I did almost all the same upgrades to my T430 around 2014, with small variations (BIOS reflash with hardware programmer instead of software workaround for wifi upgrade, as at that point no workarounds existed). I used it for more than 2 years, but I had to upgrade because I needed more RAM. It still lives with a friend. It was surprising how well the CPU behaved, especially since the thermal solution was not really created to handle 45W CPUs (there were no T430 laptops with quad core CPUs).
I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012
331–340 of 432 posts
Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012
#332I have my own version of "Bill Gate's" quote , "640K Ought to be Enough for Anyone". An i7 with 16GB of memory ought to be enough for anyone. "Anyone" in this case is the typical office worker or home surfer. Gamers, devs with a bunch of VMs, data scientists, no, but the vast majority of people surfing and running Office? It's enough.
Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012
#333I'm all for frugality but that seems like a lot of compromises for what is this person's main work laptop. Cool that it works; but why have a slow workhorse like that? I picked up a Samsung Galaxybook a few weeks ago. Nice core i5 system on a chip thing with Iris XE gpu. Runs cool including when under load and it's fast enough. Driver support seems decent in Linux. Even the graphics are quite alright. I played some s…
For one thing (for me, at least): The keyboard. I have yet to see a good keyboard on a modern laptop, and I use a lot of different ones. Some people do not care, but I do. There's some keyboards that are "still decent", but all of them are progressively getting worse. Well, they say that Mac keyboards are getting better again, but I don't like their zero-keytravel style in the first place, not even in the ones that w…
As an m1 macbook owner I would say the new mac keyboard is good for a low travel keyboard, but not good when compared to thinkpad keyboards, especially the older 1.8mm and up key travel keyboards. There is only so much you can do to compensate for a lack of key travel.
Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012
#334I had a 2011 MacBook Air that I used as a casual "couch laptop" up until a month ago. I probably could have continued using it if it wasn't for both the battery and the power supply becoming unreliable. It surprises me that with a dual core i5 and 4GB of RAM, it was more than adequate for all but the most demanding tasks.
Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012
#335My experience with laptops is that the most usable ones have a low TDP CPU with integrated graphics. This avoids overheating as much as possible, which means you get full CPU power for much longer, as well as having a longer battery life. To make sure it doesn't feel sluggish, get one with a lot of RAM and (NVMe) SSDs. I dislike the lack of ports nowadays, but USB-C makes up for it. You can get USB-C dongles that pro…
Good points. Recent high end laptops suffer from terrible heat throttling. Recently I've resorted to buying a cheap old server to do most my work on. The old machine is significantly faster than my company issued 2019 Macbook Pro due to having great big fans and heat sinks, despite being 1/6 the price. Next laptop I purchase will have a lower TDP CPU like you mention and basically just be a terminal to the server.
Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012
#336> I’d like to thank Intel here for making this possible. The CPU innovation stagnation between 2012-2017 has resulted in 4 cores still being an acceptable low-end CPU in early 2022. Without this, my laptop would likely be obsolete by now. Hahaha, this last sentence seals the overall tone of the article.
This. Last January I converted my old (2012) quad-core Intel desktop and gave it to my son for gaming. The only thing I had to do was add a 1-TB SSD and put in an RTX-3060 Ti, and it runs every game (Fortnite, CoD, etc) at 100+ FPS without any issues. I'm still amazed that a simple GPU change and the machine keeps up with his friends brand-new AMD box (not sure what chip, just that it was new in 2021). When the 12th…
In more CPU demanding games it will start running into trouble. Even on a single-threaded performance level a Ryzen 5600X is about twice as fast as a Core i5-2500k from 2012.
Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012
#337I've generally been in this camp, up until last month my primary personal box was a 5-6 year old Chromebook (HP Chromebook 13 G1), which with the recent ability to run Linux containers let me do almost everything in my "home" workflow.
However, a month ago I got one of those new Macbooks to fill in a few voids the Chromebook and borrowing my wife's laptop couldn't. The biggest being video editing. The main incentive was back in October when I spent ~30 hours editing my kids school concert video. Playing all sorts of tricks to get the machine to be barely useful for editing, etc.
That Mac hardware lets me copy the media from my phone or action cam and directly edit it. I don't have to generate optimized media, and it's lightning fast at scrubbing and rendering.
