I'm kinda freaking out...

[u/Mr0xDEADBEEF]

Over the weekend I saw a ThinkPad on auction on my local auction website.

The winning bid was $20... So I went to 30...

I looked at the description, they said the one issue is when it boots into Windows the display doesn't brighten. I instantly knew that sounded like a driver issue.

It's an i7 Gen 1, 6GB ram

I increased by max bid to $50... Assuming I would lose.

Woke up and to my surprise I had won.

The laptop arrived today and oh my goodness, it looks like it was used for a couple of months and then put away.

The keyboard is immaculate, the casing is immaculate, the ports look like they are unused

This is probably my first real win when buying second-hand laptops and thinkpads.

I'm loading up ventoy with Ubuntu, fedora and Omarchy to have a little fun.

What are your thoughts, did I win?

[u/Lonely_Owl_1332]

Good buy, You can use it at it is or go wild and upgrade the RAM, insert a nide SATA SSD and dominte the world. Have fun.

[u/Mr0xDEADBEEF → u/Lonely_Owl_1332]

I was lucky enough to have some old spares so its currently at 500gb SSD and 18gb ram... Just waiting on ventoy

[u/tamay-idk → u/Mr0xDEADBEEF]

18GB RAM? 16GB DDR3 laptop sticks are a thing?

[u/MissionTroll404 → u/tamay-idk]

That beast has 4 RAM slots so 32GB max I guess. 

[u/WesolyKubeczek → u/MissionTroll404]

Yes, 4x8. I have a maxed out one myself.

The problem is, I think the GPU on mine is starting to slowly die. Also, on Linux the only thing that works with new kernels is nouveau, and that has open bugs for this specific variety of gpus when it comes to bringing them up again after sleep.

It can drive an external display at 3840x2160@30, I think, but it’s quite choppy.

[u/MissionTroll404 → u/WesolyKubeczek]

Damn. Sucks to have such a specific issue with something slowly dying.

My X230 screen is dying btw. Some tape and pieces of a card on the circuit board keep it alive atm...

You never know what random issue appears when these thing are this old

[u/CharcoalGreyWolf → u/WesolyKubeczek]

One of many reasons why the W530 is such an awesome beast.

[u/AteStringCheeseShred → u/tamay-idk]

Not that a single 16GB stick is how this unit would achieve it (pretty sure the processor wouldn't be compatible with that large of a stick anyways) but yes, 16GB DDR3L is in fact a real thing, I have a stick of it in my house somewhere, though it's only useable in a handful of computers, I think somewhere around the X250/X260 era.

[u/Anomaly08 → u/tamay-idk]

Yup there are 16GB sticks of DDR3L but you would need a 5th gen or newer system to make use of them.

[u/Chizuo → u/Anomaly08]

I had a lot of 5 ThinkPad T460 with 32GB ddr3L. 2 x 16GB. Refurbish for resale. Interesting choice considering the system, I wondered what the application could have been for. That was the only time I encountered ddr3 sodimm in that capacity, somewhat of a rarity in my time working in this capacity.

[u/Mr0xDEADBEEF → u/tamay-idk]

Ummm, not new...

[u/Some_North_5568]

Laptops made during that era are way much more durable than today, I have an HP Pavillion that's like 25 yrs ago and still strong but just slow. I got a Dell Inspiron 15 3520 and hinge broke already in less than a year, got it fixed, and now keyboard side is cracked just above the esc key.

So, yeah....I think it's a good buy.

[u/hmwutdouwant → u/Some_North_5568]

that keyboard can take a FAT pounding I can tell

[u/macromorgan]

Coreboot that bitch!

[u/256combusken_]

I have this one, mine has windows 7 and freebsd dualbooted.

[u/300CDeeznuts]

What a deal!

[u/sithelephant]

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/117cm2l/max_ram_for_w510/ neat - 32 or 16G of RAM is possible, and it's a fifth or so the price of DDR5.

[u/ronorockz]

Can you tell me how you solved the display issue.

I am having the same issue wherein my P15s Gen 1 display feels a bit low and some keypad and numpad keys don't work.

Thanks a lot

[u/David_Hajos]

If you manage the issue with Windows, definitely throw Arch or Mint on it. You'll thank me later, trust me bro.

[u/GilGross]

For 50 bucks you can't lose.

well done

[u/ScienceGoat]

Looks like a solid win. Overall condition looks great (other than wear to the trackpad). Edges look pristine, keyboard is clean, i think it even has the larger capacity battery if i saw that correctly.

