>tfw I get to make the thread for the first time edition IRC: #/tpg/ on irc.rizon.net
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
since these threads are usually blog posts anyways, i'll share something
my first thinkpad is a t430 with 1366x768 which is what i am using right now and is my main pc
i bought a 2nd one that was cheaper, only 4gb of ram from a refurber, but it had 1600x900 res
i just booted it for the first time with ubuntu and put them both side by side, and i couldn't believe it. all this time i had been using these shitty 768 panels, i had no idea it was this great of a difference
Elijah Bell
I had a 15" T42 once with a 1400x1050 screen bastardized onto it
Semi related pic is the whole family 15" T42 is ded
Left to right R52 380ED X41 Tablet G40 R30 T42
In the back center is an IBM LCD i cant find the name of
Eli Gomez
>tfw still in college and can't blow my money on hobbies yet
jelly user, really nice
real shame that guy doing the x62 isn't easily accessible
Ayden Collins
This aint much of an expensive hobby The only expensive ones were the G40 and 380ED Rest were under 50$ Each with upgrade parts included
The x62 looks really cool, if love to have one, but at the same time i kind of like the limitations of these older thinkpads. Keeps things simple, also keeps parts cheap, 1gb sticks of ram for shit this old is like 3$, pentium M's and shit cost nothing
Aiden Ross
for some reason i have a desire to buy a thinkpad and run Tails OS on it but im not sure what to do with it after all that. what fun things would you / do you do with a machine like that?
Joshua Hughes
What are you lads expecting in the mail?
Anthony Rogers
An i7 2640m for my T420.
Lincoln James
>G40 >expensive Mine was $30 and $3 or so for RAM. It needs a new HDD, but then again so do all my other systems from that era.
Dylan Wilson
what exactly is the hobby part of thinkpads? just owning an old laptop?
Gavin Clark
a refurbished t420, looks like it's brand new.
Isaiah Wood
Sup Forumsack here.
Thinkpads were and are the greatest laptops ever made! Very reliable and very maintainable! Thank you for this thread!
Jack Russell
Mine was about 70$ because it came near mint with an EE P4 in the box with it Only one i saw for more than a month, so even though it was expensive i figured i might as well if it also came with the EE p4 and other shit like the original adapter
Andrew Collins
Just bought a genuine 9 cell lenovo x220 battery on amazon, sealed new condition for $71. Did I do good?
Sebastian Richardson
Hahah what the hell is this from?
Sebastian Smith
Where do you get them so cheap? I'm in the us of trump
Brody Rodriguez
eBay like every other used computer ever
Kayden Johnson
I dunno what your nazi shit has to do with thinkpads
Hudson Nguyen
Got a t430 with and 8gb of ram and 180GB SSD arriving in the mail.
The seller said that it had Intel Graphics 3000 which seemed strange to me because I checked and the T430 has Intel Graphics 4000. Hopefully that is the only thing in the listing that was wrong :/
Luis Price
ebay
cheapest if you buy ones that are missing parts or have something broken, never bios locked ones of course but the standard "No HDD, no OS, no ram, etc" is much cheaper and the parts are cheap too.
They make decent shitposting machines.
My T42 i got for 20$, a 2ghz pentium m and another 1gb ram stick was like 20$ total, maybe a few more with shipping
but its able to play everything on the right of my desktop here im fucking loving old school counterstrike
Grayson Perez
Do you think that when Intel was testing the Pentium M one of the engineers looked at the pile of destroyed prototypes and then filled out a report and then right before he handed it to his superiors for review he said something like "Many Dothans died to bring us this information"?
Because I do
Easton Sanchez
ultraybay caddy for my t420
Noah Jenkins
t430 is ivy bridge so it will have hd graphics 4000 t420 was the one with intel hd graphics 3000
Ayden Lopez
God dammit carlos
Tyler Richardson
I bought my first Thinkpad this week, but I know this feel to an even greater extreme. I've been using a 15" Acer for about four years straight, but last month I got my hands on a Chromebook Pixel LS that just made my eyes explode when I first saw it.
My priority is to get a higher res screen on my T420 once I upgrade its RAM and put in an mSATA.
James Cook
Enjoying my X200 but decided I wanted something a little bigger and powerful for longer trips. Copped a T430 i5 3320m with 4gb ram and 500gb HDD but no charging cable (offered less for no ram/HDD but got denied). Was $125 a decent price for this and will my X200 charger work? Looks in good condition, just has some scuffs on the lid.
Josiah Murphy
Yeah that's what I thought, I am from Australia though and sometimes we get different tech stuff than the US and EU. I was also thinking maybe it was a t430i or some variant with a shittier processor/gpu
Robert Morgan
Planning to buy myself a good ThinkPad for christmas, any recommendations?
Main usage: >Secure browsing and storing files >Programming and executing code >Light gaming with heavy internet usage
Budget: 200$ USD and below.
I am actually doing my own research atm, but I would like more information so I can be certain that I am making the right choice.
