/tpg/ ThinkPad Thread

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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/JVwVGVTW

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

Other urls found in this thread:

laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/lenovo-thinkpad-t460
superuser.com/questions/951960/windows-7-sp1-windows-update-stuck-checking-for-updates
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

Opinions on x131e? Any clue on OpenBSD support?

>X220t with IPS panel and 8 GB RAM for 200€
Good deal? Keyboard and overall shape looks good.

What OS are you guys running on your Thinkpads?

ThinkOS

Is ~$100 for an i5 x220 a good deal?

Manjaro

Ubuntu desu

Installed gentoo on a t61. Screen tearing is abominable, the performance in Xorg feels so sluggish, but glxgears is a solid 60fps. Not sure what to do.

OSX 10.11.6

Fedora 25

Should I buy a w500?
Or should I try to get a w700?

As long as you're burning money on an obsolete workstation, it might as well be the biggest, most retarded obsolete workstation you can find.

Only in /tpg/ everyone

Windows 7 + Xubuntu

Who /IBM/ here?

I'm sys admin and still can't bring myself to "upgrade".

T60 best ThinkPad

So I just got a T400 after having a T430 as my first thinkpad, and the build quality is just absolutely incredible. It feels so sturdy, the old school keyboard is 10x better - that is fact. I thought you guys were just bickering because of the layout, its actually so much more than that. While the feel itself of the modern keyboard is acceptable compared to worse laptops, this one on the T400 is tactile and clicky - you know if you've missed a key or not, and typing quickly is easy on it too. The layout on a t430 and up can only be described as horrendous once you've finally held something like this in your hands. It is just like sitting at a desktop and having a real keyboard in front of you. The 1280x800 screen is perfect. I expected to be discomforted coming from other sizes, like 1080p, but the 800 pixel height makes the ratio perfect, not even bullshitting

I am disappointed a bit now, realizing that there are no more real laptop makers left.

Also, I'd like to add that I was initially hesitant to purchase something with such dated hardware, and was unsure of whether or not the C2D would be up to everyday tasks. I always thought that you guys who used C2Ds in your old desktops and laptops were just bullshitting in saying that there is no point in upgrading, but now I see you're right

it probably even rings more true for the 2500k on a desktop. I will admit though that I am no longer a gamer, and I also am using an SSD in the T400 so that may attribute to its speed as well, but I find it all to be satisfactory for day to day usage, even in 2017

imagine what thinkpads would look like today had IBM continued to hold the reins

>T60
i just found a t60 for cheap at a pawn shop near me, it's a lower-end model(32-bit,1024x768 resolution) but i'm going to upgrade the ram in it next month. now my t420 has a friend. i'm loving the t60 though

i had a issue about battery monitoring
anyone posted about this issue?

I just got my T420 a couple days ago. Still waiting on my SSD to arrive so I haven't bothered setting it up yet. But I booted it up to mess around and noticed that there is an audible fan noise constantly, and the upper left side got hot very fast.

Anyone else have the fan noise issue? It's not extremely loud, but it's loud enough to be a constant trigger to my autism. I'm going to replace the thermal paste and see if that was the issue.

Another retarded question –will I need to buy a new caddy for the SSD if the laptop already came with an SSD? I haven't taken it apart yet and I'm running a blank

Also holy shit, it came with Windows 10 installed so I was messing around with it a bit and I don't believe people actually use that piece of shit OS, can't wait to nuke it and install Arch

I had a T60 in high school. It was funny as hell to use it around a bunch of faggots clicking away on Macbooks. Loved it, but it developed a weird issue where every time the battery cable was nudged even slightly, the computer would completely freeze and I would have to force shut down. Never was able to figure out what that was about.

my t420 is very loud, gets hot- i was worried about this too, but i googled around and the idle temps on average are about 45-50 and it's normal for the machine to get up to like 85 under load. fan is always running. my t60 is much, much quieter. running arch on both.

