/tpg/ - ThinkPad General 'Pajeet' edition

Previous thread: 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

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:

thinkwiki.org
twitter.com/AnonBabble

My autism doesn't like this OP
Go back to /ptg/
Anyway i'm repostan this from the last thread

I really want an classic IBM branded thinkpad that has libreboot on it. I'm thinking t60 but i'm not sure which version is the best, all I know is one iteration has an incredible screen but is absurdly rare in which case, what's the second best t60 I can get?

Also does anyone have a full guide of everything needed to run libreboot on said thinkpad (or another thinkpad) and a rough estimate of the price?

ALSO can I install anything like libre/coreboot on my t420?

>Go back to /ptg/
no

Who fell for the ThinkPad meme here?

be me, buy t530
>shit battery life
>shit performance
>shit screen
>unnecessarily thick and bulky with no reason to be
but its got a magnesium rollcage™ Trackpoint™ and ThinkLight™

I'm sorry but these benefits are actually shit, all the things people actually value in a laptop aren't present.

LOL I remember watching this video when I was first choosing a thinkpad. Ended up getting an x230 though.

Anyone use a trackball? I love using the clit but if I close the lid I was thinking a trackball has the same idea in mind of not having to move your arm/hand much.

I took my X40 to the ocean. It's a comfy machine and is quite usable.

thank god i fell for the x230masterrace meme and not the shitty t530

This looks quite comfy. Thanks for sharing!

Besides the performance upgrade, is there any reason to go with a x230 over a x220?

I can get 10+ hours of shitposting out of a charge with a new $30 chinese extended battery. Its original battery is slowly coming back to life with my careful ministrations as well, I've gone from 20 minutes per charge to 45+ minutes per charge since getting it and carefully cycling and working it over when frozen.

In for t60 coreboot/libreboot guide.

>B O T N E T M A C H I N E S
X61 is better user.

WHY ISN'T THINKWIKI IN THE OP?

REEEEEEEEEE

thinkwiki.org

>dat antenna
more like SEX Series amirite ecks dee

dont they have garbage displays

You better shut up

I just got this exact machine, waiting on an SSD and then it's going to be my little hunnie bunnie snoogie woogums.

how much?

$40 including shipping. It also has a very very large battery that looks like it belongs to another type of machine but which works fine.

Now I'm on the hunt for some X61s batteries. I will probably settle for chinese ones but if I can get originals from Armonk, NY, I know how to refresh them.

i'd say go for whichever one is the best price at the moment, unless you really want an onboard usb 3 port or the improved igpu (x230). x220 has the benefit of accepting 3rd party batteries and already has the classic keyboard, so it can save a little money if those are accessories you want

Look out anons I'm going to be selling a couple T61's with the good displays on the jewish auction site, super clean, sucky sucky you like.

Sup Forums special

just ordered a X220t but apparently it may have Computrace on it

how fucked am I?

Just ordered a T520, is it worth buying a new battery or just keep the worn down one that it comes with? It's basically impossible to get a genuine original Lenovo battery right? Afaik all the shit on ebay is chink aftermarket crap that wears out in 6 months.

let me/us know when you post 'em
[email protected]

If it's activated you're fucked. All you can do is call Absolute Software or whatever they're called and hope for the best

I'll mail you my address too!

:^)

fucking scumbag ebay sellers, man.

Return it or report it as stolen to ebay user.

The ktgee guide hasn't been upgraded in a while what the fuck is happening?

This. And buy from a shop dedicated to ThinkPads next time. There are plenty of those.

X230 accepts third party batteries too.
I'm running my x230 with a Sanyo battery right now. (And it's crap, need to get a Lenovo 44+)

could you help point me in a good direction?

I can't tell which ebay sellers are trustworthy enough

Why does it need updated?

Anyone have experience with slice batteries? Specifically the 28++. I'm thinking about getting one for my W510 since it cant take an ultrabay battery

Yeah, I've been busy with other shit the past few months. Also, I haven't found any ThinkPad past the X230/T430 to be worth it in my opinion, I found that the competition from Dell, HP or even low tier Chromebooks or Atom/Celeron powered Windows laptops (Asus E200HA comes to mind) with Insane battery life figures offer better value and enjoyability when it comes to day to day computing..

The X240/T440 series have faced massive price drops because of the shitty integrated Trackpoint buttons so that can be a reason why they're still on the guide, but I haven't found any compelling reason to get a ThinkPad T450/X250 and newer. Computing needs are still easily met by the X230/T430 and earlier models if you want a budget laptop that's not complete shit and has at least 4-5 hours battery life.

All in all, I'll add the X250/T450 series to the guide when the average prices drop to under $350.

I bought my T400 from a shop called Luxnote and my X220 from Remarketing-direkt and I also got ThinkPads for family members there. These seem to be European only though. If you live somewhere else I don't know any good sites.