Charles Johnson
Also, are refurbished ThinkPads worth my time if the price is average, or should I not take a chance?
Liam Wood
1600x900 screen, speaker grills and trackpoint nipples for my T420.
Asher Hughes
Are you upgrading from a 1366x768 screen?
Daniel Sanders
Sure.
- Upgrade ability - Linux support - Ease of repair
You can't get these deals anywhere else. If you can find an equivalently specced laptop chances are you won't be able to upgrade it, linux support will be spotty and you'll have to contend with shitty hardware design and also you won't be able to repair anything due to unremovable batteries and ram/hdd that are soldered to the motherboard.
Sebastian Sanchez
t430
Zachary Morales
Yes, I do.
Levi Carter
Cool. Are you following a guide for the upgrade? I've been considering it but I'm not too confident about the display cable stuff I looked at on the thinkwiki page.
Owen Peterson
Just picked this up for 200 with these specs. Exterior is a bit battered (you can tell its seen some shit) but its fully functioning. Loving it so far very snappy and responsive machine
Chase Green
I'm actually expecting a P50 that should arrive by the middle of this week.
Has/Does anyone else use a P50? Anything I should be wary of?
Ian Stewart
If any of you actually carry your thinkpads, how do you transport them? Do you use a carrying case? Messenger bag? Backpack?
Cooper Thompson
I have a P50. 4K display, 64GB of memory, 6870HQ, M2000M. I really don't like it. I'm probably going to put it on ebay within a week or so. Can't decided if I dislike it or my 2015 MBP more.
Yes, I know this isn't actually a helpful post
Cooper Hall
just a regular backpack
Caleb Butler
What do you not like about it
Adam Perez
>64GB of memory For what fucking purpose
Camden Ortiz
Nothing you can avoid with a current-gen TP. If you're not spoiled by older machines you're probably fine.
Computery stuff
Brody Mitchell
>forced to use Linux because Win10 is too sluggish on my T520.
How do I fix this? Upgrading to Windows 10 was a big mistake.
Julian Garcia
i have an IBM laptop bag from 1997 to go with my IBM thinkpad from 1997
Carson Mitchell
I've already bought one cheap ass panel, tried to upgrade, but it was broken. Already placed HD+ cable inside, it works with my 768p panel for now.
Grayson Lee
> tfw converted another normie friend into a thinkpad adept He's getting X201, what does one install on Windows to keep it as normieproof as possible? I can only remember Unchecky.
Hunter Thompson
Can you just buy an HD+ cable and 1600x900 screen and put them into an T420 with no extra work? No modifications necessary?
Tyler Nelson
BP100 ThinkPad Backpack so everyone knows i'm a living meme :^)
Landon Walker
Hey why are you not buying latitude E5430 instead of T430?
>cheaper >no chiklet keyboard
Noah Smith
Yes. It requires a bit of skill to put the new cable in. My old one died during this operation.
Gabriel Gutierrez
I bet you're gonna put stickers on it too.
Parker Collins
Beware of updating the BIOS on the x201, as it has been reported that this may cause an MEBx error (requiring a keypress on boot, further implications still unknown). A solution to that might be upgrading the ME firmware itself afterwards, but unfortunately the ME firmware update seems "upgrade" the AMT botnet too (such as adding remote access via wireless in addition to ethernet). Pic related is the version history of the ME firmware for the x201, the possible fix to the main BIOS update side effect marked in green.
Bentley Smith
So is the old keyboard being better than the new one a meme?
Lincoln Rodriguez
Anyone who says that is trolling.
Jayden Jenkins
T430, and a few modifications coming throughout the week, including a better panel as well as a new battery. So fucking excited to move from my old mba.
Joshua Howard
t420/t430 t220/t230
Those are the sweetspot buys.
John Walker
sweet mother of fucking christ why would you build such a thing
Thomas Myers
Surely you mean X220/X230?
Angel Collins
>tfw reinstalling windows 7
this is the last driver i need for my x220. where do i find it? if it is on the lenovo website then its lumped in or mislabeled.
also, my bios is from 2011. do i update it or leave it alone?
Aaron Myers
NO.
This is fucking Management Engine / AMT botnet.
>DISABLE >IGNORE >DO NOT INSTALL DRIVER
Logan Hill
>also, my bios is from 2011. do i update it or leave it alone?
Here you have an example what might happen if you update the base BIOS on an x201 (you might end up with a ME error and then be forced to update the botnet firmware too to get rid of it). Dunno how great such risk is with the x220, but yea, just so you know. With 2010+ Intel shit, generally caution and mistrust are advised.
Benjamin Gonzalez
Have an x220 running under win7, any idea why would the Thinkpad button not work at all? Tried in the bios but no response.
Aaron Brown
i7 X230 just turned up.
Colton Moore
This. Not installing the driver obviously won't disable the botnet, but then again installing the driver doesn't make any sense either if it is your private-owned laptop.
