I still use my t410 from 2009 :) I think I put $20 worth of extra sodimms in it, blew out all the dust one time, and removed the HDD in favor of booting Lubuntu

I still use my t410 from 2009 :) I think I put $20 worth of extra sodimms in it, blew out all the dust one time, and removed the HDD in favor of booting Lubuntu straight from a USB drive. I have considered inserting some tentacles into the motherboard for some pcie connections instead but the usb2.0 speeds are tolerable for my needs. I would suggest that you just make laptops yourself as semi-customs rather than calling them Thinkpads. Just advertise the specs and the price and market yourself well. You'll get a lot of lowballers but thats just life these days :)