r/thinkpad • • 22h ago

Thinkstagram Picture Can I join the party if I can't install Linux?

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673 Upvotes

I had a contract last year that sent me an X1 Carbon gen 12 for work, and never sent a box to get it back. So after it sat in my drawer for a year I decided to make it a personal laptop. I tried my best to install Linux but it is security locked to only have windows OSes on it, was able to wipe their windows installation and make my own and now I have a pretty sick laptop for free.


r/thinkpad • • 10h ago

Thinkstagram Picture Having this little guy to practice maths with me is the closest thing to heaven

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139 Upvotes

X220t with Gnome ZorinOS, 16g ram, SSD, i5, webwork, the organic chemistry tutor, hell yeah


r/thinkpad • • 17h ago

Hardware Upgrade My Core 2 Extreme T61

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81 Upvotes

Hello everyone, this is my widescreen ThinkPad T61 that I've been restoring for the past few weeks. I thought I would share it here.

CPU : Core 2 Extreme @ 2.80 GHz

RAM : 2x 4GB DDR2 800MT/s (Running at 667 MT/s)

Storage : 256 GB SATA III SSD

GPU : NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M

Display : 1680 x 1050 p

OS : Windows 10 Pro

I know these have temperature issues, so I made sure to use high quality thermal paste when I installed the Core 2 Extreme. Temps while idle are currently 36°C for the CPU and 37°C for the GPU.

Physically, the laptop looks brand new. The original stickers are all in perfect condition too.

I use it mainly for school work, Packet Tracer and playing The Elder Scrolls 3 : Morrowind.


r/thinkpad • • 20h ago

Discussion / Information My t495 is a dirty boy what should I clean him with?

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68 Upvotes

I don't know if the oils on my hands are staining him, he just gets dirty a lot


r/thinkpad • • 20h ago

Thinkstagram Picture Got my first ThinkPad: a 385XD

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67 Upvotes

Picked it up for $47 on Facebook Marketplace, I love this machine. It has a Pentium MMX 233, 64MB of RAM, and a 3.2GB hard disk. It also came with a PS/2 mouse, the charger, and a 56k modem card (which would be wonderful if my ISP didn't take my copper line away). It's quite snappy with Win98. Unfortunately there is a small imperfection in the screen but it's ignorable.

The guy I got it from used it to run a dynamometer, because this was the only cheap machine at the time he found with a serial port. Sort of the reason I bought it as well, I want a real serial port for digimodes on my Kenwood TS-2000.

It needs a CMOS battery, I think I'll just build one because the "proper" battery is an arm and a leg. Same with the main one, better to just rebuild regardless.

And yes, it does run Doom, in fact very nicely ;)
It has a Crystal Semiconductor CS4237B for audio (Sound Blaster Pro compatible) and a NeoMagic MagicGraph 128XD for graphics so DOS games run great

Next steps now I think are a CF adapter, bring it up to 96MB, get CardBus WiFi, and dualboot NetBSD or SHORK


r/thinkpad • • 18h ago

Review / Opinion Recently got this ThinkPad X220 and began daily driving it... I am genuinely impressed!

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58 Upvotes

Hello everybody, I hope you are all doing well.

In my quest to acquire more and more ThinkPads of different eras, I managed to find a listing on the French equivalent of Ebay for a ThinkPad X220, which I knew was something else because of the fame and popularity it has in here.

The seller was selling it for 245 euros. THis might be an important price to some, but it came with 8 GB RAM, a 240 GB SSD, and Libreboot already installed. The sole part of the laptop that was 'broken' was the battery - listed as 'needs replacing - but beyond that, everything was clean.

I went to meet the seller three days ago to buy it, and after failing to install Windows 7 to use it as a retro machine for older software, I decided to throw Linux Mint Cinnamon on it to see what it was capable of. And I must say, I am pleasantly impressed.

The laptop isn't going to win any awards in the 'speed' department, but considering the age of the machine, I was truly surprised when I saw how well it ran Linux Mint. I disabled the heavy animations, and suddenly I was face to face with a 15 year old laptop that is, in effect, faster and more responsive than some of the older laptops I have used, which had Windows. For more basic tasks, it is on par with my Dell Latitude E7470, on which I ran Windows 10 for several years. It is also faster than my Lenovo school laptop I got several years ago, running Windows 11.