Hey /tpg/, I am looking for a 12-13" laptop to serve as my new daily driver, I got tired of lugging around my T420 + powerbrick.
What I am looking for: - decent screen (>1366x768) - robust - 2 SODIMM slots - good battery life - performance at least equivalent to my T420's i5-2560m - good linux support is a must
before you say x220: i am not going to fuck around with soldering custom add-on boards just to get a decent screen
Jayden Collins
so i did good? i looked up amt and then decided not to install them. i only did the intel chipset and wireless drivers.
when i start getting some more money i am gonna get a separate windows machine and un-cuck this thinkpad.
Robert Smith
Gonna paint my R52 white, piece by piece And yes i removed the ibm sticker first, its under a brass bar being un-curled
Fuck thats a long url but im on my phone and cant be assed to shorten it
Matthew Smith
How much would a separate optical drive cost? In case I wanna get some music at the library, or something like that
Ayden Ward
You basically have to suck up and get either the X220/X230 or the X201s. X201s is higher res but not IPS and weaker in every other way, or deal with a resolution that you don't want but a laptop which satisfies you in every other way.
Jose Rodriguez
I have a decent budget for my purchase.
Is every single laptop made after 2013 garbage?
Jaxon Walker
Not much But then really you could just rip it off the internet
Michael Bell
USPS or UPS ground? Which is least likely to fuck my shit up?
Jaxson Williams
probably.
James Rogers
Ripping off CD's is much easier
Chase Walker
You have to get to the X240 before you start getting any screen on the other side of 1366x768. By then it's already too late and tonnes of important features have started to drop off.
Can't swap the keyboard to a classic, Only one memory channel, no Trackpoint mouse buttons, a low voltage processor that performs worse than the X230 equivalents. Only added feature is the power bridge internal battery.
Noah Jackson
I am also open the Dell and HP business laptops. I am not going to purchase a laptop right now before CES, I am hopeful about the X270 returning to the roots.
Kayden Green
XPS 13 is probably your best bet, gorgeous laptop, but lacks a lot of the small features that make the X200-x230 special.
New is cool and everything but I wouldn't hold your breath for Lenovo to return features. Personally I also find the idea of buying a laptop new laughable.
Angel Brown
>performance at least equivalent to my T420's i5-2560m A question about that, what's the extent of things you can do with a processor like that today? I'm looking at a T420 with the same processor and I'm having second thoughts about the processor cutting it. Could certainly be an overreaction on my part though. All I need to do is some front end web development, browsing web (I tend to open an army of tabs though) and watching Star Trek.
Connor Morgan
Not that guy, but I have the i7-2640M in the X220 on which I am typing right now.
It is fast. For no process is the CPU the bottle neck, always GPU. I can rip through photogrammetry workloads.
Ever since the 1st or 2nd generation of i7s or what have you I've never felt like my CPU was slow, so an i5 should be more than enough for your use case.
Andrew Martin
I can run a Windows and a Debian VM (with a webserver + DB running) in my Linux host OS with Chromium open at the same time without any problem. I haven't really had any usecases where I ran into performance problems.
Downsides: the integrated GPU is kinda meh, consumes way, way more power than modern processors (I get ~3 hour battery life with a 9 cell battery at 2nd to lowest backlight with normal usage).
Henry Thompson
in that matter of thoughts,
is the 520m still an adequate CPU ?
Evan Adams
For web browsing, multimedia, older games and other light usage, by all means yes. Even Core 2 Duo CPUs still hold their ground surprisingly well. You'd have to go back as far as a Pentium 4 or Atom netbooks to risk daily tasks becoming uncomfortable.
Brandon Cook
considering I could get a t430 or an x220 for the same price and same conditions, both i5 (2ndgen vs 3rd gen though), 4gb ram. what would you guys choose? which one is more comfy?
Jason Morales
If you're doing anything graphical whatsoever, you want that 3rd gen.
Justin Smith
You mean gaymen? Does it matter for 1080p animation videos?
Daniel Wright
op here, in my case im gonna be using it mainly for audio dsp and browsing so, the graphics wont matter that much probably
Matthew Johnson
exactly my thoughts too, just got paranoid that something might be wrong. just Sup Forums with 4chanx is a little bit slower.
And what about the nvs3100m, i guess it's not doing any bottlenecking. I really want to upgrade to t430 soon, which should be much better.
Caleb Bailey
Are you comfy /tpg/?
Mason Taylor
Came out breddy good for "didnt dry, just froze" Fuck if i care, 12 year old laptop, just trying to cover scratches Battery and HDD caddy cover are next Then ill try and do the base I want to leave the inside black though Might replace the nippe with a white one
Luis King
yep. just a rubber mat for my x220 and mousepad, had about 5 shots of whiskey and i am sipping some coffee. mondays can be ok sometimes.
bad context bro. did you paint the top? also dont paint the inside. black and white contrast is appealing. show a different pic.
