/tpg/ - ThinkPad General

Old Thread: If you're looking for purchase advice, state your 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™
>Other business laptops are also welcome in /tpg/ (Dell Latitude/Precision, HP EliteBook/ZBook).

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

Recommended modern models:
X220 - 12", 768p, cheap and light
T420 - 14", 900p, widely available, 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 replaceable CPUs, IPS displays available, 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 laptop 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 (embed)

BIOS logo booru:
biosimage.booru.org/

Other urls found in this thread:

ebay.co.uk/itm/meme/282512505971
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

I have $900 to spare right now, is that enough for an X62? if so, where do i get one?

>to spare
to spend*

Don't they go for around $1300?

dunno if there are x62 mobos available, but check jewbook >>/lcdfans/

You mean for collectible/nostalgia-inducing purposes?

Alright. I'm going around my down town area searching for a used ThinkPad or any other Business laptops if I can find them for a reasonable price. They'll probably be from a refurbished. Should I be worried about battery life? If so is there a way to avoid laptops with shit battery life? (like check battery life on the spot?)

I don't know, is libreboot that worth it or that big of a difference?
And aren't -s suffixes bad because they consume less cpu thus are slower?

Where can I get the ultrabay slim advanced batteries for less than the Gdp of a small nation? I like the extra battery life but I don't want to pay more than I did for my x61

you can purchase chink batteries pretty inexpensively.

only if you care about your online privacy and/or you're just that paranoic.
-s 'pads use lower voltage cpus, and they might be slower, but slimmer and with better battery life.

Post your ThinkPad or you're gay

>chiclet
Your poor fingers.

...

...

I hope you don't actually use that outside.

>still believing that gay is an insult

...

Dubs confirm being gay is the future.

ive used it while sitting in the centurion lounge in hkg.

I bought an X260 last year, it's been a brick for twelve months since it started this thing where it can run for about five minutes and then the fan kicks on loud and screen goes black. I debugged with a heat monitor that reported low temp across the board, anyone else run into this? It doesn't seem to be heat related as much as it would initially sound like it would be.

Where did you get that unregistered hypercam sticker?

Hi

>online privacy
I mean I'm not into stuff like cp or anything so is there much risk? for people to do with my info? They're mostly just going to get "wii controller stuck in ass" google out of me.

Not to mention I need to use windows which itself is botnet

in fact Intel cpu itself is botnet too now isn't it

i mean just fuck it all anymore

/o/ slaps

>i mean just fuck it all anymore
exactly.

what?

it's a slap for a car. you can find them in the aut/o/ stickers thread

Oh right thanks

So do you guys ever talk about anything interesting about thinkpads or is it just dickwaving about how little botnet you have.

Occasionally somebody contributes something interesting but yeah mainly dickwaving.

...

Hiiii

send me one

why are thinkpad hinges so shit

>dot in i lights up

nice shitpad

>mio and ritsu figures
>musicman stingray bass
A man of taste.

>stickers
You disgust me

Ok I'm the X225 user from last thread. Still trying to find a good deal on a fucked up X230 to transplant the stuff from my donor X220.

HOWEVER, I found this: ebay.co.uk/itm/meme/282512505971
With a new screen, that'll set me back £150. I'll basically transplant the mobo into my X220 chassis. The only problem is that my chassis isn't amazing - one hinge is wobbly, and the plastic stripe at the top of the lid flexes on one side.

On the other hand, I can find the most braindead deal for an X230 right now and slap an IPS screen on it for £190 (or just stick to TN for £120). If I hunt around for stuff missing RAM/screens/HDDs/keyboards I could easily bring it down to £150, I feel. I'll get working hinges and shit, and won't have to transplant the entire fucking mobo (which I could very probably do, but I've never done before on a laptop, so there's always a risk), but I'll also get a slightly lower CPU model (does it even matter).

Thoughts and opinions? Is my proposed transplant even possible, or will I have to buy other components too to make it work? The tl;dr of my options is:
>stick X230 mobo and rare high-end i5 into X220: £150
>get normal X230 and just swap what I need (so kb ssd and extra ram): £80-£120
>get X230 with IPS (either find one like that or buy screen separate): £150-200
I heard the TNs are really shitty though, so I'm mostly considering options 1 and 3

ree

>what did he mean by this

>musicman stingray bass

Haha, sorry man, it's a cheap fucking "Shine" one.. Bought it when I tried getting back into it a while back. It's not terrible, but it's no Stingray..

Oh then you're lucky I didn't put my X220 on top

waifusquad

I like the x20 series better too, but fuck, sometimes I need better specs.

Why are you such a fag, user?

i mean that the shitty hinge always the same side breaks the fucking dowel and causes the fucking lid thread to come out the cover so now I got to buy a new lid,and hinge every fucking time the magnesium dowels breaks or the chinsy week metal rack part breaks

:(
Yo we're j

HOLY SHIT that's a potato photo. Hadn't realised my lighting was so bad, sorry.

That said, there's no glare on the screen if you're wondering

is the x220t bigger than the x220?
just wanted something i can do the turning the screen over keyboard thingie but i wanted to keep the portability as well

Any other disadvantages for the x220t against the regular x220? I heard them screens a batch find/replace.

