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Any ThinkPad enthusiasts here?
My T430 has been my main PC for a while now. Since upgrading the ram to 10GB's and switching to Linux Mint, I could not be happier with it.
I'm not very tech-savvy, so this whole project has been a great excuse to learn more about computers in general.
What is everyone else's Thinkpad project?
I have a Thinkpad T580, with 64GB of ram and second SSD in the wwan slot. I bought it used off of eBay in 2020, and upgraded it. The 480/580 are the last models that were sold before Lenvo started soldiering at least one stick of ram to the motherboard. I'm hoping I get another 4 years out of it before I need to upgrade. It definitely is my favorite laptop so far and does everything I need including running entire development environments as VM's. I've been running Debian Sid on it since the day it arrived, only reimagining it once to switch to zfs on root.
Is soldering ram the industry norm now? As I said in my post, I'm fairly new to computer assembly/ upgrading, but I had always assumed that all parts would be easily swapped out. Surely its more effort to solder in parts to a machine?
For anything less then workstation/gaming level it's pretty much the industry standard now especially if your trying to compete on thinness/weight. Every mm saved internally equals to a smaller/slimmer machine with a lighter profile.
That's why my next laptop will be a frame.work. I'm already waiting on the 16 to be released to purchase one for my son for college. I'd rather spend the money to having something I know I can (or he can) fix without sending it off to the manufacture.
The right to repair is something I've become increasingly interested in recently. I'm hoping that tech companies will begin to move in the direction of easy repairs again. It stops E-waste, helps with costs and gives people like myself who don't have the biggest of budgets to keep using older devices for years to come.
I'm currently waiting on shipping for a T480 with a GeForce MX150 built in. I'm hoping to upgrade to that from my T430 I have gotten a shit ton of use out of.
I dont run with the Thinkpad crowd anymore, I’m a graphic designer who came around on macOS - but during my university and school days, I rode a T410s into the ground. Always kept an extra battery, I ran Fedora Linux with all the coolest tweaks I could find, I loved it! Don’t know where it is now, maybe somewhere in my parents’ house, but good memories. I should maybe buy another one, just to relive the old days.
I was in the same camp, I only had a basic iPad for Netflix and that sorta stuff - I bought my MacBook, thinking that if I didn’t like it, I could just return it in the first month - and I’ve been hooked ever since. Yes, there are things that annoy me, like how it refuses so work properly with other windows machines or how it boxes you neatly into the walled garden of apple, but that’s made up by the sheer amount of customisation, utility and simplicity it offers. macOS is as powerful as you want it to be, and as simple as you need it to be. Out of the box it looks like the fisher price version of a computer, yes, but you can tweak every little thing with tons of cool (mostly open source) apps and microprograms. Plus, there are some things it just does better - file management, colour and printing, power management - it’s perfect for a designer like me.
Mac OS is addictive. The problem, for me at least, is that you need multiple Apple devices before the OS really starts to shine. The seamless syncing, file sharing and transition from one Apple device to another is worth the entry cost.
The only issue I have with the Apple ecosystem is the implicit demand that you keep up with the latest releases. Things break down, get slow and don't work well with one another after a while.
I was a Mac user since the late 80s, and happily (if a little warily) followed them through the PowerMac clone period, the iMac period, and into the Intel period. I had a succession of PowerBooks since the early Aughts (my first laptop was the classic Pismo, which I loved and practically cried when I eventually had to give it up), and had a few iPods and iPads over the years, plus an Apple TV, but never an iPhone.
I never liked their walled-garden philosophy and resisted it as much as possible as it doesn't fit with most of my use-cases. But what really pissed me off was how they would force hardware upgrades for otherwise perfectly good machines by not allowing OS upgrades. I understand the "reasons" they gave for requiring that, but still adamantly believe they are 90% bullshit concealing what is primarily a business decision to force their locked-in customers to buy new hardware.
