/tpg/ - ThinkPad General

Previous Thread: 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 IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T, X, and W/P Series if you want the Real Business Experience™

Recommended IBM models:
X60, X61, T60, T61, 860, Transnote, PC110

Recommended freedom models:
xx00 series, IBM xx0 series
Check libreboot.org for details.

Recommended modern models:
X220 - 12", 768p, cheap and light
T420 - 14", 900p, widely avaiable, socketed CPU, Ivy Bridge installable w/ Coreboot
W520 - 15", 1080p, Desktop Replacement, 32GB RAM on quadcore models, USB 3.0

T440p, T540p, W540 - last ThinkPads to have replacable CPUs, IPS displays avaiable, chiclet

P-series - reminiscent to old build quality, top-of-the-line specs, better than most current mobile workstations, but very expensive

Why ThinkPad?
>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 (most models), upgrade & maintain thanks to readily available service manuals for every model, spare parts easy & cheap to obtain
>The best TrackPoint, 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

New guides by xsauc:
dankpads.com

ThinkWiki - Info on ThinkPads & running GNU/Linux on them:
thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki

ThinkPad service guides w/ tutorial videos:
lenovoservicetraining.com/

EPP discount for new ThinkPads:
pastebin.com/JVwVGVTW

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=lu9Q2H9Odxo
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

Reminder to report and ignore shitposting.

Anyone know when the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga is likely to get a refresh?

Keen on getting one but the i7 7th gen and PWM backlight are holding me back.

Where I live, technology related things are not that cheap as in US, that being said, I can get an X220 for like $332.
Specs are: i5 2520M, 8Gb Ram, 250SSD, 1 year of office use, also seller doesn't know how much time the previous owner used it, and default screen.

Looking at the screenshots attached it looks pretty well maintained, is it really worth it? considering in US you can get Thinkpads cheaper than here. (fucking 3rd world countries dude).

if the battery is still good and there is no visible damage then it's fine but you can probably find the x200 for cheaper if you are okay with old hardware

Can one order with EPP discount outside the US and still benefit? Without proxies I mean, direct order. Say one p51 unit or whatnot.

there is a canadian site, youd have to pay import fees anyways and get cucked

What about EU, well depending on the fees might be worth it? Or is that a tried thing without upshot.

Is the X270 and t470 upgradable to the same extent as t440p? Looking ahead it seems like raven ridge, Intel/AMD apu the upcoming new usb standard end of trademark thunderbolt, makes no sense to invest a lot in laptop now, too much progress coming in the next 1-2 years. Maybe only a t440p, though if prices will fall for 270/470 maybe wait 2-3 mo.

>to the same extent
no because of the jews soldering the processors to the board since haswell

no idea about AMD mobile processors though but i doubt it's different

well, I'm going to ask if the battery is still functional to the seller, hope it is, thanks for answering user.

Bump for new thread

T440p adequate for web development?

even the T61 is adequate for web development
This aint no black magic, Thinkpads are not ancient machines incapable of anything but running GNU Screen in a tty.
I'd go for a T420 but it's up to you

Post your comfiest ThinkPad

no you need at least dual xeons for that

Which battery is the original battery?
T400.

top one is written in english and the bottom is written in chink so id say the top

Do I, A) get new genuine battery that is expensive, B) get a used genuine battery at 40% the price but no indication of capacity, or C) chink battery that might blow me up?

That's Japanese and it's telling you to recycle it

Want to help me decide on a laptop?

--- X1 Carbon ---------------------
> Pros:
Trackpoint (obv)
battery: 15hr
lightweight: 2.5lb
cheaper than other options
external gpu option
> Cons:
No touch/tablet mode
No OLED display

--- X1 Yoga: ---------------------
> Pros:
Trackpoint
Tablet also
Display: OLED display like damn son
spiffy retracxting keyboard
external gpu option
> cons:
less battery life than carbon: 11 hr
very expencive

--- macbook pro: ---------------------
> Pros:
bigger display
native unix
dat trackpad doe
attractive
it's a mac
good battery: 10hr
> Cons:
no OLED option
no trackpoint
limited gaming
very expencive
it's a mac

Also which charger is the original one?
Again, for a T400.

Left one looks chink as fuck and i dont say this because the Chinese.

One on the left is janky as fuck, I've never seen modern ThinkPad AC adapter with a ground prong. Looks like it's asking for an explosion

Right is positively legit.

That left one looks like the one I had with my T500, but they both have the same output. Can you post a photo of the laptop-end of the plugs?

Yeah, im going to keep the right one just in case, left one doesn't even say lenovo in the front, right one does.

They both are the old IBM standard round yellow and gray plug.

Stay the fuck away from X1 Yoga

There are two different types of bend protectors on the grey part. One is garbage and one is conical and actually works. I'm wondering if the left one has the older shit style.

