I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad • Hacker News Board

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#471

Post by hxorr » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 7:15 PM UTC

anon6362 wrote: post #467

T480 (non-s) - Love the dual batteries (one swappable) unavailable on Apple-design infested T490 - Retrofitted with magnesium top case and bezel mod - 5 extended 72 Whr batteries with a third-party external charger from some dude in the UK - Upgraded to fastest processor and discrete GPU (slow on its own but I use a Razer Core X eGPU with an Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti, and can run basically any game on Steam.) - 32 GiB of RA…

Most likely need to repaste your CPU and replace any thermal pads for good measure (they tend to get damaged easily when removing heatsink, and do degrade over time too)

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#472

Post by neilv » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 7:17 PM UTC

RavSS wrote: post #236

neilv wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Web, including JavaScript, should work fine on that laptop. Until recently, my daily driver was the T500 (the larger screen version of the T400 in the article), and it worked fine for everything except GPU. (I actually downgraded to the T500 years ago, because I was pissed off about the Intel Management Engine.) Recently, I upgraded from the T500 to the T520, which is the last ThinkPad with a non-chiclet keyboard. It…

You can use the T420/T520's keyboard in a T430/T530 with modifications to the firmware, some plastic around the keyboard part itself, and the ribbon cable (just pin isolation with tape). It lets you go with Ivy Bridge over Sandy Bridge. I have a T430 with the T420's keyboard and it lasted me 7 years of daily use before battery life became too big of an issue for me (even with a single DDR3L RAM module and a slice bat…

Do you know an exceedingly credible source for the firmware modifications?

(Last time I looked, it had the air of the XDA-style culture: "To root your phone, download this package from a `.ru` piracy site, run the `.exe` on your PC, then install and run the closed blobs on your phone, including rooting and replacing your bootloader with one, we know you will trust us." Though, in their defense, if they were organized crime, they would probably make an effort to look more legitimate, rather than gratuitously suspicious. And all the forum comments were always lapping it up, appearing to be doing reckless things, while removing much of the demand and contributors for more-credible efforts.)

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#473

Post by hxorr » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 7:23 PM UTC

Here's what happened to the thinkpads I've owned... R51 - sold R50p - died (bad VRAM) X201 - Ethernet chip died, speakers died, bad keyboard - sold X230 - died X230 - sold in relatively good health X1 carbon gen 4 - best laptop I've owned out of all of the previous thinkpads by far

People go on about thinkpad reliability, but I've had two straight up die on me...

To be frank, I don't get the hype for the older models. They're slow and clunky. The newer chiclet keyboards are fine once you get used to them.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#474

Post by NoSalt » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 7:23 PM UTC

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T61 that I absolutely LOVE! It is running the latest Xubuntu (24.04) with no problems. I have maxed out the RAM, installed an SSD, and even upgraded the CPU. I like it even more than my Dell E5440. No, I cannot play Minecraft on it that well, but it is a SOLID laptop and it feels good to hold and type on.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#475

Post by methuselah_in » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 7:24 PM UTC

I have bought laptop in 2013 asus rog gaming one i suppose before it as well. Still rocking with i7. But it can still work with windows 11 but tpm makes it useless. So I have tried windows 11 but it hangs a bit linux runs smoothly.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#476

Post by flobosg » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 7:27 PM UTC

zokier wrote: post #405

Personally I think beyond T450 generation, i.e. over 10 years old systems, you are starting to make pretty severe compromises. T440 generation had really bad Trackpoint setup, and older hardware starts to lose features. Random stuff that T450 has that T400 doesn't * USB3 * Up to 32 GB of RAM (vs max 8 GB for T400) * M.2 slot (for SSD), 6 Gb/s SATA (vs 1.5 Gb/s on T400) * x86-64-v3 (AVX2 etc) and OpenGL 4.6 * Dual-ban…

> especially USB-C charging

I swapped the barrel connector in my x220 for a third party USB-C charging port: https://www.tindie.com/products/mikepdiy/lenovo-charging-por...

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#477

Post by nyreed » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 7:29 PM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #55

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Framework’s offerings are interesting, but after having gotten used to the solid rigidity of M-series MacBooks and X1 series Thinkpads, the level of flex in the Framework 13 is a major issue for me. It’s difficult to justify for the price, plus PCBs and repeated flex stress don’t mix nicely. I think it’s time for either Framework or a third party partner to sell a new chassis that’s compatible with the FW13’s mainboa…

At least the M1~2 series Macbooks scratched the screen with the keyboard. Mines did, and asking second hand resailers it was a very common issue. Rigidity is only for the main body, not the screen part.

I've been looking for a replacement laptop and this issue is making me look away from any future Macbooks.

Does anyone have experience if the issue been resolved in more recent designs, or is this something Apple users are now expected to live with?

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#478

Post by kev009 » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 7:31 PM UTC

zokier wrote: post #405

Personally I think beyond T450 generation, i.e. over 10 years old systems, you are starting to make pretty severe compromises. T440 generation had really bad Trackpoint setup, and older hardware starts to lose features. Random stuff that T450 has that T400 doesn't * USB3 * Up to 32 GB of RAM (vs max 8 GB for T400) * M.2 slot (for SSD), 6 Gb/s SATA (vs 1.5 Gb/s on T400) * x86-64-v3 (AVX2 etc) and OpenGL 4.6 * Dual-ban…

The T480 is kind of the current modern classic, it even has recent coreboot support. I did a screen swap on mine to a modern low blue light panel, LiteOn keyboard swap, new batteries and there is really nothing else to complain about.

T14 series are cheap enough used now to be considered cheap, but you lose some of the modding potential of the T480.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#479

Post by nextos » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 7:41 PM UTC

intrasight wrote: post #128

nextos wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The X220 touchpad and fan were pretty mediocre. The rest was outstanding, unless you didn't upgrade the panel. I hate nothing similar can be bought brand new.

Ahh x220. I have a most fond memory from 16 years ago. My daughter'sl laptop then was an x220 and the motherboard died so she and I, as a project one day, rebuilt the machine with a new motherboard. That X220 still works today. I told her a couple years ago that she could probably sell at any time for the same amount you bought it for.

A great compact design. Hopefully the new X13 is going to be a worthy successor.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#480

Post by dopadelic » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 7:46 PM UTC

I used my T420 up till 2021.

I upgraded the screen to a 1920x1080 IPS panel.

SSD.

I have a full-fledged workstation for anything that needs heavy lifting and I primarily used the laptop as a device to remote into my workstation.

It was perfectly fine for standard web browsing and youtube.