The final straw for me was when the graphics card on my aging MacBook Pro started randomly crashing my machine, and when I looked into getting it repaired found out not only was this a known problem, but Apple had extended the machine warranty to account for it - but unfortunately I found that out literally months after the extension expired. And on top of that they still refused to repair it even if I paid for it b/c it was too old. I got off that phone call and decided then and there to never buy another Apple product again.
Initially switched to a Dell XPS running Win10, which I liked well enough (they're very MacBook Pro-like in their form factor) but was always a little tetchy. Currently testing one of my wife's cast-off P72's (she's a die-hard ThinkPad fan and constantly has two or three old ones lying around) running Linux Mint, and that's working pretty well for me, well enough I'm thinking of upgrading.
Totally get that. I still have the top left hot corner set to show all windows, that was a gnome thing I'm refusing to give up ;) - but honestly, there's no harm in buying a MacBook on Amazon and sending it back if you don't like it. That's how I test headphones and keyboards too, and if you like it, great!
Do it! I moved over from a Mac Mini as I wanted something portable. I'm hoping to have this T430 with me for a while. For the price, they're great little machines to tinker with.
I've got a t480 and a t480s. Pretty reliable machines for the abuse I throw at them, but the CPU is starting to show it's age. Both running windows, but maybe I'll upgrade the ssd to 2tb and dual boot that one for a portable dev computer.
Any recommendations for new 14" thinkpads? I've heard the generations after mine have heat problems because of inefficient Intel cpus, but the most recent ones are fine again?
If you're able to, I would highly recommend moving away from Windows. It surprised me just how much that OS slows a computer down. I'm lucky in that my work doesn't care what OS I use so long as I can join the odd video call, but I understand that I'm in the minority there.
As for recommendations, I find Sebi's Random Tech over on Youtube really informative. (https://www.youtube.com/@SebisRandomTech)
Hopefully he has a video to help you out.
Thanks for the reply! Checked out the channel but the newest laptop he covered is the t480.
I agree that Linux is faster, but my performance problems are not because of normal day to day operations but more compute intensive developer stuff. Plus (at least for me) "it just works". No need to tweak a bunch of settings and worry about compatibility like Linux, and no weird security restrictions like macos (like not being able to screenshare with audio from chrome).
Yeah I get that, moving over to Linux has been a pain the few times I've wanted to do more than just browse the web and look at spreadsheets.
Have you tried the Windows de-bloater tool? I used that a little while ago on a work laptop and was pretty happy with how it helped performance.
I don't know specifically how it works, something about a powershell script, but its fairly easy to use. I can't imagine you'd have any issues with it if you're a developer!
I'm in the same boat as @brogeroni, my daily driver (for work) is a T480s with an i7 that dual boots Windows and Ubuntu but the small company I work for is using Office365 with a significant amount of custom VBA code so: Windows is mandatory. It holds up pretty well but can be a bit slow at times.
We've had some trouble with E15 Gen 2s dying recently (still under warranty luckily) and we're looking into the next type of laptop to buy. The T-series are a bit above our budget. Most are pretty happy with their E15s, the earlier mentioned problem notwithstanding. I'm a bit reluctant suggesting the Gen4s because of it though.
My little X270 was recently restored to factory default because our supply of spares was depleted (just in case). Since that crisis has been averted I'm planning to throw Archbang at it to tinker with. My old Eee PC (still running Crunchbang) needs an update but I, uh, dropped it and haven't found a decent screen replacement yet :'(
Trying fixing it and getting it up and running again will be my vacation project :)
While I am as much of a Linux user as it gets, I don’t think it is factual to say that Windows would slow down a machine, especially for end-user workloads.
If you don’t fill it to the brim with useless software, that is. But that is not inherent to the OS.
That's fair, to be honest I'm pretty biased as I've had a lot of bad experiences with Windows. Saying that, the issues were typically caused by me trying to change settings/ play with programs I knew little about.