Yeah the left one has a conical one.

i would say right, but i dunno

Yup, the one pictured is the shit one. Those come apart pretty easily.

new macs with tb3/usbc support eGPU so u can be a gaymen on bootcamp

not that i like macs, just saying

The answer is clear
Carbon with a Yoga screen

are the t- and x-series trackpads still shit?

Why would you be using a trackpad when the touchpoint is as good as it is?

the new 65 watt (or 95 watt forget which) thinkpad power adapters have 3 pins

>11 hr battery is a con for thinkpad
>10 hr battery is a pro for macbook
???

will I get better battery life from a t440 or x230?

Mabook pro
>Pros: it's a mac
>Cons: i'ts a mac

Hi

I recently got a used T430. It has pressure(?) white marks on the screen. I've looked around the web and there are ways to fix it apparently (hot air, massaging, a suction cup) and I'm wondering if someone here has actually done it, or if they have any suggestions. I know these displays are like 40 bucks on aliexpress but I'm extremely poor right now.

Pic related (it's way worse in person)

cheers

touchpoint sucks for scrolling

Is there a USB 3.0 card for the PCI, or whatever the bus slot is on a ThinkPad X220? The only things I see when I google are for desktops.

The one on the side?
It's called an Expresscard slot, and you'll want a 3 port 54

Yes, thank you. Already found one for about $14 with shipping.

Keep in mind that you'll want to put a finger on it when removing cables so you don't pull the card out with the device.

That is because the backlight LED is touching the panel.
And trust me, you don't want to disassemble it to fix that.

so.. there's no fix but to replace the panel?

There is a fix, which needs a full panel disassembly(The whole panel to separate the display and the backlight) and if you have never done it don't bother.

well that sounds hard. I guess I'm gonna have to live with it for now. Thanks

This happens mostly in cheap IPS panels so i can tell easy that is a LG panel.
Other than the bright spots nothing bad can come from it so don't worry.

I'm part-way done fitting an Intel Nuc into a t61, since I'm a big weenie and I don't want to give up my thinkpad but I also need performance. eDP means I can use more modern panels.
I've found some threads on converting the 7-row keyboard to USB.
Got a 3d-printed plate for the USB / ethernet etc to fit flush with the side of the thinkpad.

Anyway, what I wanted to ask is if Sup Forums thinks this is something other people might want? I've been thinking of fitting one into an old ibook for a future project, maybe run hackintosh on that one.

how are you gonna power it?
also if you end up finishing the project will you post some documentation or schematics somewhere? or is it too hacked together to even consider something like that?

Currently it's hacked together, but I've done some work in electronics design before so I'll be cleaning it up considerably if I decide to market it or anything. If I release anything about this publicly it'll all be open source.

When I mentioned "part-way done" in the OP it's because it doesn't have a built-in battery yet. I'm talking with some guys at my local makerspace to help me with that, but atm it's just powered by the adapter.

I'd love to do something similar with my busted ass T42. It still runs like a champ for tasks not online but whenever I hit the web it shits itself.

My god that's beautiful.

I want to buy a Thinkpad but don't want to buy an intel processor. Ryzen Thinkpads when?

Sub bros, my X220T MemePad™ arrives tomorrow, what OS should I install?

Ideally, you'll want something that just werks, unless you're the kind of autist who enjoys setting up wifi from a terminal.

I put gentoo on mine, but I can see how people might not wanna do that unless they like the OS.

Try Manjaro! Many flavors, huge software library (due to the AUR), and it just werkz.
Or Ubuntu, if you really have to.
If you wanna cosplay an iToddler you might wanna install deepin or elementaryOS

Why do you buy bios locked and replace motherboard ?

Can I remove the battery of my T400 and plug it on sector, for like a desktop usage ?

Got an L440 and its fan is really starting to annoy me.
It sometimes goes full speed non-stop even though I'm not doing anything particularly demanding on it and the room isn't very hot.

It also does funny things like the fan will turn off when i touch the lid or bring it down slightly.

Any reason or fix for this?

Thanks

Sounds fucking retarded.

>L

Unity is max comfy on smaller laptops, so I'd suggest going Ubuntu 16.04.

Win7 or Win10 ltsb

youtube.com/watch?v=lu9Q2H9Odxo

here's a vid of it doing it's dumb shit

>Promoting Microsoft botnet

OpenBSD

is w500 best 1080p thinkpad that can be fully librebooted?

If you say that you are that kind of guy

I mean considering theres literally no other option, yes.

Desu, learn to install a DE, it is one line.

So i've been in the market for an x200 but jumped the gun and bought an x200 tablet by mistake on ebay (because it was so cheap and only had a few hours left. It was only like 50 bucks including s&h for a like-new model).
Anyway, are the parts from the x200 tablet compatible with the regular x200 model?