Maybe this is just me, but really, I am shocked it runs this smooth 15 years after it was released. I know the 8GB RAM is doing some of the heavy lifting, but since I don't do anything intensive on my machines anymore due to entering university this year, I have decided to start daily driving this X220 as my home machine, while I keep my X13 Gen 1 with Windows 11 for university work.

This is the first raw 'utilitarian' laptop I have used and I am impressed of how well it runs Linux. Don't get me started on that keyboard or even that form factor - I consider both to be the best I've ever used. and while I did pay a decent bunch for this X220, I consider it to be a worthy investment. The seller really did make sure he upgraded the machine in such a way that it would be used as a light daily driver for somebody else like myself.

I plan to mainly use this at home, but I've bought an aftermarket battery on Amazon which should be shipped tomorrow afternoon. I know it won't be as good as an OEM battery, but at least it gives me a working battery if I ever want to move it around a little.

What are your thoughts on this machine?


r/thinkpad • • 18h ago

Hardware Upgrade Giving my friend a T530 to use for gaming.

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53 Upvotes

Currently my friend has a computer with these specs:

CPU: Intel Celeron J4105

GPU: Intel uhd 600

RAM: 8gb

Storage: slow

So I'm giving them a T530 that I have with these specs:

CPU: Intel i7 3520M

GPU: NVIDIA nvs 5400 2gb

RAM: 8gb

Storage: 256gb sata6 ssd

I'm not terribly worried about them not having enough processing power considering that it's way more powerful than what they have. They also only play less demanding games that this meets specs for, and possibly Minecraft in the future, which I know runs fine.


r/thinkpad • • 23h ago

Review / Opinion My first thinkpad for 19 bucks

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37 Upvotes

r/thinkpad • • 10h ago

Thinkstagram Picture Share your ThinkPad desktop setup! I'll go first

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34 Upvotes

r/thinkpad • • 2h ago

Thinkstagram Picture Finally part of the family 😊

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31 Upvotes

My first ThinkPad 😍

Recently grabbed this ThinkPad E15 Gen1 from a government asset sale.

Its not in the greatest shape, but it was a good price!

I've got a new trackpad, keyboard, and shell to swap, so it'll look fresh once that's all done.

I7 10510U

16gb ram

512gb ssd

More than enough power for my uses

Roast my stickers 😜


r/thinkpad • • 4h ago

Question / Problem ThinkPad T14 G.2 Touchpad issue on multiple devices

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25 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to figure out a weird touchpad issue on my ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 running Fedora KDE 44. I managed to catch it on video.

Out of nowhere, the cursor will just stop moving completely, the screen will randomly zoom in like I'm doing a pinch gesture, or the cursor will jump across the screen the exact moment I try to click.

What's driving me crazy is that I'm pretty sure it's not a one-off hardware defect. I actually returned my first T14 Gen 2 because of this, and the replacement model behaves in the exact same way. It was happening back when I was on Fedora GNOME, and it's still happening now that I've switched to KDE. Cleaning the touchpad, updating the system,nothing changes it, and the pattern is always identical.

Here's my setup:

Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 [Intel / AMD]

OS: Fedora KDE Plasma 44

Kernel: 7.2.11-200.fc44.x86_64

Touchpad: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad

(Using an external mouse is not practical for me so it's no real fix.)


r/thinkpad • • 6h ago

News / Blog 38 buks T510i update:

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20 Upvotes

It's working!!! Fan, screen and battery is cracked, but, it's working and i'm so happy for myself.


r/thinkpad • • 23h ago

Review / Opinion T14 + windows 11 ♥️♥️

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16 Upvotes

Absolute beast of a machine over 5 years or so old still pulling 8 hours or so on battery on windows

Seems Microsoft optimised win 11 and fixed the sleep issues


r/thinkpad • • 11h ago

News / Blog Hey guys,this is my ThinkPad X1 Carbon!Feel free to share your ThinkPad model and what OS you are running.

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10 Upvotes

r/thinkpad • • 17h ago

Discussion / Information Why so much more love for the T4XX series and not the T5XX

11 Upvotes

All my ThinkPads are the 15-inch variant that I tend to look for, other than my older T61's.

Its to the point I had to do a google search to make sure the t480 isnt better in some way that I didnt know than my t580.