Unfortunately, yes. I have way too many of those things around.
Right now, I'm daily driving an X230 with an i5-3380M, maxed out RAM - 16 GB - and a 2 TB SATA SSD. I want to flash Libreboot to it and swap in an X220 keyboard, but it'd be almost cheaper to get a whole new X220 - which would also give me the palmrest and a few other spare parts - and I am somewhat reluctant to add yet another laptop to my collection.
I also have an X201 which I'm thinking of ditching. The machine itself works perfectly well, but I can't seem to be able to find a battery that would work with it. Two out of the two Greencell batteries I tried died as soon as I looked away: I don't know if it's due to the cells' self-discharge - even the third-party replacements must be getting long in the tooth now - or if there is something wrong with the laptop itself, but I don't think I want to spend another €30-40 to figure it out.
I had an X201i that I used in high school, and gosh do I miss it sometimes. It had an excellent Wacom digitizer, but no touch screen (which meant that you never accidentally hit something with your palm) and the whole screen swung backwards into an easel config or flat for a tablet config for a better writing experience.
It had a slot for the (full size, no battery) pen, and an external, replaceable battery. It was the perfect school laptop.
Nowadays I have an ancient ThinkPad Yoga 460 for personal use, and a P52 that I use for work. My next personal laptop will likely be a Framework laptop, since Lenovo no longer seems to have any ThinkPads with a dGPU before you get to an absurd price range.
System76 pang12 owner here, yeah not sure I’d recommend it either. On my second one, might have yet another hardware issue creeping up. Build quality leaves a bit to be desired.
That's a shame it's letting you down. Is the X1C not easily upgraded?
That's a pain, I've never understood why manufacturers moved to soldered parts.
I have a Thinkpad P1 Gen 3 that's almost 3 years old. Been super happy with it! It actually has upgradable RAM which was one of the reasons I went with that particular model. Also added a second HDD. Only regret was that I paid extra for the touchscreen and pen and never use it.
I run Fedora on mine primarily, but dual boot to Windows for the occasional thing where Windows is required.
I do have a first-gen X1 Extreme. After hearing a lot about Thinkpad's build quality and sturdiness, the X1E was kind of a let down. It came with a wiggly keycap (which I had to replace by myself) and a wonky plastic piece around the screen that does not click into place; the bios updates slowed down the fans and now the CPU heats up like crazy, even after repasting. I guess it's not built like other "regular" Thinkpads, and maybe Lenovo fixed some issues in the following generations, but I was still kind of bummed out. Screen is great though, and the awesome keyboard is the best thing about the laptop and it makes it still worth it.
I used to be, but it seems like since Lenovo took over there have been wayyyy too many issues. Old ass boring IBM business ThinkPads were basically bullet proof. Every single Lenovo ThinkPad (and just plain old Lenovo) device I have owned has ended up having severe issues after only 2-3 years of use.
Had an X20, E500ish?, and X1 Tablet Gen3. The X20 was an absolute tank, and was great running Gentoo w/Rat poison tiling window manager. The E500 died somehow, and the X1 just had the touch panel die (stylus still works though), amongst myriad other issues.
I will probably end up sticking with Samsung and Microsoft devices at this point.
When I have the time/funds, I'm going to look into getting an IBM era thinkpad as a side project. Any recommendations for a model that stands as a good example of that era?
I can't really comment since all I used regularly was the X20 (it was great). I think the T series were the chunky office ones that people are most familiar with (so the most iconic?).
I have a T480, and while I genuinely like the machine, it does have a few shortcomings, the biggest one is the thermal throttling which is still not fixed (and is worse on Linux).
So I think my next device will be an M-series Mac. On the laptop department they really can’t be beaten in terms of performance and energy efficiency.. and no matter what I do my thinkpad will power off after a few hours.
