drive, generally C.

It doesn't seem to be on there, anything else

Repostin' from last thread, is there a Thinkpad with an internal blu-ray player, or at least a replacement drive for one?

better quality

No

Then you're good to go.
Maybe check if your CPU doesn't overheat from old thermal compound, clean the insides and do a clean install of the OS (whichever one you like: Windows 7, 10, Ubuntu, Gentoo, whatever).
Anyway, enjoy your ThinkPad.

Ok, thank you

Why do people buy t420? Seeks like t520 and x220 are way better if that 14inch sweetspot isn't super important

T520 is a bit too bulky for me and I can't handle the X220 resolution.

Thinkpad Retro fucking when?

How do I clean those speaker grills on the T410 and T420?

Like literally 2-3 months from now would be my guess. Unless they delayed by an entire year.
Or deemed the project financially unfeasible in which case I'd have to stop using laptops

Can girls own thinkpads

>Short screen
why bother

Because t60 is gone and you need to face reality

This. Literally uncleanable.

What's the difference between the T61 and the T60? Which one should I get?

>Asus x550j
>i7 4750hq
>gtx 950m
>win 10
>1tb hdd
How did I do lads

Just checked out Craiglist

T420 for $100
i5-2520M CPU 2.50Ghz
4GB RAM
500GB HDD
Running ubuntu

or

T430 for $90
i5-3320M 2.60Ghz
8GB
(disc drive space not listed)
Running Windows 10

Any rec's on which I should go for? I've never had a thinkpad, but the keyboard on the T420 looks slightly comfier I think, though it's not a deal maker/breaker

>disc drive space not listed
Spooky

I just sent an email asking about that and the resolution. Do T430's have a single native resolution? I've been trying to look it up and it seems there is a 1600x900 and a 1300x768, but I'm not sure. Same resolution question for the T420

I bought and x220t and it didn't have bluetooth
Can I buy an old module off ebay/amazon and throw it inside?

So how would you integrate the GPU? I've never heard of anything like this

>what is eGPU via expresscard
you must be new here

>GPU held in only by the small pci-e slot
watch out, yer gonna tip it!

Oh shit, I never realized there was anything like that
Is there any input delay or data throttling?
Has your graphics card ever fell over from the stand?
Pretty neato either way.

Wew lad
Do I even need a desktop?
I can sell it, buy dock, egpu and feel a real thinkpad(tm) experience.

Did anyone tried to play Rocket League on HD3000? It performs surprisingly bad, something like 20-25 fps on lowest settings.

1500dkk w520 very close to my apartment. 1600x900.
For reference refurbishers sell it around 3000-5000

It's not only hold by the slot.
>input delay
no, unless you attempt to max out it's capabilities on the internal screen
>throttling
no
>ever fell over
no
yes familia, you should definitely sell your desktop.
I'm very happy with this setup. :^)

also you can use the pcie slot for any other pcie device, like a SAS controller
pretty dank shit

so I have a growing collection of unused open source project stickers and I need somewhere to put them?

For general browsing and coding does the upgrade provided by the x220 and T430 outweigh the worse keyboard?

you can swap the t430 keyboard with the old one

Don't you lose functionality due to differing keys?

Oh, no charger

how much does the old keyboard cost? I'm looking at a T430 right now for $90 and I think I prefer the older keyboard.

Can you spoonfeed a link to the one you use user?

have all of you heard about the smartcard reader in thinkpads.

is there a driver that i can use so i dont have to put in all of my information when i purchase something on the internet, just by inserting the credit card?

Where to get the cheapest X220 keyboards?

pe4l v2.1b
no, I'm on the smartphone now

I've got my t420 keyboard for $20 (used)
You just need to clean it up

Found it, I might pick one up, looks neat

remember to get a gpu that can be fully powered via pcie slot, otherwise you'll end up having both ATX + 90W bricks
750Ti seems to be good enough, also 1050

I was looking at the 1050ti, I have a 970 there but like hell if I'm dragging power cables around.
I can only find it on their site and it's $175, which is a bit much for me to be honest.
Neat idea though, I might look back into it later on.