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X210Ai is a new motherboard to upgrade ThinkPad X201/200

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Re: X210Ai is a new motherboard to upgrade ThinkPad X201/200

#61

Post by webdoodle »

E39M5S62 wrote: post #54
t312227 wrote: post #22

hello, as always: imho (!) i own a x200s ... bought it in march of 2009 =?> so its approaching 17 years ... it was a really great device with one of the best keyboards for a small notebook. and i still use it multiple times a week for example to browse hackernews, reddit, ... or watch some video etc. buuuut: its nearly 17 years old ... everything is starting to wear - i wouldn't invest a dime into it right now. what…

I also have an x200s that I got new in 2009. I've replaced the keyboard, battery (multiple times), palm rest, upper shell, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting about. I haven't put new parts on it for a few years, but as recent as ~2020 they were very easy to get and affordable. My little x200s is a dedicated HaikuOS machine now and I hope it keeps running for another two decades!

Props too you. We should only buy new when repairing isn't viable. Our throw it away and buy a new one mentality is destroying our planet.

Re: X210Ai is a new motherboard to upgrade ThinkPad X201/200

#62

Post by ux266478 »

walterbell wrote: post #57
ux266478 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're interested in something of an even higher degree of robustness and are fine with an ARM device, check out the MNT Reform Next: https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/mnt-reform-next I really wish we could get an MNT device with upstream support, if not an x86 processor. Having used the Pocket Reform, I think about it quite often. It's almost perfect.... but the ARM chip and all the warts that come with SoC crap ba…

Open Arm devices sadly live in the shadow of closed Apple Mac Mini perf and battery life, and Asahi is stuck at 2022 M2 SoC. Some older Arm Chromebooks have mainline Linux support and also run coreboot. Qualcomm and MediaTek/Nvidia are "maybe next year" Linux and closed firmware.

"Open" is a misnomer, I really wish people would stop throwing it around with regards to ARM systems because it's a serious problem. Apple's devices are no better or worse about this. It's just the nature of the SoC ecosystem.

> Apple Mac Mini perf and battery life

Battery life? You mean the macbook, not the mini, right?

Speaking candidly, if both MNT devices and Apple's devices had perfect upstream support, I'd choose MNT every time regardless of battery life or performance. On a trivial level, I like the design language more, I prefer to buy boutique, etc.

For actual material considerations, MNT overbuilds their stuff to a ridiculous degree. That's what I want out of a laptop more than anything. There's a sense when holding the pocket reform that you could yeet it full send onto the pavement and you'll just scratch the shell. I like that. It might not necessarily be true, but there's a sense of solidity I get from an MNT device that I don't get from an Apple device. I'll take almost any drawback to have something that's overbuilt to hell, and I'll pay a pretty penny for it. The one thing that keeps me away is being locked into a specific distro. If the distribution was minimalist like KISS or Void, or if it was FreeBSD or OpenBSD, this qualm disappears. MNT unfortunately runs a Debian fork, that's a non-starter for me.

Re: X210Ai is a new motherboard to upgrade ThinkPad X201/200

#63

Post by E39M5S62 »

webdoodle wrote: post #61
E39M5S62 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also have an x200s that I got new in 2009. I've replaced the keyboard, battery (multiple times), palm rest, upper shell, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting about. I haven't put new parts on it for a few years, but as recent as ~2020 they were very easy to get and affordable. My little x200s is a dedicated HaikuOS machine now and I hope it keeps running for another two decades!

Props too you. We should only buy new when repairing isn't viable. Our throw it away and buy a new one mentality is destroying our planet.

A mobile core2duo system struggles under the weight of the modern web. If you live outside of that though, it's more than adequate for virtually anything. These days it's basically an SSH terminal with a fantastic keyboard that floats around my house and boots up quickly.

Re: X210Ai is a new motherboard to upgrade ThinkPad X201/200

#64

Post by loloquwowndueo »

silon42 wrote: post #28
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The keyboard is absolutely glorious, for one.

For a laptop keyboard...

Not really! It’s just good. I guarantee you it’s better than the keyboard 95% of people have on their desktop computers.

Re: X210Ai is a new motherboard to upgrade ThinkPad X201/200

#65

Post by onli »

walterbell wrote: post #49
t312227 wrote: post #22

hello, as always: imho (!) i own a x200s ... bought it in march of 2009 =?> so its approaching 17 years ... it was a really great device with one of the best keyboards for a small notebook. and i still use it multiple times a week for example to browse hackernews, reddit, ... or watch some video etc. buuuut: its nearly 17 years old ... everything is starting to wear - i wouldn't invest a dime into it right now. what…

What's a good alternative to 2010 Thinkpad X200 series, with potential for coreboot support?