>the*
>bitch to*
i am sober

Shouldn't be bigger. Might be marginally thicker or something, but the form factor will be the same.

It has the same disadvantages as any other 2in1, namely worse performance and cooling IIRC (someone correct me if I'm wrong). The hinge is also obviously a failure point. They all come with IPS screens but that's also an option on the X220, so the only advantage there is that you don't have to pay attention since there's no TN X220t option.

If you want a 2in1 type thing then go for it. The X220 might have advantages but the screen can't rotate, nor can you draw on it. If those features are what you want, the tablet provides them.

It's a bit bigger, yeah. Just to fit the extra buttons under the monitor and such. I have them both and I prefer the X220.. The touch screen is not accurate enough to be of any use to me and the palmrest is not rounded off like on the 220 and that's actually a pretty big deal for comfort

If you disregard the touch part the screen is excellent on the tablet one, but you can replace the one on an X220 for pretty cheap and get an IPS

Best version of Linux for piece of shit x31?

void
or cloveros

Anyone have any thoughts?

x230 in here

Debian

void

Just got 3 600e for $25.
All work. How'd I do?

breddy gud

The 3 panels on the right are so true it hurts, i'm too brainlet to understand how to do all the steps to get the old ThinkPad keyboard to work

fuqqin sexy

>rubber waterproof keyboard protector
what the fuck are you doing

>T420
>let it go into sleep mode one night while low on battery
>won't turn back on

This is apparently a common thing. I did the battery power button thing, left the CMOS battery unplugged overnight. Gonna try RAM next.

It's probably the motherboard isn't it?

How many batteries do you hoard?

I have 2 for my x230t, one with LGC and one with Sanyo batteries

Genuine right?
Non-genuine batteries cause random shutdowns for me.

I've never had a random shutdown, and pretty sure they're genuine

It's only a problem with unbranded chinese batteries.

Nothing like the business experience while at your grandparents' house.

I fell for this meme and you need a raspi and hardware flasher for the X220 too.
And apparently batteries and shit can be unlocked with a software flashed bios patch.

In other words, fake and gay

I've seen the X230 discussed/recommended a lot but no-one ever talks about the T430. Any reason for that or am I just inattentive?

I'd say the X line is more popular here than the T line in general.

Beyond that, most people looking for hardware improvements are likely to just go W series, P series, or desktop entirely leaving a slim amount of people looking for a T430.

But they are shit

Hey, if that Sup Forums sticker guy is still around, I got mine today but they have smudges on them, what do?

send the bro an email
he will help out i think

Just got a t420, any good guides for cpu upgrades? Not sure which cpu to go for to not screw myself on battery life and heat.

what's it like using 1366 x 768 IPS in 2017? my laptop use is 90% text based so I'm considering saving a buck there and putting the money towards a bigger ssd and a new battery

acceptable if it's IPS and 12" or less, otherwise kys

Smudges as in the art is smudged or just fingerprints?

just get a dgpu heatsink
and google T420 quad core to see what people swapped in

which thinkpad?

go 2720qm

fingerprints

x230 I think

Get ready to use bitmap fonts

then this I used to just scale everything a bit down so I could see more

> mum gives me a Dell Latitude e6400 to fuck around with a month ago
> just need to buy a charger
> not expensive, look into ram upgrade
> 85 dollars for 8 niggabytes of ram
> 50 in an ssd

Should I continue with upgrading my dell latitude e6400, or should I just buy a lenovo memepad?

I want a real business experience™ for my last semester in college and beyond. However, for spending 100 dollars to bring a laptop back to life, I figure i might as well just buy a t420 memepad unless the e6400 is worth the upgrading.

It's a classic but I wouldn't spend that much money on upgrades really. As you're close to getting an i5thinkpad already and the dell has, what, core2duo?

I think that's what the specs are. Haven't turned the laptop on because no charger yet.

How to fix wobbyly screen/ weak hinge?

load a pic

probably x220 if he's considering the value of ips as an upgrade

Fuck off nigger

I'd get a charger, 2x2gb ram sticks and a cheap 32/64gb SSD then install Debian for a confy shitposting machine.

>having to put objects in vision to prove you aren't 'gay'

fuck off faggot

then just wipe it down with either a dry paper towel or carefully use an alcohol wipe, should be just fine.

>smoking fancy store bought cigars™ instead of buying some real fucking smokes off the natives from their reserves
c'mon now fampai

That's cute as fuck m8s

hello /tpg/
recently sold some old laptops for some extra money using it to upgrade my desktop, picked out some parts and have some cash left over so I was interested in getting a machine to just have fun with.
prices for x240 seem nice and can upgrade to a 1080p ips display. but im seeing
recommending x220
and
meming what im guessing is the process to unlock the bios on later models?

if theres some x220 owners about Id like to know the limitations you find, are you using hte i7 models?

oh hey, whats going on with the screen? or is it just blurry cam?

X230 has an ips upgrade too
T420/T430 has the 900p screen option
could be any of them by your logic

its a business laptop
its already a real business experience™

Don't fall for the mobile i7 meme as a needed "feature", they're just slightly higher clocked mobile i5s and also dual core. At least the *20 and *30 aren't ULV like the x240.