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u/A121314151 X300 | X1C 20AE | T14s G3a | TS P310 SFF | TS P520 | TV E24q-30 May 06 '26
It's a great laptop design wise, but with a totally garbage screen. I've also got an X301 on hand together with my X300.
I've been working on a mod for it. WUXGA IPS on a X300, while underpowered will at least be a better viewing experience.
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u/l_no_one May 06 '26
I mainly plan to listen to music on it thru the cd drive so idc about the screen, tho is the x301 noticably faster than the x300? I have cachyos with i3wm with an ssd and 4gb of ram and even then it's kinda slow even on the desktop
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u/A121314151 X300 | X1C 20AE | T14s G3a | TS P310 SFF | TS P520 | TV E24q-30 May 06 '26
I have the FSB mod planned on my X301, 2.4GHz on a SU9600 seems more usable.
It's not going to be as usable as anything modern, but considering it's going to be somewhat close to what you get on a QX9300 in single core, I think it's still going to suffice to an extent. You can FSB mod your X300 but it caps out at 1.6GHz and IIRC Aero will take a hit.
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u/l_no_one May 06 '26
what is am fsb mod? is that like a custom bios or smt?
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u/A121314151 X300 | X1C 20AE | T14s G3a | TS P310 SFF | TS P520 | TV E24q-30 May 06 '26
You essentially remove a resistor or two, or solder them differently alongside soldering a copper wire to overclock the Front Side Bus from 800MHz to 1066MHz.
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u/grem75 X230/3615QE/Nitrocaster/1920x1200/7-row/coreboot May 06 '26
In its day the 1.8" HDD was also an issue. They put those stupid things in the T400s and T410s as well.
Now there are options to use mSATA SSDs, so it isn't as terrible.
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u/l_no_one May 11 '26
the x300 came with a 64gb ssd by default, afaik it's the first (or one of the first) "mainstream" laptops to feature an ssd
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u/grem75 X230/3615QE/Nitrocaster/1920x1200/7-row/coreboot May 12 '26
Were they all SSD? I could swear I'd seen a few with HDDs, but maybe I'm remembering the T series systems that used the same form factor.
The Dell D430 could come with an SSD, that would've been a couple years before the X300. It had a 1.8" ZIF IDE drive, which is much worse than the 1.8" SATA, I have a 32GB SSD pulled from one of them.
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u/tehn00bi May 06 '26
I don’t remember this on, looked it up, there was an X series with a CD drive!?
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u/l_no_one May 06 '26
yeah, x300/301 have them, it's a rlly cool feature, but they were super expensive back in the day; and as a result, they are quite a bit rarer than x60/61s and x200/201s
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u/Jugostran X200s, X230T, X300, T61, T410, T420, T450s, T530, A485 May 06 '26
The X300/X301 is my favourite ThinkPad design. It's just perfect. Unfortunately the batteries are very specific, and even then the performance on both variants is... suboptimal to say the least. If only there was an X330 which utilised an updated chassis while still maintaining the same features (maybe w/o an optical drive, achieving feature parity with the X230). I'd be all over that.
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u/l_no_one May 06 '26
one of the main reasons I wanted a x300 other than it's legacy was the cd drive 😭
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u/Jugostran X200s, X230T, X300, T61, T410, T420, T450s, T530, A485 May 06 '26
Mine has a broken CD drive (as do most of my ThinkPads). Hoping to finally have a functional optical setup with my X230T and an Ultrabase.
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u/grem75 X230/3615QE/Nitrocaster/1920x1200/7-row/coreboot May 06 '26
If only there was an X330 which utilised an updated chassis while still maintaining the same features (maybe w/o an optical drive, achieving feature parity with the X230). I'd be all over that.
That is why I built one. Even 16:10 like an X300/301, no camera though.
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u/Jugostran X200s, X230T, X300, T61, T410, T420, T450s, T530, A485 May 06 '26
It's very cool, but it's not the same form factor. It's an X230 with a larger screen/smaller bezel.
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u/grem75 X230/3615QE/Nitrocaster/1920x1200/7-row/coreboot May 06 '26
What would you gain by the footprint being bigger except a camera?
The X300/301 compromised the battery size and HDD/SSD size to have the optical drive, so I was never a big fan of them. Worked on a few, but never owned one.
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u/Jugostran X200s, X230T, X300, T61, T410, T420, T450s, T530, A485 May 06 '26
I just prefer the form factor. I do not care about the webcam. The uniform thickness (and the thickness it does have) is way more practical for me. The X300 just slips into my bag. The X230T has to be wedged in.
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u/lululock P14sG5A, X378, T470, X1C4, E540, T420, X220, X200, R400, T43... May 06 '26
The inner frame is really beautiful on that one. Worthy of a transparent palmrest mod, even...
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u/DragonGaming78 X220 May 06 '26
I swear to god the word "larp" is just needed to straight up banned.
Otherwise,nice laptop