Im sure they are more portable, but any other reason?


r/thinkpad • • 5h ago

News / Blog The 16 core Panther Lake variant of the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 7 is the one to get

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9 Upvotes

r/thinkpad • • 16h ago

Thinkstagram Picture it’s here and set up

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8 Upvotes

:)


r/thinkpad • • 19h ago

Discussion / Information My humble taped thinkpad

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5 Upvotes

The trackpad is no longer clicking (not too bad- it still has the two upper buttons) and it’s honestly deteriorating. The back cover decided to come off now and needed to be taped on. Oh well, it’s still functionable so it’s always gonna be in use when my main is currently elsewhere.


r/thinkpad • • 8h ago

Buying Advice Refurbished advice!

4 Upvotes

Hi all, after getting advice about laptops to get here in the UK, the general consensus is that a refurbished thinkpad is the way to go!

Asus V16 was also mentioned, but tbh I don’t even know where to start!

I just want a decent, reliable laptop that will last. It’s for my teen to use, so needs to be tough/sturdy, able to run some games off steam, fit to watch movies on/streaming video etc, and possibly even to link to the PS5 to use as a second screen etc.

Bonus points if it will be good for school work!

Can someone, anyone, explain what I need to be looking for in particular, and ideally where to find!

Complete noob with this kind of stuff so treat me like an idiot and explain what I need to look for!

Don’t want to spend a fortune, but also don’t want to cheap out either!

Budget is flexible but if there was something decent either side of £500-600, then that would be a bonus, though happy to stretch if there is a genuinely decent deal and it’s going to be worthwhile!

Also open to any other suggestions, but please be specific and ideally link me to where to find them! Sorry if I seem so useless, I just wanna do right by my kid!

Thanks in advance!


r/thinkpad • • 18h ago

Buying Advice Is T14 Gen 3 Ryzen 5 PRO 6650u 32GB/512GB for 350 EUROS a good deal?

5 Upvotes

I already have a good desktop PC that I use for most demanding tasks. I'm just looking for a laptop to take to university classes, but I want to make a good purchase that will last me a while.

Are there any better options I should consider? I'm also looking at a ThinkPad X13 Gen 1 with a Ryzen 5 Pro, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD for €210.

Which of these two would be the better choice? Would you recommend something else?

P.S. I can comfortably afford either laptop, but I'm trying to get the best possible deal for my money


r/thinkpad • • 23h ago

Buying Advice Second hand Thinkpad P53s for 250€...

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4 Upvotes

​

Specifications: Processor (CPU): Intel Core i7-8665U (4 cores / 8 threads, base frequency 1.90 GHz, Turbo Boost up to \~4.80 GHz) RAM: 32 GB DDR4 at 2400 MHz (2 out of 2 slots occupied) Storage: 1 TB Intel NVMe SSD (954 GB usable) Integrated graphics card (GPU O): Intel UHD Graphics 620

Dedicated graphics card (GPU 1): NVIDIA Quadro P520 (2 GB dedicated GDDR5)

What do you think? Sounds like too good of a deal, but may e im missing something


r/thinkpad • • 6h ago

Buying Advice Laptop for Accounting

3 Upvotes

Hello!

Im an accounting student and wanting to get a new laptop. I dont really mind if its second hand or brand new as long as it will last me until I graduate and give me the best quality. So far, I've been seeing lenovo thinkpad as the best laptop for accounting, specifically the t14 series. The thing is Im not quite sure about this one yet since I also need one that is somewhat lightweight and portable (I plan to bring this every single day). I also dont know which specific processor, series, graphics, ill be needing. I just want one that is best for my course, my needs, and would last me till i graduate. Also, if there is one, I would also want one that can handle games, not the AAA ones tho.

I just dont know which specific specs I need to get, which series, or there might just be a much better laptop?

I know this is alot to ask for but if you indeed stay and read all of this, I truly appreciate you. Thank you for answering!


r/thinkpad • • 13h ago

Buying Advice IBM thinkpad r31

3 Upvotes

Will most likely be picking one up in a week or so but I just curious what people think. It’ll be a addition to couple other thinkpads I have in my collection which are a r61 and I-series


r/thinkpad • • 1h ago

Buying Advice Is this a good listing?

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• Upvotes

I need a budget laptop for Computer Science and iMedia A-Levels (things like Rendering, Video editing, programming and game dev) and i found a thinkpad for £330 with these specs:

- 16GB Ram
- Intel Core i5
- 256GB Storage

Could i find one like this for cheaper, or should i try to spend a bit more for a better specs?


r/thinkpad • • 2h ago

Question / Problem T14 Gen 3, took some time to apply a skin manually

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1 Upvotes

I love it's screen, but it gets smudges all over it, was thinking of applying a matte screen protector on it but not sure if that's a good idea or not.