/tpg/ ThinkPad General

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 welcome in /tpg/ (Dell Latitude/Precision, HP EliteBook/ZBook).

Libreboot models:
>>T60, X60; X200, T400/500
Modern models:
>>X220/X230 - 12", 768p, cheap and light
>>T420/T430 - 14", 900p, widely available, socketed CPU, Ivy Bridge installable w/ Coreboot on T420; Old keyboard swap on *30 series
>>T/W52/30 - 15", 1080p, DTR, 32GB RAM on quadcore models, USB 3
>>T440p/540p; W540/1 - Last Thinkpads with socketed processors, easily replaceable trackpad (W541 doesn't need trackpad replacement)
>>P-Series - 15'' + 17'', 4K display, 64gb of RAM, Xeon CPU option. Expensive. Bad stock cooling reported by multiple owners.

Why ThinkPad?
>>Used machines are plentiful and cheap
>>Excellent keyboards - tactile feel and quiet
>>Great durability: 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

>>Hardware Maintenance Manuals (HMM's) and Windows drivers for legacy devices:
download.lenovo.com/eol
>>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
>>BIOS logo booru:
biosimage.booru.org/

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Other urls found in this thread:

helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

I believe you should try T430 keyboard. It's not _that_ bad.

Yeah it's all a matter of layout really
the 20 series keyboard so far off from the actually good 7 row keyboards that's it's not that different from a regular chiclet keyboard feelwise

13 or 15 inch touch screen
i5 or low end i7
Fingerprint reader
Tablet mode (flip or detach)
Great battery life
Able to charge it in the field (off car and battery pack)

No budget really.

Looked at Yoga, is ok, but not sure on good options, is the Surface good?

Surface isn't a thinkpad
I'd go for the thinkpad yoga because of the proper keyboard and hinge
I really can't stand the surface's kickstand

It doesn't work fine, I know because I tried running ivy bridge on a t520 and got the same bug

I've heard they've fixed it in later revisions?
Even the T420's coreboot page says so
Haven't check the T520 though

Yeah, the kickstand was kinda annoying looking at it,

Like I love the fact that Microsoft of all people is pushing the 3:2 aspect ratio but I hate the retarded hinge of the surface book because it's doesn't seal and I hate the kickstand of the surface

Replacing my X201. Options are as follows:

L530 - 3120m, 130€
L440 - 3550m, 160€ (practically new, but would have to replace CPU)
T430 - various CPUs and prices from 215 to 250€

HP Probook 640, 4200u, 250€.

All 4GB RAM, would later be upgraded to 8GB. All would have an SSD installed. I want to stay with a Thinkpad for the keyboard, but the Probook is newer than any of those AND has a 6 month warranty. Of the Thinkpads, I'm kinda leaning towards the L440 but I'd need to get a replacement CPU in addition to the laptop.

Thoughts?

How on the custom BIOS 1.43 for the x220 logo change? The old guides do not help, the new guide only works with the official BIOS update and the logo changes, but I can not do it on the custom. WINUPTP Error "Flash Module can not be found." The utility process has not completed "

X220 - 2520M, >100€

Install coreboot instead of this useless shit.

I bought into the X220 meme yesterday, but then realized the T420 has a socketed CPU
Am I going to regret not getting the T420 for maximum memetics? I kinda think it's too big and heavy, would be embarrasing to lug around to cafés and shit, but at the same time I don't have enough experience to know if the X220 i5-2520M will be sufficient for casual use and eventually dabbling in programming

I'd go for the T430 with the cheapest cpu so you can upgrade to a quad core
The L series is a bit shit with build quality
As for the probook
I just can't get over the two button trackpoint

No not really
The only thing that makes a dual core lock up is intensive VMs and gayms
Unless you really need either, which let's be honest you're not gayming with a HD3000, you're really not gonna feel it

>bought a t440p for £150
>fantastic condition, essentially brand new
>8gb ram
>2.6GHz i5
>can take an m2 sata as well as a wlan card
It was so cheap because they didn't include the HDD or a caddy, but an SSD and a £4 caddy later, and I've got the best and also cheapest laptop I've ever bought. So happy

I've tried a t420 and it's annoying to carry around while the screen is somehow worse than the x220's
Are you seriously asking if the 2520m will be enough for light use and programming? Really?

Yeah basically this
I'm pretty sure you could even run a few IDEs even on a X31

Want to get a bigger screen, sorry. There are X230s in my budget, I'd go for those if I was looking for a direct replacement.

Thanks. Is the L series really so noticeably worse? I'll have to handle all these anyway and if I talk down the price on one of the T430s I'll probably go for that instead, but I like the bigger trackpad on the L440.

best minimalist/aesthetic setup for x220?
>coreboot
>arch, void or what is most sleek?
>wm3 worth it? does it fit best with a certain os?

