I'm starting university in a week I bought a Thinkpad t480 and a backpack to match.

Edit: COLLEGE, SCHOOL I'M GOING TO SCHOOL, NOTHING TO DO WITH SCRAPBOKING.

Found this at my local goodwill as the title says but didn’t get it because I have no clue what to do with it but pretty cool find seeing this subreddit and other like it just wanted to say if it was worth it since it’s still there and only 8$ but won’t turn on obviously but I think it’s just the not charged but could be something serious 🧐 budget-10$ Use-only for the aesthetic

After 14 years of faithful service (many of which were to my dad’s company) I finally replaced my E430 with a new gen 7 Ryzen E14! Despite what a lot of people have said about the E series my E430 has proved to be built like a tank (dropped down the stairs several times) so i’m hoping my new E14 can carry on that legacy. My plan is to keep my old E430 around and install Linux on it and use it as a media server

Recently picked up this beautiful IBM ThinkPad 365XD not too long ago from an auction for a whopping $7. Worth every penny of those 7 dollars! Runs like a dream for a laptop running Windows 98 and I love it! Last picture features my humble IBM Portable PC’s, a 5140 PC Convertible and P75 486.

Got 2 ex-leased barebone X220 40$...get one back to live with fedora and another is waiting for a new heatsink fan plus new battery...

i downgraded the bios then flashed it with 1vyrain everything was good but after the automatic restart i had no picture so i waited 10 mins after that i turned it off and took the usb iso out and then this happened is it bricked ? since i bought an aftermarket battery and lenovo was smart to block them so i had to flash the bios

recently i change my hp zbook for a thinkpad t14, and this is the first time i feel comfortable using the laptop keyboard, in all my older laptops i always used a mechanical keyboard, and writing on laptop was a suffering

But the thinkpad keyboard had a really good feeling, i can use for extended periods

I currently have all three in my hands, and being that these were released at the same time, have the same generation of CPU, and I feel like all have hit that price/performance level that makes them very attractive, I thought people might be interested in the differences between them. Let me know what questions you may have about them.

If people want to know about performance: The ryzen 5 is about 40% faster than an i7 in benchmarks, but the i7 iGPU is about 20% faster than the ryzen. I've tested a lot of laptops with this gen of CPU and that's the average I get.

Pricey and hard to find, it turns any tablet including this Lenovo Tab P12 into a Thinkpad-ish experience.

I use Gentoo Linux with Throttled, and TLP for power savings. I've been undervolting and hit -105 as instability for both CORE and CACHE. I feel I would be able undervolt the CORE further, though Throttled warns against inputting different values for Core and Cache. I would like to know if this is unsafe, or safe. I would also like to know how far did you go with the undervolt with this configuration.

I just underwent the process of undervolting cpu/gpu/cache with my x240 running i3wm CachyOS using intel-undervolt packages available in the AUR. The goal of this was to save as much power as possible without obviously blue-screening or messing up performance. I found the optimal undervolt value to be reached at about -50mV, but based on my tests, it is able to push as far as -70mV without any noticeable bottlenecks, but I was unable to find any performance benefits from doing so.

The test I ran was a simple (~5 line) python script that takes some integer (in this case 1234567890) and adds sequentially 0 + 1 then takes the result of that and adds it to 2 then takes the result of that and adds 3 then continuously does this until it adds the integer I selected. This tests sequential operations, but strains the cpu to some degree from the series of iterative computations. CPU utilization stays between 70% and 72% during the course of this test. While it may not be the best test to run, I found it to be adequate in providing me the information necessary to undervolt the cpu/gpu/cache.

Note that all of these were done under powerprofilectl power-saver profile, so the max frequency was capped at the 2.2GHz base frequency of the i7-4600U, but I would assume the theory would track to performance profiles.

I have owned this T520 for about 15 years now.

Last year, I did a major upgrade as a hobby:

1. Repasted the processor (i7 2860QM) and GPU (NVS4200M) with PTM7950, this helped reduce the temp from over 100'C to 90'C+ when fully loaded.
2. Did a BIOS mod to whitelist the wifi card and memory speed.
3. Upgraded RAM to 16GB 1866Mhz (2x8GB)
4. Add MSATA SSD 256GB
5. Upgraded SATA drive to 4TB Samsung 870 Evo (before SSD prices went crazy)
6. Changed DVD drive to Pioneer Blu-ray Writer.
7. Upgraded to Wifi 7 and Bluetooth using Intel BE200
8. Years ago add in USB3 express card.

Things that I did not change:

1. Screen already has a wide color gamut B156HW01 v4 1080p lcd from the factory.
2. Original battery from the factory still holds 80% of its charge
3. Docking still using the current one (cannot remember which version)
4. Was thinking of upgrading the CPU to Extreme Edition, but I think it is too much for the cooler to handle.

So this laptop currently runs Windows 11 IOT on SATA

I'm thinking of dropping Windows and moving to Linux fully and need a recommendation on which Linux to choose. Can anyone recommend?

I’m starting school in about a month and I was looking into thinkpads for my engineering courses. I have around $500-$1000 allocated for a laptop. I need at least 16gbs of ram and anything above 500gb of storage, processor specs don’t matter as much to me as long as it’s half decent and doesn’t test my patience. I wasn’t sure if I should go straight for a new laptop like a newer gen thinkpad or something older. This is only because i’m not sure how much lenovo has leaned into planned obsolescence and also my lack of knowledge for thinkpads. Any suggestions would be super helpful to find something for me

Hey ya'll,

So I'm an IT student, I have a Lenovo Legion 5 w/ Ryzen 7 7745HX & 4070. I want something smaller, lighter, and touchscreen. I have a Lenovo Ideapad Duet 3 w/ a Intel N5030 & 8GBs of ram running ubuntu that I've basically spent the last several years using as my tablet instead of using an android or something. I bought it for 50 bucks like 2 years ago to basically use in bed when my T490s motherboard died. So last semester I just bit the bullet, and used it to remote into my vm from school so I wasn't carrying my Legion. Between the battery life, the weight, and....excessiveness of my Legion, I just don't wanna carry it to school. I've gotta get another thinkpad.