Ubuntu has shit pen support for some reason, even though there is Wacom drivers installed.

Win10 is a botnet, but damn does the pen functionality rock.

>being a freeturd

Except the screen, probably

I've got no problems with Fedora and the pen on my x220 tablet. Maybe ubuntu is just shit.

geekbench is shit

also
>comparing a laptop ulv cpu to a desktop cpu
>muh benchmarks
If it's enough for you in practical usage then it's good, end of story.

Finally got my charger for my Thinkpad

I remember someone saying the i7 4600u was ulv therefor it was slow and garbage. but ran geekbench against my i5 and the i7 won in single thread while ofc behing slower, about 25ish%, in multicore

That doesnt seem like a "slow" PC to me... but the i5 IS the fastest chip Ive had so far...

Either way the Thinkpad with the 4600u is clearly no atom or bay trail processor. Its a legit(tho gimped) i7

ofcorse this is just geek bench but I have a feeling itll win single thread benchs despite being ULV

I Fixed the images, Im referring to a post in the last tpg where user said ulv processors are worthless, clearly they arent...

Trying to decide between an X1 Carbon and an X1 Yoga. Thoughts?

> Carbon
Cheaper, lighter

> Yoga
Better screen, also a tablet

Gonna need some help from thinkpad gurus, I can get a X240 with pretty good specs and a very good price ( at least where i live) It costs me the same as an X220 with similar specs, I know its keyboard is a chiclet one, but i can get used to it, is there any difference between this and the recommended thinkpads that could be making me regret about buying it? I have read some reviews and some has been pretty critics with it, but I know YouTube comments usually are plagued by tech illiterates anyway, so any opinion of why I shouldn't or should get it?

Go for it if you want. The only drawbacks are single slot ram (if 8gb isn't enough for you), the awful touchpad (Only if you're a trackpoint fan, even then it's replaceable with the x250 one) and the keyboard which is still good but the key layout is worse than the classic keyboard.

You even get a FHD IPS screen option with the x240 and the slightly weaker ulv cpu gives better battery life.

What do you guys think about the Lenovo ThinkPad R400 Laptop?

Which of these configurations seems better?

My main priority is decent performance; battery life comes second. Price is not a major factor (my employer is footing most of the bill).

How much will the 470p get throttled? Is its performance noticeably superior to the 470, or only slightly?

What mean egpu

The 470 one.

Why do you buy bios locked and replace motherboard ?

I'd go for the HQ + iGPU instead of dGPU (if that configuration is available but only because personal preference, go with the dGPU if you want), that quad core HQ will curbstomp the ulv processor to hell and back if you want performance.

idk if it belongs here or /sqt/ but am i ok to remove the (windows 7) hard drive from my x220 and just stick it into a newer thinkpad like a t440s or an x240

>How much will the 470p get throttled?
Try checking reviews for that particular model because i have no idea but if it serves you as a reference somewhat, my 4800MQ T440p doesn't throttle at all with the four cores on turbo boost at 3.5GHz.

should have specified, will it work running windows 7 same as on the x220?

Thanks, that's what I'm leaning toward too.
I think the GPU is non-configurable.
notebookcheck reviews says it does experience throttling, and that the cooling system is overwhelmed during full load. I guess those problems are one and the same. Maybe a cooling pad will help with that?

Thanks you senpai, I think i will be getting this laptop, It has pretty good specs for its price, 8Gb is more than enough for me, the tasks i will be doing with it are not that resource hogs, just the keyboard layout is a bit a concern but nothing that I can't deal with.

I'm still open to opinions if anyone wants to contribute.

That offset keyboard is so disgusting

Is there a wireless version of pic related?

What are optimal battery times for a W520? According to its specs, It shouldn't last long. I can get one pretty cheap, also asked to the seller and told me that lasts 2hours with '"full use", hope he is not tricking me with that full use meaning browsing facebook and listening to music.

Ask him to clarify "full use"

W520 and W530 throttle their CPUs when on battery, so they can actually pull pretty impressive times. My W530 gets like 8 hours out of a new 9cell on lighter loads. 2 hours on full load (or as close to full load as the throttling will allow) doesn't sound that unrealistic.

Why's that?

Then I'd have to buy Windows? And switch between boot camp?

But I don't think the Carbon comes with the OLED screen...?

Indeed

It's only a con because the Thinkpad alternative has better battery. Overall it's still a pro.

There's a different version of your pic related that also comes in wireless. Apparently the wireless version sucks and I bought the wired version. It's not great with multiple monitors though, best for using on laptop.

>buy a laptop
>buy a separate monitor
>buy a separate mouse and keyboard
Why?