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You can (could ?) buy these refurbished dirt cheap when big companies update their fleet. There is a huge modding community, but you don't really need to go th
by zibzab 5y ago
You can (could ?) buy these refurbished dirt cheap when big companies update their fleet.
There is a huge modding community, but you don't really need to go that route if all you want is a reliable laptop. Although you might need to change the battery and fan, they're after all 8-10 year old by now.
- bodge5000 5y ago> You can (could ?) buy these refurbished dirt cheap when big companies update their fleet. At least for me, this is half the appeal of thinkpads. They cost so little for their performance, I have a mate that even got a couple for free. Most of mine I didn't even need to change anything. The fans still work nicely (sometimes given them a clean of course) and no real battery problems to speak of. Probably a good idea to anyway, but yeh, they're solid laptops even after all these years
- tonyedgecombe 5y agoThe standard display in these devices is terrible though. You should assume you will want to swap it out for something better.
- formerly_proven 5y agoSimple rule of thumb, you always want the IPS display option.
- amlib 5y agoI got lucky on mine and got an IPS panel... The seller never specified anything about the screen but from the photos I still had a hunch it could be an IPS panel. For a good while after I purchased it I would look all smug at my friends brand new notebooks that still had crappy TN panels over my old (but decked out!) x220
- flyinghamster 5y agoMicro Center often has off-lease ThinkPads at very attractive prices. They may have scuffs and scratches, but they've always been solid performers. The TrackPoint seals the deal for me. I do have a recent Dell Inspiron, but I find I'm mostly using it like a desktop, with an external keyboard and trackball, and a second monitor or TV set plugged in. I just can't stand trackpads.
- formerly_proven 5y agoI feel like the X200 / X201 were almost perfect laptops in their time (apart from being hot asf). Every model after them has a catch or a few.
- xenocyon 5y agoWhere do you find well-made batteries? OEM batteries for my X230 are no longer available, and I've had a hard time understanding which third party batteries are safe.
- spaniard89277 5y agoGreenCell may have some in their inventory. Also Luxnote has for pretty much all the models, but they don't build them AFAIK.
- MrGilbert 5y ago0A36307 is the OEM battery you are searching for the X230. I managed to get one manufactured in 2020 from a reputable distributor in Germany - in an original Lenovo box. But yes, they come at a price. However, after a battery that overheated, I'm willing to take the hit on this one.
- smoldesu 5y agoI bought a top-end T460s for $220 a few years ago. Insane price for the specs, I went ahead and maxed out the memory and ran all sorts of crazy stuff on it. It was a champion Hackintosh for a few months, but I decided to leave it on Linux like the rest of my devices after a while. Really solid machine for the price.
- CornCobs 5y agoFellow T460S-er! Is yours 4gb soldered or 8gb soldered? What ram did you install? I'm always worried about incompatibility with the soldered ram so I never upgraded
- smoldesu 5y agoI had 4gb soldered, and since I'm a dork who doesn't care I went with a 16gb stick to match it. No complaints here, it runs Linux just as well as it did with 4 gigs, except now it has 15-20 more podman containers running :)
- CornCobs 5y agoI don't know, half the other stories seem to suggest they don't play well together. What ram did you buy? Crucial?
- jsperson 5y agoI’ve got a T460 with 16GB. Didn’t even know about potential ram incompatibility. Just ordered some from crucial and put it in.
- smoldesu 5y agoAFAIK the non-s model has two DIMM slots, where the s models have only one. The "incompatibility" comes from not matching the soldered stick so you can have dual-channel memory, which is pretty hit-or-miss.
- john61 5y agoI did not find a fan for my X230. Do you know a source?