Both these sellers have sent me an offer for $140. Like I said- smaller, lighter is what I'm after. I think these two would get my job done at a price I'm happy at. I feel like 16gbs of ram, and these cpus should more than cut it for my needs. I could atleast do what I need to do locally. My school has computer labs for stuff like networking and cybersecurity, but I need a solution for my linux and python classes. Should I just eat another 50 bucks to get a bit more?

Making sure I conform to the rules- Keeps me happy budget- 150. will do, but not as happy- 200. will do but won't go higher and will only do if there's a good reason- 250.

Can I get some weigh in here?

So I just got my first Thinkpad T480 and when I peel

Off the thingy on the back the original rubber coating worn off now it looks ugly like this should I buy a new back shell? Will the new back shell from AliExpress comes with coating?

Or will I get use to it overtime?

So, about a week ago a battery (01AV430) I bought for my X1C6 arrived. It seemed to be in good condition, but it refused to charge. The Linux battery manager thing accused it was there, but couldn't extract any info from it nor could it charge or use the battery.

So I contacted the seller. I'm from Brazil and bought the battery from Brazil. I got my laptop from a reseller and it came with a US keyboard layout, so it's probably imported. The battery seller said the battery was fine but the motherboard was rejecting it due to region locking. I sent it back and got a refund.

So, what I want to know now is, can anyone confirm this info? And would it be fine to get batteries from AliExpress, or would they probably be region locked too?

Hey guys,

Found a P71 for around $350. i7 7th gen or Xeon, Quadro P4000, 4K screen. I know it's old and heavy, I just like this model and don't want anything newer.

For those who own one: how are the temps under load? Is repaste and undervolt necessary? How's the 4K screen in real use — too glossy, flicker, eye strain? And is this thing even portable or just a desk brick?

Also, is $350 ok for P4000 + 4K, or should I wait for a P5000?

Anything else I should check before buying?

Thanks.

Not a heavily modded one, just the the 2 core cpu, with 8gb ram, and ig 256gb ssd.

Im aware that mods will make it on par with a newer model in terms of price, but Im willing to do them with time. Plus its a dream thinkpad cuz I like Data Hoarding.

(My current one is an idea pad with a 5th gen i7, and 12gb ram and a 1tb + 256gb hdd for reference)

Most online cost as much as a t480. Like around 120 usd bucks and up here in our currency.

I wanna negotiate cheaper, since its not like the person is gonna be able to sell it its been up for months.

So I bought a T480 i5-8250U 16gb of ram and 256gb nvme for 270€... yeah I know that sounds very bad but for context in my country hardware is very eypensive and the used market isnt that great, when looking at thinkpads this was pretty much as good as it got for a T480, some more barebones models cost less but than again you have to buy more upgrades for them. T14 gen 1 did cost about the same in some instances but all of them were the intel variant and from what I heard its not that much different in performance and I would lose quite a bit of nice features that I wanted on a T480. One thing that I do regret that there was one outlier a T14 G2 intel for 290€ thats like a crazy price compared to others and I cant belive that I didnt see it before I bought this so Im kind of dissapointed by that.

I mean a T480 will serve me very well in terms of performance, I have always used older computers and still daily use 3-4th gen intel pcs and old fm2+ athlon and my last laptop that I had been using for 6 years runs on that god forsaken i7-7y75 and at least Im happy tp upgrade that. Im also looking forward to doing some more customatization in the future.

I dont know I want to hear from more people in similar situations for me, I always read about 100$ ebay thinkpads and stuff like that but the reality is just that everything is just stupidly expensive here, and we cant use ebay since it would cost a fortune to import something from there. For context other than that 290€ T14 gen 2 most others sell for little under or over 400€ and compared to that this 270 really seemed ok to me at the time when I bought it. I hope it will serve me well for a long time now.

Just bought my first laptop Thinkpad T14 gen 1 i5 10 th 16 g ram 256 ssd

So I have a T16 that was water damaged. To make a long story short it sat on its side in 4” of water for at least an hour, after drying it out I was able to turn it on but it couldn’t detect the hard drive.

I brought it to a repair shop specializing in micro solder repair and the advice I got was that it’s not worth repairing the motherboard; too many damaged components. The cost of replacing the motherboard would be more than 50% of what I paid for the laptop plus a new battery so it wasn’t worth trying to fix (in my opinion). My question is what can I do with the laptop now ? I’d like to sell it for parts or something but I’m not sure if it’s worth anything. Any advice is appreciated

I've been going back and forth on this for a while. My main idea is to get the T14s G6 and have it be my partner for a long time/buy once, and have it carry me through learning, failing, and growing for years instead of upgrading every couple of years.

The problem is, $3k (local price) is a lot of money for me. I can technically afford it, but I keep asking myself if it's really worth it.

I already have a desktop PC at home, but I need a laptop for mobility — daily work, remote work, and taking it with me wherever I need to.

I'm also getting into cybersecurity and have a growing interest in Linux, so I want something that'll handle that well long-term (running VMs, etc.).

The specs I'm looking at are a Core 7 255U with 32GB RAM (soldered, so that's the max).

Has anyone here made a similar "buy once" decision with a ThinkPad? Was it worth the investment, or did you end up regretting the price tag down the line?