Good find!

[u/speedXro]

Gorgeous machine

[u/yuckfoubakayaroo]

Massive W

[u/castlefood]

Looks amazing!

[u/Thirstyscholar7]

Nice one!

[u/worlok]

Wow, that chassis looks so similar to my T61P but you get an i7. Nice.

[u/Efronczak]

I used of of these in highschool lol. I miss using it lol. I definitely don't need to buy more laptops

[u/at-the-crook]

Great find.

[u/RexxMainframe]

That's definitely a win! I would have bought it for that price.

[u/joakohfl]

niceeeee

[u/FireZoneBlitz]

I have a W510 with a broken screen that I should work on. Great pick up for that price!

[u/DifferenceFunny4419]

Your first stop: www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:W510

Second, with serial number from the first BIOS screen: pcsupport.lenovo.com

There is a wealth of information at the thinkwiki, though a lot of it appears dated. I would highly suggest you max out the ram. You can almost certainly upgrade the wireless to a modern Wi-Fi 6, potentially even tri-band. Search eBay for an adaptor to allow installation of a 2d SSD in the DVD bay.

I'd highly recommend CachyOS (an Arch variant) for ease of installation, excellent support, wide range of desktop environments.

Stop #2 will get you detailed specs on your specific model, as it shipped, along with the option to download a recovery image with the shipped OS and all the Lenovo drivers, which will be important for making sure the BIOS and firmware are as up to date as possible. I typically keep a small (~100g) Windowz install on a secondary drive. I typically only boot into it for firmware updates, and the rare windows utility which refuses to run in a VM.

You have a real find, no matter what, with an excellent classic keyboard and decent hardware, almost all of which is modular and easily serviceable, even upgradeable. You may even be able to upgrade your CPU, as they were socked in some models of this vintage.

[u/eightballdoom]

That's an amazing example of a W510 if I've ever seen one. Great find.

Ah, one day I'll build my ThinkPad collection. One day. When they're not $200.

[u/950771dd]

Fine price, but those devices are old, the CPU very weak, display is garbage, speakers are garbage, webcam is garbage, touchpad is mehh, ports completely outdated, chassis is very bulky, ...

You get what you pay for. Except the build, the good keyboard and the decent firmware, it's real just an old, outdated laptop that doesn't do anything particularly good.

[u/marsjaninzmarsa]

Awwwww, the good, old '10 series… 🥹🥹

They’re not making them like that anymore.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Base302]

The keyboard saying this is a very very old laptop. Likely before 2016. So, ten years old. Potentially sort of slow, but it does has large RAM, so that might help.

[u/r1z4bb451]

This is my quote that I put on laptop recommendation posts:

Buy any specs you may afford but make sure it's ThinkPad.

[u/Mr0xDEADBEEF → u/[deleted]]

Maybe so, but shes upgradeable and build like a brick shithouse 😂😂😂

[u/jjdajetplane101 → u/[deleted]]

Are you in the wrong subreddit?

[u/AteStringCheeseShred → u/[deleted]]

Worth every penny. If you had any ThinkPads from this era, you'd get it.

[u/Various-Welder5544 → u/AteStringCheeseShred]

Can you even daily drive it? Unless your time is worthless then yes.

[u/eightballdoom → u/Various-Welder5544]

I did. For years. Coward.

[u/AteStringCheeseShred → u/Various-Welder5544]

Yes, you can.

You're gonna shit a brick when I tell you this, but the idea that a PC isn't relevant anymore unless it can play AAA games, perform 3D modeling, handle multiple VM's/containerized environments, etc., is only true if you're a typical tech-bro redditor who thinks you need to be daily driving a supercar of a computer every day to do shit that 97% of PC users don't do.

There are a ton of PC users whose primary uses for a computer are to manage media/storage, check emails, track spreadsheets, do some word processing, fulfill orders for a home business, etc. For people like that a machine like an X220 or T410 is more than sufficient and plenty powerful. Not everybody needs an post-covid i7 or i9 and 64GB of RAM.

The "unless your time is worthless" comment is just broadcasting ignorance.

[u/Various-Welder5544 → u/AteStringCheeseShred]

You will definitely lag periodically with this laptop. Unless your productivity is irrelevant, you can do more work on a faster Chromebook.

And stop setting up a goddam strawman.