BTW these don't sell via ebay. They got their own websites. They focus on leased laptops that were returned by the companies after the contract ended. That's why they're almost always in mint condition. None of the laptops I bought from these sites had Computrace activated.

Well they deliver in terms of battery life. Be prepared to have a considerably thicker laptop though. That's the obvious downside. Though you might argue on a W series it doesn't really matter that much. The X220 is still comfortable even with the slice from my experience.

yo have you tried finding a network card for that hp 200lx you reviewed? fun to irc and telnet (into a local router, then ssh from there) with the mtcp suite

The ultimate poorfag.

I want ktgee and xsauc to fight each other
also someone redpill me on xsauc

I got a couple of Ethernet cards that were still inserted in some laptops but all the adapters were missing. I would love to see how modern you could get with an XT class machine.

Well it is the ultimate poorfag guide. You get a very decent machine without spending over $1500 like you would if you visited Bestbuy or some shit.

please. you get a 5+ year old machine.

Where ya at kid?

>5+ year old machines not being just fine for 99% of people and better in some ways...
herro chang

why do you need to spend a grand to browse Sup Forums

Oh man, I just read over Xsauc's guide, it's comprehensive as fuck. How will I ever compete?

Yeah, according to Apple a lot of people own 5+ year old machines, which is just sad! Get an iPad Pro!

found the chink who keeps doing those brand new thinkpads for insanely low prices on ebay scams

I've seen two people with them, both were struggling.

>How will I ever compete?
I prefer the layout in yours though
please update it

Why do people in /tpg/ generally mention low battery life (4-6 hours), unless someone mentions it as a reason not to get an old thinkpad? All of a sudden everyone has 10+ hours of "heavy" use when battery life is called into question. This is at full brightness, because unless you have a 1080 W530 you're gonna need full brightness if not more.

This is all I fucking want

Will those goddamn chinks make a second batch?

basically, mtcp is the last best chance the xt has at "modern" networking. its got all the goodies, like dhcp, ftp, wget, irc, sntp, etc, minus browser and encryption

the real mode dos build of lynx is NO FUN. i just use my shell account at sdf.org for "heavy" stuff

>according to Apple a lot of people own 5+ year old machines
I'm posting from a 5 year old Apple, which is a lot better than my 5 year old Thinkpads. I own 3 xx30 Thinkpads.

What are the best mods to do to a stock x220?

Thanks. I want to move the Core 2 Duo G3 models (X200, T400, etc) to the "on their way out" category, but fuck my X200s, which is a LV Core 2 Duo laptop is still really damn usable these days for web browsing, video and MS office productivity. I guess, it's just the prices that I'll be updating.

Are you that guy that posts pictures of his 200LX connected to a portable router?

I have a 2012 model Ivy Bridge MacBook Pro 13, the metal is thin as fuck, which is way too easy to dent and it gets extremely hot doing very minor tasks even when replaced with AS5 thermal compound, not something that I'd recommend, and it goes for $300-400 when the X230 goes for $120-$200. At least it's upgradable to 16GB RAM and another slot for HDD I guess...

IPS display, dual channel RAM.

The same reason "The last great thinkpad" keeps getting pushed back

ips if you aint got one
modded bios if you got a hardon for swapping wifi cards and getting like ~5% higher benchmark scores with faster ram
egpu

>anecdotes
>wah thin metal
>wah
>wah

In 2012 I bought this i7 MacBook Pro, an X230 Tablet, and a W530. I bought a T430 in 2013. I still have all of these, plus a 2010 Macbook Pro and a 2008 Macbook, and some HP shit I bought that's long gone thank God.

Honestly, I find myself coming back to the Macbook. I'm posting right now with this thing resting on my eight inch dick and I'm pretty damn comfy. No "thin metal" no dents. No overheating. Oh yea, and I have a gf. Living the dream.

My wife's still using her mid-2010 Macbook White, she doesn't even care about the C H I C K L E T K E Y S. It's still a fine machine, I took out the optical drive and refreshed it with an SSD, and also put 8GB RAM in there. I bet she'll be using it in another 5 years. Someday soon I will replace the battery, she still gets about 4-5 hours though.

yeah i'm gay for my 1000cx

>gay
what makes you think it's male? DID YOU JUST ASSUME YOUR COMPUTER'S GENDER?

Want to get either T60 or X60. The T60s are more common but the X60s are small and have no trackpad. What do?

Like you just did for that anonymous poster.

user claimed he was gay for his computer so he's most likely male. Besides, I didn't even assume user's gender.

>have no trackpad
that's a plus

>not using the IR and a serial terminal program
W A S T I N G P O W E R

I think user was listing the advantages of both machines.