Got my first ThinkPad, an X1 Carbon Gen 8, about a year and a half ago now. Been running Manjaro on it the whole time, and it's been treating me pretty well. Only issue I've really dealt with is sometimes sound doesn't initialize, requiring a restart, but that's not too common.
I lucked out finding a ThinkPad USB-C dock at a Goodwill, and that's worked flawlessly. Overall, I'm very happy with it, and I hope it will stick around for the long haul.
I am still using my x230 from grad school, which I got around 2013. It's got the original cpu and main board, but that's about it. I've replaced the display, ram(up to 16g), hdd (to a 250g ssd circa 2014) , keyboard, and most of the bezels/plastics over the years. Many batteries. I love these devices, but will probably move to something more modern soon. Even running Linux mint it isn't maximally snappy, and definitely struggles with any intense computation tasks.
Still by far the best laptop I've ever had. Might go to a 480s next, but might also consider something properly modern if the budget allows.
As much as I like Thinkpads, they are firmly in the budget laptop category. What laptop would you consider over the 480 if you don't mind me asking? Would you want the ability to upgrade it?
Sorry for the late reply, but to answer your wuestion: Ability to upgrade is my most important feature. If I had the money I would probably go for a Framework modular laptop since they seem to be carrying the torch of user-upgradabity now. I love their designs and the company philosophy is very appealing. The price point is just too high for me atm.
A T540p that mostly stays on the desk and an X240 that fits in a small satchel over the shoulder for carrying on the bike. There are amazing deals on ebay, look for one without a drive and add an SSD for a great system under a hundred dollars.
I pretty much only buy Thinkpads (Ok, I do have a couple of Surface Go machines) because I must have the utility of the nipple; if I go out or am around the house, I hate feeling like I need to drag a mouse with me to get full functionality. Plus Thinkpads just generally feel nice and do their jobs pretty well.
I've owned half a dozen over the years and currently own two, though I don't think many enthusiasts would consider my second one a true Thinkpad. First one is my T480s, which I've upgraded slightly; more RAM, big SSD, faster WiFi adapter and recently upgraded the thermalpaste to Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, then overclocked the MX150 GPU to a stable +225Mhz on the core and +1000Mhz on the RAM, which squeezed out a few more frames in various games, so I'm pretty happy with that. Eventually, when I feel the motivation, I'll upgrade the screen to a brighter one with less power use; I have the brackets for it already, just need to order the screen.
My other "Thinkpad" is actually an X1 Tablet Gen 1. It's a neat little machine, but feels niche and isn't really great at anything; too porky to really use as a tablet, but kind of sucks as a "Thinkpad"/Laptop. With keyboard, it weighs as much as my T480s while being significantly less powerful, although the screen on it is pretty nice. I'm currently trying to sell it, but haven't had any bites yet, which isn't surprising given the weirdness of the thing. I'd hoped it would fill a niche a little bit better than my first gen Surface Go, but aside from being slightly more powerful, it does everything worse.
The screen upgrade on the t430 scares me. It'll likely be one of the last upgrades I do on my laptop as I only use it for text editing/ reading websites like Tildes, so I don't need the best of screens.
One thing that has been a nice surprise is that the t430 handles multiple tabs/ programs at the same time really well.
I haven't looked into it, is it challenging?
I've replaced inverters on many old Dell laptops and it's usually fairly simple to do that and not much more work for a monitor. Typically several screws under the bezel, then a ribbon cable, that's it.
I'm assuming it's fairly similar on my model, but haven't done a ton of research yet.
For tablets, just get any tablet + the ThinkPad compact bluetooth keyboard, it has the clit mouse.
I’ve been planning on getting one for a bit but I haven’t had the money for it.
That's understandable, laptops are getting pretty expensive. I picked mine up a couple months ago for around£80 off of Ebay. If you only do light computing tasks, I would strongly recommend the T430.