Hey /tpg/ I need your opinion on something
So I am thinking about getting a T460 as a shitposting/general usage machine

are they solid machines? thank you

specifically
remaining battery time shows up 5hr 3min usually
but somethimes it shows up 3hr
so i can't know exact remaining batery time

Windows XP Professional x64

i have a t60 and a t420, arch+awesome on both. when i got the t60 i installed openbox but quickly discovered that i've adapted to using a cli to the point where i only want to use a tiling wm so i just installed awesome on that too.

I'd pop a 64bit T7200 in and check how much higher you can take the RAM. Honestly the 1024 isnt bad on these, but the IPS is unreal man

May have been that battery specifically, I've seen HPs do that. I love using it in front of normies

Fedora 25 with Wayland disabled.

Thoughts on Thinkpad backpacks?

Every comment and opinion that I've seen says that they're either the best thing ever or worse than Hitler.

I don't know about those, but Swissgear makes some God-tier laptop packs.

continue.
+ i decision to downgrade my cpu
after upgrade to 2720qm 6cell battery life was 2hour 9cell was 3-4hour
this cpu is powerful but consuming too much battery so i replace it to former cpu
i wish i did't fucked up

Windows 7 + Fedora

w7 and debian

W10 and mint

> Want classic keyboard with an IPS screen
> Want normal size and not a smaller x220

Why won't IBM make a fucking Classic version with updated internals. . . At least make 'classic' keyboards we can buy for newer models. It's not like they wouldn't sell out within 10 minutes. GIVE US WHAT WE WANT IBM PLEASE!

No clue about OpenBSD, had an X131e years back, ran mint fine.
My only dislike about the X131e is that it can be a bit too thick for some, though thats what makes it durable. Also the keyboard is pushed forward to make space for the battery in the rear to be flush with the screen. The problem is that your hands cant rest on the palmrest all the way, so the edge is near my thumb part of my palms, instead of being past the wrists.

other than that get one with at least a 1.6GHz AMD processor, I've yet to hook up my i3 X130e, as it needs a monitor.

Currently running LXLE on my T430s, otherwise Win 7 Pro, or XP PE Black on the others to name a few.

Upgraded to core2duo, wireless-n, whitelist and 3gb RAM. SSD next.

Contemplating a "wireless docking" setup with VNC to another server to get more screen real estate, but it's definitely very nice even at 1024x768. Text is very readable and most text-focused web sites are a pleasure to read; more so than on my 1280x1024 or 1920x1080 displays.

I wouldn't recommend the W700 unless you absolutely want to use the digitizer. An M6400 supports 4 RAM slots and also supports a lot of MXM gpu upgrades (based Aliumwares), W7xx are locked out, not so sure about the 8730W but the 8740W is a treat.

The biggest dissapointment on my W700ds was the big keyboard flex on the yuiop keys, otherwise it was a nice machine, was my main for 2013? to 2016.

Haven't had a T60p masterrace in awhile
T43p & A31p will suffice.

~ofc base T450 and up can be upgrades to IPS FHD with ease (previously only T440s and T440p were upgradeable, base T440 would brick)

No comment but I do love the IBM era laptop bags.
Looks like they are still being built that well.
I currently use a Rush 24 if I need to backpack it with other crap.

'we' is a pretty niche group, I think only 7 out of every 50 /tpg/ posters buy a new computer outright. Big /biz/ wouldn't want to shell out an extra $10 when it comes to buying 500+ laptops for their fleet.

Not enough demand, as lenovo said with 16:10 or 4:3 displays.

This T460 I'm getting is pretty maxed out already with IPS and all that

i'm wondering how the battery life on it is?

have you looked at notebook check? I would presume it would have 13+ hours on the intel GPU.
Nevermind I guess it will be 17 hours given the review
>laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/lenovo-thinkpad-t460
I got 9 hours on my X1C3 when I had it, and it was running Mint and Deepin for awhile

It's either me getting a used T460 or waiting for something like the 2017 X1C idk what to do honestly.

What are you going to be using it for other than shitposting?

Currently I'm using a Pixel and E7440 for Windows applications, then a T430s as my personal machine/backup among others.