The trackpad isn't that big because the top is still cut off for the trackpoint buttons and now the trackpoint handles like shit
Like you'll want to replace the trackpad if you want to even consider using the trackpoint
Honestly, the L440 is a worse built T430 and I think the T430 is both better supported in the community and it has more upgrade options.
If you really want to buy a haswell based thinkpad the T440p, which is probably out of your budget slightly, is a much better option with things like better cooling and a 1080p panel option

Congratulations user
I like the T440p

Coreboot/Gentoo|void/bspwm

Arch is minimalistic only by giving you no pre-installed environment and end-user programs, which is more than fine by me, but if you want muh less than 300 packages, you should look in minimalism thread.

coreboot,parabola linux,i3

thinkpads are so 2014
seriously
you have fucked up priorities if you cannot afford a better laptop by now. thinkpads have no advantages anymore.

not even as hackerman burners.

thanks. will investigate. so many to chose from and so many memes. will check out minimalist thread as well.

Just go with Arch. All memes aside, it has one of the best documentations and biggest community (that can actually give some useful advice). It should especially work nice with X220 - just don't forget about stuff like acpi and tlp.

t. college student in 2018

mindreader

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Thank you user

I noticed a few days ago just how T H I C C they are. Love it

Any thinkpads good for gaming?

Wait, what. Why wouldn't college student like thinkpad? In my CS uni there is plenty of people using thinkpads, old and new.

Yeah, a T440 would be great, but it is indeed a bit out of my price range. I'll see what I get for my X201. Thanks

Can someone link me to the touchpad/trackpoint driver which lets you scroll with the trackpoint? I tried multiple drivers from HP and Lenovo, various versions too, and the drivers work perfectly, but I can't get that option anywhere..
Windows 10 x64 on an EliteBook 8470p.

it's not the fact that the poster doesn't like thinkpads, it's his mentality towards spending money
i see college students taking up student loans just so they can blow $6k+ om Macintosh computers so they can take their liberal arts/media & communications degree

Not particularly. Some newer ones might be, but the meme models have GPUs so old that you can't play much of the newer stuff even on the dGPU models.

there are better options than lenovo for gaming if you buy new, and gaming is GPU dependent so you generally don't buy semi-ancient and used (maybe 2 years old used max)

W series and or egpu

>buying the soyboy laptop

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Where are the best places to find them used?

depends on country
Americans can find them very cheap on ebay or cl

when all you use your laptop for is light use then comfort > all
also i'm too poor to buy a new laptop that isn't atom factor poo

>not even as hackerman burners
Nothing better for a hackerman than a librebooting x200 you clearly don't know what you are talking about kid.

I'm torn between a w510 or a t430. I use adobe photoshop and illustrator a lot, how important is a dedicated gpu? With my budget I can get a t430 8gb ram ssd i5 and 900p. vs a w510 nvidia quadro 1gb vram 4gb ram no ssd 1080p.

You know, it's not college students like this here in Russia, it's an entire category of people whos name can be translated as "poorfags" - not because they are poor or anything, but because they do everything to look like they are rich - take cars, phones, laptops in credit, while they save on toilet paper. Most of iphone users here don't earn enough to buy one or use all features of one, but they still buy one to look rich and trendy and stuff.

I dont have any student loans, my mom pays for everything

helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html

If your work leans more heavily towards Illustrator, get the W510, the GPU will help. If it's more Ps, then just get the T430, iGPUs can handle Ps/basic Ai just fine.

I can see where you're coming from, it's like they say: poor people are poor because they spend their money on frivolous garbage.
Difference is that here in Norway this behaviour is state sponsored for college students, but they pay back dearly later in life

>using anything older than a t450
How fucking poor are people on this board?

>it's only about the money

and another one.

Fella with the weird malfunctioning T420 keyboard from the last thread. Status update: still glitched up. Going to look for a new one now.

Still a complete mystery how exactly the thing went wrong. Hot water with a bit of soap, followed by water+isopropyl 50/50, are not enough to ruin a keyboard from everything I know.

>water and soap on electronics
Uh

works fine for me

t. non-pajeet networks/cybersecurity student

Same guy from yesterday. Have you rechecked the effect of the headphones? That was the biggest mindfuck for me... Are you going to open the keyboard up and see if you can see any residual water?

>t. Assmad OP
Stay mad you cunt

>using anything newer than a T430
I don't like macbook clones

What was the previous thread?

the thing with the archive button and the lazy guy

...

Got a T530 and also a 9 cell. How do I find out if I got chinked out on the battery?