I'm still running a t430! It's a sound machine that keeps on trucking, an SSD upgrade and a fresh battery and it works great. I'm starting to get a bit more involved in the modding like bios flashing for a wireless chip upgrade but that's more as a hobby than anything.
I've heard about the wireless chip upgrade, but to be honest, I haven't seen the need to do it just yet. I haven't noticed any issues with the stock card.
Have you changed the CD drive? I've noticed that is a popular place to add another SSD.
The wireless chip upgrade would mainly just be for the Bluetooth range for me. I've not yet as I'm ripping some old family film dvds slowly but once they're done I'll be doing that.
I have an X1 Nano Gen 1 which is pretty great in most ways except its CPU. Tiger Lake is a real dog. Its battery life is on the bad side of mediocre on a good day, and its fan gets angry if you're using it to do anything even slightly strenuous. I wish I could transplant an M1/M2 or at least one of the newer AMD CPUs into it.
I've run Thinkpads since about 2003 or so. Exclusively Linux.
My next laptop will be a Framework.
I've seen the Framework laptops discussed quite a lot recently. I hadn't heard of them before coming onto Tildes to be honest!
I've given them a look and I can see why they are so popular. Hopefully they'll come over to the UK at somepoint.
It's not a thinkpad but it's an old laptop project, a refurb HP ProBook 640 G2.
HP's newer laptops suck and are full of bloatware, like most new laptops do, but their old ones are cheap to buy refurbished, built like solid bricks, and easy to repair/modify.
I was using a refurb Compaq 6510b, also with linux mint, but even with an extended battery it only lasted 3hrs max.
My ProBook was ~$120 on NewEgg and my Compaq was under $80. Well worth the price.
I'd definitely recommend using auto-cpufreq if your battery isn't lasting as long as you'd like, works great.
They also both have VGA output ports which is very helpful for connecting to old projectors.
The ProBook is old enough to have VGA and SD, but new enough to have good performance (I've only tested minecraft on it but it runs well modded) as well as bluetooth, displayport, a backlit keyboard, and usb-c.
I still have it on Mint 20.3 since newer versions break the windows xp theme I'm using for it since they removed metacity lol.
When my 2013 retina MBP died, I bought a used T430s off eBay. Used it as my main for a bit. I have a windows desktop and an M1 MBP now, but I still keep it around. I guess if I were going to make it a project, I’d get a new battery and add RAM.
I suppose that doesn’t sound “enthusiast”, but I really was very intentional about looking for a Thinkpad, because I felt I could count on it being a solid business-class machine.
My current Dell notebook still works fine. When it brakes I'd like to buy a ThinkPad, but I find them to be so expensive and escarce in my country. It's like there isn't market for it here. And It seems that the new ThinkPad models come with chiclet keyboard and I'd love to use the original and more clicky keyboard
I have a X1 Carbon 9th Gen. Have had several Carbon gens and am thinking to upgrade soon to the 11th gen or switch to the T14s with an AMD chip when they come out - which is supposed to be any day now.
I'll add that Lenovo quality is subpar, but the keyboards and matte screens are what keep me having a ThinkPad at least as a secondary machine.
Very happy with my X395, 256GB SSD and 16GB RAM. As soon as it went out of warranty and Win11 started to force itself upon me I put Ubuntu Budgie on it and I haven't looked back. Solid little piece of hardware and AMD-based.
Only issue is gaming but that's to be expected. Will keep using it for at least a few more years.
Although nowadays I run on a Macbook (work-provided), from 2016-2020 through uni I daily drove an X230, with an IPS screen mod and upgraded RAM & SSD. Fantastic little machine. Although by the end it had grown a little frustrating with the limitations on screen resolution (and I had fallen out of love with the small laptop form factor), it was more than capable for basically everything I threw at it. Plus I was able to repair it everytime it was stepped on / dropped.
I think my next laptop that I buy with my own money would be a framework. I find that to be the spiritual successor to the philosophy, though I will miss the keyboard on that thinkpad.