I did like the X1C3, however, the lid did feel a bit too flimsy for me and flexed quite a bit. I didn't have this issue with the Pixel, and eventually after getting a Pixel 2, I preferred that machine for basic shitposting, it was amazing.

What sucked about the X1C3 is that it throttled under heavy use, I tried playing LoL on it as my 'gaming test', it sucked compared to a T430.

I just wasn't too confident about the lid, felt a bit too flimsy, I think they changed this on the X1C4 and made it slightly thicker and more robust.
I do like the 2017 X1C because of dat bezel.

Arch

Basically need a main machine (all shitposting memes aside)
I'm not a gaymer either so yeah...

Used to have fedora, xubuntu, lubuntu and realized that I need Visual Studio, Netbeans, Wamp, Google drive, keepass2 with gsync and Victoria 2 so I decided to use Win 10 Enterprise LTSB.Windows boots fast with hybrid hibernation boot and logins fast with fingerprint.

>are you kidding
>Right index on trackpoint, left thumb on buttons.

are you kidding, right index clit, right thumb buttons, left hand cock

w10, and haven't had time to reinstall mint or try ubuntu again since the last time it fucked up

>t is just like sitting at a desktop and having a real keyboard in front of you.
define a real keyboard ? one of those quack-quack mechs? I have a t410, wtb t430s and looking forward for the keyboard.
On a serious note, can one say that chiclets are more silent ?

I actually haven't used a mech keyboard before, but I was referring to the comfort of a full sized kb

there also seems to be a more audible click

but to be honest, the new style kb, I would actually say it is more quiet
the comfort is hard to determine, I like both
but I truly abhor the new layout. When you finally pick one of the old models up, you realize that lenovo gimped their own devices for no apparent reason

Any experiences with the UltraBase (for the x220)

Windows 10
That's the only choice for any sane user

Should I get the P50 or P70 for shitposting on Sup Forums?

If I don't care about how much a laptop costs and want to buy a new model are new model Thinkpads any good?

Mainly looking for a modern laptop I can maintain myself, by disassembling and swapping RAM and so on.

X130e looks better. 3x more power. Anything I should know about it? Anything uncomfortable? Good to use in lap, or with a separate mouse? Think it would be okay in a back pack with some heavy books?

Heard some people say you can put a different keyboard in it if you don't like that style. Don't care as long as keys don't fall off. Might get a different wireless card if that one can't keep up with my speedy WiFi.

Thanks for telling me about the Intel model honestly I had no clue it existed.

x220

I want a new laptop from 2015 earliest. Don't want to put up with maintaining something that's already ancient.

dunno why anyone would voluntarily use windows unless they were gaming. i grew up with macs from system 7 on and started fucking around with linux when os x came out. i still have an os x machine but i primarily use arch these days

T61

>best hardware support (drivers)
>gaymes
>pro software
>stability
It's a nice client OS. There is a reason why 99% of all companies uses windows on client machines.

P50 is fuckhuge enough as it is

What model is that sir pajeet, and specs? It's too dark to see.

Also Windows 10 is absolutely aids. I used to favor Win 10 over 7 and 8 simply for the cleaner design and possibly better optimization of power usage and such, but after trying Windows 7 again after ages on my T43, it's such a better experience than 10.
>less random moments in which windows is raping your CPU in the background to do (((updates)))
>can fully disable services such as Windows Update without shitty hacks, I don't think you can fully disable Windows Update and Telemetry services on Windows 10, even on Enterprise
>lighter because it doesn't randomly install shitty apps from their shitty online store that no one ever uses, and no cortana
>a e s t h e t i c theme

When will the new thinkpads come out. I want to get on that kaby/ddr4 time.

yes but I'd never buy the tablet version. The hinge is shit as well as the touchscreen.

X220
Ubuntu MATE

Anyone have a x201? I'm interested in either getting one of those or an x220 for school and general sue but I'm worried about battery life. I'm also planning on upgrading the shit out of it so which would last me longer in the end?