Now I'm running into wanting to update my work laptop, which is only a couple years old, because I got 2 4K monitors on end-of-year sale, and the laptop can only drive them at lower resolutions.
So, yes, for many use cases older laptops are just great.
I felt stupid spending that money on a new laptop, for what is an infrequent use case (videos, slicing 3D files being the big ones). But, what previously, even with my desktop that died, was a painful experience, has now become a joy. That has made it worth the price.
Plus, my spend on laptops over the last 7 years, personally, has been around $700.
If an old laptop works for you, great! If an old laptop plus some new upgrades works for you, fantastic! But, don't forget that if spending some money can solve a pain point, it might still be a good value.
Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012
#338> I’d like to thank Intel here for making this possible. The CPU innovation stagnation between 2012-2017 has resulted in 4 cores still being an acceptable low-end CPU in early 2022. Without this, my laptop would likely be obsolete by now. Hahaha, this last sentence seals the overall tone of the article.
I went back to a 2008 R-series several years ago after having some newer laptops fail on me. I still had it and it kept working, so I kept using it. Last year I finally decided I needed a trackpad so I upgraded to a W500 (2009) which if you squint is the same computer with everything upgraded slightly. It's low-end, but it can still do a lot of work and even load Facebook or recipe sites if necessary.
Overall, I've found that even in 2021 a Core 2 Duo can still be a sufficient low-end CPU. Thanks Intel!
Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012
#339Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I see you also follow my rule: When buying a laptop, always buy top spec. ive become a believer for both desktops and laptops. the ratio of hardware performance to software performance requirements increases over time, but its linear and the slope is small. knowing that, you can buy cheap machines frequently or expensive machines infrequently and hit a similar $/time expenditure - but one way you get fast puterz an…
It really depends on what you’re doing. When the cheap machine still lasts 5+ years the value proposition of going expensive just isn’t there. IMO, the reason to buy a more expensive machine is simply the benefit of using a faster machine for several years. If you’re spending 20 hours a week on a PC then it’s worth stretching the budget a little. However, that generally only applies to one or two form factors not eve…
There's also the fact that on the pricier machine you'll get better hardware, as in "nicer to use".
For example at work, we use HP Pro and Elite books. Just got a brand new one the other day, and while the screen is incredible compared to the 2013 models, it still looks like absolute crap compared to my 2013 MBP. And I'm not talking resolution, I'm talking washed out colors and ridiculous viewing angles.
All along these years, they also had shitty touchpads, shoddy body assembly that would dig into your wrists while typing, atrocious coil whine, loud fan spinning for no reason, power light that would blind you at night, etc.
So even if the total price paid was lower than my MBP (which I doubt, since I'm on my fourth HP in 6 years), it basically means that during these 8 years I would never have used a nice computer. And only this last one (with a zen 3) is actually faster than my old Mac.
Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012
#340Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am not sure of what you're saying, perhaps partly because I don't own a car, and never have since I got my driver's licence at age 38 or so. I do recall a neighbour of mine saying "back when cars went rusty" to me a decade back, which surprised me. A lot. Apparently they don't now? But modern cars, and many modern motorbikes, are sealed units which are not maintainable by the end-user. I dislike electronics like th…
How often do you upgrade your phone or laptop? I ask because I sort of went the opposite road, making sure I bought something that would last a long time. Aside from screen resolution and the modern “anything” thinking we all have high resolution monitors my old 2015 MBP is still performing just fine despite its heavy usage. In the same period I’ve gone through 5 or 6 work laptops that were certainly not top end. I’m…
Laptop: rarely. My main travel one is a Thinkpad X220 I bought used for £150 in 2017. It replaced a Thinkpad X200 I bought used in 2013 for about the same price.
I recently (end of last year) bought i7 versions of the T420 and T520, because for me they are the last generation of Thinkpads with good keyboards, and I hope they will last me for a while.
My phone? It varies but typically every 18 months - 2 years. Phones lead hard lives and don't last very long.
Current: Umidigi F2. Before that: 2nd hand iPhone 6S+. Before that: PPTV King 7. Before that: Blackberry Passport (used). Before that: iRulu Victory V3. All those in the same time period that 2 old Thinkpads have covered, and all were relatively cheap.