I looked into that category (of small and lightweight laptops, for travel) earlier this year, without the coreboot requirement. I ended up with a Panasonic Let's Note SZ6-CF. Also cheap - imported from Japan via eBay - I think it is better than the X200 series in almost every way, newer, faster, lighter. It might also have a better display than the default of the thinkpads. Only drawback: soldered memory (a crime against the longevity of those machines).

Re: X210Ai is a new motherboard to upgrade ThinkPad X201/200

#66

Post by neilv »

t312227 wrote: post #22

hello, as always: imho (!) i own a x200s ... bought it in march of 2009 =?> so its approaching 17 years ... it was a really great device with one of the best keyboards for a small notebook. and i still use it multiple times a week for example to browse hackernews, reddit, ... or watch some video etc. buuuut: its nearly 17 years old ... everything is starting to wear - i wouldn't invest a dime into it right now. what…

I don't know about the X200S, but I had several X200 non-S, with Coreboot, up until recently, and they were worth repairing, as evidenced by resale value.

(New keyboards are inexpensive (at least before tariffs), the replacement palmrest plastic part can be found and very easily replaced, you can still get batteries for them. And if you have a pressure mark on the LCD, apparently that's not a showstopper. Add a $20 SSD and max. the RAM, and it's better than new.)

Re: X210Ai is a new motherboard to upgrade ThinkPad X201/200

#67

Post by onli »

easyThrowaway wrote: post #29

What's the integrated video card in this board? I have an x220 and frankly the ancient Intel HD 3000 is the only limiting factor keeping me from still using it as a daily laptop.

That comes with the processor: Ultra 7 165H or Ultra 9 185H, so https://www.notebookcheck.com/Intel-Arc-8-Cores-Grafikkarte-..., really strong I think.

Re: X210Ai is a new motherboard to upgrade ThinkPad X201/200

#68

Post by neilv »

BenFranklin100 wrote: post #55
scrlk wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Won't fit, the X200/201 use a different chassis design to the X220/230.

Dissapointing. The X220 is built well and has a great keyboard. Any idea why the focus on the X200/201 instead of the X220/230?

I have no idea why they did, but some pros: X200 is less expensive, (I think) it has a little more room, and it doesn't have the X220's crazy design flaw with the lid shell.

I also had better luck getting genuine replacement keyboards for the X200. Half of the X220 keyboards I stockpiled arrived as substandard garbage, even though I was trying to avoid that.

Re: X210Ai is a new motherboard to upgrade ThinkPad X201/200

#69

Post by t0bia_s »

globnomulous wrote: post #11

Sorry for my cluelessness, but why is this laptop so popular?

Not sure, but I bought used x201 in 2014 and it died few months ago (faulty charging port, weak monitor joints). Replaced by P14s gen2 with AMD. Of course it is better in every aspect, except one disc port and overall durability.

Re: X210Ai is a new motherboard to upgrade ThinkPad X201/200

#70

Post by spankibalt »

cyanydeez wrote: post #41
spankibalt wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The HP ZBook X2 G4 leaves it in the dust, both conceptually (detachables are a superior form factor) and specs-wise; HP EliteBook 27xxp machines with similar guts are at least on par. I'd rather have a new and smaller (10" to 13") version of the ZBook X2 G4 instead, upgrade the Dreamcolor display, keep the Wacom EMR digitzer and a sensible dedicated pro-GPU with certified drivers, and add plenty of ECC-RAM. Abracadab…

Nope. Open, Twist, Close. No change in viewpoint. Every other 2:1 tablet requires changing perspective. Like walking into a different room and forgetting what you wanted to do.

So built a t-hinge keyboard for the detachable, et cetera.

The results are in: Nothing on the market equates to the elegant simplicity, adaptability and haptic qualities of a detachable done right, which can be used as a tablet (with or without an external keyboard), or in several laptop modes (depending on the implementation of the keyboard attachment, e. g. with or without t-hinge), or just/also as a screen when connecting a expandable dock/computer (e. g. Nintendo Switch-like). A machine in that form factor can scale from smartphone-sized to a ~13-incher; everything above is too big and cumbersome.

Besides, as the other chap in the thread mentioned, the X61T is a superior chassis to the X230T anyway. :)

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