100 bucks sounds a bit cheap. this can't be in a good condition.

lenovo cheaps out on thermal compound. replace it, it's gonna get better

yup. and that reason is microsoft contracts. I've never had a single driver issue on Linux, AAA games are plenty and concerning pro software, go ask James Cameron which OS his VFX artists prefer

>worried about battery life
>X series
pick one

I have an X220 but if you prefer 16:10 aspect ration, X201 is for you. an X220 would last longer though because of i5. in terms of upgradability these are both pretty limited. RAM and HDD, that's all you get. CPU is soldered. my X220 supports eGPU through express card though

>I've never had a single driver issue on Linux
What compels you to lie on the internet?

T430
>Also Windows 10 is absolutely aids.
It is, but only when it's unconfigured. After castrating botnet functionality and removing background activities it's pretty dank.

>I've never had a single driver issue on Linux
Are we still talking about thinkpads?
Enjoy your nvidia drivers. Also stop lying

>nvidia
I don't use dedicated GPUs

Which series would you recommend for good battery life? Good being up to 8 hours to me, I had a t420s which had garbage battery life which is what I'm trying to improve upon.
I would probably only upgrade those two things anyways so that works out then.

A T420 should get 8+ hours but on the X series you can get up to 24 hours with a 9cell battery and the slice battery

Yet, there are people who actually use dGPUs.

I think it's because I had the S version that the battery life was so bad, even with a new 6 cell. Nice, I will be eating a 9 cell for it then! Can you recommend a good price that I should aim for the x220? Also is the tablet x220 any good? Are the screens and battery lifes the similar?

So? My original statement was that I never had driver problems on Linux. That is correct. I don't care about people who use dedicated GPUs for their childish hobbies.

It's not exactly the fault of the Thinkpad that Nvidia doesn't give a shit or a fuck about Linux support. Besides that literally everything is perfect.

>install win8.1 on X220
>literally no Intel iGPU driver out of the box
>or SD card reader drivers
>or proper drivers for the ultranav
>install win10 on X220 and T520
>iGPU driver out of the box but still no ultranav and SD card reader drivers
>Lenovo's Power Manager doesn't support Windows 10, can't set battery thresholds to keep the battery at the sweet spot of 46 and 50 percent full to preserve its life, because keeping it at 100% stresses it out more
>install Debian on both
>literally everything just fucking works
>tlp just works, can set battery thresholds much easier than in lenovo's power manager

>install Win7 on T43
>no wifi, have to spend about 30 minutes trying different drivers on both Lenovo;s and Intel's until I downloaded the right one
>spend about 5 hours trying to get Windows Update to download and install the fucking Sound driver
>even after all the updates were installed, the sound buttons don't work
>install Debian
>literally everything fucking works, including multi-touch support for the trackpad which the Synaptic drivers for Windows just doesn't support

>buhuu I'm too retarded to install lelnovo system update so it installs everything for me
>buhuu it's not out of box
You're a dumb motherfucker.
How often do you reinstall your OS so it becomes the problem?
Take your anti-autism pills

>install Debian
>literally everything fucking works,
Except:
>wifi card
>trackpoint scrolling
>hotkeys
>depending on the distro - sound volume control
>CPU idle states

And if you're too stupid to install windows drives (or let windows update/system update do that for you) you should go with mac.

>install Debian
>everything works right away
>I'm not even part of a botnet

even if something didn't work I could just install it because I'm not retarded enough to assume it's any harder than on windows

>botnet meme
Wear your tinfoil, sissy

so installing drivers and configuring windows is somehow bad, while installing drivers and configuring linux is good?
Nice logic man.

not what I said. installing drivers on Linux is not worse than on Windows but it isn't necessary as often as on Windows

>as often
I don't upgrade any drivers in my Windows 10 since like a year and everything still works fine.
Your point is invalid.

I don't upgrade or update drivers at all, no matter if Windows or Linux.
My point is that on a fresh Windows almost nothing works while on Linux most of the time I don't have to do anything manually.

>on a fresh Windows almost nothing works
But that's wrong you fucking retard. Windows 10 has all needed drivers for haslel and older platforms including wifi and ethernet drivers, intel iGPU drivers and some nvidia/amd ones. Drivers not included in windows itself are downloaded via windows update.
Your point is irrelevant and you use it only to make windows look bad, which is fucking pathetic for a freetard like you.