T60 plus: More common
X60 plus: small and no trackpad.

at leas that's how I understood his post.

Coreboot > Ivy Bridge CPU

Needs some soldering on the X220 but what are you, a pleb?

Meh. Even if it's

>X61 with middleton bios and original wifi card swapped with a cooler running unit

fixed that for u

Such a good deal that person got
An original classic, very surprised it sold for that low, given that other fucker wants like $300.000 for it.

Can you post a guide so that everyone who asks 'can't I recell the battery' can shut the fuck up.

PowerOn, VertexPC, Arrow-Direct, Iron Mountain, and all of the EPC stores

Dude, don't let it be a competition, I get a lot of clicks from you (or someone else from tumblr)
Had it not been a guide, I probably never would of wanted to make mine.

It sucks because I would have to redo prices every 6 months to a year, specially on newer systems.
Barely even tackling the haswell shit... ugh.
Then my OCD gets to me and I'm researching one laptop for 20 minutes, only to find out it has certain configs (Sony Vaios, Toshiba Satellites, every fucking macbook), that I have to do narrow down which is which and sometimes my numbers get fucked, so I give in or skip it, after time is wasted.

Also time travel back when I was 19 and chain me up and fuck me daddy.

>VertexPC
Just bought a W530 from them. Very happy.

>having to replace the BIOS becuase IBM locked the mpci/mpcie ports only for use with their overpriced adapters.

I'll never get why people thought thinkpads were good - they're the most cucked, locked down laptops in the history of the devices.

Probably never, or at least not soon. I ordered mine day 1 in August and it didn't get here until January. There's a shortage on the xps13 1080p panels or some shit, and they're having trouble even fullfilling their original 20 orders.

They have been.
IBM used to do as much as they can to be proprietary, though their hard drives aren't fuckton as expensive like Panasonic ToughBooks are.

ouch, thats wild.

Also how is it?
I got lucky with my T430s mod chip

>in the history of the devices
>the devices
oh changjeet, your engrish never comes out quite right...

How's 620 eurobux for a mint condition T450s with i5/12gb ram/256gb ssd/1080p ips?

It's pretty damn comfy. Didn't realize how much smaller the X series was compared to the T and W series. I think having being able to use all of them at the same time the X series should have been my first choice, even with a 768p panel. X330 just lets me have a no compromise Thinkpad, couldn't ask for more.

>Can you post a guide so that everyone who asks 'can't I recell the battery' can shut the fuck up.
I said refresh. Many batteries that people think are dead are just sleeping. You can wake them up with proper cycling and regain 80%+ of their original capacity.

>Insane battery life figures
>Lenovo claims 22.18 hours of battery life on new laptop
>8 hours is more typical
and people complain that classic Thinkpad users are full of shit

found the chink shilling his overpriced chinkpads

Weird question but how snugly do the thinkpad chargers fit in the socket? I suffered with a crappy Compaq laptop whose ac cord would come loose if the wind changed direction.

The displays are fine user, don't listen to that one autistic sperglord.

>tfw older macbook so never have this problem.

Applel is 150% retarded for removing one of their best features.

Nice and tight user.

X series is just almost into netbook territory without the shitty small keyboard. It's maximum comfy.

They were actually having problems with fires user, even after the redesign.

MacBook Pros used to be among the best laptops on the market. Before they did the unibody shit they were unreal. Even the first unibody models were still pretty good.

And without the shitty performance. At least on the old models that didn't have those shitty U processors.

12.5" is just about the ideal size. So small, yet just big enough.

B-b-but what about muh retina! Remember to mention it everywhere if you have a Retina(tm) MBP!

What's a good ThinkPad for a girl that would rather a pink macbook??

Does the buyers guide cover the i7 X220?

Or just one in general?

Reposting.

Guys, someone is selling a bunch of retired X220 tablets for cheap. They come without HDD, charger and stylus. While former two are not a problem, I'm concerned about the stylus. All I can find for sale are new Chinese fakes (but for reasonable price), and sometimes new unopened brand ones which are too expensive. No used original ones at all. So my question is, are Chinese pens any good? Shall I face reduced accuracy or any other problems if I buy one?

Something similar in practicality would be a more recent an X1 Carbon or X2*0 since they're compact and have good battery life.
Though chances are she just want a macbook for the pretty looks, in which case consider a Chromebook Pixel.

I need a new day to day machine, currently using a dying T60. What you guys say, a T440 with the T450 trackpad or a x230 IPS screen? They're about the same price. I think I could get use to the smaller screen or even get an external monitor if not. Are the t440 specs worth it?

tfw switching from a 2014 rmbp to a x220

Hello Huang
10 Yen has been deposited in your aliexpress account

You europoors pay so much fucking money for your Thinkpads, what gives? Just less on the market or what?