*30's and later models only accept legit batteries. You should get a message on startup if your battery is a chink one.

help me /tpg/, i've been faithful
copied from a sqt thread, no one could help me

what the fuck is nouveau power managment
maybe i'm retarded but i can't find any proper documentation for setting pstates without risking melting my fucking t420
the gpu is an NVS4200, drivers are nouveau (because binary can't handle my monitor resolution of 2560x1080)
i need to change pstate because i'm getting beyond shit performance and i can't even drag windows around without eye straining stutter

here is the current pstate file, nvidia says my card supports 810 graphics clock and 1620 processor clock whatever the fuck that means

root@arch /sys/kernel/debug/dri/129 # cat pstate
07: core 270 MHz memory 405 MHz
0f: core 810 MHz memory 800 MHz
AC: core 270 MHz memory 405 MHz

plz help

>he fell for it

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what advantages does coreboot have over modified original BIOS on X220?

this.
You guys should get a job

MY X220 ONLY LASTED ME 1.5 YEARS AND THE FUCKING VIDEO CARD GAVE UP ON ME.
REEEEEEE
REEEEEEEEEEE
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I AM FUCKED IDK IF I CAN TRUST USED THINKPADS ANYMORE REEEEEEEEEEEEE

I'd like to consider a more modern variant of something like the thinkpad x220t for drawing.
There are laptops/tablets with digitizer in so many different of their product lines so I'm not sure where to start, any recommendations?

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is the IdeaPad a meme?
Have one on my list since im looking to buy a new laptop rn, need something thinner than most ThinkPads, specs aren't bad. So are they any good?

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X230, X1 Yoga 1st/2nd gen
and that's about it in terms of Thinkpads.

Consider the X1 Yoga, otherwise just get a fucking normal tablet you sperg

>trackpad
>chiclet
>plastic
>w10
whyyyy

Fragile quintessential consumer products
It's ok if you can find a good price but it won't be a laptop you'll remember

anyone got experience with x41 tablet? Can pick one up cheap to mess about with or is it too underpowered for anything

What are my chances or getting fucked by buying used x220 from craiglist or ebay?

can I just.....make my 7mm ssd fit into a 9.5mm slot with a little paper wedge or is it not that easy

Yea its no problem. Im doing this atm in my X200s, with some paper. The gap isnt as big as yours but it should do. Be careful to not brake anything :)

will someone help me please my eyes hurt
nothing is too underpowered for a good loonix distro, and your chances are p low if you buy from a well noted seller

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It's literally "Generic 15.6" Laptop #436523795". You will get exactly what you should expect: piss poor build quality, an awful keyboard, a disgusting screen, and zero support. If you're fine with that it's up to you, but for those reasons I never buy consumer laptops (Inspiron, Pavilion, IdeaPad, etc.).

>tfw you don't have a sweet dog and chiseled legs

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is this really legit? I am interested on buying a Thinkpad and I've seen some t430 with nice specs for a nice price but should I just get the t420 instead?

Disgusting screens when most of the users on here stick to the terrible default Thinkpad TN panels? Yea no buddy

last I checked there are a fuck ton of mobos on the market
calm your shit and remember that repairability is a feature

Good thing I'm not one of those fags

T430 that cost X, but only has 1366x768 resolution but have a i5 3320m, or a T410 that is 35% cheaper than the t430, has a CPU that is half as slow as the 430, but has a higher resolution on 1440x900 and the keyboard seems nicer.

I guess the higher resolution would be nice, but I think the i5 520m is too slow, r-right? I'm planning to use on my CS classes and typing shit overall.

yes
i even prefer the t410, but i'm pretty autistic
i have all three, i use the 410 for typing and shit, t420 when i need the quad core i7 (vms and shit) and the 430 almost never or at uni because it looks less retarded

t. made the wrong purchase and regrets it so hard he must shill and spread lies every single thread

at least he's helping people

My t580 arrives on friday, what am I in for boys?

>i5 8350U
>4k monitor
>256gb SSD
>MX150 dGPU 2gb
>8gb (4+4)
>4cell + 6 cell battery

I only went for the 4k screen because I heard the 1080 screen just didn't look good.

ignore my mistake of calling it a 4k monitor, I just mean the 4k screen.

That's hilarious, what did you pay?

About the same single-thread performance as an i5 X220. Display's a lot better, graphics as well. RAM is just a disgrace for 2018; my X220 has 8 gig. Batteries should be 2 (switchover backup) + 9 (poking out the back) + 9 (bay-mounted slice), not this Apple Soybook shit.

Also, drop hinges and a homosexual-friendly keyboard.

with student discounts and such, about 1500.

I am not sure what you are alluding to with the keyboard thing, and if I determine I need more ram I can just pop the bitch open and replace it.

>with student discounts and such, about 1500.
As I said, that's hilarious

because I didnt buy a used enterprise base model thinkpad for $300 off of ebay?

I wanted something to work out the box and if it didnt I just warranty back to the mfg. I am finish UG and starting grad school in May, I dont need a computer to shit out on me randomly and have to source another shitty laptop off of pajeets emporium. No thanks.

>thinkpads
>shitting out
if a machine that stayed alive for years shits out in your hands then you're retarded, and if you can't fix a computer when it shits out, you're also retarded

>if you dont take your valuable time during college to fix something that you otherwise could avoid fixing you are retarded

sorry pajeet, not all of us need to penny pinch for the eventual cost of immigration.