>Windows 10
I thought we were talking about operating systems here. go on, get cucked by all your forced updates and restrictions and talk to me when you've grown out of your gayming phase. don't worry kid, you'll grow up eventually.

>using lenovo's shitty bloatware app that just abstracts the updating process
>>buhuu it's not out of box
It's , not having most drivers for everything, save for obscure technology is excusable.

Only if you have nonfree wifi cards, and it's only a matter of finding the firmware .deb on Debian's site and loading it on any removable media at hand during the installation process. Hotkeys just werk, and better than they do on Windows. Trackpoint scrolling depends on the distro, but on Debian it either works completely out of the box or is a setting that you have to tick in the Settings interface that comes pre-installed. On older versions it's just one or two commands. Sound volume has always worked perfectly for me.

Compare that to the clusterfuck that is Windows Update. On a clean install of Windows 7 SP1 you have to go hunting around for roll up updates, because it was only in later updates that they fixed the issue of Windows Update taking literally hours upon hours to look for drivers.
>superuser.com/questions/951960/windows-7-sp1-windows-update-stuck-checking-for-updates

>caring about your privacy is being a sissy
you go pajeet.

>P50
I own one. Its build quality is spectacular and I have no issues with it so far, for basic work or 3D. However, I have not tried GNU/Linux on it because of Bumblebee sounding terrible. Despite being a high-power machine, it gets higher battery life than my T420's 9-cell, and runs colder. I haven't even replaced the 7200RPM hard disk since it's been so well-behaved. I heard P70 is good, but not as flex-free since it is larger. Also, I hear the 4K model rapes its GPU, so 1080p IPS is good enough. I am reliving the days of the FlexView T60.

>Captcha: Select all images with a patio
>one picture is a screenshot of Garage Band

>too retarded to disable windows update and run it on demand
>bitches about (((((forced updates))))) and "restrictions"
You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Your incompetence in that matter is stunning.
Go play with your Toy/Hobby OS and stop attacking windows users. You don't deserve attention, faggot. Nobody is forcing you to use windows. To me you can even install TempleOS and pray to jesus to not get a crash during booting, but it doesn't mean you can insult people who decided to use other OS.

You must've gotten one with an NMB keyboard. Are the rubber cones blue? My X61 has that kind, it feels good, but I like the T450-T460 era keys too. The layout needs some reversion, though.

>bloatware app
I don't think you understand what 'bloat" is. System Update is just an installer. You pick the things you want it to install.
If you want only drivers - pick only drivers, you retarded monkey. It's a shame you can compile your own kernel and use bash in advanced tasks, but somehow you're too retarded to use a GUI installer application. Shame.
>caring about your privacy
As explained above, if you care so much about privacy you can disable all toxic windows "features". It's no different than uninstalling amazon/botnet/advertising packages in ubuntu.

dude you can't disable updates in windork 10. at some point your PC is just gonna shut down and install updates.
stop trying to defend the worst operating system since the invention of the computer just because you're too incompetent to use anything else. indoctrinated cuck.

do you really trust m$ encryption m8

>dude you can't disable updates in windork 10
Nice FUD, you retarded monkey.
>stop trying to defend
stop spreading lies, monkey. This is not how you trick people into installing your hobby OS

wow... pieces of shit like you shouldn't even be allowed to exist.
>hurr durr I defend windows no matter how deep microsoft has it's dick in my ass
>muh call of duty
>so where's that new dildo shop?

I never mentioned MS encryption. What exactly are you talking about?
>too incompetent to use anything else
I use Debian on all my servers. Your point?
Windows is a client OS. Linux is a server/embedded OS. Is this so hard to understand?
Linux on desktops was a fucking mistake.

>this retarded answer
Is this how (((((intelligent))))) linux users are?
Top fucking kek.
You better go now and fix that X server you got there, son.

I managed to get an almost mint condition x201t
Are those things unicorns?